The lights are out in Michael Jordan's third floor office at Metro. The name plate's off the door. Nobody's rushing to move in – in fact, most of Jordan's lieutenants at the agency are on vacation.
Without its captain, though, the ship is still sailing – a stark contrast to the situation nearly a decade ago, a time when Metro was described by many as a rudderless ship.
March 15 was Michael Jordan's last day at the helm of Portland's regional government, an eight year stretch that saw the agency redefine its mission and the role between its staff and elected officials.
"About a decade ago, when I was first involved, people were constantly taking shots at Metro," said Councilor Carl Hosticka, with legislators and lobbyists trying to break up the regional government. "Since Michael's been here, I think that question has been laid to rest."
Change in structure, change in culture
Metro's problems stemmed as much from the structure of the agency as anything. Staff answered to an elected Metro executive, at the time Mike Burton. Blurred lines of management and politics and policy led to a tangled web of responsibility, Jordan said. (Burton did not respond to an emailed request for an interview).
Metro staff wore sweater vests on Thursday, March 10, in honor of former COO Michael Jordan's signature attire. "People embedded in a department truly felt they knew better than the elected officials what the community needed and wanted, and would not necessarily comply with the policy direction if they disagreed with it," Jordan said. "The council was something to be gotten around."
In the cities, meanwhile, Metro functioned as a regulatory agency, an ivory tower mandating planning instead of working together on finding the best way to move forward.
"The procedures and processes were so opaque and mysterious," said former Metro Council President David Bragdon. "The decision-making process itself was such a mystery."
Jordan, then a Clackamas County commissioner, saw it first hand, as the chair of the Metro Policy Advisory Committee.
"There was a huge apprehension about Metro. There still is an apprehension – it's not perfect," Jordan said. "Now, the council doesn’t even conceive of regulation before they've had a dialogue with stakeholders and really tried to get their heads around all of the component parts of the policy… the whole culture has shifted."
Bragdon and former Councilor Rod Park went to Salt Lake City in 2003 to see how its Envision Utah program functioned.
"We really saw that our agency needs to become more collaborative," Bragdon said. "Rod and I had that general instinct. But it was Mike who made it actually happen."
Long path to the big leagues
Managing an agency with a $400 million budget and hundreds of employees was never part of Jordan's chosen career path. He was pitching for the Oregon Ducks, thinking about teaching high school science if baseball didn't work out, when an injury derailed both plans. Instead, he started working as a draftsman for Pacific Power.
After getting passed over for promotions a few times, Jordan went to Portland State University to finish his bachelor's degree. A degree in social science piqued his interest in policy.
In an effort to further bolster his resume, he ran for Canby City Council. By 1988, he was planning a run for mayor of Canby when the paying position – city manager – opened up. It's where Jordan worked until 1999, when he was appointed (and later elected) to the Clackamas County Commission.
That background was what drew Bragdon to recruit Jordan to apply for the position.
"He was a known player," said Councilor Rex Burkholder, who was in his third year on the council when Jordan was appointed. "He was known as someone who was reasonable and easy to work with. His working style is such that it's very diplomatic and that's helped.
"Metro always struggles with legitimacy, especially in the far flung reaches," Burkholder said. "He was always the kind of person who helped calm the waters."
Ground support, air cover
Still, Burkholder said Jordan could be firm when necessary. The bridging of a disconnect between the visitor venues (the Oregon Zoo and the convention centers) and the Metro Regional Center is frequently pointed to as a hallmark of Jordan's management.
"We had a zoo director who was anti-Metro because it cramped his style. 'What's Metro going to do to us next,'" Burkholder said. Jordan's response? "'You are Metro. We are Metro. This is not an option to play this game anymore. We all work for the people. Let's talk about your concerns and solve it.'"
Bragdon said the streamlining of the Metropolitan Exposition-Recreation Commission and Metro had been a goal for years before Jordan succeeded.
"It just met with interest group resistance," the former council president said. "But something that had been controversial eventually became this no brainer. People would say 'What's the controversy about this. It makes sense.'"
In a sense, it's a touch ironic that an agency that had an elected staff head turned to a former elected official – who lives outside of Metro's jurisdiction, no less – to untangle the web of responsibility.
But in the process of cleaning that up, Jordan put staff in front of some controversial decisions, providing the air cover necessary for the elected officials to hammer out deals. The phrase "COO's recommendations" became a key part of the decision-making process for projects like urban and rural reserves and the Community Investment Strategy.
"When this council-manager form of government is working really well, it doesn't matter who's leading – staff or the electeds – as long as both parties know who's leading and there's an intentionality about who leads," Jordan said. It helped that the staff reports were comprehensive, Jordan said. "Even people who disagreed called and said 'This is really comprehensive work.' They (the reports) were presented in a good way."
Moving forward
Metro's agency attorney, Dan Cooper, will take over as acting chief operating officer after a planned vacation. The council is expected spend much of the spring and early summer in the search for the next Michael Jordan.
Jordan said he hopes he set a tone for his eventual successor, and hopes whoever that is, he or she appreciates the nuances of the council-manager form of government.
"It's not a machine you can put inputs into and crank and get outputs out of," he said. "It is an artful kind of relationship and it has elements of politics and policy and elements of management… I hope the council looks for someone who understands that."
At the close of an interview, Jordan pointed back to the staff he led as the source for the positive experiences of the last eight years.
"I think they came to this work trying to do the very best they could, and they all believed in the mission of this agency. They all believed that they worked, as I like to say, in the 'doing good factory,'" Jordan said. "It's been a ball."