The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on March 11 held a work session to discuss proposed improvements to Board governance, transparency and lobbying practices.
Introduced by Commissioners Julia Brim-Edwards and Shannon Singleton, the session focused on a draft lobbying reporting and registration ordinance aimed at increasing transparency and public trust.
The proposed ordinance targets paid lobbying activities that seek to influence the Commission’s deliberations, legislative actions and budget decisions. This initiative reflects the Board's commitment to ensuring its decisions are made in the public’s best interest. The State adopted lobbying rules in 1974, and many local governments around the state have since implemented similar measures.
“The state’s law on lobbying has influenced other jurisdictions to craft their own,” said Commissioner Shannon Singleton, “We need to have easy and clear laws around lobbying to build the community’s trust in its elected officials and hold us accountable.”
“We looked at various ordinances at the city of Portland, Metro and the state and how they had created an approach and a framework for reporting and registration so that there’s greater transparency about who’s seeking to influence policy,” said Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards.
The work session included a detailed discussion of the draft ordinance, with commissioners asking questions about reporting thresholds, exemptions, requirements for public officials, reporting timelines, cooling-off periods, and penalties.
The current draft of the ordinance sets the threshold for registering and reporting lobbying activities at five hours per calendar quarter. The draft ordinance also requires advocates and public officials to report gifts or lobbying expenses exceeding $50 in a given quarter within three business days.
Commissioner Brim-Edwards asked whether the five-hour threshold should be adjusted, in light of thresholds set by other local governments, such as the City of Portland (eight hours). She also noted the ordinance’s requirement to report interactions with department directors.
“The piece for me around the five hours more relates to how burdensome this is,” Commissioner Singleton said, pointing to the required reporting form, “if it’s extremely extensive, then five hours feels burdensome.”
“Five hours seems low,” said Chair Vega Pederson and indicated that they would gather more information to determine an appropriate threshold, “We’ll go back and find out what that might look like on a regular basis.”
Commissioners Brim-Edwards and Singleton also proposed publicly posting commissioners’ calendars quarterly, reflecting official County activities, within 15 days of the previous quarter’s end.
“By implementing clear lobbying reporting requirements and publicly posting commission members’ calendars, we can improve public trust and help ensure that the county’s decision-making process is open to input and scrutiny from all voices, not just the most-connected or who are paid to influence the process,” said Commissioner Brim-Edwards.
Commissioners also discussed a provision in the draft ordinance that would ban Board members from accepting private employment or receiving any financial gain from entities they oversaw within a year of leaving their positions. The draft ordinance would also ban the County from contracting with former officials who influenced the contract’s authorization, unless the Chair grants a written exception that such work is in the County’s best interest.
Commissioner Meghan Moyer asked about potential unintended consequences. "I don't want to create weird, unintended consequences where people can't be employed.”
The Board plans to refine the draft ordinance based on the work session feedback and will seek further public input before bringing it forward for formal consideration.
