A recent story posted on CIDADE’s website gives credence to the notion that Porto Alegre’s PB has not been the same since the PT left power in the city, official versions of events nonwithstanding. It describes chaos and confusion and a constant climate of unproductive conflict at the COP – the highest tier of the PB, at the last two meetings of the council. But more shocking to Porto Alegre watchers are the reports of the city government’s malfeasance with regards to the PB – for example, producing two versions of the city budget, one to be discussed at the PB, and another (one presumes more correct) version to be discussed at city council. Unfortunately Porto Alegre’s newspapers were never big fans of the PB in the first place so we don’t have news coverage of these events. But these, and other reports like it, do confirm the suspicion that the PB under the new administration has maintained little more than the formalities of the process, as discussed by Daniel Chavez in Red Pepper.