This water board sounds like a bad idea, but still better than the City Council using water dollars as a personal piggy bank for whatever shiny new object they get conned into funding. Rehabbing the Rose Festival headquarters? wtf... Just because Randy Leonard is gone doesn't mean this mentality left with him.
I'm just as mad as any other Portland ratepayer about the eye-watering water and sewer bills, but I think this proposed PPWD is an overreach. As infuriating as Randy Leondard's dips into the utility revenue were, they were drops in the bucket (sorry) compared to the main cost drivers of utility spending; namely, the legacy costs of maintaining an over-100-year-old water and sewer system and upgrading it to meet current standards and federal regulations. For example, the city's on the hook for many years to pay back the bonds issued to pay for the Big Pipe; that obligation won't disappear with the establishment of the PPWD. While I appreciate PPWD promoters for firing a shot across the City Council's bow to get them to pay attention to this issue, they and anyone who supports their proposal are fooling themselves if they think their effort, if successful, is going to immediately and dramatically reduce costs.
Uh, yeah... I'm pretty confident that Craford/DiLorenzo/Grabenhorst will have the resources they need too.
With an assist from some allegedly-progressive Portlanders, apparently.
I am concerned about unintended consequences of creating a PUD. But the city seems to be trying to wreck a good thing.