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Police Protest Leaves Homophobic Graffiti at City Hall
Protesters with Don't Shoot Portland marched into City Hall on Sept. 23, demanding to meet with Mayor Charlie Hales to discuss the new police union contract, among other issues. After several hours, Hales agreed to a meeting with the group, which regularly protests police violence against black people. When the building was cleared that evening, misogynistic and homophobic graffiti covered several walls of City Hall's Lovejoy Room. "KATE BROWN I$ A LESBIAN LOL," read one. "Charlie Hales is a pu$$y," read another. A third scrawl read "ACAB," a common abbreviation for "All Coppers Are Bastards." Greg McKelvey of Don't Shoot Portland said his group isn't to blame, adding that anarchists unaffiliated with the movement crashed the protest. "If the mayor hadn't kept us waiting for three hours, that wouldn't have happened," McKelvey says.
State Places Lifetime Ban on Janitorial Company
The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries this week brought a hammer down on Cornerstone Janitorial Services. It ordered the company to pay 46 workers $144,000 for failing to pay them the required prevailing wage on 16 publicly funded jobs, including one at Portland Community College. Cornerstone previously paid workers $200,000 for similar violations. Cornerstone agreed with BOLI's punishment. "Our agency is committed to holding businesses accountable so that workers receive every dollar they've earned," says BOLI Commissioner Brad Avakian.
Former ODOT Official Seeks Work From Agency
The saga continues for Jim Whitty, the former Oregon Department of Transportation official tasked with creating a tax that would charge vehicles for miles driven rather than fuel consumption. While at ODOT, Whitty signed contracts with companies to help establish the program. Now, he's left ODOT and is co-owner of one of those firms, D'Artagnan Consulting. Whitty sought permission from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission to work on contracts he oversaw at ODOT. The agency ruled last week that he could—after waiting two years from the contract date of April 2, 2015. "The upshot is he can't do business with ODOT until April 2017," says his attorney, John DiLorenzo.
Portland Restaurateur Sues Home Flippers
Portland restaurateur power couple Naomi Pomeroy and Kyle Webster have sued the companies that renovated and sold their $799,900 Alameda house, alleging consumer fraud. (Pomeroy owns the celebrated restaurant Beast.) In a lawsuit filed Sept. 23 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Pomeroy and Webster say they bought a 1939 art deco home on Alameda Ridge that was owned by KC Acquisitions and remodeled by 2Dads Design Build. The lawsuit says the construction company did the work without permits, installed faulty wiring and inadequately weatherproofed windows and doors, and staged the house to cover up the defects. Both sides declined to comment.
Willamette Week