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Four weeks before Mayor Keith Wilson took office Jan. 1, he got a taste of the kind of backlash the city of Portland’s top executive often experiences.
On a call with over 1,000 city employees Dec. 4, Wilson said he wanted them to come in to the office at least four days a week. Since the pandemic, the city of Portland has allowed its office employees to work partly remote, with a 20-hour in-office requirement per week instituted by Mayor Ted Wheeler in January 2024.
But Wilson’s offhand remark about requiring his employees to repopulate city offices for an additional weekday caused an immediate commotion among city employees and the labor unions representing those workers, who said it would lead to an exodus.
Now, Wilson has changed his tune. In reply to an inquiry from WW, his chief of staff, Aisling Coghlan, said Friday morning that Wilson has walked back the idea of mandating a full return-to-office policy in 2025.
“Given the current budget constraints and our ongoing efforts to address unsheltered homelessness, the full return of staff to the office will not be feasible in 2025,” Coghlan wrote in an email. “The Mayor is currently evaluating options and strategies related to increase reporting in person to job sites in 2025 and he will announce his strategy in the coming weeks.”
Coghlan added: “He continues to believe that having all staff return to their job sites will contribute to this goal. However, he acknowledges that this transition will not happen instantly.”