WHEELER IMAGE: CameronBrowne.com

It was the job posting heard ’round the world: Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler wanted to hire a $70,000-a-year staffer to use Facebook, Twitter and other new media to reach citizens.

Local media, national blogs and Computerworld magazine picked up the story as either an example of the next wave for government or an all-too-typical tale of government frittering away money. Wheeler says he got comments from as far afield as Denmark.

But as first reported May 12 on wweek.com, Wheeler decided not to fill the position at a time when other county workers face layoffs.

“I agree there is an issue of sensitivity and timing,” says Wheeler, a regular user of both Facebook and Twitter.

His decision came just days after KPTV Channel 12 broke the story of the job posting, framing it as a job any teenager could do. Wheeler’s own email, Facebook and Twitter accounts were flooded with hundreds of messages both for and against the hire, he says.

At a time when Wheeler’s proposed county budget would cut 214 full-time positions, the loudest cries came from county staffers whose jobs are threatened.

“I think it’s a perfectly reasonable [hire]. It’s just that in a budget crisis, and with the other cuts we have to make, now is not the year,” says Michael Hanna, a county IT staffer and vice president of AFSCME Local 88, the largest county employee union.

Feedback from elsewhere was overwhelmingly positive, Wheeler says, but he admits he lost control of public perception at home. He says he’ll continue his plan to use more online media to reach out to constituents, just not with a new hire.

“Frankly, I’m proud that Multnomah County is leading the way,” he says. “It’s going to make us more responsible to our citizens.”