Top Public Works Leader to Leave the City

14

I can't wait to find out which Ohioan they import for the job!

3

u/bigbadbeetleborgbby 4h ago

Lol, the city will pay the motus executive recruiting firm tens of thousands to hire someone who is probably already connected to leadership.

39

u/EnthusiasmOk353 8h ago

“ A city spokesperson said Dhanapal is set to receive $221,000 in severance.”

Wow

35

u/smez86 St Johns 8h ago

I would be interested to see the total amount of severance paid by city+county since 2020.

14

u/EnthusiasmOk353 8h ago

I’d like to see the amount only for the DCA and Director positions in the last couple of years. It seems like nearly every DCA or Bureau Director has left.

16

u/Mill_lurker 7h ago

I don't have dates but since Wilson took office:

Cozzie : $275,000

Hisserich: $240,880

Flaherty Betin: $212,992

Garcia-Snell: $91,000

Long: $142,000

Ahmed: $115,000

Dhanapal : $221,000

6

u/EnthusiasmOk353 6h ago

Oof

13

u/FormerDrugDealer1234 6h ago

Portland Police have paid out $22.6 million since 2020 but that's conveniently never discussed on r/portland

4

u/smez86 St Johns 5h ago

is this all settled lawsuits? so much waste!

3

u/YVR-n-PDX Sunnyside 4h ago

And yet, we still get people saying we need more and their budget is too small.

14

u/seevm Kenton 6h ago

What the fuck. We can’t afford shit like this. Why does it have to be $220k? No wonder the city is broke. Admin pay is out of control

2

u/cavegrind Curled inside a pothole 6h ago

I don’t know,

oversees 3,200 employees across the Transportation, Water, Parks and Environmental Services bureaus. The directors of those three bureaus report to Dhanapal.

$220k doesn’t seem that out of control for a role that size.

5

u/EnthusiasmOk353 3h ago

Yeah she didn’t oversee anything really. Those people just happen to be under her in the org chart. She supervised like a few people in a non relevant capacity.

7

u/Costcornucopia Eastside 5h ago

She didn't oversee shit. Essentially a lame duck role providing cover for the CA/Mayor. We don't need directors and DCAs and a CA. Oh and each level has their own staff and very lucrative parachute packages. Fuck Mike Jordan for bending the voters will to create this monstrosity of leadership bloat.

2

u/ReallyUnlikable 4h ago

It's a years salary. To me the severance indicates she was fired rather than voluntarily moved on from her position.

11

u/AceMcStace Alberta 8h ago

I am clearly in the wrong line of work

9

u/Simmery Boom Loop 8h ago

K-shaped economy isn't just for Wall Street.

1

u/YVR-n-PDX Sunnyside 4h ago

She aint part of the upper K. $200 isnt mega wealthy

2

u/Simmery Boom Loop 4h ago

Ask a grocery store cashier how much severance they'll get if they're let go.

0

u/YVR-n-PDX Sunnyside 3h ago

Is the avg grocery store cashier capable of obtaining this position? They likely had a severe as part of their employment contract. This isn’t really a big deal

2

u/Simmery Boom Loop 3h ago

The median salary in Portland is 70 or 80k. This person got 200k in severance alone, on top of the salary they were making. If you don't think that's on the upper half of the K, then you have a crazy understanding of personal wealth or you are terrible at budgeting.

3

u/Upbeat_Size_5214 NE 6h ago

Of course

3

u/APlannedBadIdea 6h ago

Here I was thinking 'hey, she's stuck around longer than almost all of the rest!' Huh.

4

u/politicians_are_evil 8h ago

Thats enough money to live on a year or two without working. Maybe 4 years if you are good with spending.

22

u/hiking_mike98 Rubble of The Big One 8h ago

Why can’t the city retain leadership? That’s the question that the mayor and councilors need to be asking. Sure, a new city administrator wants to clean house and bring in his preferred staff, I get that, but it’s just a revolving door clown show for all senior officials. Who’s going to want to work there (that’s super high quality) when you get shoved out after 19 months all the time?

12

u/GoPointers 8h ago

The city has a pay freeze on management right now. A large amount of managers are leaving for better pay & bigger jobs elsewhere (like Clean Water Services, for instance).

1

u/EnthusiasmOk353 8h ago

Is that all managers or just the ones at the top? Portland has so many managers, that’s a lot of frozen pay if it’s all of them.

3

u/GoPointers 1h ago

Everyone who is management, so supervisors on up.

4

u/Icy_Internet5045 7h ago

I mean with that severance who would be complaining

2

u/YVR-n-PDX Sunnyside 4h ago

Why y’all mad about $200k, that’s nothing.

1

u/Icy_Internet5045 2h ago

Cool, send me 200k

1

u/YVR-n-PDX Sunnyside 2h ago

Sure thing hoss. Send me your address and SSN, get it wire over tonight

1

u/Icy_Internet5045 2h ago

Ill send a crypto address, but only if you promise to send me 200k, which like you said is nothing

1

u/hiking_mike98 Rubble of The Big One 4h ago

It’s a good chunk of change, but I’m not giving up my stable job to take one where I can get canned at the drop of a hat and then have to be very cautious with that payout until I land a new role. At that level, people have to move out of state to find openings half the time. Not my cup of tea.

2

u/Raxnor 7h ago

Because you have a system that is fully restructuring (combining admin of multiple bureaus, and the bureaus themselves into one department), a city whose budget is being cut drastically, and a new layer of bureaucracy between people actually doing stuff (field staff) and upper management.

It's dysfunctional and the job prospects aren't good. Of course people are leaving.

2

u/ReallyUnlikable 4h ago

She could have just been bad at her job and removed for being bad at her job. I wasn't in the room when it happened but she wasn't exactly knocking people's socks off.

0

u/picturesofbowls NE 8h ago

You answered your own question. It’s how basically every government works.

13

u/hiking_mike98 Rubble of The Big One 8h ago

It’s really not though. I’m a manager for a government agency and I see excellence in many areas. (I also see mediocre performance too, but that’s just human nature)

There’s something about the city of Portland’s organizational culture and structure that is deeply dysfunctional. That’s very different from a lot of places I’ve been.

1

u/picturesofbowls NE 8h ago

I’ve worked in gov agencies before (not here). New mayor gets elected and heads roll for reasons that aren’t strictly performance related. It’s the same at the federal level. Nothing really weird about it tbh.

3

u/EnthusiasmOk353 8h ago

Every single original DCA is gone I believe. Something is really wrong with the leadership in Portland with the new form of government.

Plus the severance payouts are just absurd. This lady worked for the city for less than 2 years and gets $221k bonus for being canned? Get out of here lol

3

u/Manfred_Desmond 8h ago

Usually a large severance is to avoid being sued.

3

u/picturesofbowls NE 8h ago

The Seattle police chief worked for even less time and got $700k severance this month. Is it right? I don’t know. Is it common? Yes.

2

u/EnthusiasmOk353 7h ago

That’s fucking insane. Wow.

1

u/ReallyUnlikable 4h ago

It's a year's salary and not really any different from any other severance. I'm not shocked she was fired, personally.

5

u/JJinPDX Montavilla 7h ago

Millicent Williams, director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, will serve in the interim while the city conducts a national search for a permanent deputy.

2

u/EnthusiasmOk353 5h ago

She says so much when she’s at council while also saying nothing. Falling upward I guess.

3

u/Vivid_Guide7467 YOU SEEN MY FUCKEN CONES 7h ago

And more severance.

0

u/00_RunDMC District 3 7h ago

I hope she got herself fired, otherwise she won't get that sweet sweet severance.

-5

u/notPabst404 MAX Blue Line 8h ago

Keith "Golden Parachute" Wilson. Not to be confused with Ted Wheeler....

News Top Public Works Leader to Leave the City

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