Don Mazziotti, the former executive director of the Portland Development Commission, the city's urban renewal agency, has been hired as a vice president of Harsch Investment Properties, a locally based West Coast real estate investment firm that is run by Jordan Schnitzer. Matt Brown, who helped mediate transportation issues related to the development of the South Waterfront area, has taken a full-time position with the area's major developer, locally based Williams & Dame.

Mazziotti resigned from the PDC in June. He was dogged by criticism from city commissioners and neighborhood groups for how the agency handled--or mishandled--the public decision-making process, and how freely Mazziotti himself spent public funds. In resigning, Mazziotti cited a need to get away from the long hours that kept him apart from his family.

Brown has spent the last few years mediating key transportation issues related to the development of the South Waterfront as a part-time employee of the city's Office of Transportation. During that time, Brown also did some consulting on the side for Williams & Dame, which is developing several condominium towers in the area, but did not break any city rules in so doing. Brown left his job at the city just before the end of the year and earlier this week started a full-time job as a project manager for Williams & Dame.