|
Portland Mayor Vera Katz prides herself on managing the intricate details of city government. Unfortunately, Katz had to admit that 1997 all but made a mockery of the slogan--"The City That Works"--she had painted on 1,500 city vehicles in 1994. Katz, of course, is not responsible for all the embezzlers and cell-phone abusers, let alone inefficiencies in the city's construction-permitting process--which cuts across six different city bureaus. In Portland's weak-mayor form of government, she controls only one-fifth of the city's bureaus. Still, in a Christmas Eve interview, Katz conceded that 1997 "wasn't such a great year" for the city, acknowledged her role as buck-stopper, and shouldered more than her fair share of blame. The problems started, literally, on the first day of the year and only got worse. Below is a chronicle of the blunders, black eyes and blemishes that made 1997 a year to forget in City Hall. City Abuses Uncle Sam
Katz appeared to get off to a rousing start with the New Year's Eve announcement that Portland won a $2.25 million federal grant. Problem was, city officials told the feds the money would provide more than 100 jobs to poor people in a distressed neighborhood. In fact, the money was going to help Nike's ad agency, Wieden & Kennedy, move into a building in one of the city's most posh areas--the Pearl District. No wonder three city commissioners balked: the deal would have netted the building's owner six times what he paid for the property 11 months earlier. When the feds also signaled their dismay, Katz scrapped the scheme, two weeks after her triumphant announcement. Employees Abuse Taxpayers
Indicted in May for allegedly stealing $120,000 from the city, Lt. Tom Steinman of the Fire Bureau became the most infamous embezzling employee. But he wasn't the only one. Pioneer Courthouse Square operations manager David Chad Cook was nailed in April for stealing $91,000 to feed his gambling habit (allegedly the root of Steinman's problem as well). Not even the city auditor's office was immune from in-house theft. Kimberly Gaddis, a customer accounts specialist in the auditor's liens division, was nabbed trying to embezzle $12,500. Gaddis, it turns out, had been hired by the city despite a prior conviction for theft. "To have this happen in my office is just totally embarrassing," City Auditor Barbara Clark told The Oregonian. Strange that employees should act so greedy. The city was anything but stingy to them. Portland Development Commission boss Jan Burreson--whom Katz protected from critics for years--resigned under pressure and received a $45,000 consulting gig on the way out the door. City Budget Director David Agazzi--who sat at Katz's right hand during budget bloodletting sessions--was also nudged out and got more than $20,000 to stay at home and prepare a report on other cities' Web sites--a task he still had not completed a month after it was due. Hang up and Work
You could almost see city officials blush when KOIN-TV and Willamette Week reported in February that one out of every three city employees had a cell phone--a ratio far beyond anything found in other local governments, like Metro, Tri-Met or Multnomah County ("The City that Calls and Calls..., WW, Feb. 26, 1997). Even worse, Devin Williams in the Bureau of Environmental Services--a former convicted felon--was caught ringing up $2,300 in personal calls in three months. Police Capt. Derrick Foxworth proved ambidextrous--running up huge bills on two different city cell phones. Katz quickly admitted the problem: some city agencies had no policy for monitoring personal calls or getting reimbursed for them. They Are the Law
"For some reason the Police Bureau got a lot of focus and attention [in 1997]," Katz told WW. That's an understatement. Just before Valentine's Day, officer Steven Gomez shot his wife in the buttocks with a 12-gauge shotgun. Gomez, it turns out, was hired even after he had threatened several times to kill a former wife. The rest of '97 was no honeymoon: Officer Dorothy Elmore threatened to kill her husband, also a cop; Sgt. Mike Barkley faced theft charges; Officer Maurice Rodriguez was fired for lying to superiors; and the Police Bureau paid two civilian men to have sex with prostitutes as part of a sting operation. In November, Officer Steven Regalado outdid them all; he was charged with trying to form a partnership with a drug dealer he had busted. Calling Home Depot
Even the city's buildings betrayed Katz. In January, The Oregonian reported that the Portland Building, where 1,000 city employees toil, had not been adequately inspected during construction in 1981 and now needs $9 million in repairs. Renovations at City Hall were even more costly: The bill for the historic building's facelift and earthquake-proofing soared from the original City Council estimate of $18 million to $30 million. Systemic Flaws
Katz stresses that some screw-ups are inevitable in a city with a $250 million budget. But problems went far beyond a few bad actors. In January--as the City Council agonized over budget cuts imposed by Bill Sizemore and Measure 47--the city auditor's office issued "Missed Opportunities," a report that said local government was spending more than necessary. The report cataloged 89 recommendations that outside researchers and auditors made to the city in the past 10 years that could've cut costs--but were ignored. In May, another city audit exposed sweeping inefficiencies in the way the city granted building permits--a real danger in a city trying to accommodate 50,000 new housing units during the next 20 years. The permitting process "continues to be time-consuming and poorly coordinated," city auditor Clark wrote in the 86-page report, "and applicants still complain of inconsistent and unresponsive services." City workers, for their part, complained about "conflicting policies and poor coordination" among the six different city bureaus that have some say in approving new buildings. That's hardly a complete list: The St. Johns neighborhood threatened to secede; sign painters put up giant illegal ads because the city's rules appeared to be unlawful; and the city's housing programs were redundant, top-heavy and disarrayed, according to a January audit. The consequences of these kinds of problems are not trivial. In July, the city paid $385,000 to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from a blaze that killed two people. An internal city audit found that the "failure of fire dispatch to provide clear and correct information on the fire location" caused fire engines to arrive late at the blaze. Katz says the city is working to fix its problems. "The 'City That Works' tries hard to identify and correct problems," she says. "Ninety percent of our work is not to ignore, but to address problems." In that arena, Katz vows improvements in everything from the city's cell-phone policy to a new development review process. |
