FRED BASHING

I've been particularly hard on Fred lately and have been been unmerciful since I saw him during the storm sliding around in his loafers in NW Portland in the middle of the workweek. (It turns out Fred lives almost next door to me!)

The Oregonian also did a story where they stated for the record that "Fred Hansen was on vacation".

Well anyway I have been told by someone who works directly with Fred that he was indeed there during the storm and was just doing some errands at that time picking up gifts for the holiday. It's a reasonable enough explanation from a reliable source. I'm sure that the person relating this to me would not make it up just to defend Fred.

Apparently during the last storm Fred walked all the way to Center Street from the West side of the Ross Island bridge. (boy, I wish I could have seen that!)

OK, so I believe that Fred actually was at work at that time.

Question #1; Why was the Oregonian told that Fred was on vacation when they did the WES bailout story, which was during that storm.

Question #2; Why did FRED not make even one public statement during the storm.

Finally; this is from the staff person that works directly with Fred, someone we can believe:

I'm not a cheerleader for Fred, and I certainly don't always agree
with his strategies. On two issues, though, I have a lot of respect
for the man. He has a very strong work ethic and I have never seen
him make demands of employees that he's not willing to meet himself,
and he has made a commitment that layoffs are the last option in the
budget when times are bad. As a non-union employee, this is
particularly important to me personally, of course.