Skip to main content* How dubious was the Texas Pacific bid to buy Portland General Electric from Enron? On July 23, under the headline, "Worse than Enron?" the trade publication Private Equity Week mused that the Texas group--whose bid for PGE was rejected by Oregon regulators last week--is less attractive than the status quo. Separately, an Oregonian analysis noted the City of Portland bid nearly the same amount as TPG but neglected to clarify a big difference: TPG would grab $240 million in dividends sitting in PGE's vault, while the city was willing to let PGE's parent, Enron, keep the money. So, not only is TPG worse than the bunch of bankrupt criminals it's trying to replace, it's offering less than the city would.
* Some things at the cop shop don't change--like targeting people for their political beliefs. On Monday, a swarm of cops descended on the MAX Red Line--the main transportation for protesters on their way to the GOP fundraiser emceed by Vice President Dick Cheney (see page 9). The cops checked fares and even hassled Damon Woodcock, the former Portland cop who left the bureau citing harassment after undergoing a sex change (see "Crossing the Line," WW, Feb. 6, 2002). Woodcock had not paid a fare, but cited a policy that former cops ride TriMet for free, and showed his retiree card. Cmdr. Mike Bell gave him a hard time anyway. "They threatened to arrest me for impersonating a police officer," says Woodcock. "The whole thing is just ridiculous."
* Last week, the Eugene Register-Guard broke a big story: A merger between the state's two largest credit unions, Portland Teachers and Eugene-based Oregon Community Credit Union, fell apart in May largely because PTCU didn't want to disclose the outsized compensation of CEO Cliff Dias, who the Register-Guard says collected $1.6 million in salary and bonuses last year. That's more than four times the industry average and more than CEOs at similar-sized for-profit banks (credit unions are nonprofit co-ops).
* Last week McCormick & Schmick's sold stock for the first time, at about $12 per share. That's good news in a state that hasn't seen a sizable company go public in the past three years. According to SEC filings, co-founders Bill McCormick and Doug Schmick, who sold most of their ownership in 1994, each took salaries of about $230,000 last year. The offering valued their stakes in the company at just under $1 million each and, through buyouts and stock sales, put another half-million in cash in their pockets.
* The saga of the Schlesinger family's effort to break the Goodman family's stranglehold on the contract to operate city parking garages continues (see "Car Wars Redux," WW, May 26, 2004). The Schlesinger-owned Star Park, which won the city Smart Park contract earlier this summer only to have City Council overrule the decision, has won it again. Don't expect the Goodman-owned rival City Center Parking to accept the decision quietly; on Aug. 4, the council will revisit the issue.
WWeek 2015