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Susan Mottet, director of the city of Portland's Open and Accountable Elections program, dismissed two of three elements of an elections complaint filed against Loretta Smith, who is running for City Council in the Aug. 11 special election to fill the seat vacated by the January death of Commissioner Nick Fish.
Smith, a former two-term Multnomah County commissioner, said in a statement the ruling vindicated her.
"I have said from the beginning that neither I nor my campaign violated any law when we appropriately followed Oregon political disclosure requirements," Smith said.
"It is unfortunate—but not surprising—some members of our press rushed to cast aspersions and wrongly vilified me without cause," Smith continued. "I hope that the press will use this as a moment to ponder whether they are equitably covering Black and brown members of our community. Black Lives Matter goes beyond questioning the 'isms' in our police force, it calls us to eradicate bias in every form, everywhere."
As WW reported earlier, Smith's campaign made an unusual filing last month: It disclosed a $6,000 cash contribution and listed the donor as "anonymous."
Smith is participating in the city's Open and Accountable Elections program, which provides matching funds to candidates but restricts contributions to $250 each. The $6,000 exceeded that cap and also appeared to violate a state prohibition on anonymous contributions, and it was reported more than two months after the required deadline.
Jerome Brooks, Smith's campaign manager, told WW in July that the contribution was actually 25 separate cash contributions and that the campaign had lost the envelopes the cash came in and so could not identify the donors.
Brooks said he consulted the secretary of state's Elections Division and was told to report the contributions as one single, anonymous donation and then to donate the money to a nonprofit. Brooks did so and the $6,000 went to the Oregon Food Bank.
After WW's story ran, Seth Woolley, a campaign finance watchdog who also ran for City Council in May, filed an elections complaint against Smith.
Related: Seth Woolley Files Complaints Against Loretta Smith for "Anonymous" Contribution
On Aug. 5, Mottet issued a ruling on Woolley's complaint: Because Brooks, Smith's campaign manager, consulted the Secretary of State's Office about the lost envelopes and followed the directions given by state elections officials, Mottet took no issue with the size of the contribution or it being labeled as anonymous.
"The determination is that there is no evidence of violating contribution limits by the campaign," Mottet wrote. "The campaign did not submit the contributions for public match. The campaign proactively disclosed the problem once it was known to the [campaign's] treasurer. The campaign followed state and local law."
As for the contribution being disclosed 78 days late, Mottet found a violation—but also recommended mitigation.
"The report of the $6,000 was due on May 2, 2020," Mottet wrote. "It was reported to the Open & Accountable Elections program on July 22, 2020. For this, the Open & Accountable Elections Administrative Rules recommends a penalty of 50% of the amount, which is $3,000 in this case."
But, Mottet then cited the OAE code, which says, "The purpose of this [penalty] section is to discourage and deter the intentional or negligent violation of program requirements or prohibitions."
Mottet dismissed the possibility that losing 25 envelopes might constitute negligence.
"I have no reason to believe that this violation was intentional or negligent, that it prevents the proper stewardship of public funds, that it violates the principles of public transparency in campaign finance, nor that it harms the purpose of the Open and Accountable Elections program," she wrote. "I believe this violation was a simple error that occurs in the course of carrying out a campaign."
She suggested reducing the fine dramatically.
"The multiple cash contributions which were reported late will be combined and treated as one $250 contribution that was reported late, therefore the penalty issued will be $125, which is 50% of $250," Mottet wrote.
But she suggested lowering the penalty further. "The campaign manager proactively disclosed to the Open & Accountable Elections director prior to the filing of a complaint or the reporting of the contributions that he had to take a leave of absence due to an illness and, as a result, was not able to report some contributions to the treasurer so that the treasurer could report them in a timely manner," Mottet wrote. "If this is the reason this report was made late, the campaign may be able to get relief from the penalty by submitting a request for reconsideration."
Brooks took that suggestion and requested reconsideration of the $125 penalty.
At 10:30 pm on Aug. 5, Mottet responded via email.
"I accept this request for reconsideration," she wrote. "I am waiving the penalty."
Ballots for the special election between Smith and Dan Ryan, the former executive director of the educational nonprofit All Hands Raised, must be received by Multnomah County Elections by 8 pm on Aug. 11. It is now too late to mail ballots, but there is a list of drop-off sites here.
WW has endorsed Ryan in that race. Our endorsement is here.
Clarification: Woolley filed complaints with two city offices. Open and Accountable Elections progam has completed its investigation. The City Elections Office has not.