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Andre Miller, chief of staff to Portland City Councilor Angelita Morillo, filed a discrimination complaint against the councilor last week.
Miller has served as Morillo’s chief of staff since she first took office under the new form of government in January 2025. He previously worked for City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty—the city’s first-ever Black female commissioner, who served on the City Council from 2019 to 2023 and was an outspoken critic of the Portland Police Bureau.
It’s unclear exactly what the complaint alleges, and the city did not provide a copy of it. Morillo declined to comment when reached by text. Miller confirmed the existence of the complaint but declined to comment further. He’s currently on personal leave, a city spokesperson said.
When reached by phone, Miller, who is Black, confirmed that he filed a discrimination complaint against Morillo, who is Latina, but declined to provide further details. The city provided few details and did not comment on the existence of the complaint.
“Andre Miller is currently out of the office,” said city spokeswoman Carrie Belding, “and his employment is in good standing.”
Though the content of the complaint is unclear, two people familiar with the situation say Morillo and Miller clashed over the council’s long-standing debate over whether—and also how—to fund a housing project by the Black-led nonprofit Williams and Russell CDC. Morillo opposed a proposal earlier this spring by Councilor Loretta Smith that would’ve allocated $1 million in unused housing funds to the Williams and Russell project. Just this week, however, Morillo co-sponsored a new proposal alongside Smith and two other councilors that would help fund the project using a different funding source. The council on Wednesday sent the proposal to a second reading.
Southeast Portlanders elected Morillo, who represents District 3 on the City Council, in November 2024. She took office in January 2025. She’s branded herself as a councilor that speaks for underserved communities, including communities of color, renters and working families. At age 4, Morillo and her family emigrated to the states from Paraguay. She’s advocated against homeless camp sweeps and camping bans and has championed funding for social housing along with her progressive caucus colleagues.
Miller, meanwhile, has worked at City Hall for the past five years. As a community justice organizer for Hardesty in 2021 and 2022, he primarily focused on police accountability and connecting with the city’s BIPOC communities. He then went on to work for the city’s public safety service area as a policy analyst, once again focusing on police accountability and safety response systems that offered alternatives to armed officers.
Miller is not the first council employee to have filed a discrimination complaint against his boss. A former City Hall staffer working under Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane, Sprout Chinn, filed a complaint against her boss and Koyama Lane’s chief of staff in February, alleging they retaliated against her after she requested accommodations for a disability.
And in January, a new city union filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the city, alleging that Councilor Smith’s office fired a former aide after he helped organize a unionizing effort among council staff.
