March 14, 2003
Kimbrough Carries His Past With Him
Phil Stanford, in today's Portland Tribune reveals yet another tidbit about PBA head Kim Kimbrough:
The Portland Business Alliance has been on the hot seat since The Business Journal revealed that it passed over a local lighting firm to pick a Texas lighting company to do the city's downtown Xmas lighting. ... What no one seems to have noticed yet is that the same Texas company did business with PBA Director Kim Kimbrough when he was back in St. Louis running the business lobby there.
As reported here previously, Kimbrough has brought with him to Portland other vestiges of his past. Namely, the idea of developing ice rinks, which he's pitched in his prior stints in St. Louis, Missouri, and Jackson, Mississippi.
One is left to wonder whether what Portland needs is someone who brings to the PBA sweetheart deals for out-of-town contractors he's worked with before, and a cookie-cutter mentality when it comes to development. Actually, I don't wonder at all; it's clearly not what Portland needs.
What Portland needs is someone of, by, and for the Portland community, who understands the specific values and challenges of this specific city, and is mindful of the general community which he or she serves.
And that just ain't Kim Kimbrough. How, exactly, do we go about running this man out of town on a rail?