Go on, take the money and run

Cozzie.

Fireworks at Portland City Hall. The deputy city manager in charge of police and firefighters quit or was fired after only eight months in that position. Bob Cozzie, who previously ran the 911 operation, is leaving abruptly and under so-far-mysterious circumstances.

At a City Council meeting today, the council president, Jamie Dunphy, made a little speech that included a bit about not uttering publicly the reasons for Cozzie's departure. And then councilor Steve Novick cleared his throat and told the main city manager, Raymond Lee, that Lee was "out of his bully mind" to think that Lee could fill in as Cozzie's interim replacement. Cozzie, who was sitting before the council getting ready to make a presentation, kept a poker face the whole time.

Meanwhile, a national search has been launched to replace Cozzie. Oh, the joy! And it will no doubt be conducted by a headhunter firm that will produce either somebody like Lee, or one of Lee's actual cronies. The doom loop continues.

The real sour pickle is that Cozzie will reportedly get a year's salary, $275,808, as a severance. Throw another quarter million on the fire, honey, Raymond's in a firing mood!

The O is keeping a tally of how much severance money the city has shelled out in the last nine months or so. It's pretty startling:

Last July, the city agreed to pay former Portland Parks & Recreation Director Adena Long $140,000 to leave her job. In November, former Portland Housing Bureau Director Helmi Hisserich received $240,880 to step down. And Shad Ahmed, who served as the head of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, was paid $115,000 to resign in February.

Separately, Shea Flaherty Betin, the former executive director of Prosper Portland, the city’s economic development agency, was paid a $212,992 severance in June after Wilson pushed for his ouster.

And they left out Ivory Mathews, who just got canned from being the head of the city's housing projects. She's picking up $171,000 in bye-bye money.

You math majors are way ahead of me. It adds up to $1,155,568 in roughly nine months. And those are the ones that the media know about.

This is Keith Wilson's City Hall. Our mayor is turning out to be quite a weird man. But what did you expect? And just think, the alternative would probably be worse.