Editorial

County contract system broken

The Portland Tribune, Jul 17, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

Multnomah County taxpayers can expect millions of their hard-earned dollars to continue to be wasted unless Chairman Ted Wheeler has a greater ability than his predecessors to force changes in the county’s management culture and oversight procedures.

Taxpayers also should anticipate plenty more human-services scandals — such as the one that has engulfed Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare. Those two conclusions are inescapable after reading a July 7 audit released by county Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade. Griffin-Valade and her staff amply demonstrate that oversight of county contracts with outside vendors is weak, that procurement requirements are routinely circumvented and that past efforts to improve monitoring of contracts have been utter failures.

The contracting issue is hot now because of the implosion of Cascadia, which held about $18 million in contracts with Multnomah County to provide mental-health services. Cascadia is being forced to reorganize and downsize due to financial problems.

The state and the county already have stepped in with a $2.5 million bailout, and the county is scrambling to find other mental-health providers to take over some of Cascadia’s contracts.

Cascadia just one example

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