Fifteen years ago this month, Portland's newest city commissioner sent a memo to the mayor attaching strings to a nearly $1 million commitment.
Commissioner Dan Saltzman had concerns about using ratepayer money collected from sewer customers to buy a piece of property along the Willamette River. Saltzman wanted to make sure the Bureau of Environmental Services got a big say in redeveloping the city's Centennial Mills property.
"This contribution from BES was made in part so that the bureau could develop an innovative stormwater management facility at the site," Saltzman wrote to Mayor Vera Katz in a December 2000 memo. "Absent such a facility, there is no rationale to justify allocating ratepayer money for this property acquisition."
Flash forward to today, and attorney John DiLorenzo has latched onto that last line in his unceasing lawsuit against the city over questionable utility spending.
Already with several victories in hand since suing in 2011, DiLorenzo is taking an unusual route. Instead of fighting it out in court, DiLorenzo last week asked the city to voluntarily reimburse the sewer bureau $950,000, plus interest.
"My god, how many years has it been now?" DiLorenzo told The Oregonian/OregonLive of the 15-year-old purchase, adding that he hopes "common sense will prevail."
The city's lead attorney on the case declined to comment Tuesday. Saltzman, now in his fifth term on the City Council, didn't respond to a request for comment.
DiLorenzo's request isn't without precedent. In response to the lawsuit, the City Council in 2012 tapped the general fund to repay nearly $1.6 million spent by the Water Bureau to rehab the Portland Rose Festival Foundation's headquarters, a controversial project promoted under then-Commissioner Randy Leonard.
A Multnomah County judge in 2014 ruled that water and sewer spending must be "reasonably related" to providing water, sewer and stormwater service. While several endeavors have withstood scrutiny, the judge found that $4.5 million worth of projects crossed the line.
In his letter, DiLorenzo argued that the city has never offered a plan for stormwater management at Centennial Mills, which remains undeveloped despite two failed efforts to resurrect the waterfront land.
Past development plans haven't included a stormwater facility, DiLorenzo wrote, and there's no evidence that officials plan to build such a facility in the future.
His solution: repay the $950,000 with discretionary general fund money, then move on to the next project targeted in the lawsuit.
City officials have yet to respond, DiLorenzo said.
-- Brad Schmidt
503-294-7628
@cityhallwatch