By Kristine Thomas
The Oregon Government Ethics Board of Commissioners voted March 13 to investigate whether Rick Schiedler may have violated ethics law while he served as a Mt. Angel city councilor between Feb. 5, 2007 and Jan. 1, 2009.
“There does appear to be a substantial objective basis to believe that Mr. Schiedler may have violated Oregon Government Ethics law on 19 occasions related to his participation in official council actions that may have authorized payment of PGE utility bills incurred by the City of Mt. Angel,” reads the Preliminary Review by the Oregon Ethics Commission.
Schiedler, who was elected as mayor in November 2008, is an employee of Portland General Electric.
Oregon Government Ethics Board Executive Director Ronald Bersin said a staff investigator has been assigned to continue investigating the Schiedler case and will present the evidence gathered on Aug. 14 to the ethics commission.
Although Schiedler could have appeared before the commission on March 13, he chose not to, Bersin said.
In September, Mt. Angel resident David Trapp filed an ethics complaint against Schiedler where he alleged Schiedler “may have been met with conflicts of interest on several occasions when he participated in official actions of the city council involving the financial interests of PGE.”
According to Oregon ethics law, when an elected public official is met with a potential or actual conflict of interest, he should announce publicly the nature of the potential conflict prior to taking any action and refrain from participating as a public official in “any discussion or debate on the issue out of which the actual conflict arises or from voting on the issue.”
Schiedler said his attorney has advised him not to comment about the ethics complaint. His attorney, James D. Van Ness of Van Ness, Mooney LLC, did not return a phone call from Our Town.
However, Schiedler did discuss the ethics investigation at December council meeting where he questions why the city staff did not give him advice from the city’s attorney, Paul Elsner, who thought he may have an actual conflict of interest regarding the work for East College Street.
“(Elsner’s) advice to staff was to either have the council revote and have me recuse myself or the thought that a better way would be to inform me to say at the July 2007 meeting that I should have never voted June 4 and withdraw my vote.”
Schiedler said he was never given the information from the attorney.
Megan Vance, who was the assistant to the city administrator, said councilor Bill Schaecher was instructed to tell Schiedler what the attorney said. Vance also said Schiedler should have realized there was a conflict of interest because former Mayor Tom Bauman recused himself from voting on any issues related to Mt. Angel Telephone Co., where he worked.
“Megan, I was never given that advice from the attorney,” Schiedler said in December. “I didn’t realize you could do a revote. He said there’s an option you can do a revote. I could have pulled my vote out at the next meeting . I was never given that advice that would have saved a lot of stress on me and my family and also legal bills and possible civil penalties.”
On June 25, 2007, Police Chief Brent Earhart wrote to Vance, “I also talked to Bill (Schaecher) about the conflict of interest issue. He is going to call Rick today and explain to him what Paul Elsner said.”
The ethics report states that it didn’t appear Schiedler was met with an actual or potential conflict of interest when he participated in the June 4, 2007 discussion regarding East College Street.
Instead, the report states when Schiedler participated in council actions that may have authorized payment of PGE bills that he may have violated Oregon Ethics law.
