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Earlier this week, Brian Hunzeker was, according to public personnel records, working two full-time jobs in law enforcement. Now, he’s working neither.
On Saturday, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office informed news outlets that Hunzeker had been placed on administrative leave “pending an internal investigation.”
A spokesman declined to comment further, but that internal investigation is surely due to the fact that Hunzeker was just forced out of the Portland Police Bureau, following revelations that he was being paid near six-figure salaries by both law enforcement agencies.
WW learned about Hunzeker’s moonlighting earlier this week, and informed Portland’s city attorney on Friday morning. That evening, a spokesman for the office informed WW that it had “just learned of [Hunzeker’s] employment with Clark County” and that he had resigned, effective Thursday.
The City Attorney’s Office has yet to explain how it learned of Hunzeker’s moonlighting. Mayor Ted Wheeler has yet to respond to a request for comment. Hunzeker declined to comment.
KOIN-TV first reported the Clark County Sheriff’s Office’s announcement. Its spokesman did not respond when asked whether Hunzeker was being paid while on administrative leave.
The county’s policy, however, implies he is. Its policy manual says: “In cases where management, in consultation with Human Resources, determines that an employee should be removed from the workplace pending corrective action or to conduct an investigation, the employee should be placed on paid administrative leave.”
Hunzeker lives in Clark County, Wash., and appears to have applied to join the county sheriff’s office shortly after his firing from the Portland Police Bureau in March 2022. He had leaked a police report incorrectly identifying then-Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, a fierce critic of the bureau, in a hit and run.
The Clark County Civil Service Commission reviewed Hunzeker’s background on April 28, 2022. It noted that Hunzeker had been terminated from the Portland Police Bureau, but approved his application to become a sheriff’s deputy anyway.
Hunzeker was officially hired in August. An arbitrator subsequently ordered the Portland Police Bureau to reinstate him in February this year, and until last week he was drawing paychecks from both jobs.