SHOULD PORTLAND CREATE A SPECIAL DISTRICT TO RUN PUBLIC UTILITIES?

An effort is underfoot to wrest control of Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services and Water Bureau from the Portland City Council and transfer them to an obscure board lacking transparency and accountability. This effort masquerades as a populist movement but is in fact a Trojan horse backed by industrial water users designed to lower their costs and defund the City's most important environmental programs. On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Portland environmental advocates Mike Houck (Urban Greenspaces Institute) and Bob Sallinger (Audubon Society of Portland) about why they the believe this initiative could undermine Portland's significant environmental programs such as watershed restoration and protection of our most important natural areas. Mike Houck was longtime Urban Naturalist at the Audubon Society of Portland. In 1999 he founded the Urban Greenspaces Institute, which he has directed ever since. He is co-editor of Wild in The City, a Guide to Portland's Natural Areas and Wild in the City, Exploring The Intertwine. Bob Sallinger is Conservation Director at the Audubon Society of Portland.