Bend may not be Illinois, but our politics isn’t exactly as pure as the driven snow on Pilot Butte. KOHD-TV reported today that somebody apparently tried to bribe City Councilor Peter Gramlich to do him or her a favor in drawing the city’s Urban Growth Boundary.
Gramlich said a caller left a message on his voicemail hinting that his campaign debt would be paid off if he was cooperative on the UGB expansion.
“It was pretty apparent that [the deal] was, ‘We will pay off your campaign debt if you give us favoritism,'” Gramlich was quoted as saying.
“The message is hard to misunderstand,” KOHD reports. It says:
“We would like to hand deliver to you personally a check for your campaign debt.”
Under Oregon land use law, an Urban Growth Boundary delineates where development is supposed to take place for the next 20 years. Getting a property included within the UGB can be worth millions to the property owner.
KOHD said that according to the Deschutes County District Attorney’s office the call was not illegal because the caller only requested a meeting with Gramlich and did not propose a quid pro quo.
The call “bothered me, and that’s why I want to go public with it,” Gramlich told KOHD. “I want to give the impression that Bend is not immune from local government corruption.”
According to KOHD, Gramlich would not reveal the identity of the caller. The Eye was not able to reach Gramlich for comment this evening.
The Eye is shocked – SHOCKED! – by this development. Well, not really. Bend has been moving in this direction for quite a few years.
It occurs to us that if Gramlich had wanted to nail the apparent would-be briber he would have agreed to the meeting, then called the DA’s office and offered to wear a wire.
But although that might be the Chicago way, it isn’t the Bend way. We believe in playing nicey-nicey in our quiet little mountain town – even with scumballs who try to bribe public officials.
This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2008.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
If he does not name the person who tried to bribe him, Gramlich is also wrong. Or maybe Gramlich’s story is a lie!!
Smells like male bovine fecal matter to me.
I can’t tell if the two previous posts are a joke or not. Did you watch the video? There is a phone message stating that someone is willing to take care of his campaign debt. The only reason that he didn’t pursue it is, I believe, that he is sick of this shit.
The only way to stop this sort of thing is to pursue it. If it is not worth pursuing, why was it made public?
If Gramlich really cared about the citizens of Bend, he’d name the caller and provide ample verification. By not doing so, his credibility is suspect … particularly given that he has some cause to wish harm to developers. The simple existence of a phone message tape means nothing without a name and evidence that it was in fact her/him who left the message.
Olde-Timer, don’t take this too far. He got a phone message and he took it to the authorities and the media. Good for him.
So Jed, if something doesn’t fit into your narrow way of thinking it must be a lie? It must be very difficlut to carry on a conversation with you as anything that you don’t agree with would be challenged, not with an open minded reply, but rather with a conversation ending, “that’s a lie”.
Uninvited Guest: My narrow way of thinking is called being “honest and truthful”. If you do not have the balls to play the game, shut up. Gramlich evidntly does not have the balls!