News City commissioners aired a disagreement on Wednesday that concerns contract negotiations with Portland's municipal labor unions, most of which saw their contracts expire this week. The disagreement centered on the 40-hour work week and how some City of Portland employees can actually earn overtime without working a full 40 hours. The debate Wednesday was nearly as complicated as the contract language ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams offered no new details today about his promise to ban single-use plastic bags in Portland. But he did announce he will have a draft ordinance describing that plan by the end of the week. That new promise satisfied opponents of the petroleum-based product who staged a rally outside City Hall this afternoon after anti-bag activists testified in front of City Council this morning. The ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams has backtracked on his pledge to bring an anti-plastic-bag ordinance to City Council, conceding to state lawmakers' wishes that he instead support a non-binding resolution calling first for an Oregon-wide ban. In a memo signed July 22 [PDF], the mayor says he will bring an ordinance banning the petroleum-based bags in Portland only if the proposed state ban fails in the 2011 ...   More

News When Mayor Sam Adams unveiled the initial details of his 2010-11 budget proposal this winter, he said the City of Portland would ask its employees to make wage concessions in the form of zero cost-of-living increases. Now for the first time in recent history, several labor unions, including the one that represents the politically influential Portland firefighters, have agreed to that salary freeze ...   More

News It's not as though City Hall in 2010 has seen any less--bad joke alert!--"manure" than in 2009, but the dirt in City Hall's Better Together Garden sure seems to be suffering. Last year at this time, the organic garden (pictured above) outside City Hall's east entrance had produced 50 pounds of tomatoes. This year, I haven't seen a single ripe tomato yet. And the plants (pictured below) appear ...   More

News City of Portland managers are preparing for the possibility of a strike this fall if talks with the District Council of Trade Unions continue to go badly. DCTU represents about one-third of the city's 6,000 employees, including utility workers, transportation maintenance workers, equipment operators, meter readers, engineers, and others. The two sides entered mediation yesterday. But if a settlement ...   More