Portland appoints longtime bureau director to serve as city’s top public safety official

Bob Cozzie

, the longtime director of Portland’s 911 system, will become the city’s top official overseeing police, fire and emergency communications next month, officials announced Wednesday.

Cozzie, 59, will replace

Mike Myers

as interim deputy city administrator for public safety beginning June 16. Myers has performed the high-profile job remotely from a Las Vegas suburb since September and announced he would step down earlier this year as The Oregonian/OregonLive

prepared to publish a story

on his lengthy absence from Portland City Hall.

In a statement, City Administrator Michael Jordan said officials plan to launch a national search for a permanent deputy city administrator in the coming months with the hope of making that hire by the end of the year.

“Director Cozzie’s track record as an effective leader, many years of experience, and familiarity with Portland’s public safety bureaus make him the ideal choice during this time of transition,” Jordan said. “I appreciate his willingness to take on this role.”

Cozzie has spent more than three decades working for public safety agencies in Colorado and Oregon, including a dozen years as director of Clackamas County 911. He took the helm of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications in 2018 after its previous director had

falsified data

to cover the agency’s failure to answer calls on time.

For much of Cozzie’s tenure, the bureau saw

911 call wait times climb

amid the pandemic and its destabilizing aftermath. Yet city leaders have also credited him with playing a central role in rebuilding Portland’s diminished ranks of emergency dispatchers and bringing call wait times back down in recent years.

As Portland’s interim deputy city administrator for public safety, Cozzie will oversee about 2,000 city workers, including members of the Office of Violence Prevention, Portland Street Response and the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.

Cozzie will make the equivalent of $260,000 annually in the interim role. He made roughly $220,000 last year as the director of the city’s 911 system. Myers, the current deputy city administrator, earns $277,000 annually.

City Councilor Sameer Kanal, who previously worked in the public safety service area with Myers, praised Cozzie’s appointment.

“He has been an honest, transparent leader, has built an excellent workforce of telecommunicators, and has led significant progress on reducing call response times and dispatching the right responder to each call,” Kanal wrote in a statement.

At least two other Portland officials had made a play for the top public safety post, according to those briefed on the discussions: Stephanie Howard, the city’s director of community safety; and Elisabeth Perez, who has held a variety of public safety roles at the city, including positions at Portland Street Response and the


Office of Violence Prevention.

Steve Mawdsley, current deputy director at the city’s 911 bureau, will serve as the agency’s interim director.

— Shane Dixon Kavanaugh covers Portland city government and politics, with a focus on accountability and watchdog reporting.

Reach him at 503-294-7632

Email at


skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on X


@shanedkavanaugh


or on BlueSky


@shanedkavanaugh

Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to


OregonLive.com


.

Stories by

Bill Oram: Seriously, who is going to beat the Beavers?

Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

• Portland to hit residents with another new fee on top of historic water, sewer rate hike

• Portland City Council diverts new police dollars to parks during marathon budget meeting

• Amid citywide budget crunch, Portland council offices are flush with cash

• Portland’s heated budget battle turns into economic development power play

• Prosper Portland head slams councilors’ proposal to ‘decimate’ program funding

About The Author