PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

My friend, Dick Hughes, former editorial page editor of the Salem Statesman Journal, now writes a weekly Capitol Chatter column. This week, he included this point in a list of 30 questions he said gubernatorial candidates Kate Brown and Knute Buehler should be expected to answer:

“As governor, your office is in the Oregon State Capitol. Because parts of the Capitol are likely to collapse during The Big One, Senate President Peter Courtney has said it’s irresponsible for the state to let schoolchildren and others visit the Capitol. Do you agree?”

Whatever the answer to the question, it points out a huge lost opportunity for the State of Oregon. It can be easily attributed to two legislative leaders, Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek.

There’s the irony. Two legislative leaders from the same party who could have found an agreement, but failed.

It’s ironic that Courtney now wonders if school children should be allowed in the Capitol Building after he let the renovation project lapse.

Am I biased on this subject? Yes.

My firm, CFM Strategic Communications, represented the company, J.E. Dunn Construction, that won a hard-fought contract to be awarded the Capitol Building Renovation work.

We thought then – and I think now – that the project represented a huge step forward in an effort to upgrade the “Peoples’ Building,” the state capitol, which has stood on the current ground since it was built in 1938. Two versions of the Capitol have burned to the ground since 1938 and the Capitol Building was re-constructed twice. In addition, capitol wings were added in 1977 to provide improved offices for 90 legislators and their staff.

With that history, here a couple summary statements about what happened in 2015 to kill this important project.

• In advance of the 2015 legislative session, legislators created a Capitol Renovation Work Group that met for months to develop a renovation plan. I followed the process for CFM and J.E. Dunn and it was a solid piece of public policy aspiration from the work group, which resulted in a clear recommendation to the Legislature to consider funding the project.
• Improving public safety represented a key part of the project because, if there were to be another earthquake, the Capitol Building would not fare well. In fact, on March 25, 1993, a magnitude 5.6 Scott Mills earthquake damaged the dome, requiring closure for repairs. The rotunda area remained closed for approximately two years for these repairs. This “Spring Break Quake” shook the building enough to shift the statue on top and crack the dome. Additionally, the quake created a three-foot bulge on the west end of the building. Repairs cost $4.3 million and included reinforcing the structure with additional concrete and steel bars. The gold man at the top of the Capitol – it is just the “Gold Man,” with no name, say, for a major state pioneer — was within seconds of falling to the ground with its more than eight ton weight.
• In response to the renovation proposal, the Legislature circulated a request for proposal and our client, J.E. Dunn, asked CFM for public affairs help to improve the tone, character and content of its submission. We were glad to work for months to help J.D. Dunn and, among other things, advocated for an emphasis on the important historical history of Oregon’s Capitol Building – thus the moniker, “The Peoples’ Building.”
• Of course, J.E. Dunn, a privately-held company headquartered in Kansas City with offices in Portland, did the heavy-lifting work to design the complicated construction part of the work – not, obviously, within CFM’s credentials.
• With our help, J.E. Dunn then submitted its proposal to the Legislature and, in a hard-fought process where company officials were interviewed (of course, without CFM in the room), came out as the winner against several other firms, including Oregon construction stalwart, Hoffman Construction. One of the reasons was that J.E. Dunn assigned an experienced manager, Bill Spiller, to lead its team. His previous experience renovating the Kansas Capitol Building gave him a significant “been there and done that” leg up in the completion.

That should have been the end of the process, but then what happened defies explanation, especially from a political point of view.

Democrats, in full control of the legislative process, could not reach agreement on moving forward, so the contract with J.E. Dunn was cancelled. It was reported that one reason revolved around a competing demand from K-12 school interests to devote bond resources to retrofit Oregon classrooms. That was a proposal supported by House Speaker Kotek.

To this day, it escapes me how Democrat leaders – Courtney and Kotek – couldn’t find a compromise that devoted resources to both priorities, the Capitol Building and school buildings.

Insider information from the Capitol suggests that the renovation project could gain new life in the future. If so, good. It deserves to be funded for the good of the entire state. But, given what happened last time around, I won’t hold my breath.