By Kolby R. LaMarche

Yesterday, Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak gave a few more clues on the three senior aides—Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Magee, Senior Adviser on Community Safety Ingrid Jonas, and Special Assistant for Ending Homelessness Sarah Russell—that are soon departing, effective by the end of next week. 

While the mayor anticipated the departures of Magee and Jonas, she was surprised by Russell’s decision to leave, the mayor said. However, the mayor noted, Russell had long served in an “impossible role”. 

In a round of interviews held after a public safety briefing on Thursday, Mulvaney-Stanak described the roles as “no small task,” emphasizing their immense difficulty, adding that all the jobs, not just Russell’s, were “very impossible,” she said. 

“The temperature and the political rhetoric are at a pace and a level I’ve never seen before as an elected leader, and I hold deep concern for folks… with the kind of conditions we place these people in.” The mayor asserted that she was surprised her staff lasted as long as they did, given what she describes as massive pressure and criticisms. 

The mayor was, say, candid about the cost of public service, noting, “Nobody works for the government because it doesn’t pay well, frankly.” Recently, Mulvaney-Stanak appointed Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Director Kelli Perkins, at a salary of over $130,000 annually. The mayor herself makes roughly $100,000 annually, with her wife – Director of Water Resources – making over $140,000 annually, up from $124,000 in 2024.  

She acknowledged the passion and values that typically draw individuals to government roles but stressed the emotional cost of persistent criticism, saying “repeatedly facing such harsh feedback and criticism from the public, it really drains people,” she said. 

The mayor gave no other details on the exits.