FILE - City Hall on Nov. 12, 2025, in Portland, Ore.
Eli Imadali / OPB
The head of Portland’s bureau that oversees neighborhood associations and community engagement is on leave.
Amanda Garcia-Snell has led the Office of Community & Civic Life as the city’s first engagement officer since January 2025. She was hired to oversee the department following Portland’s major government overhaul, which intended to improve how the public interacted with city officials and departments.
City Administrator Raymond Lee informed Civic Life staff about Garcia-Snell’s leave in a Tuesday email.
“This news undoubtedly creates extra uncertainty during a challenging time,” Lee wrote. “I am committed to sharing information when I can, and to making sure you have strong leadership and support during this time of change.”
The news comes as the city is in the middle of finalizing its annual budget. Garcia-Snell has played a prominent role in this work, from organizing public meetings on the budget to testifying before councilors about how the spending plan could impact her office.
According to a city spokesperson, Garcia-Snell will be paid during her leave. Her annual salary is $182,520.
It’s not immediately clear why Garcia-Snell is on leave. She’s the fifth director of a city department to go on leave under Mayor Keith Wilson since the city changed its form of government in January 2025.
In the recent past, when city leaders were placed “on leave,” it meant they’d been given the option to either resign or be fired.
In October, the city placed former Housing Bureau Director Helmi Hisserich on paid leave. She chose to resign voluntarily the following month. In January, the city placed Shad Ahmed, then head of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, on leave. He resigned in February.
Garcia-Snell did not immediately respond to OPB’s request for comment.
City councilors OPB reached out to about the news said they couldn’t speculate on why Garcia-Snell was let go, but they identified other issues.
“At a certain point, Portlanders are justified in asking why so many senior city officials are being placed on leave or departing the city under unclear circumstances, and also how much these transitions are costing taxpayers,” said Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane. “Public trust depends on transparency, stability, and responsible use of public funds.”
Leadership changes at Civic Life are nothing new.
Garcia-Snell is the fifth leader at the beleaguered department in five years. In 2021, previous Civic Life Director Suk Rhee resigned after a report revealed deep dysfunction in the department. In 2023, her successor Michael Montoya was placed on leave. He resigned shortly after. The office was also led by two interim directors before Garcia-Snell was hired.
According to Lee, the city’s Chief Communications Officer Laura Oppenheimer will temporarily oversee Civic Life in Garcia-Snell’s absence.
The shakeup comes at a challenging time for the office. The change in government, which introduced councilors representing geographic districts, also brought a shift in the way the city works with neighborhood associations.
For months, neighborhood leaders across the city have raised concerns about proposed changes to the city’s guiding principles for its neighborhood associations. While the changes have yet to be made public, neighborhood groups argue that the process is undemocratic, since they haven’t been included in the process and the ultimate decision doesn’t require council approval.
The city said those changes will be made public in the fall.
There are other issues with the office’s effectiveness. Councilor Sameer Kanal said he wants to see the office improve the way it shares feedback it collects from members of the public with councilors as a way to create new legislation.
“We haven’t translated that into policy impacts yet,” said Kanal. “We can get there, and I’m committed to working with our community engagement leadership to do so.”
