During the Sept. 27, 2023 community information session on the draft city organization chart, Portlanders had the opportunity to ask Chief Administrative Officer Michael Jordan and the rest of the transition questions on the chart and project. Below are some questions answered during the session and additional questions the transition team has received.
Read more on the draft organization chart for context on these questions.
Watch the community information session.
Questions on timing – why is this happening right now?
What’s the hurry with all this? It seems the organization chart is still a work in progress. Why not extend the comment deadline to at least 30 days from this meeting so that people can gather input from their communities?
The timeline is informed by the fiscal year budget cycle and considers the time it will take to implement all the technical changes. Planning for the fiscal year 2024-2025 budget is happening already and impacts the current and new form of government.
The decision was extended as late as was possible based on the complex nature of budget and implementation. The mayor is committed to ensuring a smooth transition and to responsibly handing over a government that works in a logical way.
Does the organization chart itself need to be adopted by city council at this point? Why wouldn't a rough budget framework be enough for the time being?
We get this question a lot. Changing the form of government is not something you can just turn on like a light switch. It takes a lot of work to align peoples’ roles in the new organizational structure.
Is it part of the transition project’s mandate?
Yes. City council appointed the chief administrative officer to sponsor this work and deliver a recommended organizational chart to report up to a city administrator.
What was the rationale in splitting/consolidating bureaus now before we get a city administrator? Why not let the city administrator analyze and determine the best course of action?
If nothing changes, the new city administrator would be required to oversee 26 bureaus and offices. The intent is to hand the new city administrator a structure that is more manageable, has reasonable spans of control and rational groupings of bureaus.
While the new city administrator may make some changes, we wanted to set the new leadership up for success. Most bureaus are not being split or consolidated, rather just re-grouped. This leaves a lot of room for the new city administrator to continue to refine and improve the structure.
How is this being funded?
What is the funding plan to support the expanded 12-member city council and new positions with the proposed city organization chart? Considering that the city is currently struggling with funding, where will the money for these new positions come from?
The transition team is working with the City Budget Office and city financial analysts to explore various funding options and strategies with the goal of reaching cost neutrality.
This chart envisions new positions, which are undoubtedly needed. Are these additions to the workforce or is it envisioned that positions will shift? If these are additions, and the overall city budget doesn’t change, will there be reductions?
Multiple options for funding these positions are being explored including filling vacant positions, shifting positions, and adding new if necessary. There are still a series of decisions to be made to inform this.
What are deputy city administrators and what is their authority?
What is the difference between the assistant city administrator and the deputy city administrators?
Many of our peer cities with governments like the one we are transitioning into (mayor-council) have roles similar to the assistant city administrator. It's a role that helps minimize the direct reports to the city administrator while serving different functions than the deputy city administrators.
The differences are largely related to their portfolios with the assistant city administrator managing fewer functional areas and working within the city administrator's office. The deputy city administrators are envisioned as an executive leadership team overseeing complex and large services areas.
Will deputy administrators have authority over department heads? Will they have degrees in public administration? Will you assure professional governance from top to bottom?
Deputy city administrators are expected to be experienced professional, executive leaders to help provide coordinated and aligned leadership across the city. And yes, department heads will be reporting to them.
What is the authority of the city administrator?
Will the mayor hire and supervise the city administrator?
Yes. The mayor appoints the city administrator, subject to council confirmation, and directs them.
Did the amendments voters passed require that the city administrator manage the city operations? Why can't we just have unified functions under the city administrator and have special priorities from the mayor go through the city administrator?
The voters passed several amendments to the charter, including new roles and responsibilities for the legislative council and executive mayor. The amendments include a city administrator to help the mayor manage the day-to-day operations of the city.
The current city structure of 26 offices and bureaus would be challenging for a city administrator to manage effectively. We can expect each mayor to set their own priorities and hire staff to manage and deliver their priorities. The 2025 organizational chart will reflect programs reporting up through the city administrator.
In their role of overseeing the city administrator, will the mayor have the power to shift the organization chart in the future?
The mayor, city administrator, and city council will all have the ability to bring recommendations to improve the structure in the future.
Questions on city council’s roles and staffing
Wouldn't the council itself want to control its own operations and process (setting aside human resources or payroll type of things, and not including the executive's specific legislative interests)? Doesn't separation of powers under the charter require it?
The new city council will be able to establish their own operations and procedures. The current city council approved revised code to establish a starting place so they can be operational when they start work in January 2025.
What role will the city council have in oversight of bureau actions and operations? No direct links are shown in the draft organization chart. If there have no bureau responsibilities, why do we need 12 full-time paid counselors?
The charter reforms passed by voters last November created a legislative council whose role will be to create and pass policies in response to their communities’ needs. They are full time because they are expected to be more direct representatives in their community instead of spending their time administrating bureaus. Additionally, city charter does not allow them to hold other jobs or have extra income so they must be full time.
The organization chart shows staff reporting to an assistant city manager. Shouldn't committee staff or council chair staffing report to the council?
Through our research of peer cities, including Minneapolis, Boston, and Atlanta, we found that many have more permanent staff that support council's legislative process (permanent as in they don't change according to the elections cycle). There were many potential benefits identified with this model, including coordination with the council clerk and auditor, given their responsibilities related to council. City councilors will still have their own staff as well.
What will staffing look like for the expanded 12-member, legislative-focused council? Will the 12 new commissioners have fewer staff?
The mayor's Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 23-24 included a budget note directing the transition team to develop a cost neutral option for staff to support the mayor and city council in the new form of government. We have been working on that and that will necessarily lead to fewer staff than there is currently reporting directly to each councilor. We are mapping out the current and future services provided to council to help ensure we are meeting anticipated service levels as much as possible.
Questions on Portland Solutions and neighborhoods’ needs
What is the new Portland Solutions group and what authority/input do they have in bureau operations? How is the placement of Portland Solutions compliant with the charter reform voters gave us?
When the new form of government goes into effect in January 2025, the city will have four districts, each with three representatives that will represent their interests on the council. We expect a lot of requests, issues, and complaints that are district specific, and believe there needs to be a mechanism within city government that can respond in real time to these issues without having councilors go directly to bureaus.
It has already been determined that the final placement of Portland Solutions will be under the new city administrator before the new form of government begins. Until then, the mayor has the authority to run the program.
The new organization structure seems to link neighborhood associations to the Portland Solutions program and to councilors’ districts. How does Portland Solutions differ from current Office of Civic Life, neighborhood coalitions, and neighborhood associations?
At a high level, the Portland Solutions model is a new look at how the city can respond to the needs of neighbors and communities. This new program is expected to support the office to provide the place-based solutions that Portlanders expect to the challenges our city is facing including homelessness, graffiti, vandalism, and illegal trash dumping, while also seeking community expertise on local transportation, housing, lived experience, and other policy issues. Housing these programs with the neighborhood associations provides for hyper-local responses that reflect the needs of each community.
How will the needs of smaller neighborhood associations be heard within the larger districts? For example, Marshall Park will be a small neighborhood within the westside district which includes Downtown Portland, Northwest Portland, South & Southwest Portland, and Sellwood.
An objective of the charter changes was to provide more representation across the city. By removing their responsibilities to oversee City bureaus, city councilors will have more time to focus on connecting with their constituents.
The hope is that you can connect with your elected officials that way, but also have community and district-focused staff on the administration side to connect with.
What are the next steps?
When do we expect we'll have a detailed plan for which bureaus will move?
The next iteration of the recommended organizational chart will be presented to city council on Oct. 19, 2023.
The proposed changes add layers of new bureaucracy and will take time and careful planning to implement successfully. Is there an implementation plan? Who will be leading these changes from 2025 moving forward?
We have convened a technical implementation team to manage the back-end changes, a team devoted to change management and employee communications, and we are developing onboarding materials for the new leaders, especially where the roles are new.
Some new positions will be hired by the incoming elected officials, some by the new city administrator, and some by current leadership.
How has the transition team engaged Portlanders?
How and when will this update to the chart be communicated to the community?
Chief Administrative Officer Jordan will present his city organization recommendation to city council on Oct. 19, 2023. The council session will be livestreamed on YouTube, advertised on the city’s social media channels, and reminders will be included in the transition team’s newsletter update and the Auditor’s Office council meetings email which lists upcoming council events.
What will be the process for shifting programs currently in the Portland Solutions box into other service areas for 2025 and beyond? How will you engage community members most impacted by and working on those issues, like service providers and clients?
The first step in the development of Portland Solutions is to develop a clear vision, mission, and work plan. We expect a director to be appointed in October 2023. The director will then conduct a clear process to incorporate the feedback received by the community and the strategic direction from our elected leadership to develop a cohesive and mission-driven office.
An important part of that process will be direct engagement with stakeholders and community members to help build the future priorities and foundation for the Portland Solutions group.
When do you plan to engage the Government Transition Advisory Committee in these conversations?
The committee has been updated about this work several times over the last few months. The GTAC’s meeting schedule is available at portland.gov/transition/advisory.
What were the specific outreach efforts to engage Black and Indigenous Portlanders and people of color who live in the city?
City council authorized Chief Administrative Officer Jordan to draft a recommendation to city council, but the process was not designed to engage community directly due to the short turnaround time.
To consider the desired outcomes of community, the team created a report that compiled feedback from over 5,000 Portlanders, who spoke six different languages and come from all areas of the city. The Community Outcomes report was included as part of the considerations for the draft chart.
How much time will the city have to synthesize the public comments received? Will that afford leadership ample opportunity to glean from the diversity from the voices of community members?
We want to extend the deadline as much as we can to give folks time to engage, so we are reviewing feedback every few days and synthesizing and assessing as we go. We will also review comments again when the period closes to ensure we see what everyone has to share.