O ctober 6. 2010
Minority & Small Business Week
UniquelyQualified
c o n t i n u e d f r o m front
unique credentials.
With the retirem ent o f Bertha
Ferran, whose seat she takes, she
will be the only wom an and the
youngest com m issioner ever on
the five-m em ber panel. C ertainly
she is the only m other, a parent to
three sons, w ith her husband
Aubre Dickson.
Equally significant, on a panel
that has spent considerable time in
recent years dealing w ith questions
relating to racial m inority and
w om en-ow ned contractors and
companies; she will be the first to
represent the interests o f firms that
are often disadvantaged at winning
PDC contracts. At Colas Construc­
tion, a firm started by her father
Hermann in 1997, she is a member of
the National Association o f Minor­
ity Contractors.
The company has “a portfolio
that extends across the metropoli­
tan area,” Colas-Dickson told Mayor
Sam Adams and the other city com­
missioners, including northeast and
east Portland and Gresham. The firm
has specialized in mixed-use and
commercial projects. Among the
projects was the renovation o f the
Golden West Hotel, a historical
downtown gathering place for Afri­
can-Americans in the early and mid
1900s, as a complex for low-income
housing. Her company also reno­
vated the 32-unit Iron Crest devel­
opment in Gresham, and did afford­
able housing projects for HOST
Community Development and Ha­
cienda Community Development.
“We have created quality, self-
financed, quality projects in blighted
areas that have uplifted the commu­
nities around them,” Colas-Dickson
said. Her objective on the PDC com­
mission will be to create a “livable,
equitable, sustainable city,” she
said.
Bom in Portland, Colas-Dickson
attended St. M ary’s Academy and
graduated from the University o f
Oregon in Eugene with degrees in
accounting and business adminis­
tration.
There are strong bonds o f loy­
alty in her family business, she told
the Portland Observer. She joined
the company part-time in 1998, and
has worked there full time for 10
years
“If I did well and my father
w anted to have me, I w anted to
help,” she said.
Noting that her sons were in the
audience for her PDC appointment,
she told city council members that
she was “especially passionate
about schools, parks and public
spaces.”
She wants to see “cranes in the
air, shovels in the ground, and keep­
ing business doors open.”
VT. . , , ,
City ConunissioncrNickFish told mous success. I know you have a
Colas-Dickson that as someone deep, deep commitment to the val-
long interested in affordable hous­ ues we share.
ing developm ent “ I’ve had the
Adams said that with Colas-
honor o f working with your family.
le son s addition, PDC now has
I have no doubt you’ll be an enor­
t e best group o f commissioners
Page 5
the city has ever had.”
Commissioner Randy Leonard, a
frequent critic o f PDC, said that the
agency has traveled “an interesting
roadsince2002.Forthelastfewyears,
under (Director) Bruce Warner I have
been pleased to work with them. They
have achieved racial and ethnic di-
versity, true, but they’re also exceed-
ingly competent.”
Some o f the strongest criticisms
.o f the agency have been about the
low level o f minority participation in
their urban renewal projects, and
some o f their strongest critics have
been minority contractors.
Colas-D ickson is aware o f the
com plaints but says, “ In recent
years PDC has been doing a much
better jo b o f realizing the dispar­
ity in m inority participation in
contracting in the past, and is
working to correct it. I will con-
tinue working for these changes.”
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