If you stop me up I'll never start
The Blazers saga continues its descent into Deep Portland Weird. The Portland City Council has added a new annual payment burden for the team to the city's already-non-starter of a "term sheet." The Blazers brushed aside the city's original draft, and the council just made it even less acceptable. An actual deal to renovate the arena and keep the team in town has never seemed so unlikely.
Councilman Steve Novick feels good about what the council has done. He who gave the team a perfect excuse to stonewall the city, by shooting his mouth off about the "first class" clause in the existing lease. If our genius is bullish about something that requires people skills, you know it's going to bomb.
Meanwhile, the feckless chair of the Multnomah County Commission, Jessica Chevy-Vega, has unilaterally hired Chris Oxley, a former Blazers executive, to negotiate the Moda Center renovation deal on behalf of the county.
Oxley also happens to be board president of nonprofit Sport Oregon, which has led a coalition that’s lobbied city and county leaders to back the proposed $600 million arena facelift requested by the team, which would be exclusively bankrolled by taxpayers....
“I’m sorry, did I mishear?” Commissioner Meghan Moyer asked Vega Pederson upon learning of the hire. “We hired a negotiator that’s on the board of an organization that is lobbying us on this issue? How is that not a wild conflict of interest?”...
Vega Pederson... dismissed suggestions that Oxley would be divided in his loyalties by helping the county.
“He is an unpaid volunteer board member of Sport Oregon. His role does not create a legal conflict of interest,” she said, though Vega Pederson added that “out of an abundance of caution,” the county’s chief operating officer will require Oxley to complete additional disclosure forms.
“I have full confidence we picked the best person for this role and am grateful to have him on our team,” Vega Pederson said.
She is just awful, isn't she? As ever. And there are 141 days of her left to endure.
Speaking of which, I see that the kids at the Weed are sharpening their claws to go after Sharon Meieran, by far the best candidate to succeed JVP as county chair. If I had to bet, their publication will endorse Julia Brim-Edwards, the patron saint of mid, in the election. This is the editorial board that brought us Sam Adams and Charlie Hales as mayors of Portland, both of whom greased the skids for the city's current slide into blight. Brim is definitely their kind of politician.
But back to the Blazers, there were actually eight city council members voting today to advance the worthless "term sheet." The Brat Pack was whittled down to Avalos, Murillo, Lane, and Green, with Kanal and Dunphy breaking the socialist ranks. Neither Kanal nor Dunphy is up for re-election until 2028, and so they'll have plenty of time to slither away from today's vote if it becomes inconvenient.
As much as enjoy this Blazers silliness, I'm really curious to hear your take on the Centennial Mills brouhaha with the mayor threatening to shut down a major rail corridor by executive decree and the continuing inability of *anyone* in the local media to put two and two together on the nexus between all the random fires and local homeless "residents" - as someone noted on another thread here something like a third of PFR fire calls are homeless-related - add to that the Portland city government's refusal to address outdoor burning by the homeless but banning everyone else from outdoor burning (except, apparently, in the alternate universe that Mitch Green lives in)
ReplyDeleteIsn't Dundon in line for more payment too as the Lakers sold today, again, for $12 billion. Dave Matthews, "Crash into This" is humming thru Portlands brain.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Several City Council members bragged today that they have some expertise in The Art of the Negotiation...I would beg to differ.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they learned it at Trump University.
And I would just like to reiterate our dire need for controls on campaign finance, lobbying, etc. in this state. From the State electeds immediately throwing money at this (do you hear the sound of their campaign coffers filling up-?!), to 'Chevy-Vega's' blatant conflict when hiring Oxley & her arrogant attitude about it + the sh!t at the City - we have clearly allowed our govt to become corrupted at every level.
(But I did laugh when it was the former Nike lobbyist - Brim-Edwards - who recognized Oxley's name & initially brought it up.)
The guessable fire sale of the Lakers to the Kushners broke something in me today. The league as we knew it is dead. It belongs to the oligarchs and the conmen now. I don’t want anything to do with it. It SUCKS, because I do love the Blazers, but they’re dead. Zombified by a repo man.
ReplyDeleteThe Blazers can leave. Truthfully it’s probably for the best. In five years, half the “governors” will be insolvent while the other half use their franchises as vehicles to launder money.
This all sucks.
I'll bet RCL3 is bigly butt-hurt that he's being left outta this sideshow...what with his pension for steakhouses and first-class travel on the taxpayer dime. Where's the "Organization Man" public-admin-babble/-speak when you need it?
ReplyDelete