Serena Cruz Resigns as Multnomah County COO

Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson says she has accepted the resignation of county chief operating officer Serena Cruz, one of her top deputies. Sept. 20 will be her last day.

Cruz, a Multhomah County commissioner from 1999 to 2006, became COO in May 2021. She was hired for the job by former County Chair Deborah Kafoury after a national search.

Cruz’s resignation comes amid a challenging time for the county. After months of closed-door planning meetings convened by Vega Pederson and attended by law enforcement officials, addiction experts, and city leaders, the county last month had to delay plans for a controversial deflection center where people arrested for the possession of drugs could seek treatment in lieu of jail.

Cruz attended the deflection center meetings along with Vega Pederson, people familiar with the matter said. The center is under construction and is expected to open in mid-October, a month and a half later than planned. Vega Pederson had said it would open Sept. 1, the day that drug possession became illegal again under a state law passed this year that overturned much of Measure 110.

Vega Pederson named Cruz’s deputy, Travis Graves, as interim COO until she names a replacement. The county says it has hired Karras Consulting, a “diversity-focused” executive recruitment firm, “to find candidates with demonstrated success in strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, day-to-day administration, successful employee relations and the pursuit of equity.”

Karras is the same firm that helped Kafoury find Cruz in 2021.

Vega Pederson thanked Cruz, 57, for her work in an email to all staff, the county says.

“I am grateful for Serena’s leadership at the county through COVID and in the rebuilding years that followed,” Vega Pederson wrote. “As COO, she helped stabilize our organization after COVID-19 disruptions and our transition to a hybrid workforce. She recruited and hired talented department directors, grew our response to severe weather emergencies, built our first dedicated security team and tackled contract administration issues that have helped our County stay accountable.”

In an email, Cruz said she would let her resignation letter “speak for itself.”

“I am writing to memorialize my resignation from my position as chief operating officer of Multnomah County,” Cruz wrote. “It is time for me to find a new professional challenge.”

“I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish in partnership with so many extraordinary county leaders and employees,” Cruz continued. Among her impacts, she said, was rebuilding the COO’s office, which had no employees when she arrived, compelling her to build a team “from the ground up.”

Cruz’s departure is the second from Vega Pederson’s inner circle in five months. Chris Fick, Vega Pederson’s top advisor on the homeless crisis, departed in April amid allegations disclosed by WW that he had belittled women in the office, shouting at them and treating them with contempt.

Cruz is a graduate of Lewis & Clark College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1989. She went on to get a master’s of public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Cruz became the youngest woman ever elected to Multnomah County government, and the first Latina, when she won a seat on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners in 1999. She served eight years, representing North and Northeast Portland.

During her tenure, the county made national news by granting same sex marriages, a rarity at the time. Cruz was one of four commissioners who got the plan rolling, according to WW reporting at the time.

But County Chair Diane Linn acted alone in 2004, using executive authority to start issuing licenses without holding a vote on the matter. The move provoked a backlash from anti-choice advocates who claimed the county had acted without the will of the people. Linn apologized, a move that irked Cruz and the other three commissioners. They turned against Linn, who later branded them the “mean girls.”

After her tenure at the county, Cruz co-founded a construction company with her husband at the time, Tom D. Walsh, a member of one of Portland’s wealthiest construction families. From there, Cruz went on to become executive director of Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation in 2013. She held that position for eight years before being tapped by Kafoury for the county post in 2021.