A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021
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BRIEFING
Democrats tighten
virus-aid benefits
President Joe Biden
and Democrats agreed
to tighten eligibility lim-
its for stimulus checks
Wednesday, bowing
to party moderates as
leaders prepared to
move their $1.9 tril-
lion COVID-19 relief bill
through the Senate.
At the same time, the
White House and top
Democrats stood by pro-
gressives and agreed
that the Senate package
would retain the $400
weekly emergency un-
employment benefits
included in the House-
passed pandemic legis-
lation. Moderates have
wanted to trim those pay-
ments to $300 after Re-
publicans have called the
bill so heedlessly gener-
ous that it would prompt
some people to not re-
turn to work.
The deal-making un-
derscored the balancing
act Democrats face as
they try squeezing the
massive relief measure
through the evenly di-
vided, 50-50 Senate. The
package, Biden’s signa-
ture legislative priority, is
his attempt to stomp out
the year-old pandemic,
revive an economy that’s
shed 10 million jobs and
bring some semblance
of normality to countless
upended lives.
Fed reports
modest gains
A Federal Reserve
survey of business con-
ditions across the United
States has found that
economic activity was
expanding at a modest
pace in February.
The Fed survey re-
leased Wednesday shows
that the central bank’s
business contacts were
expressing optimism last
month about a stron-
ger rebound as more
COVID-19 vaccines are
distributed.
Reports on consumer
spending and auto sales
were mixed, while overall
manufacturing showed
moderate gains despite
supply-side constraints,
according to the Fed
survey.
The report, known as
the beige book, is based
on surveys conducted
by the Fed’s 12 regional
banks. It will form the ba-
sis for discussions when
central bank officials
meet on March 16-17 to
mull their future moves
on monetary policy.
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LES SCHWAB TIRE CENTERS
New owners to stop paying employee dividend
BY MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
Les Schwab liked to talk
about how his company’s un-
usual profit-sharing and bo-
nus plans could build a nest
egg for his employees, from
managers overseeing his
shops to the front-line work-
ers swapping out tires on a hy-
draulic lift.
“That’s why I don’t like to
talk about how successful I’ve
been,” Schwab told The Or-
egonian in 1997. “I prefer to
talk about how successful my
employees are.”
Schwab died in 2007,
though, and his descendants
sold the company last year to
a California investment firm,
Meritage Group. Meritage
initially said Les Schwab Tire
Centers would continue op-
erating as it always had, but
recently notified employees of
one major change: It will stop
paying an annual employee
dividend that workers had
long depended upon.
In recent years that
amounted to an annual pay-
ment of more than $3,000,
with all 7,000 workers getting
the same amount regardless of
their rank within the company.
“As you know, the dividend
was a discretionary gift made
by the family and paid outside
of our company programs,”
current Schwab CEO Jack Cu-
niff wrote in a January note to
employees, obtained by The
Oregonian. “With the change
in ownership, the dividend
program will not continue for
the 2021 calendar year.”
Employees will receive their
2020 dividend this month,
Cuniff said, and a separate bo-
nus that is also paid annually
based on their own store’s per-
formance.
“Going forward,” he con-
cluded, “we’ll continue to look
for additional ways to thank
employees for their incredible
contribution to our company’s
success.”
See Les Schwab / A12
OREGON LEGISLATURE
Clatsop County
Tackling vacation
rental rules
BY NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
C
latsop County is tackling rules around
vacation rentals, considering some big-
ticket policy items that could increase re-
strictions.
During a county County Commission work
session in February, the county set the table for
discussions, laying out ways to tighten short-
term rental ordinances as well as potential poli-
cies to consider down the road.
Cities on the North Coast have struggled to
balance the growth in vacation rentals as the
region becomes a more popular tourist desti-
nation. Pockets of the county have also felt the
same pressures.
Many of the questions and policy suggestions
came out of quarterly community discussions
the county started hosting last summer.
Gail Henrikson, Clatsop County’s community
development director, said the meetings were
an opportunity to explain how the code compli-
ance process works and how they prioritize and
address complaints.
During the community meetings, residents
explained how short-term rentals have impacted
their quality of life. Many of the complaints deal
with noise, parking and overcrowding. Other
complaints are out of the county’s control.
Vacation rental owners have described their
efforts to be good neighbors and encourage
their guests to do the same.
“And they also have concerns about possible
changes to the ordinance that may impact how
they do business or even possibly eliminate the
possibility of them doing business,” Henrikson
said.
There are two county ordinances that regulate
vacation rentals. One is specific to Arch Cape,
while the other covers the remaining unincor-
porated parts of the county.
Both are similar, but have a couple of key dif-
ferences regarding parking and length-of-stay
requirements.
Democrats float
$17-an-hour
minimum wage
BY MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
Five Democrats in the Oregon Legisla-
ture have filed a bill that would increase the
state’s minimum wage, from as low as $11.50
an hour in some places to $17 an hour state-
wide.
That works out to a little more than
$35,000 a year for someone working 40
hours a week, beginning next year. The bill
would do away with existing regional differ-
ences in Oregon’s minimum wage that were
created to insulate businesses from higher
expenses in rural areas where the cost of liv-
ing is lower.
Although the proposed minimum wage
hike has five co-sponsors, they are all in
their first year in the Legislature, and Dem-
ocratic leaders have not listed the bill among
their priorities. That probably means it has
little chance of passing — especially if Re-
publicans were to threaten another walkout
to block it.
Just 1 in 15 Oregon jobs pay the mini-
mum wage, according to the latest state data.
See $17-an-hour / A11
See Rental rules / A12
Clatsop County is considering more restrictions on vacation rentals. Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Bend vacation
rental company
sues Vacasa
Suit alleges ‘smear campaign’
BY MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
A small rival company based in Bend
filed a complaint against Portland vaca-
tion rental management giant Vacasa on
Wednesday, alleging that Vacasa had em-
barked on a “smear campaign” in an effort
to poach clients.
The court case spotlights the increasingly
competitive market to manage vacation
getaways. Privately held Vacasa has grown
enormously since its founding in 2009, pri-
marily by acquiring small management
companies in vacation destination com-
munities and by winning clients away from
other businesses.
Vacasa is one of Portland’s largest com-
panies and one of the few sizable, Ore-
gon-based companies to emerge in the
past several decades. It manages more than
25,000 vacation rentals across the nation —
and in several foreign countries — provid-
ing housekeeping, maintenance and online
rental listing services.
U.S. services sector
growth slows
Growth in the ser-
vices sector, where most
Americans work, slowed
sharply in February with
hurdles related to the
pandemic hindering
growth.
The Institute for Sup-
ply Management said
Wednesday that its index
of service-sector activity
dropped to a reading of
55.5% in February, down
3.4 percentage-points
from January when ac-
tivity neared a two-year
high.
Even with the decline,
it was the ninth straight
month of growth in the
services sector. Any read-
ing above 50 signifies
growth.
Economists had ex-
pected some rollback
from the January high
but the size of the Febru-
ary drop was much big-
ger than expected, driven
by a sharp decline in the
new orders index.
GOLD
$1,715.30 -17.80
See Vacasa / A12
Robot waiter minimizes human
contact at Portland-area bistro
BY GABBY URENDA
Beaverton Valley Times
At Bistro Royale in Beaver-
ton, you can thank Milo for
bringing and taking away your
food by pushing his buttons.
Most servers wouldn’t like
that, but Milo is different —
some might call him “futuris-
tic.”
The restaurant — with cui-
sine from Myanmar, formerly
known as Burma — uses au-
tonomous robots like Milo to
limit contact between staff and
customers.
People have reacted favor-
ably to Milo, said Kalvin My-
int, who is a co-owner of Bistro
Royale. The restaurant began
using the robot in August.
“I love to actually play with
all these new technologies,” said
Myint. “So, when we were look-
ing for a solution, in terms of
providing a safer dining expe-
rience, my tendency is actually
to lean towards technology and
see what’s available out there.”
Myint and his wife, Poe, first
opened Bistro Royale in March
2020. The couple also owns
Top Burmese in Portland.
When the coronavirus pan-
demic began, Myint and his
wife decided to open their new
Beaverton location despite the
restrictions on dining due to the
virus. The couple then divided
their staff between the two loca-
tions to minimize layoffs.
See Robot / A12
Portland Tribune
River, a server at Bistro Royale in Beaverton, demonstrates how the
restaurant’s robot carries food to a table.