Mayor: Randy Leonard Will Remain in Charge of the Water Bureau

Portland Mercury:

Randy Leonard—down to his final year and half or so as a city commissioner—has faced a torrent of criticism in recent months over his handling of the water bureau, one of the major bureaus he still has left. An audit this year ripped into decisions to spend rate money on a bunch of "non-mission-critical" projects (a story nicely amplified in detail by the Oregonian this week). There's been an ongoing contretemps over covering and/or irradiating Portland's open-air reservoirs. And then there was the whole pee-pee in the reservoir thing, AIDS comments and all. Today, the Tribune has reported, a group of city utility watchdogs gathered outside city hall to demand Mayor Sam Adam exercise his powers to reassign bureaus and give the water bureau to someone else. The mayor, a longtime political ally whom Leonard has promised to endorse (if and) when he runs for re-election, has put up a statement telling the coalition folks, basically, to back off bashing Leonard—while also giving a nod to Commissioner Dan Saltzman's proposal (a plan also espoused by the mayor, before he was mayor) for an independent panel to monitor rates and spending. The City Council has also been involved in other recent Water Bureau expenditures, including the renovation of the Rose Festival Building and the Water House. Those projects were approved by the entire council after extensive budget discussions. Read the whole thing after the jump. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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