Portland, Oregon – The Portland City Council has agreed to pay almost $167,000 to settle a lawsuit that accused the city and Mayor Ted Wheeler of withholding a large number of text messages from a public records request. The lawsuit followed an investigation that found Wheeler and other city officials regularly violated city policy by using iMessage on their city-issued iPhones. The city’s public records software at the time was unable to access iMessages.
The state public records law mandates that government officials preserve all written communication, including text messages and emails, and provide them to the public upon request. In July 2020, a computer programmer submitted a records request for all text messages sent to and from Wheeler’s phone over a specific period. This included the evening when tear gas was used on racial justice protesters in downtown Portland. Wheeler was present at the scene and publicly condemned then-president Donald Trump’s response to the city’s demonstrations.
The lawsuit alleged that the city only provided a portion of the requested text messages, excluding more than 50 iMessages sent by Wheeler over the three-day period. The plaintiff accused the city of violating the state records law by withholding and potentially destroying the messages. The lawsuit sought a declaration that Wheeler and the city had violated state law and requested the release of all previously withheld iMessage records.
However, instead of going to trial, city attorneys negotiated a settlement. Under the agreement, the city council unanimously approved providing $166,893 to the plaintiff to cover attorney’s fees and public records fees made to the city. In return, the city avoids a trial and any admission of wrongdoing.
The settlement has drawn criticism from the plaintiff’s lawyer, who expressed disappointment that the case did not go to court. They had hoped for a finding of responsibility on the part of the city for the alleged violations. The attorney stated, “It’s a little unfortunate that it just ended with money. We wanted accountability. We just have the mayor and city weaseling their way out of it.”
The city council approved the settlement without discussion, emphasizing that it aligns with the city’s goals of transparency and accessibility of public records, as well as compliance with public records requests.