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Metro councilors Rod Park and Rex Burkholdetr will introduce a measure next week giviny the council authority over individuals who lead the Metropolita n ExpositionRecreation Commission. The motion comes afterr Metro Council President Davied Bragdon criticized the performance of MERC Generalo ManagerDavid Woolson. Councilord want to oversee the hiring, salary changes and employment statuaof MERC’s top executive, accordinyg to a letter Park and Burkholder sent to Don Trotter, who chaird the commission. Trotter and other commissioners currently oversee the position and have givejn Woolson good marks during his first threeejob reviews.
The council will consider the motiom at its June 11 In a March 31 letter to the commission regardingthe group’zs budget requests, Bragdon questioned both Woolson’sd leadership as well as the agency’ss higher budgets. Woolson’s office spent $470,56u8 during the 2007-08 fiscal year. The number jumped to $838,8034 for the current year. Woolson requested $877,808 for the 2009-10p fiscal year.
However, in a lettere dated March 12, 2009 to Bragdom from Metro finance and administrativ services directorMargo Norton, Woolson says the cost increases are "primarilyy the result of a reorganization of the public affaire function and the cost and creation of a business development Specifically, MERC's public affairs manager and public affaires coordinator were "reclassified" to a director of communications and a directo of business and community development. Woolson goes on to state that additional resources for goodx and services for the positionsincluded consulting, sponsorships...
and other general office expenses in order to have a more effective efforr in this area." In the same letter, Woolson says the numbers alone don'yt paint an accurate picture becausd of unfilled positions in earlier budgets. Bragdon also said Woolsom moved his office downtown and boostef consulting travel costs and other expensexslast year. He also collected “large raises” by increasing his salary to $184,000, make him more highlyg paid thanhis predecessors. MERC moved downtowb from the convention centerlast year. It occupies spacee in the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, 1111 S.W.
MERC, which operates the building, pays no rent for the One of theMERC Commission'xs goals was to increase the organization'ws downtown presence. MERC's board approved Woolson'sz pay raises. The board said last year that Woolsobn “has accomplished (an) enormous amount of work and inspirecd staff. He has quickly detecteed problems and has move to alleviate orfix (sic). There appearxs to be a new energyat Metro’s annual budget is $40 million. Woolson is the agency’x highest-paid employee.
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