Portland schools paid $8,900 in lawyer fees asking the Attorney General for a ruling regarding whether a for-profit business could operate a charter school when the answer is clearly spelled out in statute. Critics saw this challenge against legislative intent and national precedence as a delaying tactic against charter school advocates. (The Oregonian 01-10-01).

Construction of a Clackamas bridge has been stopped because of possible effects on the fish below. Authorities caught the county working in the creek when they had previously promised not to. The delay is estimated to cost taxpayers as much as $8 million. (The Oregonian 01-03-01).

Gresham helped fund $8,000 for a free holiday shuttle to lure shoppers out of their automobiles this Christmas and onto mass transit. The shuttle has been an abysmal failure averaging only 9 riders a day. Many of the 28 round trips a day were empty of passengers, adding rather than subtracting pollution. (The Oregonian 12-21-00).

l At Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, the faculty rebuked their president, Joel Vela, with an overwhelming vote of no confidence. The terrible ordeal somehow landed Mr. Vela with a new $9,000 a month job with the college as a consultant. This "job," which lasts just short of an entire year, is to look at the college budget and make recommendations. (The Oregonian 12-28-00).

l Portland School Board let go their deputy superintendent after seven months. She left with a $158,000 check, plus attorney fees, moving expenses and $10,000 towards her education fund.

In Portland, the city is bailing out the new Chinese Garden for the second time. The city will help the Garden's expanding debt with a $221,000 grant and $1.18 million dollar loan above the financial assistance already given. (The Oregonian 12-13-00).

The city of Bend is losing $100,000 a year in revenue from uncollected traffic fines. The total amount of uncollected fines is as much as $750,000. When Bend police catch these fine dodgers, they find that they ignore the new fines as well! (Bend Bulletin 01-16-01).

l Pepsi Bottling Co. in Portland, was fined $3,755 for failing to meet the requirements of the Employee Commute Options rule. The rule violation was for not reducing the number of employees who drive vehicles to work. Other companies in Portland were also given similar fines (The Oregonian 11-28-00).

l A Southern Oregon business owner was slapped with a $4,100 System Development Charge for starting a small coffee stand. The owner was able to get these outrageous charges reduced after a review. (Medford Mail Tribune 11-20-00).

l Civil rights carry a big price tag in Forest Grove. To get any compensation for a governmental taking, the city of Forest Grove has set up a $1,250 application fee process.

It may seem strange that our Waste Watch reports keep repeating similar waste horror stories committed by different governments within a short period of time. It is no conspiracy. It actually happens, and we can do better! We hope that public managers statewide are reading our reports to help break away from the cycle of taxpayer dollar abuse. Taxpayers and public servants work too hard to have their efforts undermined and undermined so often.

The OSU payroll office identified 134 over-payments in just six months. Total overpayments amounted to $146,695. Many of the overpayments were made to employees who were no longer working. OSU was slow in catching overpayments and slow in responding once they were noticed. The audit found dozens of examples of wide pay fluctuations without explanation. One included the questionable use of "stand-by" hours where an employee was paid in one month $3,716 for 173 normal hours and an additional $2,115 for 592 stand-by hours (source of entire audit: Oregon State Audit Dec.1-2000).