Per the City Charter, Portland's governance structure includes an executive Mayor and legislative Council, with a City Administrator who, under the direction of the Mayor, directs and manages the work and services of the City. The City Administrator is appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by Council. Mayor Keith Wilson is submitting this resolution for the appointment of Raymond C. Lee III as the next City Administrator for Council confirmation per the requirements of the City Charter.
Official proposal and impact statementResolution2025-485
Should Portland appoint Raymond C. Lee III as City Administrator?
Per the City Charter, Portland's governance structure includes an executive Mayor and legislative Council, with a City Administrator who, under the direction of the Mayor, directs and manages the work and services of the City. The City Administrator is appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by Council. Mayor Keith Wilson is submitting this resolution for the appointment of Raymond C. Lee III as the next City Administrator for Council confirmation per the requirements of the City Charter.
Official impact statementSee the official legal title
Appoint Raymond C. Lee III as City Administrator
Next appearanceFinal action is posted; watch for implementation updates.
Follow this matterWhat this proposal would actually do.
Plain-language orientation first. Every substantive statement below links to its official basis.
The reviewed sources do not clearly identify every existing policy, service, contract, or obligation that would remain unchanged.
Official matter recordThis proposal concerns government & democracy and requires action through Portland’s public legislative process.
Official matter classification and recordThe City partnered with Motus Recruiting to conduct community listening sessions and a key attributes survey in 2024 to collect feedback from community members about the key qualities, skills, and experiences needed for a successful City Administrator. More information can be found here:City of Portland – City Administrator | Motus Recruiting and the results can be found here: download.The Government Transition Advisory Committee, empaneled to advise the City Administrator on many aspects of charter change implementation from March 2023-March 2025, also provided recommendations on the recruitment: City Administrator Recruitment. Additionally, the Charter Commission led an extensive process to develop their proposals, which were submitted to voters for approval. A key element of the proposal was implementing a City Administrator to run the day-to-day operations of the City under the direction of the Mayor. The Charter reflects several qualifications and responsibilities of the role of the City Administrator. Information about the community engagement can be found in the Charter Commission's final report at Key Information & Documents | Portland.gov.
Official community impact statementWhat the record establishes and what it does not.
Votes show choices. They do not, by themselves, prove why a member made that choice.
Final Council action
Passed · 11–0
Read the exact motion or vote question
Final action on 2025-485: Appoint Raymond C. Lee III as City Administrator
Rationale review not yet published
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The vote above establishes who supported or opposed that exact motion. A source-validated account of the competing reasons will appear only after human review of the meeting transcript and documents.
The annual salary for this position is $370,000.Including benefits, the full year cost of this position is approximately $535,700 (FY 25-26 dollars, not adjusted for inflation and benefit rate increases).Funding for this position, including benefits, is available in the Office of the City Administrator's current year and ongoing budget.
Official financial impact statement- The source-linked record has not yet received a human review of competing arguments. A yes or no vote alone does not establish a Councilor’s rationale.
- What implementation evidence will show whether the intended result occurred?
Can residents still participate?
Official testimony on this decision has closed. Residents can still contact their district Councilors about implementation and follow-up.
Official Council agendaInspect the complete research record.
Official text, source files, exact motions, roll calls, provenance, and the technical completeness check remain available without crowding the explanation above.
Official documents3 sources
Final legal actionResolution 37724
The operative official record after Council action.
Open at Portland.govRead the full official text
WHEREAS, per the City Charter, Portland's governance structure includes an executive Mayor and legislative Council, with a City Administrator who assists the Mayor in the management of the City; andWHEREAS, Section 2-401 (f) of Portland's City Charter provides that the Mayor appoints the City Administrator, subject to City Council confirmation; and WHEREAS, Mayor Wilson partnered with the Bureau of Human Resources and Strategic Government Resources (SGR) on an extensive nationwide search and an open and competitive process; andWHEREAS, Mayor Wilson, executive leadership and SGR narrowed the field from more than 100 applicants to a list of highly qualified candidates; andWHEREAS, Mayor Wilson identified the top 10 candidates for further consideration; andWHEREAS, Mayor Wilson, Council President Pirtle-Guiney and Council Vice President Koyama Lane identified the top five candidates for in-person interviews; andWHEREAS, City leaders including the Mayor, City Council, executive leadership and union partners conducted rigorous interviews and assessments of the top three finalist candidates; andWHEREAS, Mayor Wilson has carefully reviewed Raymond C. Lee III's professional qualifications, years of service, strategic contributions, and notable achievements, further outlined in Exhibit A; and WHEREAS, Mayor Wilson finds that Raymond C. Lee III, having served the cities of Dallas and Amarillo, Texas, and Greeley, Colorado, and based on his strategic leadership and accomplishments in governance transformation, fiscal stewardship, economic and community development, sustainability, regional infrastructure, housing and homelessness, organizational culture, labor relations, service innovation, public safety, intergovernmental relations, engagement, and equity, he is uniquely qualified to fulfill the responsibilities of the City Administrator as outlined in Section 2-406 of City Charter; and WHEREAS, Mayor Keith Wilson has appointed, subject to Council confirmation, Raymond C. Lee III as City Administrator;NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council hereby confirms Raymond C. Lee III's appointment as City Administrator in accordance with this resolution.
Meetings, motions, amendments, and votes1 meetings · 1 votes
AdoptedAgenda item 4
Final Council action · Dec 10, 202511 yes · 0 no · 1 absent
Final action on 2025-485: Appoint Raymond C. Lee III as City Administrator
Data quality, timeline, and provenanceRules v2
Why technical findings are hidden above
Unreviewed keyword matches and machine-extracted fragments are not presented as authoritative findings. Only 0 human-reviewed findings are available for this matter.
Technical information-completeness check · Ready With Caveats
This checks whether decision-relevant categories appear in the published packet. It does not recommend approval or opposition.
Decision definition
CompleteThe official title and operative text identify the requested action.
Official legal text
CompleteOfficial text was found. This check does not certify that every referenced exhibit is complete.
Financial impact
CompleteThe official impact statement includes financial information.
Funding source
CompleteThe impact statement identifies funding information without an explicit unresolved-source qualifier.
Supporting documents
Complete2 linked supporting documents found; presence alone does not verify their internal completeness.
Referenced exhibit integrity
UnknownThe text references exhibits. This guide has not yet automatically verified that each referenced exhibit is present, populated, and internally consistent.
Counterparty acceptance
Not ApplicableThe reviewed action is not expressly identified as a non-binding agreement.
Implementation
UnknownAn implementation owner or milestone was not found deterministically.
Document stability
UnknownStability requires at least two observed snapshots; the system will update this after another ingestion.
- First discovered
- Aug 13, 2026, 1:08 PM PDT
- Last checked
- Sep 13, 2026, 2:27 AM PDT
- Evidence hash
- 50c959e6878c6a65
- Guide status
- Deterministic baseline
- SOURCE UPDATED
Adopted
- DOCUMENT PUBLISHED
Observed in the official source.
- Council Action
Adopted