March 08, 2005

Bridgehead Contender And PDC Chair Have Same PR Flack

It's A Small Portland, After All (Sing Along, Now)

Here's a short "fun fact" for your Tuesday morning, which for us is all of about thirty minutes old at this point.

Once upon a time, in one of our Burnside Bridgehead items, we mentioned one Nathaniel Clevenger, in his capacity of handling communications for Opus Northwest as that company tried to win the project from the Portland Development Commission.

Turns out, according to an item in today's Tribune, that Clevenger also "occasionally represents" Matt Hennessee -- the chair of that self-same Portland Development Commission.

Granted, we know all about Portland's infamous "two degrees of separation", and even beyond that we're sure it isn't unusual. However, we reserve the right to have it make us uncomfortable, and we thought it worth mentioning before we go seek out our first cup of coffee.

Posted at 10:43 AM | PermalinkComments (5) | TrackBacks (1)
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Comments (5)

  1. Cynthia on 08 Mar 2005

    The fact that cronyism and conflicts of interest are commonplace doesn't excuse the problems they engender. Speaking of sing alongs, there was a 1970s TV show with a theme song about "The Good Old Boys" making their way in an extra legal manner. I was thinking this state shoud make that its official song and invite Pavarotti to sing it at the Schnitz.

  2. Brian Libby on 11 Mar 2005

    The song to which Cynthia refers to is the "Dukes of Hazzard" theme:

    Just the good old boys
    Never meanin' no harm
    Beats all you never saw
    Been in trouble with the law
    Since the day they were born

    Maybe the Opus/Hennessey sharing of a PR person isn't going to get them in trouble with the law, but I agree that it's a conflict of interest that should DEFINITELY factor in to the decision about who gets the Burnside Bridgehead job, even if it means that the decision isn't made solely on the basis of design. But then again, it probably won't be anyway.

  3. David White on 14 Mar 2005

    Hope you enjoyed your first cup of coffee. But perhaps you should have taken it before pooping out this little piece of innuendo. Mr. Clevenger is a man of very high ethical standards and a citizen who cares very much about the quality of life in Portland. He's not a greedy, influence-peddling PR flack as you're brain fart article seemed to suggest. Have you any specific claims to make or are you simply exercising your newly blossoming journalistic ego?

  4. The One True b!X on 14 Mar 2005

    All I said was this sort of incestuousness makes me uncomfortable, as I'm sure it does many other people as well, even in the absence of any actual ethical issues.

    If you really want my own personal experience of Mr. Clevenger, I'll provide it, although I've actually already mentioned it in the past.

  5. The One True b!X on 14 Mar 2005

    More precisely, I'll say this: In public life, they say that it's not merely impropriety itself that is to be avoided, but the appearance of it as well. That the chair of PDC sometimes uses the same PR person as a company trying to obtain business from PDC is a matter likely to be of interest to the public, and as such is fair game for mention.

    Also note that in this post, I made no declaration as to which party people should feel iffy about -- Hennessee, Opus, or Clevenger.

Trackbacks (1)

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