Community Spotlight: Randy Ealy, CAO of Beaverton

BEAVERTON, OR- Randy Ealy, the current Chief Administrative Officer of Beaverton, talks with Patch about his experience working with Beaverton local government. Beaverton was named one of the 50 best cities to live in America by Money Magazine.

"We are a suburb of Portland, with headquarters for Intel and Nike close by, so some fairly big corporate headquarters are right in our backyard," said Ealy.

"A lot of that workforce lives in Beaverton and we have been branded as a first tier suburb," said Ealy.

Beaverton uses a strong mayor form of government, which means that mayor is a full time job. The CAO's primary responsibilities are to assist the mayor in the day to day operations of the city.

The CAO's job is listed in the city charter. They have a $210 million dollar budget. This is Ealy's eighth year serving as CAO in Beaverton. He spends roughly half of his time working with elected officials, helping them with their goals and shaping their policy work. The other half of his day he spends dealing with the with day-to-day operations of the city.

Ealy is a family man, with 3 kids and wife who is a teacher in Beaverton.

"My daughter Claire is in third grade and she's the apple of my eye," said Ealy.

Beaverton is a diverse city, with over 90 different languages spoken inside the homes of its school district residents. One of Ealy's key assignments is being the primary corespondent between Nike and the City of Beaverton.

Beaverton also boasts a robust athletic community; the Portland Timbers have their practice facility in Beaverton. In addition to soccer, for the tennis lovers of the world, the City of Beaverton also hosts the Davis Cup last summer.

Beaverton is home to more than brawn, though. It's got plenty of brains too.

"Our main library branch is the busiest library facility in the state of Oregon. Millions of customers go through the doors every year," said Ealy.

Check out some of the Fall Events that Beaverton has coming down the pipeline.

Image via Randy Ealy, Beaverton City Government