Murmurs: No McMenamins with a Superfund View

1. Portlanders’ 2016 ballots may be crowded with tax measures. Portland Public Schools officials are crunching numbers to figure out how much property owners will have to pay to rebuild Benson, Madison and Lincoln high schools, and the property-tax measure could appear on the ballot in November 2016. Didn’t PPS just pass a $482 million construction bond, you ask? Yes, it did—in November 2012. But district officials are considering asking voters to approve a second bond before the last one runs out. Meanwhile, City Commissioner Steve Novick, not content to let last year’s “street fee” fiasco fade into the background, recently asked Portland Bureau of Transportation staffers to estimate how much money a 10-cent-per-gallon local gas tax would generate for Portland streets. The answer? About $15 million a year. Novick told the Portland Tribune last week he’s aiming for the May 2016 ballot. Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who rejected Novick’s other street-funding ideas, says she’s open to this one “if there’s a good process and a vote of the people.”

1. Portland Mayor Charlie Hales probably doesn’t need to worry that members of the City Council will endorse his 2016 opponent, Oregon State Treasurer Ted Wheeler. It’s rare for commissioners to stick their necks out that way. But LaVonne Griffin-Valade, Portland’s elected auditor from 2009 to 2014, has no such qualms. She worked with Hales for two years, and with Wheeler for about the same time when he was Multnomah County chairman and she was county auditor. Griffin-Valade is endorsing Wheeler. She says he’s responsive, inquisitive and willing to let people challenge his decisions. “He never shuts the door to discussion,” she says.

1. The director of the local public defenders’ office is decrying the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office use of George Taylor, a snitch who still committed crimes while testifying in court for Portland police (“Rat Tale,” WW, Sept. 2, 2015). “A witness was used who never should have been,” writes Kathleen Dunn, Multnomah County director of Metropolitan Public Defender Services. “The constitutional rights of many were violated. Our community deserves better.” But Dunn says she believes District Attorney Rod Underhill’s office is sincere about reforming its informant policy. “We will be vigilant,” Dunn says, “that the policies and procedures now in place are followed in all of our cases.”

1. So much for saving the Portland Gas and Coke Building. In 2013, utility NW Natural agreed to delay demolition of the 102-year-old industrial Northwest building so preservationists could raise $2 million to save the dilapidated structure. But Friends of GasCo could only raise $4,000. Last week, NW Natural started tearing down the building. “Shame on them,” architecture critic Brian Libby wrote Sept. 11, “and shame on all of us.” Scott Ray Becker of Friends of GasCo says the group plans to use the $4,000 to build a memorial viewing station along nearby U.S. Highway 30 with plaques detailing the building’s history.

WWeek 2015