Murmurs

[June 10th, 2009]

• Location, location, location: City Commissioner Nick Fish may have a personal stake in the June 23 hearing over whether to rename 39th Avenue for César E. Chávez. Fish, who wasn’t on the Council in 2007 when it considered renaming Interstate Avenue for the labor leader, lives on Northeast 39th Avenue. The city attorney says it’s not a conflict for Fish to vote. And Fish says, “I have a completely open mind going into it.”

• One footnote to Mayor Sam Adams’ decision last month to decline a pay raise to his $118,144 annual salary. When Adams took office as mayor on Jan. 1, he collected four years’ worth of cost-of-living increases ex-Mayor Tom Potter had rejected. Adams, who as a commissioner accepted a pay raise only once in his four years, is now making 12.5 percent more than the $104,977.60 Potter collected in his final year.

• Oregon’s sheriffs have lost their battle in Salem to hide who’s getting concealed-handgun licenses (see “Shameful Records,” WW, March 25, 2009), says Sen. Ginny Burdick, an opponent of their proposal. The Southwest Portland Democrat says House Bill 2727 lacked enough support on the Senate floor and effectively died June 8 when it went to the Senate Rules Committee instead. Multnomah County Sheriff Bob Skipper, who denied WW’s request for the names of local license holders last year, says he’s disappointed but still plans to withhold the list.

• The City of Portland’s SAP enterprise software system (the city’s financial reporting system) was more than a year late and $20 million over budget. But last week, Computerworld magazine joined the Government Finance Officers Association in honoring Portland’s system for “transferability, creativity and technical significance.” City CFO Jennifer Sims says, “It was an extremely hard road, but the results are well worth it.”

• Battle at the MERC corral: Supporters of Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission CEO David Woolson pushed back hard against Metro Council President David Bragdon’s request that the independent MERC board ask Woolson to step down. Six of seven MERC commissioners signed a letter rejecting Bragdon’s request—and two asked city officials to help save Woolson’s job.

• Tre Arrow has landed. The environmental activist, former congressional candidate and convicted arsonist arrived June 8 in a halfway house in Northeast Portland to serve the last six months of his 6 1/2 year sentence for firebombing logging and gravel trucks in 2001. Before his transfer to the halfway house, Arrow wrote last month on his blog that “Ideally i’d like 2 get a job doing the things i love the most: playing music protecting the environment.”

• Pissed about the proposed $4 billion makeover of the Columbia River Crossing? Then head to Peninsula Park (700 N Rosa Parks Way) this Sunday, June 14, to pedal with Portland Rising Tide, Pedalpalooza and other bike-centric protesters. At 3:30 pm, they’ll start a bike tour of the North Portland areas that would be affected by the planned construction.