Eric Flowers

After a decade in the ski industry, Doug LaPlaca came to Bend two years ago from Steamboat Springs to take over the local tourism bureau, Visit Bend, which was embroiled in controversy over alleged mismanagement of funds. Since that time, LaPlaca has reformed the agency's image, begun to tap private funding (Bend now has an official shoe sponsor – Merrill) and laid down a track record of bringing top-notch events to Bend, including last year's Cyclocross Nationals.

It's been five plus years in the making and it's apparently going to be at least a few more months – if not years – before the proposed urban growth boundary expansion in Bend is finalized. The city got the formal rejection letter earlier this week from state land use regulators at the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) whose staff had long voiced skepticism about the scope of Bend's proposed urban expansion. In its 156-page rejection letter, or 'remand' in planning speak, DLCD said that while an expansion of Bend's urban area is merited given the growth patterns (another 40,000 residents are expected in the city over the next 20 years) the current proposal from city staff is simply too big – four square miles too big by DLCD's calculations. In addition to the city's proposed land expansion, DLCD staff also sent the city back to the drawing board for its accompanying facilities plan.

After years of mounting complaints into the practices of its local office and regional manager in Bend, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) released last week the findings of a Department of Justice investigation in the Bend OLCC office.
The 39-page report, which was accompanied by a three-page letter from OLCC Director Stephen Pharo stopped short of condemning the agency's conduct, but singled the regional manager, Jason Evers, who was not named in the report for criticism. Among other things the report said that customers, as OLCC refers to its regulatory charges, were intimidated by OLCC staff whom licensees viewed as “vindictive” and inconsistent when applying licensing standards.

Bank Bust
The fallout from the national housing market implosion was the financial story of the year. Billions of dollars in bailout money for big banks and foreclosure notes for families with leaking adjustable rate mortgages. And the story dominated headlines, certainly for the first half of the year. Closer to home, local banks, many of whom were heavily leveraged in Bend's volatile housing market, saw the bottom fall out. Once high-flying Bank of the Cascades saw its stock dip below $1 from a high of more than $30 at the height of the boom. Federal regulators circled, issuing notices to banks that they needed to raise more capitol and finally swooped in, shuttering Prineville-based Community First Bank in early August. A month later regulators put Bank of the Cascades on notice, ordering the bank to raise more capital to bolster its portfolio or face more regulatory action. The remaining Central Oregonians with jobs learned to sleep on newly lumpy mattresses.