I’m on record calling this a good idea (and so, apparently, is a cross-section of Blogtown readers who took our handy poll). And the Portland City Council agreed, unanimously supporting a new policy telling city workers, as assistant human resources director Anna Kanwit put it, to “wear your perfume at night and on weekends. You don’t’ need it at the work place.”
Not that there weren’t some mild dramatics. Some were justified. After Commissioner Amanda Fritz—Portland’s wellness commissioner!—explained why employees who suffer from asthma and chemical allergies would welcome the instant relief brought by common, basic courtesy, Commissioner Nick Fish very matter-of-factly revealed a personal secret that shed light on why a fragrance-free policy makes sense.
Certain kinds of makeup and perfumes cause him to break out, and it’s always been difficult for him to say something when guests or others who are particularly redolent come to his office: “It always felt to me somewhat presumptuous.”
But the height of circus came along when Jasun Wurster, the activist who first tried to recall Mayor Sam Adams, testified about the proposed policy.
First, when Adams, as form dictates, asked him to state his full name, Wurster replied: “As if you don’t know.” Then he tried to blame any city employees’ breathing problems on shoddy cleaning in city buildings, on his way to making a fart joke: “Then there’s the quagmire of the SBD, but I won’t go there.”
Wurster, seemingly out to grandstand, also tried to claim that the policy would result in punishment for workers, and that city commissioners would be exempt. Turns out neither is true. Kanwit acknowledged under council questioning that the policy has no real disciplinary stick—unless an employee with a doctor’s note comes forward and complains. And, yes, commissioners aren’t allowed cologne and perfume baths, either.
He wouldn’t go quietly: “Who’s your supervisor?” he shouted at the mayor from the back of the city council chambers. Told it was the voters, he then shouted: “Two years from now, we get to get rid of that stench.”
Adams had played ball until that point, but finally got a little angry: “That’ll be enough of that rudeness.” Ssssnap!
Afterward, another city worker testified about how gracious her colleagues in the Portland Building have been when it comes to respecting her own chemical sensitivities, going so far as to changing the kinds of personal products they use.
“You may think it’s a frivolous type of ordinance,” Fritz said, “but it isn’t.”
…then he stomped off into the night jumping on the back of his girlfriends vespa which she promptly rammed into a parked car before a flask of bourbon fell out of her pocket breaking on the ground. When will the drunken train wreck that is Wurster/Volm end?
Yes it is frivolous.
It’s unenforceable and like every thing else this drama circus reveals, all symbolism and no substance, instead of addressing a broke, broken city ridden with crime and filth.
Wurster needs to find a more constructive hobby.
I seriously wish something like this could be enforced in all public buildings. May people who for whatever reason seem to think perfumes/colognes are pleasant, not unlike drug addicts, have numbed themselves to the odor, causing them to using more and more until a toxic cloud of hooker-scent surrounds them. For many of us, this is the opposite of pleasant and can even be a health hazard. These people need to know this.
Frivolous…or Fritzolous?
@D…..”drama circus”? I don’t think that that is an actual common expresssion in the english language. I think the word “circus” sufficiently implies that there will already be drama. Possibly you grew up around boring circuses. Aaaaaand….This “broke, broken (don’t forget “brokiest”) city ridden with crime and filth” is actually just ridden with lazy self-obsessed fucking whiners who somehow think that essentially meaningless actions by the city council like these are somehow symbolic of the end of America as we know it.
You attitude stinks. Get it? Story about cologne and stuff……”stinks”….if I have to explain it……
Jasun Wurster is his own troll.
How will we know when women are on the rag?
@Unicode disaster:
You’ll now be able to smell it.
#7 … 10 points and a free Larry and the Lazers T-shirt to you.
No Amanda, it IS frivolous.
That was a great zinger by Wurster though…. getting rid of the stench in 2 years.
Somehow, I’ve avoided these apocryphal “perfume baths”.
I have been assaulted by good old natural B.O. and that peculiar blend of dirt, sweat, cigarettes, and alcohol that makes Tri-Met an adventure from time to time, as well as the hipster fuckos wearing “vintage” t-shirts that should have been sent to Africa in a bale with the Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl XLV Champions shirts…
I see there are some folks here who are totally ignorant of the issue of chemical sensitivity.
Of people with MCS, the lucky ones live in an older house away from population and they work by telecommuting (with a computer that is several years old so it has off-gassed harmful solvents and stuff) or they make a living somehow that they don’t have to go to a workplace. I rented a cob house from a woman who had an active life until a bad rock-climbing accident wrecked her back. After a lot of antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals made a mess of her immune system, she could no longer be around new clothing, perfume, heck most manufactured items if they’re new. She couldn’t even tolerate living in the cob house (all-natural materials) because of the traffic pollution that came in from outside, so she moved to a place in the woods.
People with MCS really cannot tolerate perfumes being used in their immediate environment (I’m talking mostly about the conventional petroleum-derived stuff that most people use not hippy herbal stuff). Symptoms can include nausea, headache, rashes… it varies from one peson to another.
organic brian…. YOU strike me as ignorant.
frankieb what in heck are you talking about? Is there one single fact about which I’m incorrect?