Monthly Archives: February 2024

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The Portland Timbers/DaBella Deal: Bad from the Beginning

The Portland Timbers got an out from its troubling partnership with Hillsboro-based DaBella Exteriors on Wednesday when The Oregonian disclosed that “the company’s chief executive (Donnie McMillan Jr.) is facing a lawsuit that threatens to bring to light complaints that he made unwanted advances and sexually harassed at least three female employees.”

“The Portland Timbers have terminated the club’s corporate partnership with DaBella, effective immediately, after learning yesterday of allegations of misconduct at the company included in a court filing that was made public on Feb. 23.,” the club announced in typical public relations-speak.

As if Portland didn’t already have enough reputation concerns.

The Timbers should have seen this coming.

It used to be that sports teams linked up only with highly regarded businesses that would enhance their mutual reputations, not tarnish them. Apparently, the Timbers didn’t care when they announced their multi-year jersey rights partnership with DaBella on Nov. 15, 2023.

According to the Sports Business Journal, the Timbers deal with DaBella came together after DaBella officials, including  McMillan and DaBella CMO Bastian Cowsert, and Timbers officials, including owner Merritt Paulson, CEO Heather Davis and CRO Joe Cote, met at Providence Park in July 2023.

DaBella saw the value of teaming up with a respected professional soccer team. “Brand matters in our category; the majority of our customers are putting on a roof once,” Cowsert told the Sports Business Journal. ”So having brand equity translates to a commitment in quality and customer satisfaction.” 

The Timbers must have decided to ignore the fact that DaBella’s reputation in the home improvement business is far from an admired leader with “a commitment in quality and customer satisfaction”.

If the team had done even a little research, including of some major media, it would have found questions about McMillan and a previous business, a stream of negative reviews of DaBella’s business practices, and concerns about the company’s ethical lapses.

In March 2010, when McMillan was president of a Mukilteo, WA-based window replacement company, Penguin Windows, the company reached a settlement with the Washington Attorney General’s Office over a complaint made against it by the state’s chief legal office.

That complaint alleged the company misrepresented its products, making false claims about the energy savings customers would achieve and misleading consumers into thinking that the in-home appointments they set up with Penguin were something other than sales calls.

Penguin subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal bankruptcy court in Seattle, WA on Feb. 25, 2011. The company, which was legally incorporated as Statewide Inc., shuttered later that year.

McMillan founded DaBella in Oregon that same year. 

The company, which has since expanded to 46 locations across 17 states, has accumulated a massive stream of negative customer reviews on a wide variety of sites since then.

Yelp

2023 :  “If I could give zero stars I would… They will not stop calling and coming to my door PUSHING their “free roof estimate” BS… They take advantage of the kindness of people who don’t want to push them away and be rude but I’ve had ENOUGH.”

2022: “This outfit is the most unprofessional, unqualified construction company in Oregon. Check their record with OCCB (Oregon Construction Contractors Board)…Their customer service is abysmal and the work that was done on our house had zero supervision while it was being completed…Do not trust this company. They are deceitful and you will end up worse off than when you started. ..Oregon homeowners should be protected from dishonest, predatory businesses like this one…just look up their contractors license (194160) and read how many complaints they continually receive. It’s horrendous and Oregon homeowners should be protected from dishonest, predatory businesses like this one.

Pissedconsumer.com

Recent comments: “Do not let these people in your house!”, “Do not use this company”, “This is not a company I would trust. If they don’t respect you enough to return phone calls, give you a timeline, they won’t respect you enough to follow through and do a good job”, “Hire Dabella at your own risk. I recommend avoiding them completely.”, “Don’t bother with DaBella, they are a terrible company”. 

Consumer Affairs

“Assume it’s 2x as bad as it sounds! Sales people LIED to me on timing. Told 6-8 weeks, took 16 weeks…they just dish the work out to local contractors, whoever is cheap! They send some ** contractors who didn’t have their own materials or tools needed who ripped off thousands of dollars of custom historical trim.”

Better Business Bureau

“DaBella agreed to knock $5,000 off initial price of $ $27,694 for new roof. When I received my first statement the $5300 was not deducted off my bill. I then again called ***** and he said he would talk to the finance department to take care of the deduction. I called him 5 more times within the next three weeks with no response or when he did answer phone he said he was working on it. Finally after three weeks he said there was nothing he could do because the job was done and loan was pushed through.”

When the Timbers/DaBella deal was announced, McMillan said the Timbers are “…an organization that shares our core values”.

That’s regrettable. 

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Confronting Chaos: Today’s New York Times

NY Times Book Review interview with Brontez Purnell, 02/25/2024:

NY Times – “What’s the last book that made you cry?”

Purnell – “The newspaper is the only thing I read that makes me cry.”

Excerpts from the Sunday New York Times, Feb. 25, 2024

Predators Leer as Moms Put Girls on Instagram, NY Times
  • Seeking social media stardom for their underage daughters, mothers post images of them on Instagram. The accounts draw men sexually attracted to children, and they sometimes pay to see more.  Interacting with the men opens the door to abuse. Some flatter, bully and blackmail girls and their parents to get racier and racier images. The Times monitored separate exchanges on Telegram, the messaging app, where men openly fantasize about sexually abusing the children they follow on Instagram and extol the platform for making the images so readily available.

          “It’s like a candy store 😍😍😍,” one of them wrote. 

  • A record number of people across the country are experiencing homelessness. The federal government’s annual tally last year revealed the highest numbers of unsheltered people since the count began in 2007.
  • …the principal challenge has come at home, where additional U.S. military assistance to Ukraine has been stymied by Donald Trump-aligned House Republicans who question the importance of Ukraine for American security and in some cases even the centrality of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance itself.
  • “You feel totally helpless, totally abandoned by authorities and society in general. You feel like nothing,” said Araceli Gatica, a 32-year-old who left San Luis Acatlán, a mountain village in Guerrero (Mexico). A local gang threatened to kill her after she refused to keep paying $200 a month in extortion. She arrived recently with her three children in Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, hoping to seek asylum in the U.S.
  • Bombs that struck houses, markets and bus stations across Sudan, often killing dozens of civilians at once. Ethnic rampages, accompanied by rape and looting, that killed thousands in the western region of Darfur. And a video clip, verified by United Nations officials, that shows Sudanese soldiers parading through the streets of a major city, triumphantly brandishing the decapitated heads of students who were killed on the basis of their ethnicity.
  • Ms. Haley’s loss in South Carolina follows a string of early defeats. She argued in her speech that the nation needed new leadership in the midst of “a world on fire.” “It seems like our country is falling apart,” she said, adding that she was worried “to my core” for its future. “America will come apart if we make the wrong choices. “
  • Prominent epidemiologists have estimated that an escalation of the war in Gaza could cause up to 85,000 Palestinian deaths over the next six months from injuries, disease and lack of medical care, in addition to the nearly 30,000 that local authorities have already reported since early October.
  • And yet, even if parts of society came to terms with natural bodies, the same cannot be said for the natural process of women aging. Wrinkles are the new enemy, and it seems Gen Z — and their younger sisters — are terrified of them. Gen Z-ers are being introduced to the idea of starting treatments early as “preventative” treatment. They are growing up in a culture of social media that promotes the endless pursuit of maintaining youth — and at home, some of them are watching their mothers reject aging with every injectable and serum they can find. But considering the speed at which social media is pushing ever more unattainable beauty standards onto children, it’s time for us to consider our moral obligation to minimizing damage for the next generation.
  • … increasingly in recent months, scrolling the (Tik Tok) feed has come to resemble fumbling in the junk drawer: navigating a collection of abandoned desires, who-put-that-here fluff and things that take up awkward space…(T)he malaise that has begun to suffuse TikTok feels systemic, market-driven and also potentially existential, suggesting the end of a flourishing era and the precipice of a wasteland period.
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What Hath God Wrought: The Devastating Impact of Fast Fashion

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

A swarm of trade liberalization polices in the 1990s, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, effectively wiped out most import restrictions and duties on foreign-made clothing, all in the name of global prosperity. 

It was supposed to be a good thing, but it is also a validation of the statement that you can’t have it all. The embrace of free trade has meant trade-offs.

Most significantly, it has almost demolished the U.S. apparel manufacturing industry, driving garment production to Asia and Latin America. Then it stimulated an explosion of environmentally destructive fast fashion. And behind most pieces of fast fashion is a story — too often a grim story about low pay, long hours and exploitation.

In the early 1800s, most garments worn by Americans were homemade. After the Civil War, U.S. factories that had produced uniforms transitioned to producing men’s suits, then to making cloaks and jackets for women. By the end of the 1860s, Americans bought most of their clothing rather than making it themselves.

Department stores rose up in the 1880s. By 1915, ready-to-wear departments had become regular features, supplemented by the arrival of mail-order catalogs from companies such as Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck & Company.

Still, even by 1960, about 95% of clothes sold in the United States were made domestically. By 1980 it was about 70%. But by 2000, the amount of clothing sold in the United States that was made domestically had plummeted to 29%.  And in 2022, only about 2% percent of the apparel sold in the United States was made domestically.

Even companies that proudly proclaim their American heritage have largely abandoned their roots.

“For more than 150 years, Pendleton has set the standard for American style,” Pendleton Woolen Mills proudly proclaims. But is the iconic family-owned and operated Portland, OR-based company, rooted in late 19th century Salem, OR, still an American institution?

The honest answer – Barely. Pendleton has shifted its production, without much fanfare, almost entirely out of America.

Similarly, Made in Oregon points proudly to how has built a reputation as a purveyor of high-quality, local products. But, in fact, its ubiquitous stores have opened their shelves to products , including clothing, that are manufactured offshore if they are “designed” in Oregon, an exception you can drive a truck through. 

Not only is most American clothing now imported, but we have vastly increased the amount of clothing we buy. 

In 1960, the average American bought fewer than 25 garments each year. Now Americans buy an average of 68 items of clothing a year. Some of that is because of our culture of consumerism, driven by pervasive advertising and the availability of easy credit and the availability of a wide range of clothing products. But it’s also driven by the emergence of fast fashion, where fast-changing trends have replaced the previous focus on quality and durability. 

And that has meant an estimated 11.3 million tons of textile waste in the United States end up in landfills on a yearly basis. That’s equivalent to approximately 81.5 pounds per person per year, according to Earth.org, an environmental news site. 

Good On You, an organization that rates clothing and accessory brands, defines fast fashion as “…cheap, trendy clothing that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments at breakneck speed to meet consumer demand…so shoppers can snap them up while they are still at the height of their popularity and then, sadly, discard them after a few wears.” In essence, fast fashion plays into the idea that outfit repeating is a fashion faux pas.

And this is a message fashion writers perpetuate. A Feb. 19, 2024 New York Times article, for example, tried to advise on what’s in and out:

“For women, it’s time to retire the ankle boots known as mojo booties,” the article advised. “People really wear them to anything — jail, a funeral,..Just no, girl. This is not an all-weather moment. No-show or ankle socks were once ubiquitous. Now, showing ankles is “pretty polarizing. Try layering socks over leggings, or a crew sock or quarter-length sock that shows a little bit over flats or sneakers…Infinity scarves are out, but blanket scarves, skinny scarves and mid-width waffle-knit or cashmere scarves in neutral colors are good options…”

It’s all reminiscent of Joan Didion’s trenchant observation years ago, in a 1979 New York Review of Books essay on Woody Allen, to be exact, about “…a new class in America, a subworld of people rigid with apprehension that they will die wearing the wrong sneaker, naming the wrong symphony, preferring ‘Madame Bovary.’ ”

This is at the heart of the rapidly expanding offshore clothing companies that free trade has enabled. It has allowed offshore employment to expand, improving living standards in many other countries, but not without cost.

In order to mass produce millions of inexpensive garments in a hurry,  factories are often sweatshops where laborers, too frequently children,  work for low wages and long hours in dangerous conditions. 

The shift in garment production offshore has also cost American jobs and raised sustainability concerns.

Americans employed in manufacturing apparel – 1960: 1,233,000

Americans employed in manufacturing apparel – 2022: 93,000

In 1960, 1,233,000 Americans were employed in the manufacturing of apparel, 5.5% of the total manufacturing workforce, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. By 2022, only about 93,000 employees were part of the apparel manufacturing industry in the United States.

Meanwhile, apparel from stores such as Forever 21, Zara, and H&M are mass-produced by legions of workers laboring for long hours in third world countries in sweatshop-like conditions.

Then there’s Temu, an online marketplace operated by the Chinese e-commerce company PDD Holdings. Temu, which racked up  roughly $9 billion in U.S. gross merchandise value and  spent $1.7 billion on marketing in 2023,  has emerged as a major player in the fast fashion universe in the United States. “Temu is disrupting U.S. e-commerce with tried- and-true tactics used by Chinese companies: earning razor-thin profits or losing money in exchange for market share and gradually squeezing out competitors,” says the Wall Street Journal.

Another fast-fashion behemoth is Shein, founded in Nanjing, China in 2008 as ZZKKO. Now headquartered in Singapore, while keeping its supply chains and warehouses in China, it has become the world’s largest fashion retailer. 

Shein plans to go public in 2024 (It confidentially filed for an initial public offering in Nov. 2023), though there is continuing controversy over allegations of Shein’s (and Temu’s) use of forced labor from the autonomous region of Xinjiang in China. In late 2023, Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D- VA) led a bipartisan call for the SEC to halt Shein’s IPO until it verifies that the company does not use forced labor within its supply chain.

Meanwhile, Shein and Temu “are accelerating the fashion cycle to unimaginable speeds,” Quartz,  a website focused on international business news, reported in January 2024.  The speed is being accelerated by Tik Tok, which is addictive by design. “The rise of TikTok has led to trends changing so quickly that brands and consumers cannot keep up,” Stacey Widlitz, a retail analyst, recently told the New York Times. “Everything Gen Z consumes is driven by influencers,” she said. “As fast as something comes in is as fast as something can go out.”

“The downside to all that cheap speed is, of course, the exploitation of everyone involved in its production and consumption,” said Quartz.  

The State of Fashion report, an annual publication from the industry outlet Business of Fashion and the management consultancy McKinsey and Company, notes that Shein is now producing an astonishing number of new items—2,000 to 10,000—every day,  and they are each shipping out more than a million packages to the United States daily, The Wall Street Journal reported in December.

Shein and Temu keep the costs of their fast fashion clothing down by taking advantage of a U.S. shipping provision called the “de minimis exception,” which waives duty fees for any packages with a retail value of less than $800. Since the typical order from Shein and Temu is much smaller than that, Shein and Temu paid no duty fees on imports to the U.S. in 2022, according to a congressional report. Sneaky, but legal. 

In the face of all this, there are still some America-based apparel manufacturers. Their growth and the emergence of more companies is possible with technological advancements in manufacturing and the increase in environmental and social consciousness. Reshoring apparel production is likely to be constrained, however, by supply chain issues as well as high labor costs and overhead expenses that will make it difficult for U.S. producers to price their goods competitively and maintain profitability.

So, what to do if you care about all this?

You are not helpless. You can learn to ignore Tik Tok influencers who must not be aware of Freya India’s admonition that “these people “… who do post everything are not people to aspire to. If they influence you of anything it should be to not copy their deranged behaviour and document your entire life online.”

As somebody commented on a recent New York Times story about Gen Z fashion, “Tik Tok ‘influencers’ aren’t style icons, they’re the new mall rats with a megaphone.”

 There are apps out there that give you the power to help create an ethical and  sustainable fashion industry.

GoodOnYou, for example, rates more than 3,000 clothing and accessory brands on whether they are doing the right thing for people, the environment and animals in producing ethical and sustainable clothing. Download the Good On You App

Then you can change your habits:

  • Stop buying so damn much fast fashion.
  • Be mindful of your consumption habits.
  • Remember that the most sustainable clothing is already in your wardrobe. Love the things you own.
  • Repair, rather than replace, damaged clothing.
  • Look for clothing that: 

– is manufactured in an environmentally conscious way.

– is designed and manufactured with human rights in mind.

– can be rented, loaned or swapped

– has been repaired, redesigned or upcycled

– is of high quality & timeless design

– is “Fair Trade Certified”

– is versatile and will see you through more than one season. 

Thanks to RedressRaleigh.org for some of these suggestions.

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Shame On You: State Bar Assoc. Ignores Deceptive Marketing by Oregon Lawyers

So much for the Oregon State Bar Association rebuking Oregon attorneys engaging in unprofessional behavior.

Are personal injury attorney Joshua Callahan of Clackamas, OR, Natalie Hedman, family and divorce attorney of Gresham and John Parsons, a civil litigation attorney of Portland exceptional Oregon lawyers? They’d like you to think so.

All three trumpet that they’ve been selected as Lawyers of Distinction based upon a rigorous review and vetting process. A 2023 advertisement in the New York Times congratulated them for being among 223 of “The Newest 2023 Lawyers of Distinction”.

They are among the 26 Oregon attorneys Lawyers of Distinction lists as “Top Rated Lawyers in Oregon” on the organization’s website.

Impressed?

Don’t be.

About all that’s required to be named a “Lawyer of Distinction” is to apply yourself or be nominated, fill out some online forms and pay a fee. 

On Oct. 9, 2023, I filed a complaint with the Oregon State Bar Association asserting that every single one of these attorneys is misrepresenting their credentials, that they are acting in an unethical manner by asserting to potential and current clients that their selection as “Lawyers of Distinction” is evidence of their legal skills and achievements. I filed a second, more detailed complaint on Feb. 17, 2023.

The Oregon Rules of Professional Conduct (as amended effective January 1, 2024) for Oregon attorneys is explicit about how attorneys must communicate about themselves:

Rule 7.1 A lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services. A communication is false or misleading if it contains a material representation of fact or law, or omits a fact necessary to make a statement considered as a whole not materially misleading. 

Rule 8.4 It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to…engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s fitness to practice law. 

An Oregon attorney claiming he or she is a exceptional because of membership in “Lawyers of Distinction” is clearly making “a false or misleading communication” and engaging in “professional misconduct” involving “dishonesty” “deceit” and “misrepresentation”.

Still, the Oregon Bar Association’s response to my complaint? Nothing. Nada. Crickets. 

Here are the facts.

According to the Lawyers of Distinction’s website, a Charter Membership, for $475 a year, comes with a Customized 14″ x 11″ genuine rosewood plaque. A Featured Membership, for $575 a year, brings the plaque and inclusion in a membership roster published in USA Today, The New York Times, The American Lawyer and the National Law Journal.

Then there’s the Distinguished Membership, for $775 per year, the most expensive choice (described on the organization’s website as “Most Popular”), which brings the rosewood plaque, the membership roster ads and an 11″tall translucent personalized crystal statue.

Lawyers of Distinction, incorporated in 2014, is like a diploma mill, an outfit that claims to be a higher education institution, but only provide illegitimate academic degrees and diplomas for a fee.

The Lawyers of Distinction website describes the application review process as complex and rigorous.[1]

Don’t believe it.

 It’s just pay-for-play. It’s selling badges.  It’s paying for meaningless accolades. Apply, pay the annual membership fee and you’re in. The result? People relying on the Lawyers of Distinction accolade in choosing an attorney are being duped.

According to the Florida Division of Corporations, “Lawyers of Distinction Inc.” is a private for-profit company with a principal address of 4700 Millenia Boulevard, Suite 175, Orlando, FL 32839.

Robert B. Baker, at the same address, is listed as the Owner in the company’s 2023 Annual Report. 

But don’t go to the office address expecting to be ushered into a space with a clean, modern aesthetic that communicates success. The address is only a virtual office. The site offers a “Platinum Plan” for $69 a month and a “Platinum Plan with live receptionist” for $194 a month. 

Robert “Robbie” Brian Baker, a member of the Florida Bar (Bar #992460), is also the founder and owner of Baker Legal Team at 2255 Glades Rd., Ste 330-W, Boca Raton, FL 33431. According to the Baker Legal Team website, he has a degree from Boston University School of Law in 1989 and a B.A. from Ithaca College.  He began his career, the website says, as a prosecutor working as an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County, New York. 

As an aside, the firm’s website has the chutzpah to highlight that it’s a member of Lawyers of Distinction. 

Lawyers of Distinction’s website says it currently has over 5000 members. If 5000 lawyers sign up for the Distinguished category at $775 this year, the organization will rake in $3.9 million. Quite a haul.

In an attempt to fend off bad publicity, Lawyers of Distinction includes on its website a section headed, “Is Lawyers of Distinction A Scam?” But it answers its own question with nothing more than brief testimonials by selected members. It’s unlikely that any attorneys have been duped by Lawyers of Distinction, lured into believing they’ve been selected for a rare honor based on their legal work, when all they did was send in a check. They must figure that impressing potential clients is worth the deception.

But that doesn’t leave state bar associations blameless for this decay of honest professional representation.

If the Oregon State Bar Association and its 14,000 members are honestly committed to accountability, excellence, fairness, and leadership in the legal profession, as they claim, they should insist that Oregon attorneys halt falsely advertising themselves as Lawyers of Distinction or holders of other unearned accolades.

It’s common sense. Responsible lawyers should maintain the integrity of the legal profession. To do otherwise diminishes the law. 

11/13/2024 UPDATE: Oregon State Bar Refuses To Prohibit Deceit and Misrepresentation By Its Members

1. Lawyers of Distinction Selection Criteria

“Lawyers of Distinction Members have been selected based upon a review and vetting process by our Selection Committee utilizing U.S. Provisional Patent # 62/743,254. The platform generates a numerical score of 1 to 5 for each of the 12 enumerated factors which are meant to recognize the applicant’s achievements and peer recognition. Members are then subiect to a final review for ethical violations within the past ten years before confirmation of Membership. Nomination does not guarantee membership and attorneys may not pay a fee to be nominated. Attorneys may nominate their peers whom they feel warrant consideration. The determination of whether an attorney qualifies for Membership is based upon the aforementioned proprietary analysis discussed above. Membership is not meant to infer any endorsement of Lawyers of Distinction by any of the 50 United States Bar Associations or The District of Columbia Bar Association. Any references to “excellent,” “excellence,” or “distinguished” are meant to refer to the Lawyers of Distinction organization only and not to any named member individually.

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DaBella and The Portland Timbers: A Mortifying Merger

Enron and Blackwater aren’t available. Maybe that’s why the Portland Timbers have teamed up with home improvement contractor DaBella as their new kit sponsor.

UPDATE: The Timbers have since canceled their deal with DaBella: The Portland Timbers/DaBella Deal: Bad from the Beginning

It used to be that sports teams linked up only with highly regarded businesses that would enhance their mutual reputations, not tarnish them. Apparently, the Timbers, Portland’s much-loved professional soccer team, don’t care.

The Portland Timbers announced a new multi-year jersey rights partnership with Hillsboro, OR-based[1] DaBella on Nov. 15, 2023. The arrangement meant DaBella would be featured prominently on the Timbers’ home, away and specialty game kits and club apparel.

The team will kick off its preseason wearing the new DaBella jerseys on Feb. 10 at the 2024 Coachella Valley Invitational in Indio, California, helping spread awareness of the company to enthusiastic soccer fans.

According to the Sports Business Journal, the Timbers deal with DaBella came together after DaBella officials, including Donnie McMillan, Jr., president of DaBella Exteriors, and DaBella CMO Bastian Cowsert, and  Timbers officials, including owner Merritt Paulson, CEO Heather Davis and CRO Joe Cote, met at Providence Park in July 2023.

DaBella saw the value of teaming up with a respected professional soccer team. “Brand matters in our category; the majority of our customers are putting on a roof once,” Cowsert told the Sports Business Journal. ”So having brand equity translates to a commitment in quality and customer satisfaction.” 

DaBella’s reputation in the home improvement universe, however, suggests the company, which provides roofing, window, siding, and bath replacement services, is far from an admired leader with “a commitment in quality and customer satisfaction”.

Do a little research, including of some major media, and you’ll find questions about McMillan and a previous business, a stream of negative reviews of DaBella’s business practices, and concerns about the company’s ethical lapses.

From 12/21/2009 to 03/23/2011, a Donnie McMillan, Jr. was connected with a brokerage firm, Chase Investment Services Corp of New York, NY, in the business of buying and selling securities. 

According to The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which acts as a self-regulatory organization that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets, McMillan’s suspension as a broker was sought on October 1, 2012 and finalized on Jan. 4, 2013. On that date, he was permanently “barred from association with any FINRA member in any capacity” after failing to respond to FINRA requests for information relating to his employment.

In March 2010, when McMillan was president of a Mukilteo, WA-based window replacement company, Penguin Windows, the company reached a settlement with the Washington Attorney General’s Office over a complaint made against it by the state’s chief legal office.

That complaint alleged the company misrepresented its products, making false claims about the energy savings customers would achieve and misleading consumers into thinking that the in-home appointments they set up with Penguin were something other than sales calls.

Penguin subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal bankruptcy court in Seattle, WA on Feb. 25, 2011. The company, which was legally incorporated as Statewide Inc., shuttered later that year.

McMillan founded DaBella in Oregon that same year. 

The company, which has since expanded to 46 locations across 17 states, has accumulated a massive stream of negative customer reviews on a wide variety of sites since then.

Yelp

2023 :  “If I could give zero stars I would… They will not stop calling and coming to my door PUSHING their “free roof estimate” BS… They take advantage of the kindness of people who don’t want to push them away and be rude but I’ve had ENOUGH.”

2022: “This outfit is the most unprofessional, unqualified construction company in Oregon. Check their record with OCCB (Oregon Construction Contractors Board)…Their customer service is abysmal and the work that was done on our house had zero supervision while it was being completed…Do not trust this company. They are deceitful and you will end up worse off than when you started. ..Oregon homeowners should be protected from dishonest, predatory businesses like this one…just look up their contractors license (194160) and read how many complaints they continually receive. It’s horrendous and Oregon homeowners should be protected from dishonest, predatory businesses like this one.

Pissedconsumer.com

Recent comments: “Do not let these people in your house!”, “Do not use this company”, “This is not a company I would trust. If they don’t respect you enough to return phone calls, give you a timeline, they won’t respect you enough to follow through and do a good job”, “Hire Dabella at your own risk. I recommend avoiding them completely.”, “Don’t bother with DaBella, they are a terrible company”.

Consumer Affairs

“Assume it’s 2x as bad as it sounds! Sales people LIED to me on timing. Told 6-8 weeks, took 16 weeks…they just dish the work out to local contractors, whoever is cheap! They send some ** contractors who didn’t have their own materials or tools needed who ripped off thousands of dollars of custom historical trim.”

Better Business Bureau

“DaBella agreed to knock $5,000 off initial price of $ $27,694 for new roof. When I received my first statement the $5300 was not deducted off my bill. I then again called ***** and he said he would talk to the finance department to take care of the deduction. I called him 5 more times within the next three weeks with no response or when he did answer phone he said he was working on it. Finally after three weeks he said there was nothing he could do because the job was done and loan was pushed through.”

DaBella President Donnie McMillan, Jr. has said the Timbers are “an organization that shares our core values”.

If so, that’s regrettable. 

[1] In 2022, Connect Commercial Real Estate reported that DaBella had closed on the purchase of Anderson Tower, a 75,034 sq. ft. office building in Austin, Texas for its new corporate headquarters, leaving Hillsboro, Oregon behind. The move never occurred, though DaBella does have an office there.

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Money Talks: It looks Like a Bynum / McLeod-Skinner Race in the 5th District Democratic Primary

Janelle Bynum and Jamie McLeod-Skinner are running neck-and-neck in the money race in the contentious Democratic primary for the 5th Congressional District seat occupied by Kurt Schrader until replaced by Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

The race is a top target for Democrats trying to flip the U.S. House, which is now narrowly in Republican hands. The district, which voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and has more registered Democrats than Republicans, stretches from Bend to Portland. 

According to campaign finance numbers posted today by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Bynum and McLeod-Skinner had raised almost equal amounts and had almost equal cash-on-hand as of the end of 2023.  Bynum had raised $439,286.38 and had $233,246.16 cash-on-hand; McLeod-Skinner had raised $438,831.45 and had cash-on-hand of $242,300.59.

Two of the other three other Democrats in the primary race, Kevin Easton and Matthew Davie, haven’t yet filed their campaign finance reports for all of 2023. The third, Metro President Lynn Peterson, had raised $254,603.76, but had just $52,834.13 cash-on-hand, as of the end of 2023.

Going forward, Bynum may have the advantage given that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced its support for her on January 29, noting that it had put her on its “Red to Blue” list of key candidates running to replace Republican members as part of the Democrats’ strategy to reclaim the House majority.

Bynum may also have an edge because she’s attracting more out-of-state money. Recent out-of-state contributions include $4,500 from Brian Hairston, owner of Dunham Management Group in Englewood, NJ, $3,300 from James Williams owner of Estel Foods in Saint Louis, MO and $3,300 from Troy A. Carter Sr., a congressman from Louisiana. 

The primary winner will take on Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who won her seat in 2020, defeating Democrat McLeod-Skinner 51% – 49%.

Chavez-DeRemer’s end-of-the-year campaign finance report with the FEC shows she had raised $2,529,913.60 and had cash on hand of $1,608,021.56. Her aggressive fundraising is expected to make her a strong candidate in the race against her eventual Democratic opponent. 

Despite the Democratic lead in registrations in the district, the Cook Political Report rates the race as a toss-up.