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Monday, July 6, 2009

City Hall What Sam Adams Did on his Summer Vacation

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 4:54 PM

Two high-profile sustainable transportation photos ops came and went last week (first, the unveiling of the Green Line and then the made-in-America streetcar). Backslapping national and local politicians squeezed into pictures together, leaving one question - where's Mayor Adams?
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Transit bigwigs - Congressman Wu, Ray LaHood, total dude construction guy, Governor Kulongoski, Rep Blumenauer...

When Gov. Sanford disappeared for a week, his initial excuse was "gone hikin'." After Adams disappeared last week, his spokesman and his Twitter feed give the same explanation: hiking vacation. COINCIDENCE?!? These spokespeople need to get more creative.

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In his first personal days off since January (not including business travel) Adams spokesman Roy Kauffman says the mayor hiked in Wyoming and Montana, officiated a friend's wedding and toured stopped by PGE's Boardman coal power plant to see first-hand where Portland gets 40 percent some of its power. (edit 7/7 - PGE gets about 40 percent of its energy mix from coal, but they also draw from a coal plant in Idaho)

Four vacation days in six months and Adams decides to spend them checking out a power plant? Do we have the nation's nerdiest mayor or what?

All snark aside, it is perplexing that Adams would schedule his vacation over week when so many big name politicians are in town - he missed huge potential for networking, the chance to talk face to face with Obama transportation secretary Ray LaHood and Senator Jeff Merkley. Just wondering - did the bigwigs not invite him from the appearances? Kauffman says the timing was just an unfortunate coincidence. "The mayor's schedule is always hectic, so this was the first opportunity to take a few days off to recharge," says Kauffman, pointing out that the mayor met with LaHood in D.C. back in April. "Everyone deserves a few days off."

 

Comments (12) RSS

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1
Whether he was out of town on his own accord or was asked to stay away, it's pretty pathetic.
Posted by Nap34 on July 6, 2009 at 5:16 PM · Report
2
Wedding officiated by Sam?

Doomed marriage.
Posted by alan cordle on July 6, 2009 at 5:30 PM · Report
3
Seeing as how it was probably a 4 day work week for him, it doesn't seem too shocking to take a vacation that week.
Posted by Rusty! on July 6, 2009 at 5:41 PM · Report
4
You know who hasn't been on vacation, Jasun Wurster, he is like the busiest guy I know. He is a student, an unpaid volunteer for the recall organization, and a one fifth owner in the consulting firm the recall organization has hired to work on their filings according to a story today in the Portland Tribune.

Posted by littlebeirut on July 6, 2009 at 6:20 PM · Report
5
littlebeirut, please do fuck off. Jasun can shill himself perfectly fine without this sort of off-topic crap.
Posted by A CAT, probably on July 6, 2009 at 6:47 PM · Report
6
Swings, sorry but I guess my point was missed. The guy calls himself an unpaid volunteer and yet he is a one fifth owner in a consulting firm hired by the recall. More to the point, he now stands to profit financially from the recall he has created under the pretense of bringin' back the honesty.
Posted by littlebeirut on July 6, 2009 at 7:20 PM · Report
7
Yeah, totally overlooked that on first read. You have a good [if subtly presented] point. Sorry for the vitriol.
Posted by A CAT, probably on July 6, 2009 at 7:43 PM · Report
8
Hi All,

Yes I am one fifth owner of www.forwardsupport.com, I was forced to use people I trust to provide contribution and expenditure reporting after C & E Systems turned me down... because Sam is a client of theirs. What was I supposed to do?

I provided Forward Support a whopping $300. Which none of it I will see. I have greatly reduced my work hours and receive no pay so that my other partners with children can have the lavish luxury of paying rent and feeding their kids.

Again, if you want the full story... 503-799-7919 is the best way to get it.

jasun
Posted by Jasun Wurster on July 6, 2009 at 8:00 PM · Report
9
Jasun, I don't think the word "forced" means what you think it means.
Posted by A CAT, probably on July 6, 2009 at 8:29 PM · Report
10
Additionally, your profile on the forwardsupport website has multiple typos. Kind of scary, considering that people pay you folks to get out their messages.
Posted by A CAT, probably on July 6, 2009 at 8:33 PM · Report
11
Regardless of how ethical the arrangement is, you'd think a recall campaign would try to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. I suppose the same goes for mysterious vacations in this particular news cycle.

Of course, as far as I can tell Jasun didn't say the arrangement was ethical, he just defended it as practical and harmless (which is an interesting road to go down).
Posted by atomic on July 6, 2009 at 11:40 PM · Report
12
One fifth owner? You should read it before and realize how pathetic that sounds before you type it out.
Posted by paramount on July 7, 2009 at 5:53 AM · Report

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