Lars Larson: Kotek ODOT pick = disaster

By Lars Larson
NW and national radio host,

The Northwest Nonsense

Anyone with more than a room-temperature IQ understands that the so-called leadership at Oregon’s failing ODOT deserves termination from the job.

Instead, Kotek plans to install ANOTHER failed leader to head the agency infamous for failed projects like the interstate bridge, or “triple the original price” debacles like the

Abernathy bridge…and failing roads all over the state.

So, who takes over at ODOT after the Kotek re-shuffle?

The Governor’s chief of staff, Chris Warner, spent almost 5 years at the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

It might sound like good background until you consider Portland’s road mess.

Warner oversaw an agency that let its backlog of bad roads snowball.

6 billion dollars in deferred maintenance…that grows at two-thirds of a billion dollars a year. 64 percent of city streets are rated in poor or very poor condition.

So, Governor Kotek tells us that a guy who has bounced around from one government job to another for decades will fix ODOT?

An agency that gets more than 6 billion budget dollars every two years. ODOT hasn’t built a new freeway in decades. Every project goes gigantically over budget and never finishes on time.

If you like the smell of all that, vote for Tina Kotek’s re-election.

Otherwise, choose Christine drazan for a change.

That’s the Rose City Rap. Join me at noon on KXL for 4 hours of Honestly provocative talk. I’m Lars Larson