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On Oct. 28, Portland City Administrator Raymond Lee internally announced the selection of a new deputy city administrator to lead the Public Safety Service Area, which includes police, fire and emergency response bureaus, as well as Portland Street Response and gun violence prevention programs.
Lee’s selection is Joel Fitzgerald, a former police chief who’s currently the assistant city manager for East Point, Ga., a city of 38,000 just south of Atlanta.
Before that job, Fitzgerald had two high-profile law enforcement positions that ended turbulently. In both cases, according to news reports, Fitzgerald got fired then sued his employers. He sued the city of Fort Worth, where he served as police chief from 2015 to 2019, for whistleblower retaliation in 2019. And he sued the Denver Regional Transportation District in 2024, alleging racial discrimination during his tenure from 2022 to 2024.
He received a $5.2 million settlement from Fort Worth in 2024 and a $10,000 settlement from the Denver district in 2025, according to local news reports.
Fitzgerald served as the police chief in Fort Worth from 2015 until he was fired in 2019. City leaders appeared miffed after learning that he planned to take the job as Baltimore’s police chief and also cited what the Fort Worth city manager at the time described as an “incident” at a Washington, D.C., police event that “brings again into question judgment and leadership.” A searing termination letter sent to Fitzgerald on May 20, 2019, by a Fort Worth assistant city manager lays out their case. (Fitzgerald later withdrew his candidacy for the Baltimore job, saying he had to focus on his son’s health issues, but also after the NAACP sent a letter to city officials detailing concerns about Fitzgerald.) Fitzgerald sued Fort Worth over his firing, alleging retaliation for what he said were his plans to talk to the FBI about his belief that the city’s IT department had violated federal regulations.
Fitzgerald alleged in court testimony that how Fort Worth handled the firing—“recklessly” sharing it with the media—had rendered him unemployable, according to CBS News. He said he had applied to 105 jobs, and received none of them. The Texas Workforce Commission months after his firing determined that Fitzgerald did not commit any misconduct while on the job.
The city settled with Fitzgerald for $5.2 million in 2024. Two former Fort Worth employees who alleged retaliation over the same incident settled with the city, too, according to the Fort Worth Report.
After spending two years as the police chief for Waterloo, Iowa—where Fitzgerald faced what he said was racially motivated pushback from some officers over his reform attempts—Fitzgerald took a job in 2022 as the police chief for the Denver Regional Transportation District. The agency fired Fitzgerald in September 2024. The agency alleged in a termination letter, obtained and reported on by CBS News Colorado, that a third-party investigator found that Fitzgerald had violated multiple agency policies. The investigator found that he repeatedly drove over the speed limit in an agency vehicle, instructed an employee to buy firearms using an agency-issued P-card, approved a staff trip that didn’t comply with agency policy, and had exempted himself and his highest-ranked officers from “wearing body-worn cameras.” The city alleged in its termination letter sent to Fitzgerald that he was “a leader who sees yourself, and possibly the Police Department, as above policy.”
Fitzgerald sued the district, alleging that the allegations were false and the result of racial discrimination within the RTD. He and the district later settled the lawsuit for $10,000.
Since 2025, he’s worked in Georgia.
Fitzgerald’s first day with the city of Portland is Nov. 10.
In an Oct. 28 email to city staff, Lee also announced that he had hired a new deputy city administrator overseeing city operations. Valerie Washington has served as an assistant city manager for the city of Fort Worth since 2015, and her first day at the city will be Nov. 30.
“Portland is gaining two accomplished leaders with track records of creating meaningful change—both within their organizations, and the communities they serve,” Lee wrote to city staff.
A spokesperson for the city told WW that Lee was “aware of Dr. Joel Fitzgerald’s previous employment history when making this decision.”
“Consideration of discrimination and retaliation lawsuits would likely violate ORS 659A.030,” wrote the spokesperson. “Following the recruitment process, [Lee] believes Fitzgerald is the right person for this role and has full confidence in his ability to lead the Public Safety Service Area and work collaboratively with our public safety partners.”
Fitzgerald’s incoming salary is $291,200. Fitzgerald emerged as the city’s pick out of a pool of 93 applicants and four finalists.
Fitzgerald did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The public safety DCA role has been vacant since May, when former DCA Bob Cozzie left the city after what appeared to be pressure from the administration. He received $275,000 in severance. Lee oversaw the service area while he and the city conducted a nationwide search for its next leader.
