Murmurs: No Influence. Nope. None Whatsover.

1. The Portland Development Commission is finally making progress unloading land it has collected in the Lents neighborhood. The PDC plans to sell six of the 12 Lents acres it owns to developers—including Pearl District power brokers Homer Williams and Dike Dame. That’s good news for the PDC, which has spent $103 million in urban renewal money from the neighborhood since 1998 with little to show for it except empty lots (“Razed and Confused,” WW, Jan. 22, 2014). Development plans include apartments, shops and a community center. Still in play: the New Copper Penny, the controversial nightclub whose owner, Saki Tzantarmas, has long haggled with the PDC to reach a sales price (“Saki’s Big Bet,” WW,  Nov. 12, 2014).

1. Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian is poised to ink a $2.4 million settlement with Daimler Trucks North America to resolve allegations that minorities working at the company’s Swan Island plant and corporate offices put up with years of racial intimidation and abuse, sources near the investigation tell WW. The complaints-—first reported by WW—allege workers endured racial slurs, threats of violence and assaults (“Truck Race,” WW, Sept. 3, 2014). The civil rights settlement would be the largest in Bureau of Labor and Industries history. BOLI spokesman Charlie Burr declined to comment, as did Daimler officials.

1. City Commissioner Amanda Fritz says she will seek a third term on the City Council in 2016. She hadn’t planned to run again but changed her mind after her husband, Dr. Steven Fritz, died in a September car crash on Interstate 5 near Salem. “I was hoping to be able to retire and spend time with my husband,” Fritz tells WW. “I have lots of goals for the city, and I’m trying to make something good come out of this horrible thing that’s happened.” Fritz won re-election in 2012 after a tough challenge from former state Rep. Mary Nolan (D-Portland). Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith and former County Chairwoman Marissa Madrigal were both rumored to be interested in the City Council seat if Fritz retired. Fritz—who has rejected large donations and PAC money—says she will fund her re-election campaign with the payout from her husband’s life insurance.

1. Secretary of State Kate Brown got caught this week shilling for Comcast and the cable giant’s bid for Federal Communications Commission approval to merge with Time Warner Cable. TheVerge.com revealed that an Aug. 25 letter Brown sent to the FCC supporting the merger was cut and pasted from a letter drafted by Oregon’s Comcast lobbyist. Brown has accepted nearly $10,000 in campaign contributions from Comcast since 2008. Brown spokesman Tony Green says the campaign cash didn’t influence the secretary of state (whose job has exactly zero to do with cable companies). “This was a decision based on the good work Comcast has done in the community,” Green says.

WWeek 2015