City of Portland’s Budget Director Abruptly Resigned This Week

The resignation comes in the middle of this year’s budget process.

Wheeler at City Hall / Lights Festival Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler speaks at City Hall for an event celebrating the Portland Winter Light Festival (Brian Burk)
By Sophie Peel

The director of Portland’s City Budget Office, Tim Grewe, abruptly resigned earlier this week.

In an email to top City Council staff on Monday afternoon, the chief of staff to Mayor Ted Wheeler, Bobby Lee, wrote that Grewe had resigned. Lee offered no reason for Grewe’s departure.

“Tim Grewe has resigned and is no longer with the city of Portland,” Lee wrote.

The deputy budget director, Ruth Levine, is the acting interim director of the 15-employee office.

Wheeler appointed Grewe, 72, as the director of the City Budget Office at the beginning of 2023 as the city was preparing to undergo a significant, two-year overhaul of its governance structure in preparation for a charter-approved new form of government. Grewe had previously been with the city for decades before leaving in 2006 to work for the U.S Department of the Treasury.

The departure comes as a surprise in part because the city is in the middle of its annual budget process.

Grewe could not immediately be reached for comment. Wheeler’s office says he did not receive a severance package.



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