Portland Development Commission Graft and Corruption

“We have documented graft and corruption in the PDC and it’s time to hold them accountable.”
~Tim Flanagan, writer, educator, and associate editor of The Portland Alliance

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PDC waste: Feeding at the trough — but under polite cover …
The Stump › oped‎ Oct 27, 2011 – Dave Lister: “The PDC has written off $9.6 million in bad debt on misbegotten projects in the past 10 years, including $1.8 million for a failed condominium project overseen by Judy Shiprack, who later was elected to the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners. The agency also promotes a culture of secrecy. As reported in The Oregonian, two high-level PDC staffers were recently awarded severance packages totaling $150,000 on the condition that they leave quietly and not disparage the agency. When asked why the PDC has backed these failed projects, its answer has been that the projects were too risky to obtain conventional financing. If that’s the case, why were they backed at all? Why are Portland’s taxpayers in the banking business? Is it really the city’s role to select winners and losers? Ultimately, that is a question for the city’s voters. Maybe it’s time to do away with the PDC. What the voters did in 1958 can be undone.” Dave Lister is a small-business owner who served on Portland’s Small Business Advisory Council.
read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/10/pdc_waste_feeding_at_the_troug.html

Randy Leonard http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/news-and-profiles/people-and-profiles/articles/whats-next-for-randy-leonard-may-2012
Image: Andy Batt
Shining a light on PDC – BlueOregon
“The PDC was interested in acquiring the old Police Bureau property on the corner of SW 3rd and Oak in 2002. They had an appraisal done that indicated the property was worth $850,000. The PDC promptly paid $1.2 million for the property and then spent another $500,000 removing the building and cleaning up contamination to make the property “shovel ready” for a developer. PDC then had the very same appraisal firm do another appraisal in 2006. The second appraisal now indicated the property was worth negative $2.7 million. Yes, you read that right. NEGATIVE $2.7 million dollars. And yes, that property is in downtown Portland.

But wait. There’s more. Then the PDC commission voted to give the property to a private developer to construct a 168 unit condominium project on the condition that 15% of the condominiums initially be affordable for people earning 120% of median family income, which is about 40% higher than the nearest threshold for City Council approval. After nine months, the development proposal says, any units not sold can be sold to people of any income level.

At a time when we have senior citizens who are in poverty on multi-year waiting lists to get into decent housing, the PDC constructed a deal on the SW 3rd and Oak property that benefits upper income Portlander’s with a huge taxpayer subsidy. And for the icing on the cake, the PDC communicated to the private developer that the project would not be prevailing wage because prevailing wage law is triggered by a government subsidy, and since the property on SW 3rd and Oak had a negative value it did not amount to a subsidy, and would not trigger prevailing wage.

… since I was first elected to the city council in November, 2002, the PDC has refused to allow the city council to look at its line item annual budget during the city councils annual budgeting process. There is to this date no accountability to any elected official as to how and why PDC spends its money.”
~Randy Leanord a city commissioner and former firefighter
read more: http://www.blueoregon.com/2006/12/an_editorial_in-1/