Something’s in the drinking water in the Oregonian‘s newsroom. After a period of somnolence it’s breaking out with investigations right and left, the most recent one being a look at the City of Portland’s police and fire disability fund. The Oregonian had done a piece on the fund in November (which its website no longer links to), and Willamette Week had done another story then also. I had suggested on December 8 that the City should provide some light duty for disabled police officers and firefighters, a proposal that I’m pleased to see the Oregonian taking up. TriMet and the local school districts could easily provide light-duty opportunities for persons with security experience to benefit the public.
I was especially taken with the part of the story describing the job of Lieutenant Rex Price, 54, who works as the personal escort of Trail Blazers’ owner Paul Allen. His duty is not apparently to provide security to the billionaire but, according to Alice Carrick of the team’s personnel department, is to chaperone Mr. Allen "so he knows where he’s going." (Several of the players could have benefited from the same service.)
The Oregonian‘s story quoted a city attorney as saying that the city would violate its hiring rules if it made light work preferentially available to disabled workers. The simple answer is to revise the hiring rules to allow job transfers within the police and fire bureaus to accommodate persons who are disabled on the job, similarly to the requirements that the Americans with Disabilities Act and its kindred statutes place on private employers. The city attorney’s office could have a suitable amendment to the hiring rules drafted in a very few days, if any of the commissioners chose to ask.