PORTLAND, Ore. — Officials with the city of Portland and its built-in watchdog office are at loggerheads over claims that a company contracted by the city to board up windows has been overcharging businesses and homeowners for the service, something the city ombudsman says violates their contract.
When Portland police encounter a broken window or door, usually either the result of vandalism or a break-in, they can call dispatch to request a board-up. Dispatchers then attempt to contact the property owner. But if they don't make contact, dispatch will call in a contractor to do an emergency board-up.
How it's supposed to work, according to the Portland ombudsman's office, is that the contractor comes out to do the board-up, invoices the city for their work, the city pays those costs, then the city invoices the property owner for the cost.
But according to a 2023 ombudsman's report, contractor 1-800 BOARDUP often billed property owners directly, charging them significantly more than they invoiced the city. In many cases, they didn't invoice the city at all — exclusively leaving property owners with the bill.
An end-run around the city
In the complaint that prompted the ombudsman's office investigation, a nonprofit reported that they had a break-in over the summer of 2021. 1-800 BOARDUP billed the nonprofit $541.07, but later invoiced the city $340.28 based on its contracted rate.
Even if the normal order of operations had been followed and the city had added its 15% administrative fee to the bill before sending it on to the nonprofit, the total would have been $391.12, significantly less than the contractor's direct invoice.
According to the nonprofit that reported the issue, 1-800 BOARDUP threatened to send the bill to collections when they didn't pay up. Ultimately, the contractor instead invoiced the city and stopped trying to collect from the nonprofit directly.
After receiving this first complaint, the ombudsman's office sifted through police reports and dispatch records that indicated an emergency board-up request. A whopping 61% of requests recorded by dispatch were never invoiced to the city, as well as 39% of all requests in police reports.
The ombudsman's office reached out to a sampling of property owners related to requests where the city never received an invoice. Twelve said that they'd been invoiced directly by 1-800 BOARDUP, and a detailed review of six invoices indicated that they'd been overcharged relative to the contracted rate.
In its report, the ombudsman's office estimated that anywhere between 140 and 877 property owners were invoiced directly between July 2019 and December 2021, and those invoices tended to be about $150 over the contracted rate. That would represent a potential amount overpaid between $20,695 and $131,331.
Adding to the problem, one business owner told investigators that police officers who reported the emergency board-up request told her that she might want to work with 1-800 BOARDUP directly, "as it would be more cost-effective for her to do so."
When the ombudsman's office spoke with police staff, they reported mistakenly thinking that this was the case, even though the Portland Police Bureau's directive says that officers should tell property owners that the city will invoice them.
The ombudsman's office concluded with some alarm that the city of Portland's oversight of the board-up contract was muddled and that the city's authority to order board-ups might rest on shaky ground. The report recommended that the city notify 1-800 BOARDUP that it was in breach of contract and order it to stop billing property owners directly.
No accounting for 'past harm'
The ombudsman's office delivered its report in July 2023. In a letter of response, Portland Community Safety Division Director Mike Myers said unequivocally that the entire city apparatus involved — from Mayor Ted Wheeler all the way down to police and dispatch — agreed with the recommendations.
But on Wednesday, the ombudsman's office put out a statement saying that the Community Safety Division had done precious little to follow through on its recommendations in the 10 months since the report.
"The City has taken some steps to strengthen oversight, such as instituting a process to check that invoices to the City are in line with prices in the contract, but these steps are insufficient to ensure that problems we identified do not persist," the ombudsman's office said. "As a result of the lack of action, neither the City nor contractor have accounted for past harm done to community members who were wrongfully charged."
City Ombudsman Jennifer Croft sent a letter to Myers on May 20 expressing concern about the city's lack of follow-through, noting that the city had not even told 1-800 BOARDUP that it was in breach of contract.
"The City’s failure to do so is hard to understand when both the contract and the Police Directive specify the required billing process, which mandates that the contractor invoice the City, and our investigation uncovered undisputed instances when the process was not followed," Croft wrote.
But in a letter of response dated May 28, Myers flatly disagreed with Croft, saying that the city attorney's office had reviewed the contract and found there was "insufficient evidence to assert a material breach of contract at this time," adding that the contract doesn't prohibit 1-800 BOARDUP from billing private parties.
Moreover, 10 months after the ombudsman's report and years after the initial complaint, Myers said that the Community Safety Division's own investigation into the report's allegations is "ongoing."
"We will take appropriate measures to hold the contractor accountable if the evidence points to material breach of contract," Myers said. "We agree that future contracts for board-up services should contain specific language to prevent this practice from taking place."
Myers also stressed the importance of the contract for emergency board-up services, suggesting that the city of Portland does not want to jeopardize its ability to make these requests.
"We also want to acknowledge the vital public-safety service provided by this contract," Myers said. "The emergency board-up contract is used to assist property owners only when owners are unavailable or unable to immediately secure their properties that have been damaged by fire, crime, or other emergency events."
It's unclear the duration of Portland's contract with 1-800 BOARDUP and if it has been renewed since the ombudsman's report last year. KGW has requested a copy of the contract.