Assistant City Manager Mona Bector may to be on her way out of Portland City Hall after less than three months on the job.

City officials are not saying much at this point. When asked on Tuesday morning about Bector’s employment status, City Hall Communications Director Jessica Grondin said, “I’ll have to check on that,” and initially suggested it was a confidential personnel matter.

Mona Bector Courtesy photo Related Headlines In City Hall realignment, Portland police chief to become assistant city manager

Bector said in a brief interview on Tuesday that she would not comment until later this week on whether she was still employed by the city.

“I am kind of in transition,” Bector said. “I have a lot to say, but I have to wait to see what the city is saying.”

Grondin said she expected to have some information about Bector’s status on Wednesday, but said Wednesday afternoon that the city would likely issue a statement on Thursday.

Bector was hired in late May and given an annual salary of $140,000. She has held one of two assistant city manager posts at City Hall. The other was filled this month by the city’s former police chief, Michael Sauschuck.

At the time of Bector’s hiring, City Manager Jon Jennings said she was a “great addition to our leadership team” and touted her “phenomenal skill set,” which he hoped would help restructure the city’s informational technology department and roll out so-called “smart city” initiatives.

Bector, who previously worked as a principal consultant for business transformation at M&M Consulting in Greater Boston, was equally effusive of Jennings, saying she turned down offers in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania based on her interview with the manager.

“It seems like the city is looking for innovation and moving ahead and I am all for it,” she said in May. “After I met Jon and his team, I was totally sold. Jon is a guy who is taking the city forward in many different areas. I like his vision and his leadership.”

Prior to coming to Portland, Bector also held senior executive positions in state and local government for 12 years.

She was an assistant commissioner from 2003 to 2013 for a variety of city agencies under former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, including three years as the assistant commissioner of operations for the Department of Consumer Affairs, which licenses and enforces consumer and workplace laws for over 81,000 businesses.

Before that, Bector worked for two years at the city’s Administration for Child Services, where she managed a staff of 3,800 at 26 sites and a budget of about $800 million. And she spent five years at the Department of Education.

Bector also worked as a deputy commissioner of workforce and talent management for the state of New York’s Office of People with Developmental Disabilities from 2014 to 2016.

Randy Billings can be reached at 791-6346 or at:

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