Grownup speaks up

I see that Rene Gonzalez, the Portland commissioner who's the city's only real hope among mayoral candidates, is getting into it again with the feckless chair of the Multnomah County commission, Jessica Chevy-Vega. First it was over the latter's insistence on handing out free tents to every junkie who moves to Portland. Now the flap is over her ridiculous failures in the area of ambulance service. 

I doubt that Gonzo will get anywhere with the Vega. It's like trying to reason with a mule.

But at least it gives him something to do all day. Effective last week, the City Council members are no longer running the city bureaus. That's all been handed over to the ultimate bureaucrat, a guy named Michael Jordan, who's trying out the role of city manager. That position will become official in January, when the new city charter takes effect and the City Council morphs into a bad book club.

Most recently, Gonzalez had been nominally in charge of the fire department, which has had to take people to the hospital in buses and fire trucks because Chevy-Vega's private ambulance contractor is in a urination contest with her over how actual ambulances are staffed.

In any sane town, a life-and-death danger like that would not be left to fester because of nasty personalities. But this is Portland, and here we are. Making matters worse in the fact that the ambulance company is controlled by cut-throat leveraged buyout types from Wall Street. They have no shame, and Chevy has no sense. As her disgusted colleague, Sharon Meieran, sagely puts it –

“There is no excuse for ambulances not arriving when people call 9-1-1,” Meieran said in a statement Sunday. “9-1-1 shouldn’t mean 'let’s call for a committee to hire a consultant to plan for a plan.' 9-1-1 should mean 'get me to the ER so I don’t die.'”

On and on goes the foolishness. Meanwhile, as I always say, be sure Grandma has the Uber app on her phone for when Grandpa starts feeling faint.