PORTLAND, Ore. — Monday is a historic day in the city of Portland: the long-awaited "soft launch" of the brand new government structure that voters approved back in 2022. The official transition day is Jan. 1, 2025, when a whole new slate of elected officials will take office, and city officials will spend the rest of this year making sure everything is ready for those new leaders to take the reins.
"Today, we officially launch the six-month countdown to a new-to-Portland form of government, and take a crucial step in preparing for this historic change," interim city administrator Michael Jordan wrote in an email sent to city employees.
The "crucial step" is the reorganization of the city's bureaus into six new service areas, along with the appointment of a new team of deputy administrators to oversee them. This is what Portland's government will officially look like on Jan. 1, but Jordan convinced city leader to start experimenting six months early to work out any problems that pop up.
"Our north star for this project is setting up incoming elected officials and administration up for success," said Shoshanah Oppenheim, transition project manager for the city. "That we can build a culture of continuous improvement and that they will have the opportunity to make the next round of improvements to city operations."
Under Portland's old commission-style government, the mayor and four city commissioners directly oversee the city's day-to-day operations, with individual bureaus assigned to specific commissioners. The system was criticized as outdated and inefficient, leading to silos and a lack of cooperation between offices that fell under the purview of different commissioners.
Under the new system, the city council members — there will be 12 of them now — will take a more hands-off, policy-focused approach, leaving daily operations to a city administrator appointed by the mayor. The administrator will in turn appoint and supervise six deputy administrators who oversee the service areas.
Since the next mayor won't take office until January, current mayor Ted Wheeler named Jordan as interim administrator during the transition. The city had already announced the deputy administrators:
- Jonas Biery is the deputy administrator for budget and finance, which will also make him the city's chief financial officer.
- Sara Morrissey is the deputy administrator for city operations, which she describes as the "backbone" of the government, providing services that help every bureau function.
- Mike Myers is the deputy administrator for public safety, which includes both police and fire.
- Sonia Schmanski is the deputy administrator for vibrant communities, which includes the office of arts and culture, the Portland Children's Levy, and Portland Parks and Recreation.
- Donnie Oliveira is the deputy administrator for community and economic development.
- Priya Dhanapal is the deputy administrator for public works.
All of these appointees are interim officeholders selected by current city commissioners or the mayor, and they can be replaced by whoever becomes the new city administrator in 2025. But for at least the next six months, they're the new team in charge of Portland's operations, all reporting to Jordan, who in turn still reports to Wheeler.
Jordan also announced on Monday that Annie Von Burg is now the interim assistant city administrator, handling handful of programs that don't fit neatly into the six service areas, including Portland Solutions, which is designed to focus on the issue of homelessness. Von Burg worked for the Bureau of Environmental Services and led the city's efforts to clean up the Willamette River for the past nine years.
Jordan said the goal for the next six months is simple: deliver an "effective, operating government" to the new elected officials who take office on Jan. 1 — though he acknowledges that things will be more complicated in practice, with "a lot of moving parts."
"This is my 40th year in public life, and I can't imagine a better way to finish a career than to be able to be a part of what I consider to be maybe the biggest governmental transition in the state's history, not just the city's history," he said. "And so it's an incredible honor to be able to fill this role, even on an interim basis."