We promise not to obsessively chronicle every campaign contribution as May’s primary election draws near, but this is a biggie.
Among foes of a proposal to hand control of Portland’s sewer/water systems to a new elected board, the Audubon Society of Portland has been the most vocal. And the wildlife group isn’t stopping at rhetoric.
Audubon has kicked in $10,000 to the campaign fighting the “Portland Public Water District,” which would assume control of the Portland Water Bureau and Bureau of Environmental Services if approved by voters in May. The contribution ties one from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 189 as the opposition campaign’s largest cash infusion to-date (it apparently began raising funds in mid-February).
Since the campaign for a seven-member utility district began in July, Audubon Conservation Director Bob Sallinger has been a chief critic—even filing complaints with the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office after he said signature gatherers for the effort were spreading lies. Those complaints, and others like them, were eventually tossed when they couldn’t be substantiated.
Proponents of the new district say it will rein in poorly reasoned expenditures (and their attendant rate increases) that have marked city hall’s stewardship. They point most-frequently to projects like the Portland Water House and the purchase of the Rose Festival Building as places we could have saved, but it’s other projects—like the massive Big Pipe, which keeps sewage from seeping into the Willamette River during rainy periods—that have most-influenced utility bills.
Sallinger and others (Mayor Charlie Hales is at the head of the opposition campaign) paint the proposed district as an attempt by industrial interests to hold out-size sway over their own utility rates. Big ratepayers Siltronic and Portland Bottling Company, along with property management groups, have primarily funded the water district campaign.
Sewer contractors are now the largest contributors to the campaign against a Public Water District in Portland. These groups receive lucrative BES contracts for everything from
bird counting ($43,000 Audubon contract) to paving church parking lots, funded by sewer ratepayers. Audubon’s $10,000 contribution and Depave’s $2,000 contribution together exceed all other contributions combined. AFSME represents Water Bureau employees.
Monopoly utility Portland General Electric is also listed as a recurring contributor. A PGE executive chairs the Portland City Club committee studying the Public Water District Initiative The committee includes sewer contractors and others with financial ties to the City.
Supporters of the PPWD are customers, ratepayers subject to regressive taxation that forces those least able, to pay to the same as the wealthy, for essential water and sanitary service, including paying for the many non-mission pet projects supported by the elite.
pdx2000: Monopoly utility makes in-kind donation of $550. Yikes! I guess it’s worth pointing out, since they split it in two and could be labeled as “recurring contributor”. Using that logic you should have elaborated on a supporter of the PPWD. Siltronic corporation has made “recurring contributions” of over $60,000 to date. That corporate support of a so called “populist” ballot measure seems more noteworthy than a $550 in-kind contribution from PGE.