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Oregon Lottery Director Alleges Civil Rights Violation
New details about the April 26 firing of Oregon Lottery Director Jack Roberts emerged from documents WW obtained this week. The documents show tension between Roberts and two lottery commissioners in the days before his firing. In a draft civil rights complaint Roberts shared with Gov. Kate Brown's office April 18, Roberts alleged that commissioners Liz Carle and Mary Wheat created a hostile work environment for an Iranian-American lottery employee named Farshad Allahdadi, whom Roberts proposed to promote to assistant director. Roberts accused the pair of "conducting an unfair investigation into this employee's work performance." Although Roberts is gone, Brown's office says the Oregon Department of Justice is investigating his allegation." Carle and Wheat declined to comment. Read more here.
Sugar Shack Will Become Meat Market
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales' proposed budget is helping a Northeast Portland neighborhood coalition pay off loans it secured to buy the former Sugar Shack strip club. The group, Living Cully, bought the Sugar Shack in July for $2.3 million from owners who had been federally indicted for allegedly operating ATMs to promote prostitution at four strip clubs. The new tenant will still display legs and breasts: Nicky USA, a specialty butcher now operating in the Central Eastside Industrial District. In exchange for city funds, Nicky USA will set aside community space at the location on Northeast Killingsworth Street.
Colleagues Pan Hales' Business Tax Hike
Take a hike. That's what two city commissioners more or less told Mayor Charlie Hales after he proposed a tax hike May 2 on Portland businesses. Hales' proposal—to increase the business license tax from 2.2 percent to 2.5 percent of net business income—comes as the city collects record revenue from businesses and hotels, bringing Portland's 2016-17 budget to $510 million. Commissioners Dan Saltzman and Steve Novick immediately panned the idea. A third commissioner, Nick Fish, says he has "concerns" about Hales' tax, meaning it's probably DOA. "I think this will be a short-lived proposal," Novick says. Read more here.
Fight Over Jordan Schnitzer's Son Continues
It's round two in what promises to be an epic legal battle between two prominent Oregon business families over a surrogate son born to property magnate Jordan Schnitzer last December. In an April 29 response to Cory Noel Sause's request to be acknowledged as the baby's genetic mother, Schnitzer argued Sause renounced all rights and interests in the boy born from her embryo. But in making his case, Schnitzer had to argue that a contract his own lawyer sent Sause was meaningless. "I did not review the draft agreement until after a copy was delivered to my office by Ms. Sause," Schnitzer wrote in a Multnomah County Circuit Court filing. "It was not something that I would be comfortable signing." Sause, whose family owns a large Coos Bay barge company, must respond to Schnitzer's filing by May 20.
Willamette Week