Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon will headline a Portland Metro Chamber event this week, presumably championing local initiative to overhaul the Moda Center, the venue in which the Trail Blazers play. Shane Dixon Kavanaugh of The Oregonian detailed the event, the annual meeting of the business-based communal organization, a $350 per plate dinner.
According to the report, participants will include several public officeholders who have supported the arena renovation project, including Portland
Mayor Keith Wilson, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Oregon Senate President Rob Wagner and State Senator Kate Lieber.
In addition to those presenters, the Metro Chamber website lists the presentation topics as:
- The vision for the Moda Center and Rose Quarter district
- The economic impact of large-scale redevelopment projects
- Public-private partnerships as a catalyst for economic growth
- Portland’s future as a hub for professional sports and entertainment
Members of the Portland City Council will not be in attendance, as they have a work session scheduled to discuss the arena project which overlaps the Chamber event. Funding from the city is a critical step in the progress of the initiative.
The report details:
The scheduling conflict created some friction and confusion in recent days after the chamber’s president, Andrew Hoan, asked Council President Jamie Dunphy to consider postponing the work session, as first reported by the Portland Mercury. Dunphy declined to do so.
In a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Dunphy’s office said that the council president had scheduled the work session in early May prior to learning about the chamber event featuring Dundon and the mayor and did not intend to directly conflict with it.
The work session was planned “with absolutely no awareness or knowledge of PMC’s event,” said Dunphy chief of staff Madeline West.
However, according to Wilson spokesperson Cody Bowman, the mayor and members of his executive leadership team did not receive notice of the council’s Moda Center work session until June 8 — more than a month after Wilson had agreed to participate at the chamber’s annual meeting. At least two city councilors, including Council Vice President Olivia Clark, had also RSVP’d to the event weeks prior to learning of the work session.
The scheduling snafu probably isn’t significant in terms of workflow. Dundon will only be speaking at the event; no decisions will be made there. The City Council is capable of discussing the matter without hearing from advocates, who no doubt have other means of lobbying in any case. It’s somewhat ironic, though, that some of the main decision-makers will be absent from the first public meeting in which the arena is discussed. Hopefully it’s not symbolic of rough waters ahead as the matter is debated.
