By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
oregonlive.com
PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland’s top bureaucrat sought to bend city rules to entice his desired pick for fire chief, proposing to make the prospective hire eligible for a housing subsidy currently offered only to high-ranking police officials.
City Administrator Michael Jordan offered a “carve in” to Reginald Freeman that would have granted him a little-known residency bonus on top of the $247,520 annual salary and one-time $10,000 relocation stipend included in the city’s job offer, records show.
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The 5% premium would have bumped Freeman’s annual pay to $259,896, making the former Oakland, California, fire chief and current contractor for the Saudi Arabian government one of Portland’s highest salaried employees, according to city payroll figures.
Jordan proposed the additional perk, which members of the City Council approved in 2017 only for top police employees, in response to a plea made by Freeman for housing assistance. That entreaty came just days after Freeman signed the city’s initial offer and teased the job he had accepted in a splashy Instagram post last month.
Despite Jordan’s attempt to accommodate the ask, Freeman ultimately turned down the job. Last week, the city announced that it had hired a runner-up for the post.
The remarkable exchange is detailed in emails obtained by The Oregonian /OregonLive through a public records request. The emails offer a glimpse into the immense power that the city administrator has over critical hiring decisions and administrative policy under Portland’s new form of government.
Under the new city charter, the city administrator, who reports to the mayor, can now unilaterally make changes to administrative rules without City Council approval.
City officials originally blocked the release of the email exchange, citing an exemption to state disclosure rules.
However, officials reversed course three days after The Oregonian /OregonLive filed an appeal with the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office seeking release of the records. Officials contended that they had withheld the records based on a “good-faith legal position” but later determined they were mistaken.
“The city felt a sense of urgency … and in our haste failed to follow our usual process,” Sarah Ames, a deputy city attorney, said in an email that accompanied the records release. “We can do better.”
In a statement, Portland spokesperson Cody Bowman offered a brief explanation for Jordan’s apparent willingness to alter city rules for the financial benefit of a single prospective employee.
“The city has rarely recruited senior leaders from international posts,” Bowman said. “In this instance, the position and candidate presented unique considerations.”
Some city leaders are concerned.
“It certainly does not look good,” said Councilor Steve Novick, who co-chairs the Portland City Council’s public safety committee. “We need to be paying a lot more attention to the administrator’s selection process.”
City officials launched a national search for a new head of the 750-member Fire Bureau in March following the retirement of Chief Ryan Gillespie . From a field of nine candidates emerged a pair of finalists last month, each with markedly different backgrounds.
One of them was Lauren Johnson, an assistant fire chief in Dallas, Texas, who has worked for the department since 1999.
The other was Freeman, whose 25-year fire and emergency services career has spanned multiple states, the public and private sectors and even continents.
A onetime fire leader for defense giant Lockheed Martin, he later served five years as fire chief in Hartford, Connecticut, before taking Oakland’s top fire job in 2021.
Freeman left that post in 2023 after just two years, reportedly to become the chief risk officer of a Connecticut-based insurance company. Since November, he’s worked as a public safety executive director for Neom, a futuristic city under construction in northwest Saudi Arabia. The megaproject has faced numerous allegations of labor and human rights abuses.
Both finalists traveled to Portland in early June to interview in person with Jordan and Mayor Keith Wilson. They also spoke with rank-and-file firefighters at separate events hosted by the Portland firefighters’ union and each met with Novick at a downtown Portland restaurant, according to city officials.
The city offered Freeman the job June 17, with the final decision being made by Jordan in consultation with the mayor, according to officials. Freeman accepted and signed the offer letter within hours of receiving it, records show.
Three days later, on June 20, Freeman posted a photo of himself on Instagram holding a cigar and wearing a Portland firefighters union T-shirt and a pensive look.
“When you take the time to think about where you’ve been, where you are now & where you’re going, you can’t help but to praise God,” read the post, which is no longer public.
But on June 23, Freeman suddenly appeared to balk in an email to Ron Zito, the city’s deputy director for human resources.
“I have a problem,” he wrote. “My wife reminded me that I failed to ask for housing assistance.”
Freeman went on to explain that his wife and their two daughters planned to continue living in a home the couple owned in Connecticut — which has a monthly mortgage of $4,300 — during his first year in Portland. Freeman would have to live in a rental until they moved out west to join him, he said.
“Financially, me paying for both will be fiscally detrimental to our family,” Freeman said.
Zito responded later that day, disclosing that Jordan, the city administrator, would be open to offering a 5% residency premium, “in an effort to be as creative as possible to meet your interest here.”
Under city rules, the premium is limited only to top brass within the Portland Police Bureau, including the chief, assistant chiefs, commanders and captains. The incentive, which five police employees currently receive, was created by the City Council as a way to encourage more high-ranking police bureau officials to live in the city.
“However, (Jordan) would be willing to amend the rule to carve in your position,” Zito wrote.
Freeman responded: “This (is) very helpful and very much appreciated. Thank you sincerely.”
Two days later, Freeman told Zito he would not be taking the job after all.
“My situation does not allow me to immediately move my family and that is not Portland’s problem,” he said. “There are a few other factors that I have also considered that doesn’t need to be mentioned but were relevant to the decision. I have withdrawn my resignation from my current employer and will remain here.”
In an interview Tuesday, Freeman said he made a tough choice but the right one given his personal circumstances.
“It was a very difficult decision because I wanted to be the Portland fire chief,” he said. “However, sustaining two households for the minimum of 12 months — that financial hardship was too hard for me to gamble on.”
When asked, Freeman also acknowledged that he should have discussed his housing assistance request with the city prior to accepting the job offer.
“I accept full responsibility for not bringing that up from the first second,” he said. “I blame that on just the excitement of having the opportunity to come to Portland.”
Instead, Johnson, the assistant chief from Dallas, will take the reins at Portland Fire & Rescue beginning Aug. 18, the city announced last week.
Johnson will earn an annual salary of $239,512 — or about 3 % less than what the city had offered Freeman.
She won’t receive a 5% residency premium.
“Johnson did not request it,” Bowman, the city spokesperson, said.
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