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The city of Portland announced Wednesday morning that Shea Flaherty Betin, executive director of the economic development agency Prosper Portland, would step down at the end of the week.
Flaherty Betin is resigning just two weeks after the Portland City Council seriously mulled a proposal to strip Prosper of all money from the city’s general fund, totaling $11 million. That proposal would have instructed Prosper to backfill the cuts with money from a fund it uses to bankroll various economic development projects. In an unusual move that The Oregonian detailed at the time, Flaherty Betin blasted the councilors’ proposal and lobbied supporters to do the same.
A spokesman for Mayor Keith Wilson, Cody Bowman, said the mayor requested Flaherty Betin’s resignation.
“The mayor spoke with [Prosper board chair Gustavo Cruz] and conveyed his request for Shea to step aside from his role as interim executive director and return to a role in the economic development portfolio,” Bowman tells WW. “The mayor would have welcomed Shea’s continued contributions at Prosper Portland.”
Bowman added: “A few members of the City Council did reach out to the mayor’s office and raise concerns about leadership at Prosper Portland.”
When reached by phone Wednesday morning, Flaherty Betin, who sat atop the agency for only eight months, directed WW to the agency’s spokesperson.
“I’m in the middle of some stuff,” Flaherty Betin said before hanging up.
A Prosper spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But a text thread obtained by WW among Prosper’s 105 staff around the contentious City Council budget session on May 21 does show just how upset top Prosper staff was about the proposal to strip the agency of its general fund allocation.
Councilors Mitch Green and Jamie Dunphy in mid-May had proposed that Prosper backfill the proposed $11 million in general fund cuts with money from its Strategic Investment Fund, which it uses to fund economic development projects. The Prosper board replied that, if the City Council cuts its general fund allocation, it would not use money from SIF to backfill the dollars.
The thread unfolded as the council debated Green and Dunphy’s proposal. Top staffers, including Flaherty Betin and Lisa Abuaf, the agency’s director of development and investment, wrote critically about the council in the thread. (They also wrote critically about WW, whose recent reporting on Prosper found that agency’s board had flouted Prosper’s own risk guidelines to approve a $7 million loan to an untested shoe incubator project.)
In one message to all agency staff the day of the marathon budget session, Flaherty Betin wrote: “WW has an agenda, we’ll push back, but H8ERS HATE. We fought for community and community fought for us. We’ll be unpacking this for months to come and just know that our relationships, excellence, our partners, our BADASS people, this is the best team in Portland whatever happens in this last vote, we’ve proved that. It’s 8:10 am here and I’m vibrating from delirium, pride over this team, and sheer adrenaline. We are the last vote of the night.”
Another employee wrote: “Does anyone recall what [Councilor] Dunphy shouted out later in the night/ahead of them voting on the budget? It was another dig at the agency but my memory is hazy at this point.”
Another employee responded: “Was it his pile on after [Councilor] Green’s mention that Prosper doesn’t report their work to the city? (Still fuming about this.)”
The critical, sometimes sarcastic messages between Prosper staffers continued.
One employee wrote in the thread about the council approving Prosper’s budget at the very end of the night: “Who’s gonna buy Rachel the bottle of champagne to smash against the NEW New Repair Grant ship?”
Someone else responded: “I can think of something else I’d like to smash a bottle against.” (That person did not specify to who they were alluding to.)
Flaherty Betin wrote soon after: “If you think their questions are concerning today, I’ll only remind folks that this is where we got after weeks of work to send memos, countless calls with council staff and councilors from our leadership, Union, and Board, and so many letters fro the community,” he wrote. “There is so much more education work ahead…”
Prosper board members intend to vote for Abuaf to serve as interim director while they search for Flaherty Betin’s permanent replacement.