Murmurs: School Board Member Owes $47,000 in Income Tax

SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER OWES $47,000 IN INCOME TAX: Gary Hollands, who is seeking reelection to the Portland Public Schools Board, owes more than $47,000 in back taxes and penalties for nonpayment, WW has learned. Multnomah County records show that the Oregon Department of Revenue sent Hollands a legal notice in June, saying he owed $28,674 in personal income tax from 2020 with penalties and interest, coming to a total of $47,780 due. In a statement to WW, Hollands wrote that COVID-19 created “unforeseen difficulties” for his trucking school, and he fell behind in “addressing certain financial obligations, including this one.” He added: “We are actively working through this issue and are in communication with the appropriate parties to resolve it.” Hollands said he hopes to pay his debt by the new year. In his role on the School Board, Hollands has a say in crafting a $1.8 billion bond that the district will present to Portland voters in May. Hollands announced his bid for reelection Dec. 10 to a parent Facebook group. He represents Zone 5, a part of Northeast Portland that includes Grant and McDaniel high schools.

COUNTY SCRAMBLES TO SAVE IMMUNIZATION PROGRAMS AS FEDERAL FUNDING RUNS OUT: Multnomah County faces the prospect of major cuts to its public immunization programs following the loss of federal funding, according to an internal document obtained by WW through a public records request. The math problem is simple: Five years ago, the county filled a budget hole by “eliminating most of the Community Immunization Program,” the document says, only to save it with federal funds received during the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic. Those funds are now disappearing—just as the county faces another $21 million hole thanks to a drop in property values as the pandemic hollowed out downtown. (County government relies on property taxes to fund many of its programs.) The county’s sexually transmitted infection clinic is short $1.7 million, and the primary funding source for the immunization program is being cut by 90%, the document says. “We won’t—probably—be providing vaccines,” the county’s public health director, Andrea Hamberg, said at a recent statewide meeting, citing the lack of funds. Hamberg now tells WW that was “hyperbole” and the document was written to describe a “kind of worst-case scenario” if the program weren’t funded. The 2026 budget isn’t finalized, a spokeswoman cautions WW. “Regardless of the end of the COVID-era federal funding,” the spokeswoman said in a statement, “Multnomah County will continue to provide childhood vaccines and respond to public health emergencies.”

AG-ELECT GETS BIG TOBACCO CHECK: Attorney General-elect Dan Rayfield reported a $20,000 contribution Dec. 2 from Philip Morris International Global Services. It’s not Rayfield’s first check from a Philip Morris affiliate: He got $2,500 in 2022 and again in 2023 from Altria Client Services, another Philip Morris company, and $2,000 from Philip Morris International during his race this year against Republican Will Lathrop. But those smaller checks came before Rayfield won the Nov. 5 election to become the state’s chief legal officer. In that role, he will oversee the state’s litigation strategy, including whether to sue certain companies that state officials believe are causing harm to Oregonians. In the past, many states, including Oregon, sued Philip Morris (now Altria) and other tobacco companies for false advertising and the public harm tobacco has done. Since he entered the Legislature in 2015, Rayfield has been also one of the loudest voices for campaign finance reform. Rayfield’s spokeswoman Hazel Tylinski says the contribution will have no influence on Rayfield’s work as attorney general. Rayfield “firmly believes that campaign contributions are for campaign expenses and should have no bearing on the official work of any elected official,” Tylinski says. “AG-elect Rayfield has a decade of service demonstrating his independence on all issues from supporting and speaking out in favor of increased tobacco taxes to democracy reforms like campaign finance reform.”

CREDITORS, FEDS SQUEEZE PAMPLIN: A Multnomah County circuit judge entered a foreclosure judgment Dec. 6 against Ross Island Sand & Gravel and owner Robert B. Pamplin Jr. in a case involving unpaid bills for fencing around the former Ross Island headquarters at 4315 SE McLoughlin Blvd. Rather than defending themselves in court, Pamplin and his company skipped the court proceedings. The next step, according to court records and Craig Russillo, attorney for Pacific Fence & Wire Co., is for three of the headquarters property’s eight tax lots to be auctioned to satisfy debts of $153,000 to Pacific Fence and $419,000 to fuel supplier PetroCard, which previously won a judgment against Ross Island. (both include attorney fees and interest at 18%). Meanwhile, Pamplin is due in federal court for the first time Dec. 17 to face allegations by the federal Department of Labor that he bilked his company’s pension fund out of tens of millions of dollars by selling the fund unwanted and overvalued real estate owned by R.B. Pamplin Corp. (“Self-Made Man,” WW, Sept. 18). Pamplin did not respond to a request for comment.