![]() For people who haven’t been to these transfer stations or who’ve just dropped off loads of trash and then didn’t give it too much extra thought, can you just describe these operations?Įvans: Yeah, I’d be happy to give you a little bit of firsthand experience. ![]() Miller : And obviously that’s what happened here. When we see things that look like more systematic or systemic issues, then we consider putting an audit on our schedule to look more comprehensively at the entirety of the policies and procedures that might be governing what’s going on. And then if it’s something that looks like an individual one-off issue, we might hand that off for personnel action to Metro’s human resources department or Office of Metro Attorney. And so this is kind of that ‘apply the right level of attention when you receive these concerns.’ So, when we first received concerns, going back to 2020, they were relatively vague but concerning, and so with those we started to dig a little bit and try to uncover what might be generating the concern, how accurate that information is. How do you go from calls to a hotline like that, and actually spending a year of your time doing an audit?Įvans: Yeah, it’s a great question and one that I think a lot of auditors who run accountability hotlines are pretty used to working through. Miller : I imagine that people could call in for a variety of reasons for all kinds of different departments, either the public or anonymous employees. And we received a number of calls over, actually, the last three years kind of raising questions about various aspects of the transfer station operations, which is what generated our desire to look a little bit more systemically at what was going on in the various parts of the operations that were raised in the hotline concerns. This is an anonymous reporting system where members of the public or employees can report concerns. These are calls that are coming into an accountability hotline, like you said. Miller : Can you give us a sense for the calls that came into your accountability hotline in 20?Įvans: Yeah, thanks. ![]() Welcome to the show.īrian Evans: Thanks, Dave. He joins us to talk about what he uncovered after a year of digging. The audit of Metro’s two transfer stations found systemic problems and a lack of basic management practices at the department that processes about 40% of the garbage generated by almost 2 million customers in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington Counties. Stories about radioactive waste and a hand grenade are hard to ignore, but the problems lie deeper. We start today with a scathing audit of the department that handles solid waste in the Portland metro region. ![]() Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.ĭave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. Joining us is Metro Auditor Brian Evans to talk about the audit and recommendations it made to Metro officials. The audit also found overpayment to a contractor supplying diesel for Metro’s garbage trucks. For example, only 3% of employees at the transfer stations completed annual radiation safety training, and fewer than half completed asbestos awareness training. Willamette Week earlier reported on the audit which found “gaps” and “weaknesses” that reveal a “lack of basic management practices” and raise concerns around safety and financial risks for the agency. ![]()
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