The masterful Mazziotti

• Development boss demands big things of his staff and of his city

By Kristina Brenneman

The Portland Tribune, Jun 3, 2003, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Don Mazziotti is formidable.

Both in stature Ñ he’s 6 feet 4 inches tall Ñ and in reputation.

City Commissioner Randy Leonard discovered that when he challenged the executive director of the Portland Development Commission about the agency’s budget and how well it was monitoring tax breaks to condo developers in the Brewery Blocks.

Mazziotti was frustrated with the new pit bull from City Hall; Leonard called PDC’s staff “hostile and unapproachable” and acknowledged having a “rocky start” with Mazziotti.

“There was a bit of misfiring,” says one PDC insider.

By the time the two men returned last week from a business recruitment trip to Las Vegas, however, Leonard had become a Mazziotti admirer.

“I appreciated his style, forthrightness and knowledge of Portland,” Leonard says. “He seemed to really understand the elements of what these businesses really wanted to know. It was mind-boggling and very impressive. He had that mastered. Now I understand him better, the agency better and the role better.”

The 57-year-old director of the semiautonomous PDC, whose budget this year will top $222 million, is widely acknowledged to be a high-octane achiever who is not afraid to ruffle feathers.

“Don doesn’t suffer fools lightly,” concedes PDC Chairman John Russell. “He has the reputation of being demanding.”

Ask city Commissioner Erik Sten, who’s been arguing with Mazziotti over the development agency’s desire to relocate Fire Station 1 on Southwest Oak Street to make way for new waterfront housing.

“He’s a very decisive leader,” Sten says. “He has a style that is very independent. He makes it clear the buck stops with the commission. At times that makes people angry, but I like working with him. He’s strong and passionate.”

PDC staff members say Mazziotti’s tough exterior does not translate into inflexibility. If anything, he’s cultivated a camaraderie among senior staff that seems to make the excessively long hours more tolerable.

His intimidating appearance is fostered by a close-cropped haircut and a scar that runs from his jaw line to the back of his neck Ñ a remnant of a motorcycle accident when he was 17. He rarely makes wisecracks at PDC meetings, although he’s known for a wry sense of humor. He favors black suits and authentic Italian restaurants such as Piazza Italia, where he revels in his Italian-American heritage as much as the cannoli.

Few public officials have as much leverage over the city’s economic fortunes as Maz-ziotti and his agency.

It is the PDC that will oversee restoration of Meier & Frank’s downtown store, push for a more viable retail environment in the Midtown Park Blocks, midwife the emergence of the North Macadam neighborhood as a secondary commerce and housing center, and possibly even help fund a new major league baseball stadium.

Any new business recruited to the city Ñ a top priority in today’s lackluster economy Ñ will almost certainly appear at the PDC’s door. The Las Vegas journey brought several major retailers to Portland’s doorstep, although Leonard would not disclose their names.

“He has had the ability to get stuff done,” the agency’s Russell says of Mazziotti. “He’s a very, very hard worker and expects the same of others. We have very ambitious goals for what we want to see happen.”

The Italian connection

Mazziotti Ñ whose circle of close friends includes former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt and Port of Portland Executive Director Bill Wyatt Ñ grew up in a half Irish, half Italian neighborhood in Oelwein, Iowa, a railroad center between Kansas City, Mo., and Chicago.

His grandfather Ñ who hailed from central Italy Ñ was hired to recruit 2,500 Italians to work on the railroad. The railroad gave him the rights to develop a company store, California Fruit Co., which grew into a small group of companies Ñ including a bakery and a sausage and meatball packing operation.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit