Portland City Council Awards $11.5 Million Contract to Ex-Con Based on Race

The Portland City Council, OregonLive has reported, awarded a contract for $11.5 to a company headed by a woman with a history of fraud, including a stint in prison. The City Council reportedly chose her company based on race.

According to the New York Post, city staffers wanted the contract to provide heaters and coolers to low-income families to go to an established company, but the city recoiled at the only other company bidding has “85% white employees.”

The Post reported, “But the city council instead unanimously voted to award it to Diversifying Energy, a newly formed nonprofit with black leadership promising ‘equitable access to clean, sustainable energy’ for ‘low-income communities and people of color.’ ” The “woke company,” having apparently, uttered the correct political incantation.

The contract designates Diversifying Energy will deliver winter heaters and summer coolers to 15,000 Portland homes and apartments. The City Council approved the contract award unanimously despite staffers’ concerns about Diversifying Energy’s high personnel costs and delivery timeline. But they had the right skin color. At the time staff recommended the other company, they did not know about Woodley’s legal difficulties.

OregonLive reported to the city they’d located “reams of public records documenting her financial fraud and unpaid taxes.”

They added, “Nor were they [Portland] aware of a series of mischaracterizations and possible outright fabrication in her firm’s proposal that The Oregonian/OregonLive found during fact-checking.”

Critics are also concerned about an “additional $100 million in grants” to be distributed in 2022. Since Portland has demonstrated it practices racial discrimination, you need not apply if your employees have the wrong skin color.

Eden Dabbs, the spokesperson for Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, said she was shocked and distressed over Woodley’s past.

Shocked? Working for Portland?

Dabbs said the department takes responsibility for the decision and wants to review the process so it does not happen again.

Officials have delayed the contract’s start to Diversifying Energy, “the fund’s largest grant to date.”

If the Portland City Council were not basing decisions on race, this would not happen. Overlooking a company based on its employee’s skin color is objectively racist, despite any ostensible “good intentions.” It’s also illegal. However, the DOJ’s civil rights division won’t beat down Portland’s door to investigate alleged leftist racism.

Woodley denies she misled Portland when she claimed, “she ‘managed’ a $30 million energy upgrade program in L.A.” That program’s staffers said they’d never heard of her.

Woodley insists she’s cleaned up her act and says she is proud of the work she’s done.

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Steve Pomper

Steve Pomper is an author, freelance writer, and retired Seattle police officer. During his career, he served as a field training officer, on the Community Police Team, and as a mountain bike patrol coordinator. He’s written five books, including The Obama Gang and De-Policing America, and he is a contributor to the National Police Association and a freelance writer for The Tatum Report.

Originally from New England, he’s a Boston sports fan. He now lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, Jody, a retired firefighter. He enjoys spending time with his adult kids and three grandchildren.