Comments on: Portland Development Commission Cleans House

By: PortlandCitizen

PortlandCitizen — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:28:05 +0000

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.

By: Candy Bruckheimer (aka)

Candy Bruckheimer (aka) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:17:50 +0000

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.

By: Ex-PDC

Ex-PDC — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:46:40 +0000

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.

By: PortlandCitizen

PortlandCitizen — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:33:46 +0000

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.