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Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero have ordered the city workers they oversee not to participate in City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly's "get out the vote" effort while they're on the city clock.
They join City Commissioner Nick Fish and Amanda Fritz, both of whom opted for a more careful approach to Eudaly's innovative initiative by requiring workers to take vacation time to participate.
Eudaly's office estimated as of Wednesday afternoon that 20 volunteers had signed up to go door-to-door. Eudaly will rally city workers today at 2:30, and workers will leave from there to canvass.
Public employees are prohibited from advocating for or against measures or initiatives when they're working, but Eudaly's effort is nonpartisan, designed to inform voters. The call for city workers to canvass on the public dime has nonetheless raised questions about its impact.
As part of the effort, Eudaly hired an outside designer to come up with fliers.
That designer is one of her campaign contributors.
Designer Kate Bingaman-Burt was paid $500. Bigaman-Burt donated $250 to Eudaly's campaign.
Eudaly's chief of staff, Marshall Runkel, says Eudaly, the former owner of independent bookstore Reading Frenzy, was part of Portland's design community before being elected office has prided herself on the design both of her campaign mailers and office designs.
"The commissioner was very active in the design community and has many friends and supporters in the design community," he says.
Separately, Eudaly's office spent another $1,000 to have 5,000 copies printed.
This isn't the first campaign contributor to get work from Eudaly, who hired another donor, Jen Wick, to do the logo redesign for the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, which is now the Office of Community & Civic Life. (She's still under contract with Eudaly's office, but not with the bureau.)
Below are the door hangers:
