Mary Hull Caballero was sworn in as Portland's next City Auditor
Mary Hull Caballero began work as Portland auditor in 2015.
Portland's elected watchdog says the city needs to narrow a prohibition against revolving-door lobbying by former employees because existing rules are "all but unenforceable."
As a result, Auditor Mary Hull Caballero has proposed targeting new rules so they apply only in select cases -- instead of the more sweeping regulations that seemingly exist on paper today.
Hull Caballero said she's not concerned the changes will lead to more lobbying by former city employees.
"Yes, the number of employees covered by the changes is smaller," she said in an interview Wednesday. "But it's more focused on people who have the most information, the most influence, and have the most valuable asset that a third party or the private sector would want to tap into.
"And so that's a trade-off."
City Hall lobbying came under scrutiny in the fallout over Mayor Charlie Hales' 2014 efforts to reach a compromise with ride-hailing company Uber, which wasn't initially welcomed to Portland with open arms. The issue caught fire because Uber didn't disclose its lobbying efforts, and Hales and Commissioner Steve Novick didn't disclose a key meeting with company executives.
In April, Hull Caballero released a proposal that she said "broadens the revolving-door prohibition." But that plan didn't move forward when Hales and Commissioner Dan Saltzman vehemently voiced opposition about proposed restrictions on at-will political staff.
There's been little scrutiny, however, about the details of some key changes.
Under existing rules, all former city employees -- including elected officials -- are prohibited for one year from lobbying a "city official" on "any subject matter on which the employee participated personally and substantially."
A "city official" is defined broadly to include dozens of people who cannot be lobbied: all elected officials, all at-will staff for elected officials, all bureau directors, and all members of the Portland Development Commission, the Planning and Sustainability Commission, the Design Commission and the Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Board.
The new rules wipe away virtually all of that.
A former elected official, for instance, would be prohibited from lobbying only another elected official or that person's salaried at-will staff. Lobbying bureau directors, city employees or appointed members of city commissions would be fair game.
A former bureau director, on the other hand, would be prohibited from lobbying only their replacement and the elected official who oversees that specific bureau. There would be no prohibition on lobbying other elected officials, at-will political staff, other bureau directors, city employees or appointed members of city commissions.
In both cases, the prohibition would be extended to two years instead of the current one-year restriction.
As for salaried at-will political staff, they'd be prohibited from lobbying any elected official or salaried at-will political staff. They would still be allowed to lobby bureau directors, city employees and appointed members of city commissions. That prohibition would last one year instead of the two that Hull Caballero pitched in April.
What about former employees who worked in bureaus?
They could turn around and lobby virtually anyone in the city, under the proposed rules. The only prohibition: instances where that former employee "exercised contract management authority" on the specific contract tied to the lobbying.
Hull Caballero said the revolving-door rules need to be tailored to ensure enforcement. Current rules make it challenging to prove whether someone "personally and substantially" participated in an issue when working for the city.
Several past employees, for instance, have left the city only to quickly begin lobbying former colleagues, arguing that they weren't promoting issues that they'd been "personally and substantially" involved with.
Instead of investigating or trying to define a level of participation on a given topic, Hull Caballero said, the auditor's office decided to shift prohibitions to specific relationships.
"What we have on the books today is all but unenforceable," said Hull Caballero, Portland's auditor since 2015.
Hull Caballero conceded that she would like to extend the prohibitions to more relationships. But she received legal advice that there must be a nexus to a former job, and a broader prohibition might run afoul of political free speech, she said.
Other details of Hull Caballero's proposal have received far more attention.
Notably, the auditor could levy fines of up to $3,000 -- six times higher than the existing penalty. It also would give the auditor explicit authority to investigate potential violations, request documentation and attempt to recover legal fees.
Beyond bigger penalties, the new rules would require any group that spends more than $1,000 lobbying in a quarter to disclose a detailed list of each contact with city officials. Right now, that level of transparency is required only for groups that spend at least eight hours lobbying in a quarter, a provision that would continue.
The latest proposal received a muted response Wednesday from the City Council. That could be a good sign for Hull Caballero considering the full-scale clash that resulted from her earlier proposal in April.
A vote is scheduled next Wednesday.
-- Brad Schmidt
503-294-7628
@cityhallwatch