When government pork is fast food

Remember the Portland Development Commission? That's the city agency in charge of handing out public money to the well-connected. "Urban renewal," you know. It burns through about a quarter of the city's property tax revenue every year. Well, they have a new name for it these days: "Prosper Portland." 

Just like the city's housing authority is now called "Home Forward." They keep renaming the bureaucracies. Next thing you know, they'll be relabeling the City Council. Something like "Clueless Correct."

Anyway, Prosper has been busy over the past year and change handing out "emergency" money to Portland businesses affected by the pandemic. About a million bucks was city money, and 11 times that much was federal money.

Now, some of us have long questioned whether Prosper knows what it's doing, even when there's no emergency. Drive around downtown these days and you'll see where their "urban renewal" priorities have led us. But when they have to move in a hurry? Well, let's just say the taxpayers are guaranteed to be taken for a ride.

Those pesky troublemakers at the city auditor's office recently took a look at the Prosper pandemic grant "processes," and not surprisingly, found them lacking. The report is here. 

The auditor people are so polite. The Prosper folks "shortchanged program integrity." Ha! Ha! Yes, I'm sure they did. Rules were bent and broken on the fly. Money was handed out with race as the apparent overriding criterion. Grants were awarded to people outside the city. And nearly two thirds of the grantees failed to report back as required.

Other than that, it was great.