Did parking czar get too cozy with contractors?

New documents allege city manager golfed, ate with firms during big-money talks

By nick budnick

The Portland Tribune, Nov 13, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (7 Reader comments)

COURTESY OF KPTV

City parking manager Ellis McCoy is under investigation following allegations in a tort claim filed against the city by a parking contractor.

The city of Portland is investigating allegations that city parking manager Ellis McCoy received free meals and entertainment from companies that he did business with on behalf of the city, according to documents obtained by the Portland Tribune.

At the same time, city officials continue to look into whether McCoy applied to become a partner in a parking business even while pursuing a contract that would have benefited the firm by privatizing part of the operation of Portland’s automated SmartMeter parking stations.

The allegation was made by the owner of the parking firm himself, Bruce Feathers, a member of the city’s advisory committee on small business who has been described as “instrumental” in assisting Mayor Tom Potter’s efforts to improve the city’s minority contracting.

As the Portland Tribune reported in October, Feathers sent the city a legal notice, called a tort claim, earlier this year, alleging that McCoy acted improperly to get his firm, FeatherLite, kicked off a city contract after FeatherLite declined McCoy’s overtures to hire him.

Now, documents newly released by the city show that Feathers’ allegations go beyond that retaliation claim.

The documents, obtained through Oregon Public Records Law, include documents that Feathers has submitted to the city to support his tort claim, which formally threatens the city with a lawsuit.

Feathers alleges in one document sent to the city that McCoy accepted Feathers’ gifts of free meals and admission to at least one Portland Trail Blazers game while he was negotiating a new parking deal that would have involved FeatherLite.

Feathers also alleges that another firm that would have benefited from the new parking meter contract, Precise Parklink of Toronto, “hosted (Feathers and McCoy) in Toronto for meals, golfing and fishing.”

According to the city of Portland’s Web site, the city’s ethics policy calls for city employees to avoid any “conflict of interest and (to) not accept benefits from people requesting to affect decisions.”

If an employee’s “financial or personal interests will be specifically affected by a decision, the official is to withdraw from participating in the decision,” the ethics policy says.

Asked about city policy on gifts and meals, Anna Kanwit, a lawyer with the city’s Bureau of Human Resources, which is participating in the city investigation of McCoy, said: “If it’s one of our vendors or someone we do business with, the expectation has been that you don’t allow them to pay for meals or give you gifts at all.”

Feathers declined to comment on the claim, while McCoy responded to a request for comment through his lawyer, Brad Stanford.

“Mr. McCoy will not comment until the results of the city’s investigation are released,” Stanford wrote in an Nov. 7 e-mail. “Mr. McCoy intends to vigorously respond to Mr. Feathers’ and FeatherLite’s allegations and will pursue all appropriate legal remedies.”

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