Skip to main content
Today is Eli Hurley’s first day as director of Multnomah County’s Animal Services. But he assumes the role under a cloud, after the county auditor says he “misled” county officials about his qualifications for the job.
On Sept. 4, Multnomah County Auditor Jennifer McGuirk wrote to the Board of County Commissioners saying she’d learned information about Hurley she was obligated to share. She said a citizen tip had initiated an investigation that found Hurley had exaggerated his professional experience on his job application.
“If Hurley did not clarify his experience during interviews, then he misled interview panels about his qualifications,” McGuirk writes Sept. 4. “If Hurley did clarify his experience during interviews, I do not know why the county continued to consider him.”
For now, county officials are standing by their selection. In a response to McGuirk’s email to the board, Community Services Director Margi Bradway wrote that Hurley earned “exceptional” ratings over several interviews, with panelists highlighting his collaborative management style, operational background and trauma-informed leadership approach.
“Eli brings over a decade of hands-on animal welfare experience, including shelter management, veterinary services support, and executive administration as Executive Director of the Humane Association of Warren County,” Bradway writes to the board. “Eli satisfies all position requirements. His depth of related operational leadership exceeds the required criteria under the County’s standard HR substitution guidelines for equivalent experience.”
Bradway added that Hurley verbally detailed his full professional history and directly contacted the county communications office to clarify his title timeline and ensure accurate reporting of his career progression.
“Throughout every stage of the hiring process, beginning with his initial July 14th screening interview through subsequent three panel rounds, Eli was completely transparent about his entire work history.”
The Oregonian reported on McGuirk’s concerns shortly before WW published this story. Hurley and county spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The troubled Animal Services department has for years been the subject of understaffing, shelter overcrowding and ethical debate over its euthanasia practices. The last person to hold the job was an administrative specialist nearing retirement with a scant background in animal services. This time, county leaders said they’d up their game and hire a forward-thinking visionary to shepherd a challenging department rebuild and, further out, construction of a new $55 million to $85 million animal shelter.
Hurley now oversees a $13.8 million budget, 74 full-time staff members and a network of more than 100 volunteers and foster households. The department he inherited recently received hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire new veterinary staff and restore some services. That’s because rebuilding Animal Services was a key goal of Multnomah County’s latest $4 billion budget, which featured painful cuts to some departments and deferred replacement of the county’s aging and undersized animal shelter in Troutdale.
According to a job listing posted June 5, the next director would shape policy and balance complex municipal operations with compassionate, community-centered care. Minimum qualifications included a bachelor’s degree or “equivalent related experience,” and a minimum of five years in senior-level management including fiscal oversight, developing and directing budgets and managing capital expenditures. A master’s degree was preferred, as was “direct, substantial experience in a large county, state or municipal government.”
A nationwide search yielded 79 applicants. Among them: Elijah Hurley, director of a small private shelter in Lebanon, Ohio, the state’s 76th largest city. With an annual budget of $1.3 million, the Humane Association of Warren County boasts around 2,400 placements and adoptions annually. Though according to his application, his highest level of education was “high school diploma or equivalent,” Hurley claimed to have overseen $3.1 million in assets and capital improvements to upgrade the HAWC facility.
In July, county Human Resources cut the application pile nearly in half based on minimum qualifications. From there, four candidates were asked to sit for an interview panel composed of animal services professionals from three Portland-area counties. According to debrief sheets, interviewers noted Hurley “lacks large scales [sic] operational experience,” and that he “lacks budget exp for large scale environment.”
Several of his other qualifications don’t appear to hold up.
Hurley’s resume states he “led capital improvements including catios, dog play areas, and full safety infrastructure upgrades through donor funding.” In his interview, he told the panel his shelter “recently went through some big capital improvements with his team,” according to one of the raters.
Though they don’t pay federal income tax, private nonprofit animal shelters like HAWC must report capital expenditures in their tax returns. But in its 2023 and 2024 returns—with Hurley at the helm—HAWC reports no such improvements.
Hurley’s resume, on file with the county, states he served as executive director of the HAWC since 2018. And in an online application he filled out for the position, he stated he’d been HAWC’s executive director since December 2017.
According to Auditor McGuirk, Hurley explained in his screening interview that he had served in multiple roles at HAWC but had not become executive director until 2023.
“Misrepresenting his years of executive director experience in his application materials helped Hurley to pass the minimum qualifications assessment for five years of senior-level management experience,” McGuirk writes. “But, Hurley’s service as executive director since 2023 provided three years of senior-level management experience, not five.”
In its Aug. 3 offer letter to Hurley, the county offered Hurley for an annual salary of $155,000. He countered with $165,000 to $170,000, which is more than twice the $77,882 he drew annually as HAWC’s executive director. The next day, the county raised its offer to $165,000.
In an Aug. 6 internal email, the county announced Hurley as the next Animal Services director. The email claimed he’d been HAWC’s executive director since 2018.
“After an extensive nationwide search that brought us top-tier animal leaders from across the country, I am thrilled to announce Eli Hurley as the director of Multnomah County Animal Services,” writes county Chief Operating Officer Chris Neal. “Eli brings an extraordinary track record of compassionate leadership, operational standards and a deep commitment to community engagement.”
After the county issued an internal statement announcing Hurley’s hire, it issued a revision. A public statement issued Aug. 7 says—accurately, it would seem—Hurley had served as HAWC’s executive director since 2023.
In her email to commissioners, the Multnomah County auditor expressed concern Hurley was kept in the applicant pool after his misrepresentations came to light.
“What other candidates might have applied if they knew the minimum qualifications were flexible?” McGuirk writes. “When the county decided to continue considering Hurley for the director role, did the county re-evaluate other applicants they had initially determined did not meet the professional experience requirement?”
Indeed, the initial search did yield qualified applicants. Among the 78 other candidates for the job were Bronwyn Stanford, former director of the Miami-Dade County Animal Shelter and a onetime Miami Woman of the Year, and Brian Rogers, who has a master’s degree and more than a decade running two prominent public agencies—the Oregon Arts Commission and Oregon Cultural Trust.
