Times were, ah, flush back in 2008 at the opening of Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard’s Loo. I’d come to see the festivities and attend The First Flush ceremonies. Hopes were high. The mayor was in attendance. Portland Loo water bottles were handed out. News crews swarmed. Accolades abounded. Movies were made.

Then, an ebullient Leonard brushed off concerns by some (including me) that the Loo would go the way Seattle’s had and become a place for a quickie and a fix. Leonard scoffed. They did.

He assured that this patented piece of steel would become the world standard for pissoirs and sell like hotcakes. He’d sell them for $25,000.00 apiece he told me. They’d fly outta here. Four years later the first one sold last year to the flush Canadians for $100,000.00. Well, that’s what the papers reported, anyway.

You might be thinking, aha! he got three times the price! In fact, that toilet appears to have been a loss leader. The Canadians got a better deal that we did. Because the real cost of Randy’s pissoirs is

a staggering $177, 287.00 apiece.  That’s the first time you’ve ever read that number. The first time. And I’ll tell you why. It took a lawsuit to get it.

Interviewing the Mayor at First Flush

Randy Leonard and the City of Portland are being sued for what could be summarized as ‘mission creep’ –doing that which is outside the purview of the water bureau or the City Charter for that matter. To put it indelicately, they’re being sued for pissing away taxpayer dollars. 

A group of taxpayers, represented by attorney John DiLorenzo, Jr., has also sent Leonard and the Water Bureau a nasty gram taking them to task for planning to set up and oversee a company to manufacture the Loos. The decision is being presented before Council tomorrow. In the back and forth between DiLorenzo and the City we find these numbers in a letter sent to the City:

In your letter to me of March 19, 2012, you said that for the two last fiscal years, the Water Bureau’s capital investment for construction of the Loos was $101,436. O&M expense for that period was $75,000 and budgeted O&M for the curent fiscal year is $60,000. General fud and PDC contributions added up to $650,000 for these street toilets. 

$101,436.00
     75,000.00
     60,000.00
   650,000.00
______________
$ 886,436.00

 I hate to be a skunk at the garden party, but divide that by the number of Loos we have:

     886,436.00 / 5 = 177, 287.20

If you want to be generous and give the City the credit for the $100,000.00 it supposedly got for the Loo sold to the Canadians:

     786,436.00 / 5 = 157,287.20

At some point in the near future I’ll figure this out on a price per flush basis.

Oh, and the moral to the story? Leave the manufacture, sales and marketing to the pros.