A week after the Portland School Board voted torefer a $548 million construction bond to the May ballot, fundraising for a long-dormant political action committee for schools has picked up considerably.
In recent days, big-money donations have poured into the âPortlanders for Schoolsâ committee, which supported the successful 2006 local-option levy for Portland Public Schools. Advocates resurrected the PAC in recent days to support the new construction-bond campaign.
Among the new donors: Hoffman Construction, which gave $2,500; Azumano Travel, owned by one-time mayoral candidate Sho Dozono, gave $1,000; campaign funds for City Commissioner Nick Fish and Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen gave $1,000 and $2,500 respectively.
City Commissioner Dan Saltzman says he gave $1,000 (although that doesnât show up yet on Orestar). Finally, Mark Edlen, the real-estate developer from Portlandâs Gerding Edlen, gave $5,000. Last year, Gerding Edlen teamed up with PPS to install solar panels on nine schools. The bond, if approved by voters in 2011, would retire the debt on the solar-panel projects from 2009 and fund new solar-panel projects going forward.
Photo of a sign outside Portlandâs Lane Middle School. The sign described the solar-panel project from 2009
WWeek 2015