A Portland lawmaker’s top aide was permitted to briefly hold a pair of six-figure government gigs concurrently when she started her City Hall job last year.
Mary Li started the full-time chief of staff job to Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane on March 31, 2025. She continued working her 32-hour-a-week county job focusing on health equity projects through May 30, 2025.
Officials at both local governments said Li did this with their full knowledge and approval. Koyama Lane confirmed the hiring arrangement but did not provide further comment on the record as of Friday morning.
In the months since, Li has continued to work as an on-call employee with Multnomah County, where she’s spent the better part of four decades, according to interviews and records reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The arrangement appears to be unusual, if not unprecedented, among two local governments that are frequently at odds. The city’s human resources department said it was “not aware” of a similar deal being made in the past. The county did not respond to questions about the frequency of such deals.
City spokesperson Alison Perkins said that Koyama Lane had full discretion in making the hiring arrangement, and added that the councilor and Li “later signed an outside employment agreement to ensure transparency.”
But the city did not provide any documents regarding the two-month stint where Li held both jobs, although Perkins said the city was aware of the deal. A July memo written by Li and Koyama Lane, and signed by a city attorney, detailed firm guidelines regarding the on-call county work, but it did not reference the two month period when Li worked two jobs.
City personnel policy allows employees to hold outside jobs, so long as the additional employment does not impact their work for the city and all employees must make a written disclosure regarding outside employment listing any existing or potential conflicts of interest, the policy shows.
Li said in a statement that the deal was struck so she could wind down her county work “thoughtfully rather than leaving abruptly.” A city spokesperson said that Li’s 72-hour work weeks serving the two governments meant she slogged through “nights and weekends” during April and May last year. Li said that after her long career with the county, she was deeply committed to her latest job there.
“I spent 35 years at the county, and leaving was not an easy decision,” Li said in a statement. “I was deeply invested in my work there, but I felt a strong pull to join the city and support (Tiffany Koyama Lane). Because of that, I committed to winding down my projects thoughtfully rather than leaving abruptly. The two-month overlap gave me the time to do that with the care it deserved. I’m grateful for the grace both my bosses showed me during this transition.”
During the two-month stint, Li earned an annual salary of $124,287 at the county and $130,811 at the city. Li had retired from the county in July 2024, and returned later that month as a temporary employee for the Health Department, allowing her to be paid a public pension of $7,927 a month. In June 2025, Li made an agreement to work on call for the county on Fridays, records show.
While Koyama Lane and county officials said it was above board, Li’s arrangement appears to be unique. Several public employees who have transferred between the two governments told The Oregonian/OregonLive that they were required to have clean breaks between the two jobs.
Li is required to keep all work separate as she continues to be on-call with the county, and she must have separate work devices for county and city projects, according to the memo shared by Koyama Lane.
Koyama Lane, the first Asian American woman elected to Portland’s city government, said that she agreed to let Li continue working at the county because she was a sought-after employee with a storied career in local government. Li was also one of the founding members of APANO, a group supporting Asian communities in Oregon.
County officials said Li completed her work and “exceeded expectations” in the two months before she shifted into the on-call role. Li has worked 104 hours on-call since June, spokesperson Denis Theriault said. She makes $74.69 an hour.
