Sunday, September 2, 2007
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Portland: #1 in the nation in city planning
It seemed a little too good to be true. The non-profit environmental group Willamette Riverkeeper tested Willamette River water in anticipation of Sunday's City of Portland Triathlon and deemed it safe for swimming, according to an article in Friday's Oregonian. Low overflows from Portland's sewers in dry weather, they said, should keep swimmers safe on their swim through downtown.
And then things changed. The problem? "Evidently somebody opened the wrong valve," said Joan Saroka, spokeswoman for Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services.
The valve at the Mt. Tabor Reservoir sent an estimated 5,000 gallons of chlorinated water through Portland's sewer system early Friday morning, pushing an equal amount of sewage out an outfall pipe near Ross Island. The sewage overflowed on the east side of the river, just downstream from where triathlon swimmers plan to jump in Sunday.
Upgraded about 60 years ago, Portland sewers were designed to overflow directly into the Willamette River after 1/10 of an inch of rainfall within one hour. As the city has developed, more rainwater flows via pavement to sewers, squeezing capacity and forcing the overflows. The problem is being corrected with the city's Big Pipe project, which will increase capacity in the system. That project is on track for completion in 2011.
In the interim, the threat to swimmers is that the sewage overflowing from the city system contains bacteria and other pathogens that affect health.
BES advises people to steer clear of contact with the Willamette River for 48 hours after a sewage overflow. This morning's overflow ended at 8:19 a.m. Triathlon swimmers plan to dive in at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Saroka said.
"It's pretty close to the 48 hour period," she said.
Saroka said the overflow is small compared to those resulting from heavy rains, which funnel heavy volumes of water from all over town at one time.
BES intends to test the water at the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges, where triathletes enter the water, as a precautionary maneuver. They have also contacted the Portland Triathlon's organizer and asked event officials to push out the swim start about 30 minutes.
Jeff Henderson, organizer of the City of Portland Triathlon, said he will review tests Saturday and Sunday and determine Sunday morning whether to continue with the swim.
"If the testing shows high levels of bacteria we have a contingency plan," Henderson said.
He said organizers would substitute the 1,500 meter swim with a 5K run. Still, he said he was optimistic the relatively low volume of the overflow would not impact the City of Portland Triathlon.
Travis Williams, executive director of Willamette Riverkeeper, called the situation "unfortunate."
"I guess it speaks to the things that happen with these systems," Williams said, referring to mechanical and human errors.
"With regard to the health issue, you would hope that the overall volume would be (negligible)" once diluted by the river water, Williams said.
(localnewsdaily.com)
Gov. takes credit for economic stagnation
The state's chief economist predicted Friday that job growth will be minimal in Oregon in coming months, and that housing prices will continue to rise but at a slower pace. Dae Baek, acting state economist, released the September economic and revenue forecast before a joint meeting of the House and Senate revenue committees.
Baek said the national "housing meltdown" will cause substantial layoffs in wood products manufacturing this year and next. However, Oregon is seeing fewer problems than most states with home foreclosures and delinquent mortgage payments. Oregon's housing prices haven't risen as high as prices in other hot markets, Baek said.
Computer and electronics jobs also should decline this year, but may rebound next year, the forecast concluded.
On the flip side, a robust global economy, combined with a weak dollar, is leading to "blockbuster" growth in Oregon exports, Baek said.
Oregon is projected to have stronger job growth than the national average this year, and every year through 2013.
(statesmanjournal.com)
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Oregon gov't unions take over Executive Branch
On Tuesday of this past week, Hardy Myers confirmed the well orchestrated rumor that he would not seek re-election as Oregon Attorney General. That means every statewide office (except governor) is an open seat. Bill Bradbury is barred by terms limits from running again for Secretary of State. Randall Edwards will not be seeking re-election as State Treasurer and now Myers has announced he will not seek re-election. It's a trifecta. And nobody is more focused on getting their candidates to fill those offices than the public employees unions.
Please note that I said public employees unions and not their political action committees. After all, the public employees unions do just about nothing other than politics. And there is a good reason for that. Politics is what guarantees them higher salaries, bigger benefits, ease in organizing and assurance that money for the unions will continue to be collected by the government and remitted monthly to their coffers. That amount collected by state, county and municipal governments is the tidy sum of about $58 million every election cycle. That amount of money goes a long ways to making sure that Democrats control every statewide office and both houses of the legislature. And control is what matters.
With the Democrats in control of the legislature for the first time in over a dozen years, the public employees unions gained significant salary increases, preservation and funding of the gold plated PERS system, and a new law that eliminates the need for elections for union organizing efforts. Now the public employee unions are free to confront employees one at a time, without observation, and "convince" the employee to sign a union preference card without a follow up election.
And with that kind of money, the public employee unions control who gets the nod for the Democrat nominations and, thereafter, who gets those vast sums of money, coupled with the legions of paid volunteers, to make sure that they are elected. Here is where you begin to understand the nuances of power politics within the Democrat Party. There isn’t a public declaration by the public employee unions as to who should get the nomination. It is a lot more subtle than that. But in the end, nobody brings as much as the public employee unions to the table and they generally get their way.
And the corollary of that is also true. If there is an incumbent that has not toed the line, money and support is withheld until that incumbent remembers who is really running the show. Just ask Gov. Kulongoski. When Kulongoski tried to do the right thing regarding reform of the burdensome PERS mess, the public employee unions went ballistic. What should have been a cake walk to re-nomination turned into a fight for his political life. And Kulongoski learned his lesson will. Not only did he endorse every union measure, he promised to veto any further attempts to fix PERS. He promised to create more public employee jobs and to make sure they got big raises. He promised to endorse sole source contracts that prohibited government from seeking savings by outsourcing non-critical functions. And then to top it off he made two union officials his two top administration officials. First he made Skip Terhune chief of staff and then Tim Nesbitt deputy chief of staff. (Insiders in the capitol are so used to dealing with Nesbitt for decisions that they now commonly refer to him as Gov. Nesbitt.)
So who is it that will get the unions' approval for the nominations for these various offices? Well, it's pretty obvious that Rep. Jeff Merkley has already secured the nod to run against Sen. Gordon Smith for the United States Senate, especially after Alan Bates recognized the handwriting on the wall and withdrew from consideration. It's a pretty good bet that Sen. Kate Brown will get the nod for the Secretary of State race even though current treasurer Randall Edwards is eyeing the race. But the most interesting one will be whether Republican turned Independent turned Democrat, Ben Westlund, will get the nod for State Treasurer. It is doubtful that the unions trust Westlund anymore than the rest of the politicians and that they will seek and find a better candidate.
The public employee unions are in substantial control of the political process. There is no countervailing force within the Republican party. The system is out of balance and the unions are not shy about pushing the levers of power.
(oregoncatalyst.com)
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Taxpayers lay down for government unions
New labor contracts hashed out this summer give most state employees raises totaling about 6 percent over the next two years. But the real bonus is in the benefits: The state will continue to shoulder the entire cost of health care premiums for employees and their families, an increasingly rare perk in either the private or public sectors as the price of health insurance skyrockets.
Last year, the National Conference of State Legislatures reported Oregon was one of five states to pick up the tab for premiums, which can run about $1,000 a month for a family of four. Today, it's one of only three. It's more common for states to pay for individual employees, but not their families, says Richard Cauchi, the group's health program director.
"It is not just expensive, but increasingly, almost agonizingly expensive for employers who are trying to provide 100 percent coverage," he says. The 2007-09 labor contracts with biggies Service Employees International Union Local 503 and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees cover about 22,000 workers - many of the state's 37,000 workers, not including university faculty and staff.
The state has about half a dozen contracts left to negotiate, says Sue Wilson, human resources manager at the state's Department of Administrative Services. Public-school teachers negotiate separately with school districts.
A typical SEIU or AFSCME member earns $38,000 to $43,000 a year. The state payout for health care is the same, whether the employee is a custodian who earns $21,600 a year or a physician who makes $132,000.
Even with the cost-of-living raises, labor representatives say state worker pay still lags behind other states. Salaries for Oregon workers were frozen in fiscal 2003-05 when a recession scrambled the state's ability to keep schools and other public services open. State workers received salary increases of 2 percent in 2005 and 2006.
This year, their pay will go up 3 percent and another 3.2 percent in November 2008.
Wilson says state officials preserved health benefits in part because of Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a former labor lawyer who has also made health care a priority of his administration.
The unions made clear "it was their absolutely No. 1 priority over and above salaries, and the governor really wanted to use the resources available to meet that No. 1 priority," Wilson says, adding that state workers have sought benefits over pay increases.
Critics counter that Kulongoski is bowing to public unions that helped put him in office, and that the benefits and salary increases are unsustainable and unfair.
"Taxpayers see the cost of government go up and up, but their family budget is not increasing at the same rate," says Jason Williams, director of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon.
Like Oregon, North Dakota will continue to pay health care premiums for state employees and their families, says a spokesman for the governor. Oklahoma's full health benefits cover about 95 percent of its 37,000 workers, says Colleen Dame, deputy director of the state's benefits and contracts administration.
That's no longer the case in New Jersey, where state workers will see 1.5 percent of their annual salaries go toward health insurance -- saving the state an estimated $60 million annually. New Hampshire also started requiring employee contributions in July.
George Crosiar, a deputy state fire marshal in Oregon and AFSCME member, says workers value health benefits so much because insurance costs seem impossible to rein in.
"You feel like you're at the whim of whatever the health industry wants to do with premiums," he says.
(oregonlive.com)
"City that Works" reveals its dysfunction
Many folks think ex-mayor Vera Katz invented Portland's motto that's plastered on City vehicles, but she simply copied Chicago - the original "City That Works". Here's an update.
(dailysouthtown.com)Chicago schoolteachers have been calling me for about a week now. "I haven't gotten a paycheck in weeks," one man said. "I get one paycheck, miss one, then get a check for less money than I'm supposed to get," said a second teacher.
One woman, a substitute at a year-round school, said she had not received a paycheck in three pay cycles: six weeks. She spent more than two hours on hold trying to talk to someone at the Chicago Public Schools payroll department by phone.
When she finally got through, she was told the problem was at the clerk's office in her local school. The clerk acts as a timekeeper at local schools. The teacher went to work, talked to the clerk, and although her hours had been put into the system she still didn't get a paycheck.
Like the other teachers who called me, that woman said she has received late notices from utility companies and doesn't even have enough cash on hand to properly prepare her own children for school.
She has been to a Pay Day loan store twice to get money.
"I'm ready to jump off a bridge," the woman said.
Officials at the Chicago Public Schools don't deny there have been problems.
Paychecks have been issued for incorrect amounts.
Some paychecks have not been issued in a timely manner.
The problem is a new computer software system purchased by the payroll department.
There have been glitches. Not enough people were employed to handle potential problems.
The telephones at school district headquarters were not adequately staffed.
All of those problems have been addressed in recent weeks, according to the school system spokesman. As many as 10 temporary employees have been assigned to help answer the phones, according to Mike Vaughn, a Chicago Public Schools spokesman.
Things are getting better, he said, but there still are some problems.
Vaughn said the school system offers its "sincerest apologies to employees who have had problems."
Schoolteachers have told me about going downtown and standing in line for more than two hours to talk to someone about their payroll problems.
"I was eventually told to take out a personal loan," one teacher told me.
"No one should be telling teachers anything like that," the school system spokesman said.
None of the teachers who called me wanted their name used.
They were all probationary employees, meaning the school district could fire them without cause.
I admit to being somewhat suspicious about the extent of the problem because the Chicago Teachers Union is in negotiations with the school district on a new contract.
But school officials don't deny there is a problem.
The union has filed nearly 500 grievances this summer on the payroll problem alone.
Colleen Dykes, grievance procedure coordinator for the union, said it typically takes 30 days for the school system to review a complaint.
"They say the problem has been fixed and a corrected paycheck will be issued and then, the paycheck isn't issued or its issued and it is still for the wrong amount," Dykes said.
"It's very frustrating to go through the process and the problem isn't solved more than 30 days later."
Dykes said many, but not all, of the teachers affected are new hires who were employed to staff several new year-round Chicago schools.
"The problem is that the school district hired support personnel to handle the software problems but they're stationed downtown," Dykes said.
"They need to come out to the schools and work with the clerks and principals to fix these problems."
Sometimes, Dykes said, personnel identification numbers are coded incorrectly into the system.
In other instances, the payroll IDs apparently failed to get into the system at all.
No matter how you look at it, with the union negotiations taking place, it seems management has done a remarkable job of alienating the work force.
"Our teachers are calling us up saying they're ready to strike," one union official said.
"They feel as if their problems are being totally ignored by the board."
School officials express concern but still seem to be viewing this as a series of unavoidable computer glitches.
I wonder if they would feel the same way if they were missing paychecks. Schools CEO Arne Duncan at a Pay Day loan store would be sight to behold.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sec. of State Bradbury destroys campaign finance law
My name is Richard Leonetti. I am a retired businessman, interested in government.
During 2006, I received mail and saw brochures about many statewide ballot measures from a group calling itself "Our Oregon." I wondered who they were. I found out that the corporate registration of "Our Oregon" shows that it was formed in 2005 by Larry Wolf, head of the Oregon Education Association (OEA), and Art Towers, head of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Oregon. I was then very surprised to learn that "Our Oregon" had not filed any campaign contribution and expenditure reports with the Secretary of State.
Oregon law clearly requires that any person or entity that accepts money ("contributions") to be used in a political campaign must register as a political committee (ORS 260.005(16)). The law also requires every political committee active in a general election to file at least 3 contribution and expenditure reports in every election year (ORS 260.073). Apparently, "Our Oregon" disregarded the law, never registered, and never reported its contributions.
Way back on January 13, 2007, I filed with the Secretary of State a formal complaint that "Our Oregon" violated numerous laws by never registering as a political committee or reporting its sources of money, even though it spent at least hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not more) to affect the outcome of the 2006 election. "Our Oregon" spent large sums against Measures 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, and 48, and in favor of Measure 44. It has admitted it also helped in political candidate campaigning in 2006. My complaint stated that this conduct also appears to violate the law which prohibits making political contributions in a false name (ORS 260.402), which is a felony.
Despite my numerous calls and emails to his staff, Secretary Bradbury has taken no action against "Our Oregon." I have heard that he has held private meetings about my complaint - with his "public relations person" present. He appears ready to let "Our Oregon" off the hook, perhaps because the unions led by the creators of "Our Oregon" are his own huge financial backers. The OEA directly contributed $114,000 to his campaigns for Secretary of State, and SEIU directly contributed $50,000.
Also, until a few weeks ago, "Our Oregon" was apparently managed by Patty Wentz, who is now Governor Kulongoski's public information officer!
If Bill Bradbury lets "Our Oregon" off the hook, he would blow a giant loophole in Oregon's laws on political money disclosure. If "Our Oregon" can get by with this, then any other person or union or corporation or group could also fund political campaigns and completely avoid reporting their sources of money:
Just form a non-profit corporation with a nice name, take contributions from undisclosed sources, and pass the money to candidates or measure campaigns in the name of the non-profit corporation itself.
This would make Oregon's campaign contribution reporting laws a dead letter. Bradbury should not create this huge loophole to protect his own financial backers.
I am sending this email (bcc) to all members of the Oregon Legislature and to many organizers of ballot measures to alert them to this loophole. If "Our Oregon" does not have to report its sources of contributions for money used in political campaigns, then why should anyone else?
I can be reached for comment at rleomoon@gmail.com.
Lame duck Governor quacks toward finish line
Democrat Gov. Ted Kulongoski - a former labor union lawyer - took heat during his first term for shying away from ballot measures that he said he supported. Not this time. Kulongoski, unencumbered by re-election worries, has planted himself front and center in the campaigns to pass two measures on the Nov. 6 ballot. Measure 49 would repeal property rights laws; Measure 50 would raise cigarette taxes.
Both were proposals Kulongoski had going into the 2007 legislative session, and both were referred to the ballot after lawmakers balked at passing them. "All of the available time that I don't have to use officially as governor, I'm going to be politicking for cutting property rights and increasing taxes," Kulongoski says.
On Monday, Kulongoski ordered a $50,000 check written from one of his two political action committees to go to the coalition supporting the tax increase. He's also on the fundraising trail to help environmental groups pushing for the anti-property rights measure.
Kulongoski said the check to the Healthy Kids coalition will help offset what he predicts will be a blizzard of spending by tobacco companies to defeat the measure. "I'm estimating more than $5 million," he says.
J.L. Wilson, spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., said the anti-50 campaign will spend $3 million "and see where we are at that point." Tobacco giant Philip Morris, which also may join the opposition, hasn't revealed how much it will spend.
Wilson said he's not too worried by Kulongoski's involvement on the other side. Regardless of what the governor says, most voters won't want to insert a tax on smokers into the state constitution, which is what Measure 50 would do.
"It's not a knock on our governor," Wilson said. "It's more the strength of the argument against this particular measure."
Opponents of Measure 49 had a similar take on Kulongoski's high-profile role in the campaign. Voters will make a distinction between what the measure does and who supports it, says Dave Hunnicutt, spokesman for Oregonians in Action, which is taking a lead role in fighting the measure.
Hunnicutt says Kulongoski is merely "doing the bidding of his biggest contributors," including environmental and conservation groups.
Hunnicutt's group was the main force behind Measure 37, which requires governments to pay landowners if regulations lower their property values or to waive the regulations to avoid payment. Measure 49 would restore many of the development restrictions in place before voters approved Measure 37.
Kulongoski says he's determined to help pass the new limits because they will help ensure Oregon's reputation as a state that cares about and protects its farms, forests and open spaces.
"The result of this election is going to be part of our quality of life," Kulongoski says.
Liz Kaufman, who is helping to run the pro-Measure 49 campaign, said Kulongoski's presence has helped. The governor helped ensure involvement by three former governors - Democrats John Kitzhaber and Barbara Roberts and Republican Vic Atiyeh.
He's also drawn in two big business representatives: Dick Reiten, retired chairman of Northwest Natural Gas, and Robert Gootee, chief executive officer of ODS, a dental health insurance company. And he's solicited support from unions, including teachers and firefighters, Kaufman says.
Kulongoski says he feels freer to take on controversial stands for two reasons. First, he has no plans to run for another political office. Second, he expects to work with a Legislature controlled by Democrats, so he worries less about how his actions look to Republicans.
"I intend to hit the finish line of this thing running at full speed," he says.
(oregonlive.com)
Teachers union accepts blame for low student scores
The second year of results from the revamped and longer SAT suggest Oregon's college-bound students have a weak spot in writing. The class of 2007 did slightly worse on average than the previous year's graduates on all three sections of the college entrance exam: critical reading, math and the new writing section.
Oregon's scores fell one point to 522 in reading, three points to 526 in math and one point to 502 in writing. Washington's scores were 526 in reading, 531 in math and 510 in writing, a one-point dip in each section. A perfect score on the SAT is 2,400: 800 points in each section.
For the second year in a row, students nationally and in the Northwest scored lower on the writing section, introduced in March 2005, than in reading and math. But it is too soon to establish a trend in writing scores, according to The College Board, which owns the SAT.
Oregon educators are concerned about students' writing skills and are focusing more attention on improving them, said Julie Anderson, English language arts specialist for the Oregon Department of Education.
"It's a skill that's highly valued," she said. "It's one worth practicing for many reasons."
(blog.oregonlive.com)
Monday, August 27, 2007
Organized Labor takes over Oregon Business Association
Many are surprised to see that presidential candidate John Edwards will be brought to Oregon by the Oregon Business Association on October 9th.
Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Bill Richardson are widely viewed as the more business-friendly of the Democratic Presidential candidates. In fact, Edwards is one of the few candidates on the campaign trail to come out and advocate for a massive tax increase on higher income wage earners and an "excess" tax for certain businesses. Even the Willamette Week found it bizarre.
This decision comes off the heels this summer of another controversial OBA decision when they hired retiring Sen. Ryan Deckert. Although Senator Deckert has great respect in the Capitol building and has voted more business-friendly than many of his colleagues in the Majority, he still has a lot more anti-business votes than pro-business votes.
Such decisions begin to tie the hands and typecast the OBA as a political opportunist organization rather a principled business interest group.
(oregoncatalyst.com)
