PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland city commissioner and mayoral candidate Rene Gonzalez violated campaign finance laws by using city funds to hire an independent contractor to advise on making edits to his Wikipedia page, according to the city auditor's office.
The Portland Auditor's Office issued a re-determination in their investigation Monday morning and said one of the commissioner's edits sought to burnish his public profile by adding that Gonzalez is a Democrat.
The Elections Division first received a complaint on Aug. 16 alleging that Gonzalez violated campaign finance law by accepting an unlawful contribution. The complaint claimed that Gonzalez had spent $6,400 in city funds to edit his own Wikipedia page in connection to his run for mayor.
The auditor's office investigated and found that Gonzalez's office spent the $6,400 in city funds for an independent contractor to help create eight edits for the Wikipedia page that were submitted in June 2024. The auditor's office issued an initial determination on Sept. 16 that there was "insufficient evidence" to find a violation, but also noted that it was an "exceedingly close call." The auditor's office had not yet received all of the documents that it requested for the investigation.
After receiving additional evidence, the auditor's office reopened its investigation about two weeks later. On Oct. 21, the auditor's office re-issued its determination and found that Gonzalez violated the city's campaign finance law by accepting an unlawful contribution. The contribution was "City staff time, money, and services spent in researching, developing, drafting, reviewing, and posting an edit to Gonzalez's Wikipedia page to support that Gonzalez is a 'Democrat,'" the auditor's office said in a news release.
"We didn’t request the change. It came out of discussions with the consultant," Gonzalez said in a last-minute Monday afternoon press conference. "I’m going to be crystal clear I think they are dead wrong on the decision, the campaign has no way of managing what happens on the city side but we’ll evaluate that on the long haul."
Gonzalez added that he plans to appeal the decision.
The role of commissioner is nonpartisan, and the Wikipedia edit regarding Gonzalez's political party affiliation is directly related to his campaign, the auditor's office said, adding that he couldn't provide a reason explaining how the edit pertained to city business. The auditor's office found extensive evidence that a key campaign strategy for Gonzalez is emphasizing that he is a Democrat.
In mayoral debates, Gonzalez has repeatedly stated that he is a Democrat, though that office is also nonpartisan.
"We have an obligation to correct errors in the public including online including misinformation part of a broad communication strategy and we will continue to," Gonzalez said of the other edits he had made to his Wikipedia page.
Gonzalez also took steps to interfere with the investigation, according to the auditor's office.
"These actions include asking the independent City Auditor to remove the Chief Deputy Auditor from the investigation, asking the Auditor to 'void' the Office’s September 16, 2024, referral of Gonzalez to the Secretary of State for further investigation, and making baseless claims that the investigation was tainted by political bias, all after his representatives misled the Auditor’s Office about key evidence," the auditor's office said in a news release.
The auditor's re-determination letter also reaffirmed the impartiality of the investigation, saying there's no conflict of interest in this case.
"Would you trust a referee that owns a house with and was in a romantic relationship with the opposing team's head coach?" Gonzalez said in a statement via his campaign Monday morning. "There's a clear conflict of interest in the Auditor's office. We're confident that voters will see this for what it is: a distraction from the important work we need to do to move Portland forward."
Shah Smith, Gonzalez's chief of staff at the city, provided a statement on behalf of his office of a similar vein:
"Commissioner Gonzalez instructed our office to fully cooperate with the Auditor’s investigation, and we made every attempt to do so while carrying on with our work at the city. Upon learning of a previously undisclosed potential conflict by the Deputy City Auditor, Commissioner Gonzalez was required to raise the conflict to preserve the matter on appeal. On behalf of our office, I strongly disagree with the elections Office’s characterization on this matter."
The auditor's office went on to say that it was the first time in nearly 20 years that the office had seen an attempt to "apply this magnitude of pressure on its staff by a person under investigation."
"We find this, and the misleading of the Auditor’s Office about a key document in the investigation, relevant in the context of determining penalties in this matter," the auditor's office said.
Gonzalez's campaign must pay a civil penalty of $2,400, which will be deposited into the city's general fund, according to letter from the auditor's office.
Gonzalez supporters like Todd Littlefield, the head of the Lents Neighborhood Livability Association, called this a "political attack."
"Rene is taking the grenades, I'm not sure anybody else can ... I think to him it's important because he’s been portrayed as being a far-right person or a Republican or something like that, and he wants to make it clear where his values are," Littlefield said.
Gonzalez's critics — including Stephen Gomez, the board treasurer of "Don't Rank Rene," a political action committee — see this as another reason Gonzalez is "unfit for office."
"I think it should be alarming to everybody that any elected official would misuse taxpayer dollars," Gomez said.
KGW also talked with Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler Monday afternoon. He is not endorsing a candidate for his own strategic reasons.
"We have a small council — three of them are running for mayor, one is running for the city council, and I need three votes ... There's been plenty of thorough media coverage about the auditor's statement, about Rene's response to the auditor's statement, and I think at this point, two weeks before the election, we should let the voters decide for themselves," Wheeler said.