WW Reader Contest: Hai2k Hey Willamette Week Your contest's one year early calendar not read --Kevin P. Hensel OK, so technically The New Millennium(ATM) doesn't begin until 2001. We don't think that should stop the WW Hai-2K contest. As we enter the 21st century, send us your thoughts about Portland in Haiku form (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables). We'll print the best entries in our Dec. 29 issue and bestow lavish gifts on the winners. Send your verse to WW Hai-2K Contest, 822 SW 10th Ave., Portland OR, 97205; fax: 243-1115; email: jschrag@wweek.com. Here's a sample: O mighty Southeast! Your hippies and tweakers rock, But patchouli stinks. NOTE: (ATM) The New Millennium is almost a trademark of the Microsoft/Willamette Week/Westinghouse Corp. Correction In our 25th Anniversary special insert(Nov. 10, 1999), we made several misstatements about Ben Linder ("Death of An Engineer," page 55). Linder was 5-foot-4-inches and preferred unicycles to bicycles. Author Barbara Kingsolver spoke at a commemoration on the fifth anniversary of Linder's death, not at a conference in 1987, which Ed Asner did not attend. And the Ben Linder Construction Brigades worked on a hospital and clinic in Nicaragua, but did not work on dams. In our review of the John Street Cafe ("A Miracle in St. Johns," Nov. 17, 1999), we inadvertently implied that the Port of Portland had polluted the riverbank near St. Johns with toxic wastes. We intended to imply only an aesthetic pollution by the Port's many paved lots. Finally, last week's Rogue contained a misspelling of the Portland Advertising Federation's Rosey Awards. WW regrets the errors. Chief Speculation When Mayor Vera Katz announces the finalists seeking to be Portland's next police chief Nov. 23, expect to see a couple of out-of-towners and at least one familiar face. Although Katz has strived to keep the job search under wraps, WW has learned the identities of two finalists, as well as a third contender who just withdrew his name. On Nov. 19 The Washington Post reported that Ronald Monroe, an assistant chief of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department, was one of three Portland finalists. Monroe, 44, might be desperate to bid adieu to what is widely known as one of the most dysfunctional police departments in the country. He is the only ethnic minority among the finalists WW has identified. Another candidate comes from Oregon by way of Los Angeles: Mark Kroeker, a former LAPD deputy chief. A native of Dallas, Kroeker grew up in Africa, the son of Mennonite missionaries. During his 32-year LAPD career, minority groups credited him with mending fences between cops and citizens following the 1991 beating of Rodney King and instituting community policing in the San Fernando Valley, something sure to score points with the mayor. Kroeker, now 55, directly commanded thousands of cops during the 1992 riots. Kroeker was twice passed over for the LAPD's top job, most recently in 1997. He retired from the force and took an assignment as a deputy commissioner with the United Nations' police force in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1998. Los Angeles sources, however, are perplexed by Kroeker's interest in the Portland job. In the vicious political world of the LAPD, Kroeker almost made it to the top rung and, following his return from Bosnia, openly angled for appointment as Los Angeles County sheriff after the death of Sheriff Sherman Block in 1998. The speculation is that Portland would only be a weigh-station until the next big policing job happens along. In addition, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported Nov. 5 that Lorne Kramer, the city's police chief of eight years, was also a Portland finalist. Last week, however, WW learned that he accepted Colorado Springs' offer to become deputy city manager, which keeps him in charge of the cops and boosts his salary to $120,000. This marks the second time Katz has had chief finalists bail out on her late in the process. Six years ago, Norman Stamper, an assistant police chief from San Diego, took himself out of the running shortly before Katz promoted Charles Moose to the top post. Since Katz had been expected to name four finalists, it's not known how Kramer's withdrawal will affect the final lineup. Katz's office declined to comment on the process except to say that background checks had slowed the official announcement of the finalists. Presumably, no checks are required on two locals, Mark Paresi and Bruce Prunk, one or both of whom may still be in the running. Both are Portland Police Bureau assistant chiefs. --Philip Dawdy No More Marshall Plan? Is Portland's deal with Marshall Glickman on or off? That's the question lingering after Portland Family Entertainment announced last week that its plans to purchase the Calgary Cannons AAA baseball team had fallen through. On Nov. 18, the day after PFE's announcement, Portland Development Commission official Keith Witcosky sent an e-mail to 60 people involved in PFE's proposed takeover of city-owned Civic Stadium, ranging from neighborhood activists to the negotiating committee. "Based on [the] decision in Calgary, the City is no longer negotiating exclusively with PFE," Witcosky wrote. In essence, Witcosky was saying, the deal with Glickman, who owns PFE, was off. That seemed to come as news to the city's negotiating team. "The e-mail is inaccurate," says Larry Dully, a former PDC official who, along with lawyer Steve Janik, has conducted the talks with PFE. "We're still negotiating exclusively with PFE." Witcosky did not return WW's calls. A message on his voicemail said he was home ill. Dully's stance is somewhat surprising, given that the memorandum of understanding between PFE and the city clearly states that the period for exclusive negotiations expired on Oct. 31. Lynn Lashbrook, who heads a group interested in bringing major-league baseball to Portland, sees Dully's "clarification" of Witcosky's e-mail as further evidence that Mayor Vera Katz's administration is bending over backwards to preserve PFE's deal. From the beginning, the city, which is putting up 90 percent of the cost of renovating Civic, has talked tough. When Tim Grewe, Katz's director of finance, explained the deal in July, he listed several deadlines PFE would have to meet. "Missing any of these dates will be grounds for abandoning the agreement," Grewe said. PFE has already missed two deadlines, and while its chief, Glickman, says he's still "highly confident" of securing a AAA franchise, he says it's unlikely to happen by Dec. 31 as the agreement requires. Lashbrook, meanwhile, says he has a large out-of-town investor interested in using Civic as an interim site for major-league ball while a new stadium is built. He says he's in the process of enlisting local investors for just such an effort. --Nigel Jaquiss - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published November 23, 1999