February 05, 2003
'Mercury' Takes on the PBA
I'm not sure just when this Portland Mercury story on City Hall and the Portland Business Alliance was published.
On their website, it's listed as being part of last week's issue, but unless my copy is missing a page somewhere, it didn't appear in that print edition. It could, I suppose, be some sort of Web exclusive that was posted online after last week's print deadline.
At any rate, it's a fairly blunt primer on the influence of the PBA inside City Hall, full of people refusing to give their opinions and their names at the same time, for fear of PBA reprisals. The notable exception is Commissioner Erik Sten, who (in this article at least) comes across as remarkably prepared to publicly spit on the PBA.
What disturbs me the most about the PBA is the degree to which it is, as the article states, "a de facto governmental agency" -- but one to which governmental powers are given without demanding the concomittant responsibility, accountability, and transparency normally demanded of actual governmental agencies.
In some far off fantasy-land, that's one law I would like to see: Barring governments from ceding governmental authority and power to non-governmental agents without also extending the proper responsibility, accountability, and transparency to cover those non-governmental agents.
I should say, however, that the literary analogy at the article's end doesn't quite hold up, since you're meant to have some degree of empathy for Shelley's monster. But empathy is really not something that should be reserved for the Portland Business Alliance.
Comments (1)
The One True b!X on 05 Feb 2003
Apparently, it was destined for this week's issue, as evidenced by this URL, which is part of the new edition. The old URL used in my original post also continues to work, however.