This morning’s Oregonian’s got a doozy of a story on how you that is Oregon taxpayers paid the bill some state employees’ junket to the San Juans, and other perks. That’s right, the Oregon Commission for the Blind did some lavish spending on the taxpayers’ dime, according to a new audit due out today.
In September 2006, the commission spent $12,000 for a weeklong camping and biking trip to the San Juan Islands. Of the 21 people on the trip, two were commission clients. The others were employees, former clients and volunteers.
The commission spent $700 on football jerseys and other football themed items for a client’s coffee cart. It also purchased a gym membership, a leather jacket and two bottles of cologne for other clients.
Auditors noted the commission “has established a pattern of providing unnecessary meals and refreshments” to staff. wholesale nfl jerseys from china For example, they noted $5,100 spent on meals for a training and awards event in December 2006 at the Hotel Vintage Plaza in Portland. Another $3,100 was spent to give employees and others $50 gift cards during the awards event.
“Our concern had to do less with the dollar amount and more to do with the purpose,” Drummond Kahn, Audits Division interim director, said Thursday. “What concerned us was that we were identifying patterns and individual cases of spending that appeared both unusual and disconnected from a client’s plan.”
Talk about a high. Medical marijuana supporters are abuzz with news that Portland’s mayor will follow his Eugene counterpart’s lead in recognizing the benefits of medical marijuana, reports this morning’s Register Guard.
(Portland Mayor Sam) Adams’ proclamation issued Wednesday comes after Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy declared April 30 through May 6 as Medical Marijuana Awareness Week in her city. Pro pot advocates lauded Piercy’s move.
Adams’ public statement of support is a word for word copy of Piercy’s proclamation.
Both documents state that Oregon voters approved a 1998 ballot measure making it legal for people to possess, use and grow marijuana if their doctor recommends it for debilitating symptoms. Both proclamations also assert that “marijuana has a history of thousands of years of safe use without any recorded deaths attributed to its use, and all citizens deserve the right to know the truth about cannabis.”