Multnomah County is in a precarious position. Commissioners plan to put a Library Taxing District on the November ballot. But if they do the County will likely be breaking the law for using public resources to electioneer. That’s according to an attorney familiar with election law.As I posted here, Multnomah County confirms using the library card data base to send missives urging users to go to meetings touted as a information sessions. On the agenda a hobson’s choice is presented: evilllll cutbacks in services or the
choice of two tax increases. The email encourages people to take a sucker’s survey on how to solve the funding issues the County imagines. Please see my previous post about this here.
In the preamble to the sucker’s survey you’ll note that the only way to “restore” whatever it is the County Commission deems normal is to do what they’ve been touting all along and pass a library taxing district. That’s what these meetings are all about–selling their desire for a new library taxing district. Attorney Ross Day, who’s familiar with elections law, says there are three criteria to look at when answering the question of whether what the County is doing is illegal.
- 1. Did Jeff Cogen and the Multnomah County Commission get the data base by using a public records request (like the rest of us would have to do) and pay for it? Or did he get it for free from his buddies at the Library?
- 2. Is there a tax measure on the ballot? If not there’s no electioneering because there is no issue before the voters.
- 3. Assuming there’s a tax increase on the ballot, did he send this email from a public computer. If so he’s definitely in trouble.
How’s this for a hobson’s choice: Multnomah County plans to place the Library District on the November ballot but if it does and continues to tout these meetings via that library card holder list, it will be breaking election law.
And what is Multnomah County’s response to my queries about this? Arrogant and dismissive. I’ll tell you about it in my next post.
Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com
