Ever since screenshots began circulating earlier of Commissioner Chloe Eudaly disparaging an Oregonian reporter (and others) on her private Facebook account, a question has emerged that doesn’t appear to have an easy answer: Whether or not that private account should be a matter of public record—at least the parts where Eudaly is referring to her job.
The question became a matter of official inquiry recently, after a complaint to the city’s ombudsman that “Eudaly is using her personal Facebook profile to discuss city business and post city job listings and communicate with constituents and have unreported contact with registered city lobbyists…”
The City Attorney’s Office began looking into that allegation, and the commissioner’s use of Facebook in general. Eudaly’s use of the social media platform, in fact, has been the subject of three separate complaints to the Ombudsman’s Office this year, according to records obtained by the Mercury last week. There are no names attached to the complaints, so it is unclear whether they are coming from the same person (Eudaly says they are).
Whether or not Eudaly’s online fulminations about her work are public is still something of an open question. A column and recent story in the Oregonian have quoted state archivist Mary Beth Herkert as saying any personal posts that touch on city business are unequivocally public.
Portland’s city attorney appears to take a softer stance. While declining to speak about Eudaly specifically, City Attorney Tracy Reeve told the Mercury yesterday that “not every public record that a public employee makes in which they mention the city and mention their work for the city constitutes a public record.”
Reeve used the example of an official’s diary, which could discuss their work for the City of Portland but wouldn’t constitute a public record, she said. Of course, Facebook is a bit different.
To her personal Facebook friends, Eudaly has torn into the O‘s city hall reporter and other journalists, and spoken of efforts to get policies passed. Those posts often elicit feedback from her friends (a portion of whom are also constituents). It’s a not-that-new world that the city’s public records policies haven’t quite adjusted to.
But interestingly, it turns out Eudaly has been dinged by city officials over her Facebook use. The O reports today that Human Resources Director Anna Kanwit in May found Eudaly’s public account as a city official had inappropriately blocked a constituent.
“The commissioner’s office has been advised to unblock you from her public Facebook page until and unless you violate the terms of use for Facebook or the City’s Social Media Policy,” Kanwit wrote, according to the article. Eudaly tells the Mercury she is contesting Kanwit’s finding, and believes the person who was blocked is using a fake name to troll her.
In the Facebook post that’s received the bulk of attention, Eudaly took issue with Oregonian reporter Jessica Floum’s reporting about an expansion of the communications team in the Bureau of Development Services, which Eudaly controls. A recent council budget adjustment brought the team up to nine public employees.
Eudaly said there were inaccuracies in the article, but also bristled at a description that painted her as dismissive. When local freelance journalist Mike Bivins posted a screenshot of Eudaly’s post, a Twitter debate quickly heated up, with local public officials weighing in.
pic.twitter.com/1Qvuvic7D7
— Mike Bivins (@itsmikebivins) November 11, 2017
This story about @ChloeEudaly setting aside $800K for communications staff at the permitting bureau has led to some… interesting Twitter. pic.twitter.com/WIQL8agAjf
— Dirk VanderHart (@dirquez) November 11, 2017
On top of being a complete moron and utterly unqualified for the office she holds, Eudaly also has no semblance of personal ethics.
She had interns performing illegal, unpaid work for her bookshop. She lied about her father drunkenly killing people as a justification to shut down debate from her constituents she disagreed with. She is unilaterally deciding the city should not enforce laws on housing units parked in driveways. She continually ditches public meetings when she doesn’t want to hear constituent testimony.
She’s in way over her head, can’t handle criticism, and can’t handle comporting herself in anything resembling a professional manner. I can’t believe we’re going to have to put up with an entire term of this bullshit, all because she rode to victory on a wave of Novak hate and renter greed.
Oh, forgot to mention failing to pay taxes for years and years on end. Eudaly is Portland’s Donald Trump to a T.
But still I’m not trusting this story. Most of the commentary on the Trib was like Flavio’s: she’s “functionally illiterate,” and has violated the First Amendment somehow by bitching about a reporter on her personal Facebook account…unpaid interns, blah blah…
Look, she hasn’t vilified all journalists like Trump has, most of the shit people post about her sounds made up, and doesn’t even have anything to do with this story. The story itself, by the way, is what seems like personal hurt feelings from an Oregonian reporter going too far: Chloe made a minor misstatement which has been conflated into a Lie, and then to an Objectively False Claim, and worse yet, people are complaining because she stated an opinion about a reporter.
I don’t have an opinion about her personally, but this story is bullshit.
I throw in the word “personally” there because I’m noticing almost all the comments on the Trib (and the one above mine here) seem personally motivated. Maybe it’s just everyone losing their shit in this particular moment, but either some people are using poetic license, or people have some claims to substantiate.
Like, I asked the one lady over there to back up the claim about Chloe being illiterate; haven’t heard back on that one. I asked another guy where he felt the First Amendment was being violated here: nothing. While I’m fairly sure I agree that Chloe’s over her head in this position, it seems like it’s not enough for most people to just leave it there…they gotta make shit up.
rich bachelor – She is quite clearly violating public records laws by deleting comments from constituents relating to her public position as a commissioner, and by posting things relating to her official position on a filtered “private” page. Other politicians have been sued and lost on this point, so I’m pretty sure nobody is making that up.
“Illiterate” is usually slang for stupid. Not literally illiterate by the dictionary definition. It seems like you’re stretching to defend her here. That’s fine if you like her, but many people don’t due to her continual pattern of being arrogant, disrespectful, and not upholding her responsibilities towards all of her constituents, rather than privileging the constituents who happen to like and agree with her.
Where is the evidence for the unpaid interns? Until now I’ve only read about it in anonymous comments at willamette week.
GLV, the evidence is the literal advertisement that was, as of last year, still up on the bookstore website for unpaid interns with the duties listed being those duties that Oregon employment law says should be paid work. So the only way it didn’t happen is if Eudaly’s bookstore and the appeal of interning there was so shitty that they didn’t land an intern for that listing. And I think we both know the answer to that, since there were interns working at her store during that period.
“Reading Frenzy is as much a community resource as it is a business, and as such has always depended on the generosity of volunteer staff, a team of supportive professionals who help us for free or cheap, and the occasional fundraiser” – Chloe Eudaly on kickstater, as reported by the Mercury in 2007, then again on another Kickstarter by her in 2012.
A permanent call for free unpaid labor volunteers, which she’d make people apply for like a paid job was posted on her website fir years until she pulled that earlier this year.
But here’s the clincher. It’s against Federal and state employment laws for a for profit business (which Reading Frenzy was) to use unpaid labor, including volunteers or unpaid interns. Eudaly could owe every single one of those “volunteers” back wages, and owe the gov back employment taxes on them. It’s considered explotation to use free labor for your own profit, which is what Eudaly was doing. For 22 years! Man, that would be a lot of back wages & taxes owed. Wow. If she wanted to be a charity for herself, she should have made reading frenzy into a non profit..
She also didn’t pay taxes on $73k raised in kickstarters she held for herself, including begging – I mean- “crowd funding” for a minivan, which is kind of…hypocritical? Considering her $116,000 salary is now paid for by taxpayers.
Here’s two links of interest. Google is the thinking man’s power tool digger. I’m sure others can use their keyboards to verify this. And more.
http://www.portlandmercury.com/books/rea…
From an employment law firm. Feel free to contact Oregon gov BOLI or https://www.wardandsmith.com/articles/wa…
Forbes also has a pretty good tip shit for businesses on the no no of using unpaid labor
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.…
Why do we know all this? Stay tuned for the next episode of Eudaly does dumb, bad, illegal things and gets in trouble by the press and law for it…
From this story and others, it looks to me like she got herself elected and is swimming with entirely different species of fish than she is accustomed. Political types are eating her alive and my guess is that she hates her new job. Too bad for us. I admit I voted for her, a mistake.
A million upvotes for Central Librarian.
Can we get an update on this article? Because I heard someone actually formally filed a number of grievances against Eudaly with the Portland Ombudsman’s office earlier this week.