Portland Public Schools' superintendent, top lawyer, others broke ...

Eight employees of Portland Public Schools, including Superintendent Carole Smith and the district's top lawyer, broke state election laws by using the public office to sway voters to vote for a huge school construction bond earlier this year, a state investigator concluded.

The officials all had a hand in writing, editing or approving fliers, emails and web site postings that the state concluded were biased in favor of the $548 million bond or which omitted the bond's likely full costs to taxpayers.? The state's compliance investigator, Carla Corbin, reached that conclusion after consulting with lawyers and other officlals at the state Department of Justice and the Secretary of State's office, where she works.

The bond, the largest local government bond ever on the Portland ballot, was narrowly defeated, garnering a 49.8 percent "yes" vote.

Five of the the eight school district workers found to have broken state law are top-ranking district leaders whose salaries exceed $110,000 a year.

In addition to Smith, they are general counsel Jollee Patterson, chief financial officer CJ Sylvester, executive director of community involvement and public affairs Robb Cowie, and executive director of school modernization Sarah Schoening.

The Oregonian reported in April on the many ways in which district employees appeared to have broken the law by using biased language and images to cull voter sympathy for the bond and occasionally omitting or minimizing information about the potential costs to taxpayers.

Three other employees also were found to have broken the law, including former public affairs director Sarah Carlin Ames, public information officer Matt Shelby and family communications manager Katie Essick. Carlin Ames has since taken a top communications job in the governor's office. Three additional employees who played a strictly clerical role in getting the information to the public were cleared.

Under state law, the eight employees found to have violated the law can request a hearing to show why they should be cleared. If they do not within 20 days, each must pay a $75 fine.

Shelby, speaking on behalf of all eight employees, said they plan to request hearings.

"We are disappointed in the finding," he said. The investigation conducted so far was much like a yes-or-no checklist that gave the employees little opportunity to make their case, he said.

"Throughout the process, we took strides to follow, to the best of our ability, the guidelines set forth," he said.

In her report, Corbin wrote that problems with materials the district sent to parents and voters and posted on its web site included using non-neutral wording such as "need" and "critical," omitting information about the potential costs to homeowners, using "enthusiasic and emotional" language and timing publications to arrive just before the election.

This is not the first time the state elections agency found top Portland Public Schools officials broke elections law. In 2005, then-Superintendent Vicki Phillips and her acting communications chief each paid a $175 fine after the state concluded a back-to-school letter sent to every district family was illegally biased against a ballot proposal to kill a county income tax for schools.

- Betsy Hammond

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/08/portland_public_schools_superi.html

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