October 2, 2019
Minority & Small Business Week
Clean Energy Fund Oversight Forms
The first five Portland Clean
Energy Fund grant committee
members were formally enlisted
before the Portland City Council
last week.
Members of the Portland com-
munity, Maria Gabrielle Sipin,
Megan Horst, Michael David Ed-
den Hill, Chanice Brittany Clarke
and Robin Wang will serve for
four years as the oversight body
for the $54-71 million in expect-
ed grant funds that are meant to
fund clean energy projects, green
job training, and green infrastruc-
ture for underserved communi-
ties, including people of color and
Page 17
low-income Portlanders.
These first five folks will rec-
ommend four more committee
members to Mayor Ted Wheeler
The first five committee
members to oversee the
new Portland Clean Energy
Fund were seated before
the Portland City Council
last week.
for approval. Once fully formed,
the 9-person committee will re-
lease requests for proposals, re-
view applications, and make rec-
ommendations for funding to City
Council. They’ll also maintain a
public website for transparency,
adopt a workforce equity plan,
and a methodology for tracking
the success and impact of the fund.
The first round of funding will be
available in the first part of 2020.
State Farm R
Michael E Harper
Agent
Help Supporting Diversity in Business
C ontinued from p age 11
far, half of those businesses are
already actively involved, includ-
ing participating in focus groups
and networking, to further refine
the program, which should go into
full swing by the end of the year.
Mason said that Mackenzie
had already hired interns for this
summer before getting involved
in the program, but that next year,
diversity will become a bigger
factor in hiring.
“We will make a more con-
certed effort next year to hire
more people of color,” she said.
“It’s still a process and we’re still
raising consciousness to what it
means to be a diverse, equitable
and inclusive organization.”
Mason said her company is tak-
ing an internal assessment to see
ways it can have a more equitable
and inclusive environment and
will also look at where it buys sup-
plies and its role in helping small,
minority-owned businesses.
“How can we help with bar-
riers they are facing as a small
business with our knowledge of
running a business?” she said.
Shawn Uhlman, spokesman
for Prosper Portland, said the city
will take stock of the initiative as
it decides how it will grow. Port-
land Means Progress has been
a year in the planning stage, he
said, and is still engaging focus
groups and surveys to course-cor-
rected as evolves.
“Before we get more busi-
nesses to sign on, we want more
(feedback) from a business per-
spective,” he said.
Andrea Gall, project manager
of Portland Means Progress, said
that’s how the early adopters fit in.
“The early adopter businesses
are a learning stage, a small group
to join us to see how we should
grow going forward,” she said.
“And we want to make sure we’re
asking the right questions, to work
on engagement and surveys on the
folks impacted, on youth, on staff
culture change. We are trying to
really pause and be thoughtful be-
fore we scale up.”
Gall added that up to 150 busi-
nesses could be included in the
program during 2020.
Tory Campbell, director of
economic development for Pros-
per Portland, agrees that taking
time to make sure the program is
viable is essential to its success.
“We want a program that works
and not a program that starts and
stops, because in many instances,
slow is fast,” he said.
Providing Insurance
and Financial Services
Home Office, Bloomingon, Illinois 61710
We are located at:
9713 S.W. Capitol, Portland, OR
503-221-3050 • Fax 503-227-8757
michael.harper.cuik@statefarm.com