Mayor’s Latest Staffers Bring Markedly Different Experiences to City Hall

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s latest staff hirings include the city’s first transgender police officer, an experienced political operative, and a reality television producer.

The three new hires—and corresponding exits—are another spin of the revolving door that’s been the mayor’s office since earlier this year.

Stephanie Lourenco, who will be the new community safety senior adviser to the mayor, is a former Portland Police Bureau captain and the first transgender person in the bureau’s history to rise to such a rank.

The mayor’s new communications director is Lennox Wiseley, a television and film producer who’s produced or co-produced such reality TV shows as DC Cupcakes, The Millionaire Matchmaker, Kendra and Little People, Big World. There’s an Oregon connection: Little People, Big World, which aired on TLC, followed the Roloff family on their farm in Hillsboro.

And lastly, Tom Miller—a former Portland Bureau of Transportation director and chief of staff to Mayor Sam Adams—will return to City Hall for a six-month position as director of livability.

Miller served as Adams’ chief of staff—WW dubbed him the mayor’s “uncompromising hatchet man”—from 2008 until 2011, when Adams named him director of PBOT. Critics said Miller, a onetime skateboarding activist, was unprepared for the job as the leader of a major transportation agency.

In 2012, when Mayor Charlie Hales took office, he asked Miller to resign from the position. (He did so promptly.) Hales was clear that he did not think Miller was right for the job.

As the three new staffers come in, two are departing: Tim Becker, the mayor’s public information officer, and Ocean Eale, constituent services specialist.

Becker is taking a position in the city of Vancouver as a strategic communications manager.

Eale tells WW he’s taking a position in the Office of Civic & Community Life, overseeing advisory boards and commissions for the city.