The votes are in and the results have been tabulated: after a week of nominations and voting by our community, ELGL is thrilled to announce the winner of the Knope of the Week! As a reminder, The Knope of the Week honors individuals or groups who have done the most in the past week to advance the mission of ELGL.
Without further ado, the winner of the 35th Knope of the Week goes to the . . . .
Greater Portland Inc
Sean Robbins, CEO
Maggie Finnerty, Vice President of Investor Stewardship
Despite brushing off our Chick-fil-A question, Sean and Maggie are well deserving of this prestigious award for their participation in this week’s forum. They bring a much needed energy to the region and the determination to increase regional collaboration. Greater Portland Inc is an incredible resource for Portland area cities including small cities. You can see their work first hand at the upcoming 5th Annual Greater Portland Inc Economic Summit.
So what did we learn from Sean & Maggie?
- Retail is not economic development.
- Sean is older than 18 years but younger than 22.
- New York State is a successful model of basing economic development on regions.
- 78 percent of job growth comes from existing business.
- Your first order of business as a city manager should be visiting with existing businesses to discuss partnership that will assist in their growth.
- Remember Starbucks, Amazon, Nike, etc. were grown organically through a business friendly environment.
- Greater Portland is taking a “wait and see” approach with the Oregon Investment Act. They are encouraged by the work of State Treasurer Ted Wheeler in shaping it into a meaning approach.
- State budgets need to look more long-term; Oregon is taking a look at 10-year budgeting.
- Success is measured by tangible outcomes.
- Ben Stein is the keynote at the Economic Summit. No Ferris Bueller jokes, please. See Win Ben Stein’s Money at Greater Portland’s Economic Summit.
- Additional pictures and notes can be found here: Fist Bump to Greater Portland Inc.
Best of luck to Greater Portland Inc as they continue to build regional partnerships capable of bring jobs, jobs, jobs to the area.
Previous Knope of the Week Recipients
- David Donaldson, City of Lake Oswego Interim City Manager
- Jeff Towery, City of Springfield Assistant City Manager and OCCMA President
- Barbara Roberts, Former Oregon Governor and Current Metro Councilor
- Laura Cleland, Association of Oregon Counties
- Heather Reagan, Nathan Reagan (Handy & Reagan) and Peter Watts (Jordan Ramis)
- MPA Graduates
- Dr. Thomas Potiowsky, Former State of Oregon Economist
- Dave Waffle, City of Beaverton Assistant Finance Director
- Joe Gall, City of Sherwood City Manager
- Governor Gregoire and Staff
- Umpqua Bank (Barbara Baker, Michelle Van Allen, Nancy Lloyd, Robert Cross)
- Jessica Struyk, PSU MPA, cities of Beaverton and Fairview
- Patrick Quinton, Portland Development Commission Executive Director
- Bryan Cosgrove (Wilsonville), Marty Wine (Tigard), Michael Brown (Hillsboro)
- Chris Workman, City of Veneta
- Portland Timbers (Mike Golub, Chelsey Cossey, Patti Peters, Amber Browne)
- Anthony Petchel, Bank of the Cascades
- Claire Oliver, West Linn Tidings
- Phil Keisling, Director of Portland State University Center for Public Service
- Geoff Pursinger, Tigard Times
- Ken Ray, Metro Senior Public Affairs Coordinator
- Alliance Resources Consulting, Colin Baenzinger and Associates, Strategic Government Resources, Waldron & Associates
- OMFOA Developing Professionals (Heidi Starks, Rhyan Van Horn, Toby LaFrance)
- Justin Cutler (LaPine Parks & Rec), Robyn Christie (Bend), Kirsten Wyatt (West Linn)
- Rhyan Van Horn, TriMet senior accountant
- ELGL Advisory Board
- Cate Schneider, Lake Oswego city recorder
- Alex McIntyre, Lake Oswego city manager
- Matt Bailing, Willamette graduate, ELGL data analyst
- Megan Messmer, PSU MPA student, City of Banks intern, City of Dayton intern
- Zoe Monahan, Sherwood assistant planner
- Rosalynn Greene, Clackamas County sustainability analyst and Karen Pearson, Clackamas County human resources program coordinator
- Kathy Mollusky, West Linn city recorder
- Jordan Wheeler, Lake Oswego assistant to the city manager