CommissionerSam.com - Workforce

Portland Tribune: Region Needs Strong Workforce & System

Kimberly Schneider — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:46:40 -0700

Following The Tribune's ReThinking Portland series of articles that highlights key challenges to our region's workforce development system and Sam's role in pushing to address them , Forest Grove News released the following editorial (for the Tribune articles click here):

Oregon is known for many things when it comes to work: A leader in high-tech innovation. A producer of finely crafted wood products. A source of diverse and plentiful agricultural bounty. And a center of manufacturing growth that is the envy of the nation.

But as illustrated in the latest edition of "Rethinking Portland," included in today's News-Times, Oregon soon may be known for something else: a work-force crisis of either challenging significance or treacherous proportions.

It is estimated that the state's economy will create 250,000 new jobs over the next decade and that another 400,000 jobs will open as baby boomers retire. As the economic engine of the state, the Portland region can expect to see at least half of those jobs created in this region.

Employers already are having serious trouble finding qualified applicants to fill these new positions or replace retirees. Many employers are reaching out of state to recruit for manufacturing positions and even some low-tech jobs. Others are letting many positions go unfilled.

In fact, Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams, who serves on the regional Workforce Investment Board, estimates that there currently are 20,000 unfilled jobs in the Portland area - approximately one-third of which pay $20 or more per hour.

This work-force crisis is not occurring in a vacuum, and not without many well-intentioned people trying to make a difference.

Regionally, there are numerous educational, employer- and government-aided programs, but their results are mixed and disconnected.

A study conducted by ECONorthwest says that 80 different organizations, including community colleges, are spending close to $150 million in Washington and Multnomah counties in work-force development. High school and higher education programs represent yet another layer of investment and job-training activity.

But while there are many programs, there is no fully integrated work-force system. In addition, there is little to no tracking of workers as they are hired, and no guarantees for employers that they will have qualified workers when they need them.

Change is needed on many fronts, but here is a short list of our recommendations:

• Create a unified work-force development system.

• Establish and follow measurable results.

• Re-establish a greater sense of pride in work.

• Invest in public infrastructure.

• Prioritize.

The creation and retention of family-wage jobs should be Oregon's No. 1 policy.

NYT: Higher Education Gap May Slow Economic Mobility

Kimberly Schneider — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:44:24 -0800

By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: February 20, 2008

Economic mobility, the chance that children of the poor or middle class will climb up the income ladder, has not changed significantly over the last three decades, a study being released on Wednesday says.

The authors of the study, by scholars at the Brookings Institution in Washington and sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, warned that widening gaps in higher education between rich and poor, whites and minorities, could soon lead to a downturn in opportunities for the poorest families.

The researchers found that Hispanic and black Americans were falling behind whites and Asians in earning college degrees, making it harder for them to enter the middle class or higher...[Read the rest at NYT.com]

Sam and PDC Help Push Start Oregon Custom Bike Show

Roland Chlapowski — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:19:50 -0800

Oregon Bicycle Constructors AssociationThe Portland Development Commission identifies the bicycle industries as one of the nascent cottage industries that it would like to see grow and flourish. Oregon, and Portland in particular, have unique advantages over other regions in terms of making bikes, and this Bike Show allowed craftsman to show them off.

To help promote this trade show of custom bicycle makers from across the state, Sam worked with PDC to make sure that as a seed industry that the Oregon Handmade Bicycle trade show got support from the local government.

The event was successfully held on Sunday, November 11, 2007 at the World Forestry Center in Washington Park.

Related Documents:

Oregon Handmade Bicycle Association Trade Show Site

Community Partners:

Portland Development Commission
Oregon Bicycle Constructors Assocation
Ahearne Cycles (Portland)
Bike Friday (Eugene)
Casmano
DeSalvo Custom Cycles (Ashland)
Good Times Bicycles
Keith Anderson Cycles (Grants Pass)
Landshark (Medford)
Lyonsport (Grants Pass)
Pereira Cycles (Portland)
Stites Design (Portland)
Strawberry Cycles (Portland)
Sweetpea Bicycles (Portland)
Vendetta Cycles (Willamette Valley)
Wolfhound Cycles (Talent)

Media Mentions:

"Handmade bike show will feature Oregon's finest", BikePortland.org, November 6, 2007

Milestones:

November 11, 2007 - Oregon's first city-supported local industry bike show ever!

A New Film about Working Together to Change Young Lives

Kimberly Schneider — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:02:50 -0800

In case you missed Second Chance - a film about changing young lives created by youth in the Multnomah County juvenile justice system - you can watch it here.

In 2005 Worksystems Inc. (the non-profit entity dedicated to workforce investment and training) in partnership with local employers, designed and launched a career exposure program called WorkSuccess for Portland area at-risk youth. Worksystems obtained funding for this pilot career exposure pathway program from the US Department of Labor and operates the program through regional alternative schools and youth providers.

In 2007, Worksystems partnered with the Northwest Film Center's Young Filmmakers Program, Multnomah County Department of Community Justice, Juvenile Services Division, and the Multnomah County Percent for Art Program to engage teenagers from the juvenile justice system to make a film about WorkSuccess.

The New York Times: In Portland, a Golden Age of Dining and Drinking

Roland Chlapowski — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 08:58:44 -0700

Sept. 26, 2007 //By ERIC ASIMOV// PORTLAND, Ore.

THEY come but they don't go.

In the way New York drew artists in the '50s, this city at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers seems to exert a magnetic lure on talented chefs who come from almost anywhere else and decide to stay right here. About the hardest thing to find in Portland these days is a homegrown chef.View NYTimes Portland Cuisine Slide Show here. Portland may seem an unlikely place for such status, a city destined to play second string on the West Coast to San Francisco and Seattle. But in the last five years or so Portland has grown and evolved.

Link directly to NYTimes story here.

At first it was a sort of underground stop for food and wine lovers who had heard word of small, fascinating restaurants run by young, talented chefs serving a bounty of local produce. It's underground no more. Portland has emerged from its chrysalis as a full-fledged dining destination.

This is a golden age of dining and drinking in a city that 15 years ago was about as cutting edge as a tomato in January. Every little neighborhood in this city of funky neighborhoods now seems to be exploding with restaurants, food shops and markets, all benefiting from a critical mass of passion, skill and experience, and all constructed according to the gospel of locally grown ingredients.

In close proximity is a cadre of farmers committed to growing environmentally responsible produce with maximum flavor, delivered to restaurants and to the gorgeous farmers' markets that dot the city. There are local fisheries and small beef, lamb and pork producers. Not far away is the Hood River Valley, with its myriad fruit growers who supply glistening, fragile berries and stonefruits of every stripe and color.

World-class wine is produced in the Willamette Valley, the center of the Oregon wine industry, just a half hour's drive away. Portland has six micro-distilleries making any kind of spirits you can name and, if you'd like a chaser, more breweries than any other city on earth. Just as important is a receptive populace, demanding yet eager to be wowed.

Portland also has what anybody in the restaurant business will tell you is most important of all: affordable real estate. Just as young, passionate chefs flocked to the East Village and Brooklyn in the 1990s, chefs have gravitated to Portland because it lets them have a vision and take risks without lining up corporate backers and lawyers.

"This is one of the very few places on the West Coast that has been an affordable place to live," said Andy Ricker, who in 2005 opened Pok Pok, which started under his obsessive eye as a ramshackle Thai takeout shack and now has a hip little dining room as well. "There are a ton of people here who are going at it in sort of an indie rock way, mostly because they can."

Mr. Ricker is a perfect example. Originally from Vermont, he spent years cooking around the world before following a girl to Portland in the early 1990s. He got a job at Zefiro, an Italian restaurant that set a standard for Portland cooking back then. Restless, he left the business and became a house painter, saving money and traveling to southeast Asia for three or four months at a time. He also bought two houses and sold them, taking advantage of a rising real estate market so he could finance his vision of a southeast Asian restaurant without having to satisfy financial backers.

Now, he's won acclaim for dishes like juicy game hens roasted over charcoal and stuffed with lemon grass, garlic, pepper and cilantro, and local pork loin marinated in coconut milk and turmeric, and served with peanut sauce. .

"You could never open a place that was completely a shot in the dark in San Francisco or New York because the costs are so prohibitive," he said.

Costs were a major concern to Vitaly and Kimberly Paley, who arrived with an earlier wave of restaurant immigrants in 1994. Eager for a fresh start after working in some of Manhattan's most illustrious restaurants, they toured the West Coast, finally settling on Portland.

"We sold our 500-square-foot New York apartment, and with the money, we bought a house with a swimming pool, two cars, and had enough left to open a restaurant," Mr. Paley said.

Today, Paley's Place, a warm and intimate dining room on the first floor of a Victorian house in northwest Portland, is recognized as one of the top restaurants in the Northwest, if not the country, and Mr. Paley has been celebrated for applying French techniques to the Northwestern palette of ingredients. Just as important, Paley's Place, along with other seminal restaurants like Zefiro, Wildwood, Higgins and Genoa, has served as an incubator for much of the talent that is making its mark today.

Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon, a kind of new-wave bistro, learned the basics of making stocks and working the grill during two years at Paley's after he arrived here from his hometown, Napa, Calif. He passed through a few other kitchens, then last year he was given an opportunity to take over one of his own. He transformed a little storefront restaurant into Le Pigeon, an informal, slightly manic spot with seasonally changing, nonconformist dishes like braised pork belly with creamed corn and butter-poached prawns, sweetbreads with pickled watermelon, and just about anything that can possibly involve tongue. His signature dessert is apricot cornbread with bacon, topped with maple ice cream.

"I used to think of Portland as a stepping stone, but I fell in love with the city," said Mr. Rucker, who's all of 26. "Rather than going somewhere with a really established food scene, I felt as a young chef that I could really have a lot of possibilities."

Like many of Portland's top chefs, he has established firm relationships with the local farmers. "I can call and have loads of chanterelles or huckleberries delivered right to my door," he said. "When you have people as passionate about growing a watermelon as I am to use it, it's great."

Passion is an important word here in Portland, and so is politics, especially when applied to agriculture. Many of the older farmers came from the Bay Area in the 1970s with a vision of sustainable agriculture, and they have continued to adhere to those principles. Chefs around the country pay lip service to the philosophy of seasonal cooking, but in Portland they seem to take this idea especially seriously, following the examples of influential chefs like Mr. Paley, Greg Higgins (from upstate New York) of Higgins, Dave Machado (Massachusetts) of Lauro Kitchen and Vindalho, and Cory Schreiber of Wildwood - that rare Oregon native, though he's now retired.

"They did a great job establishing the expectation among Portland's dining community that restaurants were going to be using local and seasonal ingredients," said Ken Forkish, who, inspired by the French baker Lionel Poilâne, came from Maryland in 2000 to open Ken's Artisan Bakery and, last year, Ken's Artisan Pizza.

He found Portland tough going at first. Even standard fare - rustic fruit tarts and croissants - was not that familiar here six years ago, Mr. Forkish said, but he believes the population has quickly become more worldly.

"Partly it's because of all the new places that opened," he said, "but there's also been a steady influx of new people who expect these things."

One recent arrival is Tony Soter, a longtime Napa Valley winemaker who last year moved here with his family. They are living in Portland as they build a house on their property in the Willamette Valley. The Soters have 200 acres on an east-west ridge with orchards, herds of sheep and goats, and 10 head of cattle.

"Napa is country only in name," he said. "This is the real deal out here."

Mr. Soter and his wife, Michelle, come from the Portland area originally. And though Mr. Soter spent most of the last 20 years in California, working with Spottswoode, Shafer and Araujo, along with his own winery, Etude, the Soters grew tired of the gloss of Napa. They longed for an environment more in tune with their own values and a place where Mr. Soter felt he could make more balanced European-style wines than he could in California.

The local wine industry has played a crucial role in the rise of Portland's food culture. Visiting wine celebrities are drawn into the gravitational pull of Portland's restaurants, but, aside from that, wine regions naturally inspire a surrounding culture that is highly sensitive to cuisine.

Pascal Sauton grew up in Paris and had cooked in Philadelphia, New York and Colorado before he visited Portland 11 years ago with his wife, Julie Hunter, and decided he never wanted to leave. "I loved the fact that there were four distinct seasons, and the wine valley was a big factor," he said. "The climate, and the whole feel, was European."

After cooking at several different places, the couple opened Carafe in 2003, a joyful, informal bistro that is half French - Mr. Sauton's wide, friendly face is as unmistakably French as a bottle of Beaujolais - and all northwestern. To walk through a farmer's market on a summer morning and to see beautiful golden chanterelles and organic cipollini onions, sweet cherry tomatoes, pattypan squash and bell peppers in purple, ivory and orange, is to have some idea of what you might find on Mr. Sauton's lunch menu. You'll even find glorious local corn on the menu, something you would never see in France.

"Well, we bend the rules a little," he said.

In the winter, he gets tarbais beans from local farmers for his cassoulet along with leeks, celery root and winter squash. Winter is serious business for a chef dedicated to seasonal cooking, yet Portland chefs have worked closely with farmers to assure a steady supply of produce through the dark months. Brussels sprouts, broccoli, greens and cauliflower are in the winter pipeline; seasonal cooking also forces creativity.

"It's a time to slow down and really make some focused dishes that will stay on the menu for a while, maybe do a braise or a confit or dumplings," said Jason Barwikowski (Michigan), the chef at Clyde Common, a bustling restaurant that opened this year in the Ace Hotel. Mr. Barwikowski arrived in Portland after working in Wyoming, where he was able to combine cooking with a love of snowboarding, rock climbing and fly-fishing. Things haven't changed all that much except that the level of cooking is higher.

"I still snowboard and fly-fish and rock climb and ride bikes," he said. "Half an hour in any direction and you're in the mountains or woods."

These other attributes of Portland - the outdoor life, and its deliberately casual, relaxed atmosphere - may in some ways limit what its restaurants can accomplish.

"Portland may be over-hyped in some ways," said Dave Machado, who after 16 years in Portland is a respected old guard chef. "A big city with an international component is always going to have crisper service. We have a regional class of service here."

At the same time, Portland's population is growing and real estate prices are climbing, leading some to fear that the city will lose its cherished renegade spirit. But Mr. Paley, for one, scoffs at that notion.

"I think Portland innately will make sure that people always have opportunities," he said. "Portland is a free spirit."

Labor Day at Oaks Amusement Park, 2007

Jane Ames — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 17:28:26 -0700

"It's Labor Day, so instead of everyone going to work, we are all going to a picnic."

This was the very clear explanation the woman walking behind me to Oaks Amusement Park told her son, who was wondering why so many of us were walking along this trail.Picnicing with FriendsSam and Felicia at SEIUMulti-tasking MomVisiting at the Picnic

The Labor Day Picnic is a union tradition, and a great one. Thousands of people show up each year to share the day. Barbecues are sizzling and smoking all over the place, balloons float on air setting the festive feel and signaling people to their own union's section of the grounds. Several languages float together and laborers from all over our region break bread together. And chow down on burgers, and chicken, salads, chips, and desserts.

The same young man I spoke of earlier assured his mom he was tall enough to go on a certain amusement park ride, and she replied in the age-old parental rejoinder: "We'll see."

Ole FriendsSam and I made our way from picnic to picnic saying hello to old friends and laughing as "how's life" chat mixed with work talk: "thanks for your efforts on this, Important Workand please look into that." But the warm air, the carnival rides, the clatter, and the many visiting voices blending in with the music from the stage added up to a great picnic. While the history of labor and of Labor Day is complex and important, this day was one for everyone to relax and enjoy the fruits of their labor as a community.

People who usually labor today, were taking the day off, and having a picnic together.

Sam and the Senators

Mary has known Sam since the DeFazio Days

It was a real nice picnic, and we all had a real good time.

University System Improvements will Benefit Economy for Oregonians

Jane Ames — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:21:49 -0700

An important economic impact for Portland and Oregon, will result from the capital funding allocation for the Oregon University System. The $561 million capital budget including the $60 million allocated to reduce the system's $640 million deferred maintenance backlog will help meet critical repair needs, and modernize classrooms and laboratories.

The efforts that will take place on campuses across Oregon will also create more than 11,800 construction jobs over the next several years. The projects will provide a $1.25 billion economic output of goods and services through the projects, and provide almost $400 million in increased earning for Oregonians.PCAT Building in the Background on PSU Campus

Portland State University will benefit with funds to help with the redevelopment of the PCAT building (that is the older turquoise tile building on 5th and 6th Avenues); improvements in the Science Teaching and Research Center; Science Building repairs and updating; and Lincoln Hall repairs. The Economic Benefits will Roll Out to Portlanders

While the improvements will be excellent for PSU, the economic impacts of those projects will roll out to Portlanders far beyond the campus.

No Time like the Present...to Prepare for the Future: Higher Education

Jane Ames — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:11:33 -0700

Thank Goodness, and THANK YOU Governor Kulongoski and State Legislators.

The Oregon University System (OUS) received a 23% increase in a combination of operating and capital projects funding from the State Legislature and Governor Kulongoski. The General Fund budget for the OUS system for 2007-09 is $870.4 million. As OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner stated, "This budget signals a major commitment by the legislature to meet ...the ten-year reinvestment plan to improve student access and affordability, high quality learning, innovative research and programs directed at economic development, workforce shortages, and other state priorities for Oregon."

That is a mouthful, but it points out the various crucial roles higher education plays in Oregon.

The Community College System received $512 million total, a $71 millionPCC increase over the 2005-07 budget. The strong signal here is to provide for workforce development and to insure access to affordable higher education throughout Oregon. There are 17 community colleges in Oregon, many located in communities without four year college options. Whether students are heading for workforce training, a four year academic degree or lifelong learning opportunities, the community college allocation is significant to all Oregonians.

The Oregon university system alone has a $640 million backlog in deferred maintenance and repairs; the $60 million directed to reduce that backlog will mark the first time in several decades the backlog will be reduced. It is a good time to be turning from disinvestment to investment, and providing and planning for the future.

Sam led City Council efforts to make higher education funding, as well as PSUthe Oregon Opportunity Grants and Aspire mentoring program, priorities for Portland's Legislative package. He joined students, community, business and education leaders who became vigilant and vocal higher education advocates testifying, lobbying, writing letters and making calls throughout the session. Together, they created a steady drumbeat of support, highlighting the educational and economic necessities for improving higher education funding in Oregon.

Newspapers throughout the State reinforced the demand for higher education support. David Sarasohn, Associate Editor at The Oregonian was particularly effective and relentless. His nearly weekly editorials clarified the current dismal reality and the existing and future need for strong higher education opportunities in Oregon. Frankly, the state's investment in higher education isn't yet what it needs to be for the sake of our children and our economy. But, as of now, we are heading in the right direction.

Bravo. Encore. And again, Thank You.

Hurrah

What will it take to unlock Portland’s full creative capacity?

Sam Adams — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:36:34 -0700

Not enough money.

Making our creative community even better will take more than just finding more money for the effort. But, it is a lot about finding more money from the public and private sector.

Thank you to all who attended last night's Creative Capacity Townhall. Over 350 people attended the event, representing many of the established and emerging businesses and arts organizations in the region.

Our discussion was an important starting point for forging the creative community into an effective advocacy group.

Thank you for your collective enthusiastic response to this call to action. Keep your ideas coming below. If you're looking for the powerpoint presentation, you can download it here (as a PDF or PPT). In the coming days we'll get the whole townhall uploaded here for you to view.

We will invite you to the next Creative Capacity Townhall in the fall after we have completed public opinion research and a series of smaller group discussions about specific topics.

In the meantime, get your colleagues, friends and patrons to sign up at: CreativeCapacity.org.

A tremendous thanks to the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Northwest Business for Culture in the Arts, and the Portland Development Commission.

Click for responses from the Creative Capacity Town Hall Exit Survey

Special thanks as well to our hosts last night: The Gerding Theatre at the Armory and Vibrant Table.

To action! To advocacy! To art!

Sam

OREGONIAN EDITORIAL: A state of low-wage jobs

Warren Jimenez — Wed, 02 May 2007 10:48:09 -0700

As the President of the Local Elected Officials on the Workforce Investment Board and the Higher Education Liaison for the City of Portland, Sam has been advocating for more state funding during this legislative session.

Unfortunately, the federal trends are worst. Since 2003, federal allocations for our region have gone from $25 million to an anticipated $15 million for 2007.

Worksystems Inc. recently received word from the Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development that the primary federal resources available to provide workforce development services in our region will be cut by nearly 27% or just over $2.7 million for services beginning July 1, 2007. These cuts mean about 800 adults and 300 youth will not receive training or related services.

A state of low-wage jobs
Wednesday, May 02, 2007

O f all the questions raised by the Progress Board's report on the Oregon economy, here's the most important:

Do you want fries with that?

That is the vital question in a state that is becoming the world's best place to find a low-wage job. The Progress Board's new Benchmark Report to the People of Oregon, released Monday, paints a discouraging picture of a state led by a Legislature that still hasn't made the connection between quality education and skills training, and good jobs.

Instead, the report is full of statistics that painfully illustrate the results of Oregon's decades-long disinvestment in education and training. Among them:

Per-capita personal income in Oregon is only 93 percent of the U.S. rate, has steadily declined since 1996 and is now at its lowest level in nearly 20 years.

Only one Oregon worker in three makes at or above 150 percent of the poverty rate for a family of four.

Oregon's concentration of professional services, such as lawyers and accountants, is falling. Less than 40 percent of Oregon workers received at least 20 hours of training in 2005 -- far from the distant goal of 75 percent.

In the dry language of the Progress Board report, "Adult education attainment and skill development indicators, key to building a quality work force, are off track." Yes, they are.

If you wonder why, you could look back over the past 20 years and see the choices that Oregon has made: Measures 5, 47 and 50, property-tax limits that foisted K-12 school funding onto the state; the Measure 11 decision to invest in prisons, not education; voters' stubborn insistence on funding public services with a single volatile source, the income tax.

But really, you need look no further than the budget debate now under way in Salem. It's all there: The lip service lawmakers are paying to universities, the utter disregard of community colleges, the fight it is taking just to get lawmakers to invest a measly $10 million in work force training.

That's not how you build a strong work force. That's not how you get companies to bring family-wage jobs here, or persuade them to keep them here.

No, that's how you get an economy where new jobs pay less than the old ones they are replacing. That's how you wind up with a huge population of working poor, who live without health insurance and spend a huge portion of their income on housing. That's how you wind up with Oregon's economy.

Look at the neighbors: The Washington Legislature just agreed to invest several billion more dollars in education. The Oregon Legislature, meanwhile, is trying to summon the nerve to require some of the state's largest corporations to pay more than the $10 a year they now pay in corporate income taxes.

Ten bucks. It all leads back to that essential question in the new Oregon economy:

You want fries?

Out on a Walkabout in Parkrose

Shoshanah Oppenheim — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:50:42 -0700

Out with the people in ParkroseSam visited the Parkrose Business District today for a walk about. Parkrose was once the gateway to the Gorge before I 84 was opened. It was the last urban center on the road to Mt. Hood. Since then much of the traffic to the mountian has been diverted, but the main arterials, Prescott and Sandy, still carry a good amount of traffic both to Gresham and west though town. The District runs from about 70th to 122nd along those main thoroughfares.

We were able to learn about some of the main concerns of businesses in this traffic heavy part of NE Portland. Speed is a significant issue. Many businesses want traffic to be calmed, so that cars don't fly by their storefronts and safety is improved.

Businesses can thrive in this district. For example Parkrose Hardware,At Parkrose Hardware which currently carries a full line of both hardware and housewares, plans to expand to include a green house. They are able to match any fastener or nut you bring in with you. The staff is knowledgeable and interested in your projects. Please visit David Ableidinger at Parkrose Hardware 10625 NE Sandy.

A M Moss for all your flowers in ParkroseAcross the street at AR Moss Floral Design and Event Embellishment, Anita Tabyoyon has a thriving wedding services business. Visit Anita for your next event, large or small at 10604 NE Sandy.

While you are driving in the area or biking along the 205 bike route, look at the new plantings at the Traffic Island where 99th, Sandy and Killingsworth cross. This project was paid for by an APNBA business association grant.

If you need a key, be it skeleton or automotive, Quick Key has what youQuick Key has a key to help unlock your world. have been looking for. With 40,000 keys in the shop, and over 8,000 in the van service, they are able to serve your lock needs. Visit quick key at 7540 NE Sandy.

Bob Brown Tires helps you get on the road.Think local and buy your tires local at Bob Brown Tires. Owned by Bob and Cindy Brown, Bob Brown Tires provides a full range of tire and suspension related services. Bob Brown Tires is located at 120th and NE Sandy.

OREGONIAN: Jettisoning justice for janitors

Warren Jimenez — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:03:36 -0800

Jettisoning justice for janitors
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The Oregonian

By Steve Duin

E lvira Munoz is, I'm afraid, all too typical of the men and women who clean up after you at the Rose Garden and Memorial Coliseum.

She's paid Oregon's minimum wage of $7.80 an hour, although she is rarely told how many hours she'll be working until she arrives at the Rose Quarter aboard MAX after the ride in from her basement "apartment" in Gresham.

Because she is only a part-time worker, Munoz, 32, receives no health insurance through her employer, ServiceMaster of Swan Island. She receives no sick pay -- when she suffered a severe ankle sprain in the Coliseum two weeks ago, she says, there wasn't even a first-aid kit on the premises -- no holiday pay, and four exhilarating hours of vacation time for each year of service.

What's wrong with this picture? At least three things, off the top of my head:

Memorial Coliseum is still a city-owned property, and I was under the illusion that Portland's City Council resolved in 2001 that seasonal workers who labor at PGE Park, or on other city turf, deserve a "living wage."

ServiceMaster claims on its Web site, "We are accountable to honor God in all we do." The Web site continues, "Faithful adherence to a strong moral and ethical ideal should guide all aspects of a company's operation," an ideal that serves as "a constant reminder for us to do the right thing in the right way."

And the salary and benefits of Elvira Munoz qualify?

Last summer, ServiceMaster of Swan Island agreed to pay $84,125 to settle a class-action lawsuit that argued the company violated state overtime and minimum wage issues.

Yet Portland Arena Management, which owns the Rose Garden, still recontracted with ServiceMaster for janitorial services, despite pleas by Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner and city Commissioner Sam Adams to select a company that offered a living wage and affordable benefits.

Adams is still hammering on Global Spectrum, which manages the complex for PAM (and which didn't return phone calls). "There aren't that many (janitors) and they're not asking for a lot," Adams said. "Global Spectrum is part of this huge business empire. Last time I checked, they were very profitable. They have the money. They just don't have the moral backbone to do it."

When the operators at PGE Park were similarly disposed, the city stepped in to make up the difference between the "market rate" for these services and the hourly fair-wage (now $10.57) amount. That wage supplement cost the city $112,000 in 2006, said David Logsdon, the city's spectator facilities manager.

However, Logsdon said, PAM's contract at the Rose Quarter "predates Council's initiation of the fair-wages program." As a result, he added, "We don't have the ability to intervene in the marketplace and say we want higher wages because we're not paying for them."

Both Adams and Commissioner Erik Sten are eager to change that. "It's against city policy to win the contract when the savings are on the back of the workers," Sten said.

Adams has been involved for 18 months in "Justice for Janitor" issues because justice is so slow in coming, not only at the Rose Quarter but in major office buildings downtown.

On Tuesday, SEIU Local 49 will file an unfair labor practices complaint against ServiceMaster Swan Island for dismantling the janitors' pension, benefits and negotiated wage scale at the Union Bank of California in Portland. Out of sympathy for that complaint, janitors at the Rose Quarter are considering a walk-out and strike, said SEIU's Maggie Long.

Should that walk-out occur, Elvira Munoz, suspended between crutches, will limp along, proceeding with a sense of moral purpose that should -- but won't -- embarrass her employer.

Steve Duin: 503-221-8597; 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201 steveduin@news.oregonian.com http://steveduin.blogs.oregonlive.com

Thomas Friedman is not ready to Cede the 21st Century to China Yet...

Jane Ames — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:45:35 -0800

Thomas Friedman has written an interesting column about the education goals necessary for the global economy that exists today. Competence, skill and creativity will be crucial for thriving in an economy that can scan the globe to find the least expensive resources and labor. A continuing committment to learning and changing will serve us well as individuals and as a community.

The New York Times

December 13, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Learning to Keep Learning
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I recently attended an Asia Society education seminar in Beijing, during which we heard Chinese educators talk about their "new national strategy." It's to make China an "innovation country" - with enough indigenous output to advance China "into the rank of innovation-oriented countries by 2020," as Shang Yong, China's vice minister of science and technology, put it.

I listened to this with mixed emotions. Part of me said: "Gosh, wouldn't it be nice to have a government that was so focused on innovation - instead of one that is basically anti-science." My other emotion was skepticism. Oh, you know the line: Great Britain dominated the 19th century, America dominated the 20th and now China is going to dominate the 21st. It's game over.

Sorry, but I am not ready to cede the 21st century to China yet.

No question, China has been able to command an impressive effort to end illiteracy, greatly increasing its number of high school grads and new universities. But I still believe it is very hard to produce a culture of innovation in a country that censors Google - which for me is a proxy for curtailing people's ability to imagine and try anything they want. You can command K-12 education. But you can't command innovation. Rigor and competence, without freedom, will take China only so far. China will have to find a way to loosen up, without losing control, if it wants to be a truly innovative nation.

But while China can't thrive without changing a lot more, neither can we. Ask yourself this: If the Iraq war had not dominated our politics, what would our last election have been about? It would have been about this question: Why should any employer anywhere in the world pay Americans to do highly skilled work - if other people, just as well educated, are available in less developed countries for half our wages?

If we can't answer this question, in an age when more and more routine work can be digitized, automated or offshored, including white-collar work, "it is hard to see how, over time, we are going to be able to maintain our standard of living," says Marc Tucker, who heads the National Center on Education and the Economy.

There is only one right answer to that question: In a globally integrated economy, our workers will get paid a premium only if they or their firms offer a uniquely innovative product or service, which demands a skilled and creative labor force to conceive, design, market and manufacture - and a labor force that is constantly able to keep learning. We can't go on lagging other major economies in every math/science/reading test and every ranking of Internet penetration and think that we're going to field a work force able to command premium wages. Freedom, without rigor and competence, will take us only so far.

Tomorrow, Mr. Tucker's organization is coming out with a report titled "Tough Choices or Tough Times," which proposes a radical overhaul of the U.S. education system, with one goal in mind: producing more workers - from the U.P.S. driver to the software engineer - who can think creatively.

"One thing we know about creativity is that it typically occurs when people who have mastered two or more quite different fields use the framework in one to think afresh about the other," said Mr. Tucker. Thus, his report focuses on "how to make that kind of thinking integral to every level of education."

That means, he adds, revamping an education system designed in the 1900s for people to do "routine work," and refocusing it on producing people who can imagine things that have never been available before, who can create ingenious marketing and sales campaigns, write books, build furniture, make movies and design software "that will capture people's imaginations and become indispensable for millions."

That can't be done without higher levels of reading, writing, speaking, math, science, literature and the arts. We have no choice, argues Mr. Tucker, because we have entered an era in which "comfort with ideas and abstractions is the passport to a good job, in which creativity and innovation are the key to the good life" and in which the constant ability to learn how to learn will be the only security you have.

Economics is not like war. It can be win-win. We, China, India and Europe can all flourish. But the ones who flourish most will be those who develop the best broad-based education system, to have the most people doing and designing the most things we can't even imagine today. China still has to make some very big changes to get there - but so do we.

Lobbying Ordinance Refined and Affirmed

Shoshanah Oppenheim — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 17:06:05 -0800

Portland’s lobbying regulations were passed a year ago and have been in effect for about eight months. Its purpose is to increase transparency in City government.

Over 50 lobbying entities registered under the regulations. The number of entities that filed reports has increased each quarter. Sam and staff performed a thorough review of the registration procedures and submitted a report critiquing the system and making recommendations.

An update to the lobbying regulations was unanimously adopted requiring all elected city officials to submit declarations whether or not they have received gifts. However, although council was not prepared to reduce the 16-hour threshold requiring registration, there was strong support for this change from the public and advocates.

Sam will perform another 6-month review and submit a report in the fall of 2007. The regulations require city lobbying entities to register with the city and report what city officials they talked with, the subject discussed, the amount of money spent to lobby and when the lobbying occurred.

Related Documents

Milestones

Additional Six month Reviews in April and October 2007

Think Big

Jane Ames — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 18:01:19 -0700

There is a new program in town, at Portland Community College.

Halton CAT, of Portland, is one of six regional Caterpillar dealerships stretching the region from Montana, to Eugene, and up to Alaska who are partnering with PCC to provide a Caterpillar Dealer Service Technician Program.

Sam was on hand to join PCC RockNew CAT Service Technology Program at PCC, partners with Industry Creek President Katherine Persson in welcoming the first set of students and to honor the sponsors. Sue Halton, Vice-president of Halton Company on N.E. Columbia Blvd. represented Halton Co. as one of the sponsors whose contributions and committment to the success of the project has been key in establishing the program.

Students who apply, are selected, and complete the program will earn an Associate of of Applied Science degree. They will spend about half of the time on their technical and academic education at Portland Community College. The other half of the time, the students will work at on -the-job interships at one of the sponsoring dealers. The program will involve a rotating cycles: 10 weeks of classes, followed by 10 weeks of internship experience, throughout the 2 year program. And the internship wage they earn is enough to live on, and pay for school.

Those who complete the program can expect excellent pay, stable employment, and good benefits. This is an excellent example of a public/private partnership that contributes to strong communities today and looks to the future for individual businesses, the industry, well prepared employees, and a generally strong workforce.

For more information on ThinkBIG go to http://www.haltonco.com/Product%20Support/Technical%20Services/Think%20Big/product_support_techserv_thinkbig.htm