Portland’s Bull Run filtration project was supposed to come with its own independent fiscal watchdog. Instead, the oversight promise quietly disappeared while the price tag ballooned from hundreds of millions into the multibillion-dollar range. Permitting fights and schedule slips have piled hundreds of millions onto the bill, and now ratepayers and conservation groups are asking a basic question: if the money is pouring out, who exactly is watching the spigot?
Promises Left Hanging
In April 2024, city leaders publicly pledged to create an independent watchdog for the Bull Run program. But reporting later showed that the pledge never turned into a stand-alone oversight body. Internal correspondence, including a June 14, 2024 memo from then Water…..