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Shea Flaherty Betin, the executive director of Prosper Portland, who was asked to step down earlier this week by Mayor Keith Wilson, will receive a severance package totaling $212,992—a full year’s salary.
“Prosper Portland used comparable city of Portland agreements to guide the severance settlement amount,” said Prosper spokesman Shawn Uhlman. “This figure is tied to his tenure as the economic development director.”
Wilson acted after Flaherty Betin, who led the agency for just eight months, engaged in a public fight with two city councilors who proposed stripping Prosper of all of its general fund money—$11 million. Though that proposal died at a meeting of the City Council on May 21, the public spat contributed to Wilson’s decision.
The two councilors who proposed taking away Prosper’s funding, Mitch Green and Jamie Dunphy, had previously raised questions and criticisms about Prosper’s lack of oversight. Although it’s a city agency, Prosper has its own board, budget and legal team. It operates with a level of independence that no other city bureau enjoys.
The City Council discussed Green and Dunphy’s budget amendment during a marathon council session but ultimately shot it down.
WW obtained internal messages between Prosper staffers from that day and in the days immediately following the May 21 hearing. The messages showed that agency staff spoke critically, and often sarcastically, about members of the council.
One 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.)”
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?” (It’s not clear who Rachel is. Prosper’s repair grant program offers financial support to small businesses that have sustained property damage, like broken windows.)
Someone else responded: “I can think of something else I’d like to smash a bottle against.” (That person did not specify to what they were alluding.)
Andrew Fitzpatrick, the agency’s interim director of economic development, wrote in the thread at one point: “Participatory budgeting only to the degree that it doesn’t interfere with their own power” and shortly after: “Public engagement only to the degree that it doesn’t interfere with their own speaking time.”
Flaherty Betin chimed in, too, taking a dig at WW, which reported on a $7 million loan Prosper awarded to an untested shoe incubator project that flouted all of the agency’s risk guidelines.
“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,” Flaherty Betin wrote. “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.”
Copies of the messages between Prosper staffers made their way to Mayor Wilson’s office last week. While it’s not clear if those messages contributed to Flaherty Betin’s dismissal, the agency head would announce his departure less than a week later.
Mayoral spokesman Cody Bowman said in a statement Wednesday that “a few members of the City Council did reach out to the mayor’s office and raise concerns about leadership at Prosper Portland.”