Skip to main content• Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen and his board colleagues are lobbying Salem for the right to ask voters for local beer, wine and tobacco taxes, and even tolls on Willamette River bridges (see "For Whom the Bridge Tolls," WW, Nov. 21, 2007). State law forbids counties from levying those fees and taxes. But with the county set to lose more than $17.5 million in state funding, Cogen says it's time to let county voters decide via a local measure whether they want to tax themselves to pay for services. "The basic notion is local control," Cogen says. "Different communities have different values."
• Portland's powerful police union is in an uproar over the firing of its longtime attorney. As first reported at wweek.com, the union's newly elected president, Sgt. Scott Westerman, held an emergency meeting with union members Jan. 30 to explain his decision not to retain Will Aitchison, a renowned lawyer who has racked up an impressive record of wins in his 29 years as the Portland Police Association attorney. One union member tells WW that Westerman now faces a possible recall effort for firing Aitchison a year before new contract negotiations begin with the city. Aitchison and Westerman both declined comment.
• Some numbers to consider in the $175 million stimulus package the Oregon Senate approved last week: Polk County has 1.8 percent of the state's population and got 18 percent of the cash. Nearly all of it, about $32 million, will be spent at Western Oregon University, which employs as an instructor Senate President and chief stimulus backer Peter Courtney, a Democrat whose district includes Polk County. Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day) says sarcastically that "Oregon is the capital of coincidence." For more details about a related ethics complaint against Courtney, read the complaint (PDF) or go to WWire.
• Lars Larson is signed up to give an earful to Mayor Sam Adams at the weekly City Council meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 4. Larson, who works in Portland at KXL 750 AM but doesn't live in the city, plans to spend his three minutes asking Adams why voters should trust him after Adams admitted to lying about his sexual relationship with 18-year-old Beau Breedlove. Check WWire for details of the Council meeting.
• The suggestion last week that the U.S. Postal Service might cut costs by eliminating mail delivery on a comparatively light day, such as Tuesday, caught Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown's attention. Her question: What would happen to Oregon's vote-by-mail system, with ballots flooding into elections offices on Election Day—which falls on Tuesday—if there is no delivery that day? Brown wrote Postmaster General Jack Potter on Feb. 2, urging him to pick another day of the week if the Postal Service decides to cut back delivery.
• More trouble for prominent Portland defense attorney Gary Bertoni. The Oregon State Bar has determined there's enough evidence to investigate allegations that Bertoni dipped into his clients' trust account. The case now goes to the bar's disciplinary counsel for possible prosecution. Bertoni's former office manager told the bar (see "A Matter of Trust," WW, Nov. 26, 2008) that Bertoni, a star juvenile lawyer, commingled his own funds with those of his clients and left the fund $69,826.80 short when he quit in 2007. Bertoni and his attorney, Christopher Hardman, didn't respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.
WWeek 2015