On January 20, during an interview with the mayor’s chief of staff, Tom Miller, and his sustainability and planning policy adviser, former Mercury news editor, Amy Ruiz, Miller mentioned a list of applicants for Ruiz’s job, which had been prepared, in rough form, by a mayoral staffer. The list showed all the applicants for the job, and their qualifications. Miller encouraged the Mercury to file a public records request with the city attorney’s office, in response to a request for a copy of the list.

Yesterday afternoon, the city’s office of management and finance furnished the list, albeit with the names and some other identifying details of the other applicants redacted. You can download it as a pdf by clicking here. It should be stressed that this list represents the perspective of one mayoral staffer. It’s not necessarily an indication of what Miller was actually looking for when hiring for the position. When advertising the job, Miller specified a preference, although not a requirement, for a masters degree or bachelor’s degree and two years’ experience in the following fields:

Applicants with a Master’s degree or a Bachelor’s degree, with 2 years related work experience in urban planning, political science, public administration, public policy or a closely related field are strongly preferred.

Also: Both Miller and Ruiz have declined further comment on Ruiz’s recruitment pending investigation of Adams’ conduct related to the Breedlove scandal by Attorney General John Kroger. So we can’t get their response to the contents of this latest document. In addition, Adams’ new spokesman, Roy Kaufmann, has been unreachable for comment so far this morning.
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LIST OF APPLICANTS: Barely legible, but includes some new detail…

The list, which is difficult to read because of all the redactions, shows a variety of experience among the potential applicants, from undergraduates with only interning experience, through recent graduates to people with law degrees who have served for two years as Associate Directors. One applicant graduated with a “Masters in Community and Regional Planning from University of Oregon,” wrote the mayoral staffer. “For the last three years has worked with [redacted]. She has served as a planner and/or facilitator for several projects. Very impressive list of awards and achievements.”

Apart from whether or not the applicants had masters degrees, there’s not much further comment, apart from their experience, on their qualifications for the post. Another applicant’s name was redacted, but the staffer wrote: “(Eli’s input: It’s not every day you get to hire someone named [redacted].“

Meanwhile, Ruiz received the following two lines.

“Amy Ruiz (Y)—Amy is the News Editor for the Portland Mercury,” reads the document. “A post she has served for two years.”

As previously reported in “The Ruiz Questions, Part 3”:

“Amy emerged, finally, as the strongest candidate for this position,” said [Tom] Miller, “and I shared my view with Sam, and he was surprised, but he had very good things to say about Amy, given her proven record as somebody who worked extremely hard, asked difficult questions, and above all had a clear passion for the wellbeing of the city.”

More to come.

Matt Davis was news editor of the Mercury from 2009 to May 2010.

14 replies on “The Ruiz Questions, Part Four…”

  4. serious hat on: if you want to actually produce some news, you should find the Master’s degree holder with the impressive awards and achievements, and find out what the fuck happened. or just take the easy road and post some motherfucking catses.

  7. It’s nice to know that our tax’s are being spent in getting the best people. In these times of low un-employment we are very lucky to have someone as qualified as Amy working for us. She is leaving so many better jobs on the table to work for us. A fine example of the bold leadership the mayor has shown — in covering his own ass.

  8. We already knew that there was one person who made the shortlist of three who had great qualifications, but wouldn’t work more than 40 hours a week so was unsuitable. Given that there is only one person on that list with great looking qualifications (as in, significantly better qualifications and experience than Amy) it’s not hard to put two and two together. So if you take that person out of the equation, I don’t see any evidence here that Amy got the job ahead of much better candidates.

    I’m still reserving judgment on whether any bias was involved, but I’m starting to think that if nobody has found the evidence yet, it’s looking better for her (and hence Sam) all the time.

  9. They were considering someone with a bachelors in art history and was an administrative assistant. That right there is proof they were looking at everyone equally.

  11. I know one of the people on that list. He’s a planner, and he would have been good at the job; something I told him when he told me that he was going to apply.

    That being said, I think Amy (who I don’t know except by reputation) is probably the better fit for the job. Working at that level of government (as an elected official’s staffer) is all about being quick on your feet, handling 98623465324 things at once for 30 hours a day, and doing a lot of things outside your area of expertise. The ad for the position didn’t say planning experience “required;” Planning experience is lower in the list than being really smart. The job Amy is doing is not as a planner – she doesn’t get split your lot or decide where box stores go, like planners do. Her job is essentially a translator between planners and the mayor. And she’s shown the ability to do that – look at her many articles about, for example, the Columbia River Crossing that explained that project to us, the public. That right there shows that she’s qualified.

    I was disappointed when Amy got the job because I thought she was the best reporter in town and whom was I going to get the news from? But I wasn’t surprised and I didn’t think she wasn’t qualified. I am surprised that political reporters keep acting like she’s not qualified. Why do I have to explain how politics work for you?

  14. I applied for her job, too. Here’s my resume:

    “Will Radik

    current job: Karaoke Jockey
    education: collage
    past job: worked at cinnabon once. was pretty cool.

    I want job because I love the city. Portland rocks, yay!”

    I’m not sure how she beat me. There’s OBVIOUSLY something fishy going on.

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