It's Expiration Eve

According to my calendar, the Portland police union contract expires tomorrow night. It's amazing that so little is being said about it in the mainstream media. It seems that half the drama in Portland over the past year and change has been about the acts and omissions of the police bureau.

When last I heard, the parties were in mediation, which seemed likely to be futile, and the next stop was binding arbitration, of the "baseball" variety, where the less unreasonable side wins outright. What a way to deal with law enforcement.

And of course, the state legislature, which didn't adjourn intil last weekend, passed some laws that will have an impact on what winds up in the contract.

You would think that with something so important, we'd know what's been agreed to so far, and what the main points of disagreement are. But this is Portland, where it's all done in a back room. Then everybody wonders why the resulting contract doesn't work.