Much more follows on former Mercury news editor’s Amy J.Ruiz’s recruitment by Mayor Adams.
RUIZ AT PRESS CONFERENCE: Pensive…
Ruiz applied for the job as Adams’ Sustainability Policy Adviser on November 3, 2008. “The skills I’ve developed as a journalist coupled with my knowledge of Portland make me ideally suited to serve Mayor-Elect Sam Adams as a Planning Policy Analyst,” she wrote, in her application letter, a scanned copy of which, with address and contact details redacted, you can find after the jump.
Ruiz said she first heard about the position on October 27, from her RSS feed of Commissioner Adams’ website, where it was posted.
“After a decade spent writing about what other people are doing I wanted an opportunity to go about doing it,” Ruiz said, at a meeting with the Mercury this afternoon in Mayor Adams’ office, shortly after the conclusion of Adams’ apology press conference. “I had applied for another job at a non-profit where I assumed I’d be earning less than I was earning at the Mercury.”
“We were surprised,” said Adams’ Chief of Staff, Tom Miller of Ruiz’s application. “We certainly didn’t see it coming.” Miller said he has been responsible for all hiring and firing for Adams since 2005.
“I think you can look to my work and see that it didn’t change, [after the application for the job went in],” said Ruiz. “I’ve got a three year record [at the Mercury and I think it speaks for itself. A lot of that work was done in the context of an opinion column, because my opinions are my opinions, and I stand by those opinions.”
“I’ve nothing to hide,” said Ruiz. “I stand by my work, it’s all fair, and it’s all accurate.”
“I’ve been consistently critical of [Adams’] position on the Columbia River Crossing, I think I also expressed disappointment that he didn’t give the police bureau to Randy Leonard,” Ruiz said, when asked how she had been critical of Adams in her coverage over the last year.
“I’d have to go through the record bit by bit,” she said, when asked how else she had been critical of Adams. More after the jump.
In her application for the position, Ruiz was direct.
“I’m at my best when I’m tackling a new issue and asking incisive questions to get at its core (on a tight deadline, too),” she wrote. “And I’ve earned a reputation as a hard working, creative self-starter, someone who will do whatever it takes to excel on a project.”
Ruiz provided three references: Metro Council President David Bragdon, Metro Communications Director Jim Middaugh, and Our Oregon Communications Director (and former Mercury news editor) Scott Moore. She also attached a printed copy of the article “We Don’t Want It,” about the Columbia River Crossing, which ran in the Mercury last July 3. Ruiz wrote that the article was “an example of my ability to analyze and break down complex projects, and explain them to the reader in a clear and concise way.”
Ruiz decided to apply for the job after a conversation with Miller in his office on Friday, October 24, she said, which came about as a result of “making the rounds,” during which Miller had asked her what her plans were for the next five years. The job was advertised on Monday, October 27, according to Ruiz, but Miller told the Mercury that he had been “surprised,” a week later, when Ruiz handed in her application for the position at Adams’ front desk.
Miller went through an “exhaustive process” to hire for the position, he said, which included whittling down 31 applications to a shortlist of 3, which was done by Adams Senior Policy Director, Lisa Libby, during a series of 15-minute “fit” interviews, at which Libby said she asked the candidates a series of five questions designed to determine their “fit” for the office. Miller said a good “fit” meant “someone who could communicate, and was a team player, consistent with the job description.”
“Amy emerged, finally, as the strongest candidate for this position,” said 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.”
“Sam was enthusiastic about this situation but the decision [to hire Ruiz] was mine and mine alone,” said Miller. “We offered Amy the position, she accepted, and from that point on she’s been nothing but an asset to taxpayers and citizens of Portland. She has been terrific.”
The other two candidates on the shortlist of three were a person with a Masters in urban planning and 3-4 years’ experience in post-Masters policy and administration, said Miller. But that person “made clear at interview that their preference was to work 40 hours a week if possible, and that was the fatal flaw.” The other shortlist candidate had a Masters in public administration but was “too young in the sense of marketplace experience,” said Miller. “He was a terrific young man but over his skis in terms of his ability to do the job. He’s the sort of person I would hire three or four years down the road.”
Miller is seeking the city attorney’s approval to release a summary list of other applicants for the position to the Mercury, with their experience written down.
“This is largely a translation job,” said Libby. “A lot of the time you are taking Sam Adams’ vision and translating it into language that is digestible for the [planning and sustainability] bureau. Sam is pretty good at communicating his message to the public, and council, the bureau, however, is—just because somebody is good at land use planning doesn’t mean they’re good at communicating the relevance of the work to the general public.
“And sometimes, I think, we’ve found in this situation a strength is not being involved in the minutia of zoning and that gives you a perspective on the work and how it’s relevant to the general public,” Libby continued.
“What Amy has done for us on a daily basis is communicate between the different entities at city hall, and to date she is off to a terrific start,” Miller said.
Ruiz declined to respond on the record to the Mercury‘s online poll this morning showing 51% of readers feel she should resign. 39% of readers, meanwhile, feel Adams should step down.
“made clear at interview that their preference was to work 40 hours a week if possible, and that was the fatal flaw”
My goodness, the nerve of that individual! Heaven forbid he/she might have a family that they need to spend time with.
Can we, as readers, ask that you, as reporters, follow- up every question to Ruiz and Adams for the remainder of their tenancy at City hall:
“Are you lying?”
Every Time.
Did you ask her why she claimed to be the Mercury news editor back in 2005 when Scott Moore held that position until 2007?
I tend to believe Amy Ruiz was qualified for this job and there probably wasn’t anything intentionally squirrelly going on (i.e. she wasn’t trying to kibosh a story and Adams wasn’t trying to shut it down).
And we all know the Mercury is transparent about its advocacy, which is not only its charm, but arguably superior to the old model (“objective” on the outside, reinforcing hegemony on the inside). That being the case, it would be hard to separate out opinions and slant that simply come from sharing the same vision as Adams from anything that comes from being in the tank for him.
But that doesn’t mean both parties couldn’t be guilty subsconsciously. And in journalism (if not politics) the appearance of a conflict is just as bad as a real conflict.
Thing is, once she decided she wanted a city job, it *was* a real conflict, and the minute she actually applied she should have quit the beat, if not the paper. That’s not because of the Breedlove story, but *any* story.
So, was it the Merc’s decision to keep things as usual? or did she keep her employers in the dark? There’s no reason for her to step down from her city job (unless of course the mayor does, then it’s moot) but what she did would have gotten her fired from most newspaper jobs.
If nothing else, there could have been transparency. Like, if Matt decided to apply for a job at Sisters of the Road and continued writing about those issues for several months, but said so up front, it’d be like, “ok, cool, that is consistent with how he’s covered this stuff all along, and as a reader, I can digest his subsequent coverage knowing he’s considering this move.” The same might have been said about Amy and politics in general. But pretty hard to justify having her anywhere near this particular story, if in fact she was.
Sure would like to see Scott Moore expand on that “no comment” to the WW too.
gaak.
For clarification:
Ruiz and Moore both held the title of “news editor” during their shared time at the Merc.
“So, was it the Merc’s decision to keep things as usual? or did she keep her employers in the dark?”
Ruiz said this afternoon that she did not officially inform anyone of her application for the job until she had signed up for it. Her application went in on November 3, she took the job on December 22.
Sam Adams displayed extremely bad form allowing her application to go forward. Certainly he could have exerted some influence on his staff towards Ruiz; but regardless – its just smells too fishy.
Any as far as her abilities go, you cannot tell me that in a city with such a commitment and focus was not able to do a better search across the country to find the best and the brightest.
I mean really, out of the entire country, she was the best person for a job in planning?
Missed the poll, I just follow the feed, but trusting internet polls for anything resembling statistical accuracy is crazy talk. The loud, smack-talking, outraged folks with nothing better to do will always skew the results, even if they have to resort to spoofing their IP address.
Anyhow: @disappointed, a “sustainability advisor” isn’t a city planner, Portland is still just a city and not some magical fairy talent attracting land, people who are “best and brightest” in a lot of their fields tend to work in the private sector where the pay is better, and why would you want someone brilliant from, say, Hartford, to advise our mayor on anything except vacation packages to Connecticut?
But, then, here I am actually responding to people who are inventing conspiracy theories on the internet…
Just shows the BAD judgement of Scam Adams. Amy Ruiz is NOT, I repeat NOT qualified for her position at all. Adams needs to resign NOW, and Amy needs to resign now or be fired!
RESIGN NOW SCAM ADAMS or FACE RECALL IN JUNE!
That’s a compelling argument, and all of the irrefutable facts and stuff combined with the total lack of name-calling have completely convinced me!
Or… wait, are you being ironic?
As an actual, real-live planner, I think I would be the best person to move into Amy’s position at the Portland Mercury. I can not only read, but I also have opinions and the ability to interview people! I can even check grammar and punctuation.
In all seriousness, it’s sad that simply having opinions and a pulpit – rather than actual experience or even education in the mechanics of urban development – is the highest qualification for such an important policy position.
It’s the same two questions that arise in every political scandal. They’re the only two questions, really, that matter in a situation like this.
1) What did she know?
2) When did she know it?
Something tells me all the Ruiz haters here either a) applied for and didn’t get the position themselves, or b) have never been in a position to hire anyone before.
Job postings, and the requirements in them, aren’t set in stone. Sure, on paper, Ruiz’s resume might not address every single bullet point on the original listing, but it’s not all that uncommon for a perspective employer to change the position on the fly when they get someone in the interview. Maybe they just decided that they really wanted Ruiz and her other skills/experience on the team and were willing to look past her lack of degree to make that happen?
That said, good on Matt for following this so closely. Public deserves to know if there were any shenanigans, and Ruiz/Adams/etc. deserve to have their names 100% cleared if there weren’t.
“Thing is, once she decided she wanted a city job, it *was* a real conflict, and the minute she actually applied she should have quit the beat, if not the paper. That’s not because of the Breedlove story, but *any* story.”
Uh huh, cause you would have quit your job during the recession to try and get a job that you have a 50-50 shot for? Right…you hypocrite.
Amy just remember a smile is a curve that sets everything straight!
“Uh huh, cause you would have quit your job during the recession to try and get a job that you have a 50-50 shot for? Right…you hypocrite.”
Journalists and public officials are supposed to have a code of ethics. Seems like Ms. Ruiz may have violated both codes in this instance. That, in my mind, prevails over meefy concerns about living day to day in a tough economy. Nobody’s stopping her from slinging coffee at Starbucks, and nobody would hold her behavior to a higher standard if that’s what she chose to do.
In my post, I suggest quitting was just one option. Changing beats would have been another. Transparency yet another, but that would have required her to tell her editor she was doing this in the first place.
And yes, as Jacobus suggests, all these things can be avoided by, A) not being a journalist or B) not being a journalist who applies for jobs with people she is actively covering.
And favoring certain subjects/sources isn’t the only problem – there can also be a tendency to be too hard on sources/subjects if you’re concerned you might be inclined towards favoritism.
The best thing about this for the Merc is actually that she got the job, because keeping a politics editor who tried and failed to work for the mayor, and/or might still be interested in employment with any number of government or public interest organizations at any time, would have been equally problematic.
If the paper feels that its role as an activist/alternative voice means otherwise, I’d certainly be interested to read that article. In any case I’m assuming y’all are slowly and carefully formulating further coverage.
I can take one look at that mediocre resume and gag-inducing cover letter and know FOR A FACT that she was NOT the most qualified person for the job. Seriously, if I was looking for someone and read her “objective,” the resume would have been tossed in the garbage. Something smells fishy here.
“I can take one look at that mediocre resume and gag-inducing cover letter and know FOR A FACT that she was NOT the most qualified person for the job. Seriously, if I was looking for someone and read her “objective,” the resume would have been tossed in the garbage. Something smells fishy here.”
No, it doesn’t. You have no idea what you’re talking about. When was the last time you were conducting a job search and requesting/going through resumes looking for qualified applicants? I’ve done it about half a dozen times over the last few years – it fucking sucks. It’s amazing the number of people who can’t follow simple instructions or address the specific details of the job posting. Her cover letter was grammatically flawless and well written. You may not like or agree with the content, but it’s content like this that gets resumes noticed. Assertiveness and confidence. I threw cover letters and resumes away at the first grammatical error – the wrong use of the word “there/their/they’re” etc. Because when getting a dozen or two entries per day, it was the simplest way to separate the crap from those who were even worth meeting in person.
As for the objective – it’s cheesy, for sure. But it speaks to the platform Sam Adam’s ran on in the first place. And sometimes brown noising cheesiness is what gets noticed first. You might not like the way the game is played, but that is how it’s played. Learn the rules and follow along or work in fast food the rest of your life.
People pour their hearts into cover letters. I think it was a good one and don’t doubt that reporter was probably qualified. But at this point, even if she had 30 years experience as an adviser to the president, it wouldn’t help anyone understand how no one involved will admit they had any clue it could possibly look so bad to outsiders.
In a city that is swarming with highly qualified and specifically educated and experienced individuals who have previously worked for sustainability, policy, and planning focused non-profits, private businesses and government agencies, I seriously doubt Ms. Ruiz was the most “qualified applicant” for the job. I mean, we have one of the most well respected urban planning schools in the country that even has its own sustainability specialization. I’ve seen the qualified people that apply for city jobs in the 50K range. There are usually stacks of applications from people that have planning and policy degrees from places like Harvard, have advanced related degrees and have years of experience.
Sam’s office and the City hired on cronyism here with a specific agenda at worst. At best, they just hired on personality and not skills and experience.
Ruiz might be a well seasoned reporter with her pulse on the city, but she has zero education or professional experience in public administration, planning, or sustainability. City Hall = FAIL on this one and points to a second scandal brewing for Sam Adams.
Jeez people, how simple can this be?
She was about to out him about over his mis-conduct and illegal activities. She gets an 80k a year job that obviously needed no experience to get. She kills story and hops on the gravy train. Conspiracy to cover up a major felony is breaking the law. Plain and simple. Ethics aside (Portland Style!) this is an on going criminal event.