Downtown’s rent-a-cops are contracted to “wake up the homeless sleeping on the sidewalk,” and “stop offensive conduct wherever possible,” according to their contract with the Portland Business Alliance, it has emerged today.CONTRACT EXCERPTS: Laid bare..

Carla over at local political blog, Loaded Orygun, has managed to get hold of the contract between the Portland Business Alliance (PBA) and Portland Portland Patrol, Inc, (PPI) by contacting Commissioner Randy Leonard and asking him to get a copy through the City Attorney’s office. [A clause in the city’s contract with the PBA to supply security specifies that the PBA’s contract with PPI must also be made public, but the PBA has refused to disclose the contract either to the Mercury or to activist newspaper Street Roots, over the past several weeks. ]

The 140-page contract also reveals that PPI is in fact being paid far more than was thought to fulfil its duties. Street Roots found out last week that the firm’s compensation package is $449,824—but that is just to patrol the city’s parks. Compensation for PPI is in fact shown as $935,256.00 for the 06/07 fiscal year. [In sharing the contract with the City Attorney, the PBA asked for this information to be redacted, but it appears to have snuck its way through. That’s the full-time cost of around 10 real cops.]

“The part about waking up the homeless raises huge concerns, especially in the context of not having any oversight in how PPI officers are trained and directed in dealing with people experiencing homelessness,” says Street Roots director Israel Bayer. “We will be asking our attorneys to see whether or not this is even legal.”

The PBA’s vice president of central city/downtown services, Mike Kuykendall, and PPI chief executive John Hren are yet to return a call for comment on the contract.

UPDATE: “The Alliance has a contract with PPI to service multiple accounts besides the Portland Parks Bureau contract, which is the one referred to by Street Roots recently,” says Mike Kuykendall, via email, clarifying to show that the PBA wasn’t massaging any numbers when it told Street Roots about the lower figure for just the parks contract.

We’re awaiting a counter-response from Bayer. Catch up with the Mercury’s ongoing coverage of the rent-a-cops issue here. And thanks again, Carla, for getting hold of that contract.