After months of contemplation, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced city commissionersâ new city bureau assignments last week.
These rare bureau shakeups have historically given Portlanders an idea, however hazy, of how the mayorâs relationships with other commissionersâor bureausâare faring. Wheeler swiped Bureau of Development Services from Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, whoâs been working closely with the bureau to flesh out tenant protection policies. Is Wheeler unhappy with Eudaly championing this work? Or is he just aiming for efficiency by pulling all housing-related bureaus into one officeâhis own?
One bureau reassignment that flew relatively under the radar might say the most about Wheelerâs thought process. Instead of continuing to oversee the Office of Equity and Human Rights (OEHR), Wheeler put Commissioner Amanda Fritz in charge of the seven-year-old department that was created to make city resources and programs more accessible for Portlanders from minority groups.
Thanks to her history, Fritz is unquestionably the best fit for this office, at least while Portlandâs city council remains white, hetero, and able-bodied. No, itâs not because sheâs the councilâs only immigrantâitâs because Fritz was the one who called for OEHRâs creation in 2011, following a number of studies that detailed the stark social inequities faced by people of color living in Portland and Oregon.
Despite skepticism from her fellow commissioners at the time, Fritz convinced then-Mayor Sam Adams to establish an office to tackle those inequities. Seven years later, OEHRâs initial $1 million budget has more than doubled, with the office aiming to address the systemic racism and prejudice woven into city ordinances, contracts, job applications, and other internal processesâanything from the cityâs community policing tactics to its contracts with Uber and Lyft.
While Fritz lost the office to then-Mayor Charlie Hales in a 2013 bureau reshuffle, sheâs remained close to the department, and still holds weekly check-in meetings with the OEHR Interim Bureau Director Koffi Dessou. Mayor Wheeler, meanwhile, meets with Dessou about once a month.
Unsurprisingly, OEHR is happy to have Fritz back at the helm. âShe has offered unwavering support of our office since its inception,â says OEHR spokesperson Jeff Selby.
According to her chief of staff, Tim Crail, Fritzâs priorities for OEHR include hiring a permanent director and coordinating the equity staff assigned to each city bureau.
âGoing into a director search and new strategic framework, the mayor thought [Fritz] would have a unique opportunity to reset some things,â says Sophia June, spokesperson for Wheelerâs office. âCommissioner Fritz was part of the foundation of OEHR; she has relationships with everyone who set up the office.â
Fritz is a good fit. But is that the only reason Wheeler decided to hand over the office?
The handoff could also be seen as a peace offering from Wheeler, who, in 2017, famously left Fritz with one measly bureauâa move city staffers couldnât recall ever happening before. The decision was seen as a harsh critique of Fritzâs management abilities from a brand-new mayor, cementing what became a lukewarm relationship between the two officials.
Perhaps the shift is also an opportunity for Wheeler to reassess his commitment to the equity promises he campaigned onâand how Fritz and a redirected OEHR can help accomplish them. In the words of Cameron Whitten, the new interim director of the Q Center and a longtime racial justice advocate: â[OEHR] has been inward focused on city processes instead of being focused on operationalizing equitable outcomes for all Portlanders.â