Here's what I mean. Also, is this #prop_log_status method actually returning a text string? If not, this stepdef will fail because you're trying to match a Watir element to a string.

It looks, at first glance, like this should be either:
page.prop_log_status(@temp_proposal_log.number).value==status
or 
page.prop_log_status(@temp_proposal_log.number).selected_options[0].text==status

The latter case if the field is a select list.