It's not just businessmen who are angry with Portland.

Call John Wish, a member of the Public Utilities Review Board, and you'll get an earful. A former Lewis & Clark economics professor, he considers the Water Bureau fiasco an example of bureaucracy at its worst.

Two years after a new computer billing system was brought on-line, the Water Bureau and the Bureau of Environmental Services still cannot bill accounts properly. That's forced the city to write off $5.9 million in delinquent BES accounts over the last two years, an amount that's five times more than a typical year's bad debts.

Even worse, the resulting cash-flow shortage has forced BES to delay by more than a year issuing bonds to fund new construction projects.

Willamette Week

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2002

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Portland Water Bureau Billing Snafu Could Get Worse

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-- Anonymous, February 21, 2002