PORTLAND, Ore. — The city of Portland offered two candidates, the same job: to be the new Fire Chief. However, the female candidate, was offered, and accepted, a lower salary. That’s now an issue the Portland City Council’s trying to deal with.
If Reginald Freeman had taken the Portland Fire Chief job, he would’ve become one of the city’s highest paid employees with a salary of more than $247,000 a year, plus $10,000 relocation. But after he turned it down, it went to Lauren Johnson at a salary of more than $239,000 a year.
“I happen to have a preference for now, incoming Chief Johnson. I didn’t have strong concerns with the other candidate, but I did prefer Johnson. So I’m excited. We got to the eventual better outcome in my view,” said District Two City Councilor Sameer Kanal. He asked, “Portland Fire and Rescue has done a better job than a lot of comparable fire departments around the country in promoting women to leadership roles. Our incoming fire chief is being offered 3% less than the original offer extended to the other candidate. As we work to continue on that pathway of promoting women in public safety roles, what message do you think that’s sending?…