Michael Jordan, Portland’s interim city administrator, will continue in the role through the end of the year—though not without some drama.

 

Jordan has been in the top administrative management role since July 2024, when former Mayor Ted Wheeler appointed him to serve as the city’s first (albeit temporary) city administrator. It’s a new position created as part of Portland’s government charter changes. Prior to that, Jordan was the city’s chief administrative officer in the Budget and Finance Department.

 

Portland city councilors said Jordan is more than qualified to continue leading the city through its government transition—but on Wednesday, the question before them was whether he should.

 

Mayor Keith Wilson nominated Jordan to continue serving as city administrator until 2026. When Wheeler appointed Jordan to the job last year, the plan was to allow the incoming mayor to choose a new, permanent city administrator once he and the new City Council were settled into their roles and could begin a national search for the right candidate.

 

Mayor Wilson said appointing Jordan to the role for the rest of the year will be vital to ensuring a smooth government transition and “continuity of operations.”

 

“With his extensive qualifications and service to Portland, Michael Jordan is uniquely suited to help guide our city through ongoing organizational changes,” Wilson wrote in his recommendation to Council.

 

Extending Jordan’s executive leadership over city bureaus seemed like a no-brainer. It’s unlikely the city would be able to recruit and hire a new city administrator before July, but a recent controversial administrative decision, coupled with what councilors described as a lack of communication, left the public, and councilors, grilling Jordan before voting 11-1 to approve his tenure until January 2, 2026.

 

Much of the public backlash against Jordan centered around Zenith Energy. The company operates an oil transloading and storage facility in Northwest Portland's Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub, to the chagrin of Portlanders who worry about environmental impacts and health and safety risks associated with the site.

 

On Monday, the city announced its Portland Permitting & Development department granted a Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) to the company. A LUCS confirms whether zoning and land use rules allow for a particular activity (usually commercial or industrial) on a property. In Zenith's case, the LUCS puts the company one step closer to DEQ approval for an air quality permit the company needs from the state. 

 

The announcement was a surprise to city councilors. Just a few days earlier, two of them filed a joint resolution calling for an investigation into the company’s operations before granting any additional land use permissions.

 

District 2 Councilor Sameer Kanal said the Council found out about the city’s administrative approval for Zenith at the same time the public did.

 

“I want to note for the record that I actually found out through the press release,” Kanal said, referring to a Monday morning email announcement the city issued.

 

Kanal was the only councilor who voted against Jordan’s contract extension. He cited the Zenith decision and a lack of communication from Jordan to the Council’s new committees. 

 

Before voting, the Council heard from Portlanders who argued that the Zenith approval–made by administrative staff without Council’s buy-in–should disqualify Jordan from holding the city administrator job any longer.

 

“Zenith is a deadly threat to our environment and Portlanders’ lives,” Charlie Michelle-Westley told the Council. “These are your community members. Pollution does not discriminate.”

 

Michelle-Westley, a member of several Confederated Tribes in the region, couldn’t help but note Portland’s own stated core values and the city’s land acknowledgement, which gives a nod to the rivers, lakes, streams, and lands of the lower Willamette River—the same river that could be catastrophically polluted if a train were to derail or explode while transporting crude oil to or from the Zenith Energy facility.

 

“Did this have to be signed right now?” Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane asked Jordan, noting the swift decision to sign off on Zenith’s LUCS “felt shocking and not good” to her and her constituents.

 

The LUCS, which was granted by staff that Jordan indirectly oversees, had a February 4 deadline set by the state, Jordan said, noting he feared “legal risk to the city” if the land use review process was delayed. There’s disagreement within City Hall about whether the city was legally bound to adhere to that deadline.

 

He cited an “administrative responsibility to treat every applicant for one of these kinds of actions equally, from a procedural perspective.”

 

Other councilors pressed Jordan on how he plans to build trust and improve communication with the City Council, moving forward.

 

Councilor Loretta Smith, after demanding the exact salary figure Jordan will be offered to stay in the job for a year, asked pointedly whether Jordan knew that Mike Myers, the deputy city administrator of Portland’s Community Safety Division, had been living out of state for the past four months.

 

Jordan confirmed that he was notified of Myers’ ongoing health issues and remote work in September.

Myers’ recently confirmed to The Oregonian that he plans to step down from that role this spring.

Kanal, who co-chairs the Council’s Community and Public Safety Committee, said Jordan didn’t notify the Committee of Myers’ planned departure, citing it as one of the reasons he voted against Jordan’s employment contract extension.

Jordan maintained composure through an onslaught of scrutiny and questions. Despite moments of frustration, councilors said the concerns raised shouldn’t prevent Jordan from continuing in the city administrator role, especially as the city enters a brutal budget year that will necessitate what Councilor Steve Novick called “tens of millions of dollars” in “savage cuts” to key services.

After a cost of living adjustment and pay bump commensurate with what other city employees will receive in the latest labor contract, Jordan will earn about $311,000 per year in his role as city administrator. The mayor plans to begin the search for a permanent city administrator this spring.