Portland’s Elections Office is investigating potential campaign finance violations by City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez.
The Auditor’s Office, which houses the Elections Office, confirmed the investigation to the Mercury Friday, after receiving three complaints about the commissioner’s expenditure of $6,400 in city funds to edit his Wikipedia page.
Gonzalez, who was elected to Portland City Council in 2022, is currently running for mayor.
The use of taxpayer funds to enhance Gonzalez’s Wikipedia page was first reported by the Oregonian. Gonzalez’s office reportedly paid a company to train staff on how to submit edits to Wikipedia.
The expense raises questions about whether the sitting commissioner and mayoral candidate used city money for his own personal and political benefit during the thick of campaign season.
A staffer in Gonzalez’s office defended the use of taxpayer funds to help clean up the commissioner’s Wikipedia page in an effort to “manage the public profile” of Gonzalez.
“Political opponents working against change are sophisticated and look to distort events and their significance,” Shah Smith, Gonzalez’s chief of staff, told the Oregonian. “To move Portland forward, we need to be sophisticated in both the way we develop policy and how we discuss history and the present.”
The Auditor’s Office has received at least three complaints to date—the most recent coming from Portland For All on Monday morning.
The first complaint, submitted August 8, was succinct and direct.
“I heard the news that Commissioner Gonzalez spent $6,400 on editing his Wikipedia page. Surely, this is not an acceptable use of public money,” Ryan Andrada-Foster wrote. “He clearly is not a responsible steward of our tax dollars. Please look into his handling of public funds so we can be sure that he has not spent even more for his personal benefit.”
Another one filed Tuesday, Aug. 13, asks for the $6,400 to be repaid by Gonzalez and “an investigation into the rest of his expenditures to ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t inappropriately being used by him or his office.”
Despite the pleas for the auditor’s office to investigate Gonzalez regarding the misuse of city funds, the office is prohibited from investigating elected officials or their staff through the Ombudsman function or the city’s Fraud Hotline, Reed Brodersen, chief deputy city auditor, explained to complainants.
Brodersen instead advised that the city’s Elections Office, which is housed within the Auditor’s Office, can investigate alleged campaign finance violations.
“In this case we only have the authority to investigate this issue as a potential campaign finance violation rather than an allegation of misuse of public funds,” Brodersen told the Mercury.
On Friday, the office received a complaint alleging just that.
The complaint, filed by Jackie Yerby, a board member with voter education and advocacy group Portland For All, alleges Gonzalez’s expenditure is a violation of the city’s campaign finance rules prohibiting candidates for city office from accepting more than $579 from a donor and/or contributions from an “entity other than an individual or political committee.”
“Gonzalez not only spent City funds to shape his public image, he clearly did so to benefit his candidacy,” Yerby wrote in a news release. “We believe these contributions do not comply with City and State regulations on campaign contribution sources and limits, expenditure reporting, and acceptable use of public funds.”
It’s unclear which fund the money for the Wikipedia edits came from, and why the money didn’t instead come from Gonzalez’s mayoral campaign funds. The Mercury has reached out to Gonzalez’s staff for clarification.
This isn’t the first time Gonzalez has been investigated by Portland’s elections office. In 2022, he ran campaign operations out of an office space owned by Jordan Schnitzer, who charged the Gonzalez campaign just $250 a month to use the downtown space. The Elections Office deemed the discounted rent represented an unreported campaign donation, and fined Gonzalez $77,000. The fine was later dismissed by a judge.
This story has been updated to clarify the role and limitations of the Portland Elections Office regarding investigations of public officials.
