The Portland Development Commission, the city-owned urban renewal agency, made a major shake-up of its management team today.
Gone are Housing Director Andy Wilch and Development Director Cheryl Tweete. The big winner in the shuffle is economic development director Erin Flynn, who only joined the agency last May.
Flynn (in the photo above) will take over most of the agency’s new consolidated operations, as described below in an email sent by PDC boss Bruce Warner today.
From: Warner, Bruce
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 2:21 PM
To: PDC-DL All Staff
Subject: PDC Organization Announcement
Good afternoon,
At this morning’s all-staff meeting, I announced a significant reorganization occurring here at PDC. Most of the changes were discussed at the meeting, but I want to briefly review the main elements of the reorganization effort and explain the thinking behind it.
PDC has been around for almost 50 years. In that time, the economy of the State, the region and the city have changed dramatically. The expectation we do our work in an open and transparent manner with public involvement would have been unthinkable in 1958, but it is clear today. Our role in housing has changed and the demographics of Downtown Portland have changed dramatically over the past decade. We are no longer the major jobs center for the region. Now, Portland has new and changed roles – for example, in housing and our cultural prominence. PDC also needs to grow and change to reflect this new paradigm.
In my mind, this is the perfect time to make bold moves to position us for the future. As we embark on our next 50 years, we will have a new and more refined role.
The Board supports and is excited about these changes. They have made good suggestions regarding fundamental change. The memo you received from Chairman Rosenbaum conveyed some of his initial thoughts about integrating, streamlining, consolidating, and coordinating our work.
I believe the new organizational structure will allow us to operate more successfully both internally and externally. Internally, there will be a more balanced approach to projects, more opportunities for collaboration and will allow us to avoid competing for resources. Staff experts will be empowered to handle day-to-day operations. We will be able to move more decisions further down in the organization and allow new opportunities for our staff to collaborate, gain exposure to functions they wouldn’t normally interact with, grow professionally and advance their careers. Externally, we will be able to deliver more integrated products, improve efficiency and provide better customer service and stakeholder interaction.
After receiving a lot of input over many months (in fact, stretching back to late 2006) and hearing from many of you, as well as discussing our agency’s future with our Board, I have made the following decisions:
* Our programs are currently dispersed across departments in ways that don’t make sense to staff or external stakeholders. We need to break down the distinctions, as they don’t serve us well or our ability to deliver on strategic goals.
* The functions of the Development, Housing and Economic Development Departments will be consolidated into a single department.
* One Director will be charged with integrating work of operating teams to meet PDC strategic goals as opposed to three directors working to achieve distinct Department goals.
* I have appointed Erin Flynn, PDC’s current Economic Development Director, to head this new department. With her many years of experience, I firmly believe Erin is the best person to lead this new organization.
* A transition team with representatives from the three operating departments (as well as the other Departments), will be put in place to engage the rest of the agency in helping implement the changes – determining how best to integrate the functions, projects, workflows, and personnel.
* The new Department will have four major elements: a Downtown Development team, a Neighborhood Development team, a Traded Sector team, and a Finance team.
* With the new organization structure, we will be going from three operating department directors down to one. Both Andy Wilch (PDC Housing Director) and Cheryl Twete (Development Director) will be transitioning over the next few weeks out of their current positions. They have expressed an interest in pursuing opportunities outside of PDC.
* My decisions on the new organizational structure were not in any way based upon the performance of the directors. Cheryl and Andy have both done outstanding work and led some amazing projects, which have helped shape this city. I deeply appreciate their contributions. They have been involved in countless projects here at PDC. Cheryl and Andy have both made significant, positive impacts on the future of the City and Portland is a better place because of their efforts and talents. I hope they are as proud of their work as I am. I wish them all the best.
* Following Cheryl and Andy’s departure, Lew Bowers will be serving as interim Development Director and Komi Kalevor will be serving as the interim Housing Director. Erin Flynn will be continuing to direct the Economic Development department.
* I intend to have the implementation team give Erin and me their recommendations and plan by mid-June, with implementation of the new structure starting July 1, 2008.
Erin will be announcing the members of the transition team later today. We will be continuing to communicate with you on a regular basis on the transition plan, providing answers to frequently asked questions, and providing opportunities for input. A FAQ will be posted on IRA by next week.
As you heard this morning, as of July 1, PDC will have the following core departments: Executive Office, Urban Development (tentatively named), Central Services, Human Resources, Communications and Business Equity, and Legal Services.
Again, I realize this is a very significant change and there are still many issues yet to be worked out. I ask for your patience as we navigate through the issues and look forward to your support and valuable input.
I am very excited and confident about this new structure and believe it will allow us to accomplish even more outstanding work in the future.
Bruce
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As an EX-PDC’er, I can tell you that an extensive reorganization is long overdue. The agency is wrought with an unhealthy corporate culture, significant paranoia and distrust due to ongoing abuse, and is the most unhealthy organization I have ever been associated with.
PDC is bloated with management, who are a generally dysfunctional and ineffective group. There were five (count ‘em 5!) directors at the agency, and an Executive Director at the helm. Staff is comprised of some 50+ managers, responsible for an average 3-4 staff each. This ratio is out of line, and is not in keeping with similar organizations of PDC’s size.
While at PDC, many staff I worked with felt that the agency was not a good steward of either the public trust or its resources.
For all the talk of ‘increased accountability,’ it never seemed to bring about the much needed change. A noteworthy indication of PDC agency ‘health’ is its high turnover, which has only increased during the leadership of Bruce Warner.
Personally I feel a dismantling of the agency’s core leadership would be best for the staff and for the citizens of Portland.
PortlandCitizen is right on! I agree that PDC’s management structure needed a significant thinning out but losing two managers doesn’t make a dent in what’s really wrong with the management structure at PDC. Besides that, I can’t speak with any confidence that any of the new management appointees is going to be an improvement. I’ve worked with some of the newly promoted managers and feel like Bruce has just made ANOTHER organizational structure change (I’ve lost count but probably the tenth or so ‘organizational change’ since he took over as Executive Director in Aug. 2005!?) and made no real strides towards increased efficiency or accountability. Let it not be lost on anyone that Bruce’s memo states that PDC "will be going from three operating department directors down to one” but the positions were not eliminated. He actually promoted two difficult people to work with into those same positions. So again, nothing has really changed. Andy Wilch and Cherl Twete appear to have just fallen out of favor with the executive team for some reason. I feel badly for my friends that remain at PDC. It was an extremely stressful environment when I worked there; I can only imagine what the air feels like now.
I have to disagree with the comments above–they clearly come from disgruntled ex-employees and there are be many reasons why ex-employees feel negative about their past employers. One’s view of the world is generally in the eye of the beholder. I have worked at PDC for almost two years and yes, it’s not a perfect organization, but I have worked in federal, state and local government agencies for 20 years and–like families–none of them are without a measure of dysfunction. What I hear daily from the rank and file is that, though many of us are sad to see Andy and Cheryl leave, the shift to a URA-centric org chart makes sense to most of us on many levels. My experience at PDC has been that most of the staff and managers are professionals who go to work everyday and do their best to serve the public interest, despite the press the agency receives, which is at best biased, and at worst yellow journalism.
Ms. Bruckheimer,with all due respect…
Your 2 years at PDC hardly gives you the insight into an agency wrought with a long history of institutional racism, a very ‘closed door’ management policy that leaves staff out of most of the decision making process, frequent hiring of blatantly abusive managers, unfair and discriminatory labor practices and a long history of treating employees and Portland citizens poorly.
Unless significant changes occur at PDC, you will change your tune and realize that employees (both current and ex-PDCers) ’speaking the truth’ hardly represents biased/yellow journalism.