Skip to main content* A draft of the long-awaited audit of the City Bureau of Licenses promises to throw gasoline on an incendiary situation. The audit, requested by Commissioner Randy Leonard, fails to support Leonard's concern that bureau director Jim Wadsworth cut sweetheart deals with corporate taxpayers. Specifically, the audit termed a 2001 settlement of a multimillion-dollar tax bill (owed by the former owner of KOIN-TV) "reasonable." And while Leonard has said that as much as $10.5 million in taxes are going uncollected, the draft says the city would be lucky to collect $1.6 million. Thanks to a potential lawsuit, this draft means Leonard's recent firing of Wadsworth could be costly.
* The idea of "clean city elections" appears headed to a soily grave. In a vote scheduled for today, April 7, Commissioner Erik Sten and Auditor Gary Blackmer wanted colleagues to let voters decide whether candidates who demonstrate broad-based support could tap city funding in exchange for obeying spending limits (see "The $25 Candidate," WW, March 24, 2004). Mayoral frontrunner Jim Francesconi, who boasts a war chest of close to $800,000, panned the notion in a recent Portland Tribune article, and so did Randy Leonard. Fellow commissioner Dan Saltzman has said he does not favor campaign-finance reform. Interestingly, these three are also the commissioners most heavily bankrolled by the 800-pound gorilla of city politics, the Portland Business Alliance.
* One contribution Jim Francesconi has received was discussed in yesterday's Oregonian: a $2,000 check from developer Tom Moyer's assistant, Sonja Tune. Tune told reporter Scott Learn that she never discussed it with her boss--who coincidentally gave Francesconi $500 the same day Tune contributed: May 16, 2003. The Oregonian did not disclose that Moyer's daughter, Vanessa Kassab, gave $2,500 to Francesconi that same day. This cornucopia of coincidence occurred one week after Moyer lobbied Francesconi over one of the developer's projects. According to the state elections office, giving money in another person's name is illegal. Tune, who lives in a small east-county home, claims the contribution was her money--though she recalls it being only $1,000.
* For some college students, vomiting and spring break go together like turkey and Thanksgiving. But the Lewis & Clark students who prayed to the porcelain god on their recent week off were not suffering from overindulgence. Instead, at last count 84 of them--or nearly 10 percent of the resident population--were suffering from what the county health department suspects may be some variation of the Norwalk virus, a brutal stomach-buster that won fame by sweeping through cruise ships in the past couple of years.
* Air America may have been talk radio's big news last week (see page 11), but KXL star Lars Larson also launched a new enterprise. The Lars Report, a glossy bimonthly, debuted with a collection of screeds, rants and point/counterpoints of the same ilk as Larson's radio shows. Citizen Lars weighs in on public-school funding (too much!). State Rep. Jeff Kropf (R-Sublimity) avails himself of two pages to sing Lars' praises. Token liberal Marc Abrams and Rob Kremer, a libertarian except when he isn't, square off over gay marriage. "Some of Lars' favorite books" and "favorite guests" round things out. All this can be yours for a mere $12 for six issues. Call (503) 243-7595 or see www.kxl.com.
WWeek 2015