Should Erik Sten Pay the City Back?

He got bored. It happens. City Commissioner Erik Sten is resigning effective this coming April. He will have completed about sixteen months of a four year term. Sten received 173-thousand-dollars in public campaign finance funds to run for his current term. The question is, should he return the money or at least part of it? After all, taxpayers may have to pay to finance the campaign of candidates who will be running to replace Sten in a special election later this year.

Let's be clear. We think Portland is a better city because of Erik Sten. Sten's plan to reduce the number of homeless Portlanders has greatly exceeded expectations. His legacy will include a new rule that 30-percent of all urban renewal money go to affordable housing. He co-created the public campaign finance system that has worked to limit special interest influence at City Hall. He helped head off a misguided attempt to change the form of city government and helped reform the Portland Development Commission. He helped sidetrack purchase of PGE by a hedge fund that would have soon flipped the utility while taking advantage of ratepayers. True, he is responsible for the Water Bureau billing fiasco, but the scope of that problem--while serious--has been greatly exaggerated.

So we owe Erik Sten. But we think he owes us too. When he ran for reelection in 2006 there was an implied contract that he would serve four years, not leave when he got bored. Unlike Congressman Earl Blumenauer who left City Council midterm to move up to a position that would clearly benefit the city, Sten will go to the private sector, maybe here, maybe somewhere else. The City can't demand that Sten pay his campaign contribution back to taxpayers, but we think he should. If not, when the system comes up for a public vote---and it will--we'll be hearing about this again.