“I want to express my sincere gratitude for all the support you've given me thus far. Your help means more to me than you could ever know. This project has the potential to change my family's life and secure a brighter future for us. As a family business, this means a great deal to us.”
CN
"What a pleasure to work with Michelle on my Fair Housing Act issue. My county previously limited the number of group home beds to eight. Michelle wrote a comprehensive letter outlining why the FHA might suggest their limit was not enforceable. She assumed the county's integrity and desire to comply with the law; they responded in like manner. With her help, I was able to increase the number of residents allowed in my home from 8 to 16!"
- KG, Legacy Senior Care, LLC
Mark another one in the books for Michelle Pinkowski! I purchased a home in a pretty bizarre zoning area. I purchased it as a vacant home that had previously operated as an 8 bed home in TX. The previous owner was sued by neighbors for operating a home in an area whose deed restrictions said no businesses were allowed. We know the Fair Housing Act protects us there. She initiated a Reasonable Accommodation to allow a group home in this zoning region, but wanted to proceed cautiously considering the unique municipal zoning might pose an issue. She recommended local council get involved to navigate this. The last thing I wanted was to prepare City Council variance presentations, especially with neighbors that had sued the previous owners. I’m in the storage business, and I’ve done that rodeo (and have read about the RAL version of the rodeo). Short story gone long: within 14 days of contacting Michelle, my issue is resolved. I received a reasonable accommodation today for 10 beds (+2 beds because I want to add a master at some point). It doesn’t get much better than that. I called the city for 4 months trying to request verification letters for zoning and trying to see what I needed to to do make sure the neighbors could not sabotage my end game. Time is valuable. Don’t try to do it on your own. Call Michelle. If she can’t do it alone or questions if local counsel is needed, take her lead. She is amazing at what she does. Many thanks to her.
-- TS, Living with Care, Inc.
“I feel that utilizing your feasibility study market analysis is exactly what the primary lender we use for funding the RALs is asking for. I’m seeing that this is a very important piece of the puzzle to speed up getting funded.”
"It was a pleasure to work with Michelle. She helped our municipality implement construction permitting procedures that made processes more transparent, improved services for citizens, and gave us needed management tools."
- Liburn Aliu, Minister of Parliament and former Director of Urbanism, Pristina, Kosovo
"I cannot recommend him highly enough . . . with Brian’s guidance, the Anti-Corruption Commission and Office of the Prosecutor General have had some notable successes. For example, Timor-Leste has improved its ranking on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index from 143 to 113, and the Office of the Prosecutor has successfully prosecuted 20 corruption cases."
-- Jim Benedetto, Department of Justice/Department of State, U.S. Embassy, Timor-Leste.
“We are exceedingly satisfied with several significant improvements made to the private sector tourism investment facilitation mechanism with the technical support of the USAID SAIL Project. This will meet a long-standing need to encourage investors. We appreciate this collaborative effort and look forward to making the project approval process a success.”
“We are very grateful for your time and experience, as you helped us push past the bureaucracy. We can’t thank you enough!”
"Dr. Pinkowski stood apart from the other expats for the respect with which he treated the lraqi people. In return they treated him with a loyalty that I have not seen since the U.S. came to lraq in 2003. As a result, he was able to accomplish any task with the team of Iraqis that other expats would struggle with. I know that I and my Iraqi colleagues will remember him as a very positive American role model to follow in the future. And I do believe that America is a great country because of such great helpers and hard workers like Dr. Pinkowski."
- M.A., Facility Administrative Officer
“Brian was outstanding with his ability to bridge perception and communication gaps among the Iraqi leadership and US military leaders in the area. . . I would be proud to work with Brian in any capacity, at anytime.”
"With minimal support, he managed to essentially track down a Provincial Council-in-exile . . . establish and develop contact with the members, and succeed in producing a superb relationship as their coach and mentor."
-- Col. J.R. Ewers, USMC, Iraq/PRT Team Leader.
"I was particularly impressed with his systematic approach in launching a technical assistance project under very challenging circumstances (e.g. almost by himself) and within a very short time frame. Yet he succeeded in setting up an office, hiring staff, building ties with local counterparts and initiating technical support activities --all at once -- and to the satisfaction of the client."
-- Eduardo Flores-Trejo, Casals & Associates.
"A Certificate of Appreciation is presented to Michelle Pinkowski in recognition of outstanding dedication and support to the implementation of construction permitting reforms in Kosovo."
-- USAID Mission Director Jim Hope