While city leaders hold a work session later this month to talk about how to renovate the sports arena where the Trail Blazers play, the team’s owner is scheduled to speak at an annual meeting held by Portland’s chamber of commerce. But the chamber wants the Council to move its public meeting to avoid the scheduling conflict, saying councilors should instead join the big-ticket event.
According to public records obtained by the Mercury, Portland Metro Chamber President and CEO Andrew Hoan sent an email Friday requesting the City Council reschedule an upcoming work session about the Moda Center and instead attend the Metro Chamber’s annual meeting, which is scheduled to be held at the arena at the same time.
Both are scheduled during the afternoon of Wednesday, June 24. The work session was scheduled after the Metro Chamber event had already been on the calendar.
The scheduling conflict highlights the tensions around who is making decisions about public dollars, and what renovations are necessary to keep the arena in good shape for the NBA franchise. Supporters argue the Trail Blazers are an economic asset the city can’t afford to lose, and critics say the city can hardly afford to hand money over without knowing what it will get in return.
While the work session is a public meeting that’s free and open to the public, the Metro Chamber event may be cost prohibitive for some Portlanders. Tickets are $250 each for members, and non-member tickets are $350 each.
Hoan sent a letter to City Council President Jamie Dunphy, city councilors, the city administrator, and the mayor on June 12, suggesting the Council move its public meeting so councilors could attend.
“As has been known for some time now, the new owner is going to be at our Annual Meeting,” Hoan wrote. “The council session that was just scheduled is at the same start time and date. Might I suggest, it would probably make a lot of sense for the council to come, meet Tom [Dundon], as well as interact with state leadership, and our partners at Albina Vision Trust, which they have all been invited to do.”
Dunphy isn’t having it.
“I have every intention of holding the work session as scheduled here in city hall that day,” Dunphy told the Mercury.
How to approach Moda Center upgrades—and whether the city, county, and state should hand Dundon and the Blazers ownership group public dollars for a wish list to build a state-of-the-art arena —has been a flashpoint in local politics.
Scheduled speakers at the Metro Chamber event include the new Trail Blazers owner, Tom Dundon, Oregon Senate President Rob Wagner, Oregon Senator Kate Lieber, Mayor Keith Wilson, and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, according to an announcement about the annual meeting.
“Scheduling a session about Oregon’s Arena, while simultaneously declining an opportunity to have an authentic face to face conversation with the owner, state partners and others is my observation,” Hoan wrote. “I’m curious if there is flexibility on the start time and / or date and would be happy to work with you and your office on what could make both, possible.”
Council Vice President Olivia Clark said in a statement to the Mercury that she thinks the city should delay the work session by an hour.
“I think we should meet Dundon face to face,” Clark said. “It’s too easy to make the Blazers owner, the Chief of Police, and many others out to be villains if you never bother to talk with them in person.”
Via a spokesperson, Hoan offered a statement to the Mercury on Tuesday, explaining his request.
“Our message was in the spirit of helping to make it possible for city councilors to attend both our Annual Meeting and hold the work session – not one or the other,” Hoan said. “Our offer to collaborate stands. From a genuine desire to support dialogue, we reached out to Council President Dunphy and the Council.”
Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane, who has been an outspoken critic of the city’s private dealings with Dundon, said her gut is to not move the work session, but that she would support whatever decision Dunphy’s office makes.
“Why can’t Tom Dundon come to City Hall?” she told the Mercury in a June 15 text message.
The Metro Chamber event is put on with the help of corporate sponsors like the Trail Blazers, US Bank, Alaska Airlines, NW Natural, and others, many of which are also Metro Chamber members.
Hoan said that councilors’ tickets would be compliments of the Metro Chamber, if they decided to attend.
“It is our organizational policy to offer elected officials one complimentary ticket to all of our widely attended events,” Hoan said.
Under the city’s lobbying rules, city officials are required to report all gifts, meals, or entertainment they receive that exceed $25 in value.
“The fair-market value of a gift means the price for attendance, participation, or access to the same item or event that a member of the public would pay,” the rules state.
The Metro Chamber is the city’s most prolific lobbying entity, reporting 151 lobbying contacts with public officials in the first quarter of 2026.
