Portland Public Schools' tainted drinking water scandal didn't just reveal years of deferred maintenance, but corrosion in the district's ability to communicate with the public and among key employees as well.

Fixing its inability to communicate is a big part of Oregon's largest school district's effort to overhaul core functions to regain community trust.

But it's a work in progress, as evidenced by a recent blunder and other, broader problems that persist.

That's true, even though the district is paying a top-drawer communications consultant $15,000 a month to help Portland Public Schools communicate like a champ.

Consultant Anna Richter Taylor, who ran communications for former Gov. Ted Kulongoski, was hired in June at $10,000 a month to lend her expertise in crisis communications to a district very much in crisis. Eight months later, she's still on the payroll and, as of January, acting as interim communications chief and charged with overhauling the department at a higher rate of pay.

Despite her help, the district continues to give out inaccurate information and struggles to get people in one part of the district informed about what those in another are doing.

In December, Willamette Week was pursuing a potentially embarrassing story and the district needed to respond. Through a simple public records search, Willamette Week had found that the district's director of school and family partnerships had a 1997 conviction for patronizing a prostitute. Why had they hired him despite the criminal record?

Spokeswoman Courtney Westling told Willamette Week the district couldn't say if it had known about the conviction because it had destroyed the background check records, per district policy.  

On Jan. 5, The Oregonian/OregonLive followed up asking if it was true that those records were destroyed rather than kept as part of the personnel file. Westling said yes and told The Oregonian/OregonLive the district was revisiting its document destruction policy in light of the incident.  

But the district did not in fact need to second-guess its records policy.

Both of Westling's statements -- that the man's criminal background check has been destroyed and that the district had a policy guiding it to do so - were untrue.

A records request by The Oregonian/OregonLive turned up the man's background check in his district personnel filed. That form showed Richard Gilliam had somehow cleared a background check and had lied when asked to disclose prior convictions.

More confusion ensued when The Oregonian/OregonLive tried to find out what the district's actual procedure on background check records is and why Westling told two media outlets a falsehood.

The Oregonian/OregonLive asked to speak to Westling and whoever in the district would be most familiar with personnel files, ideally the person tasked with handling them.

The Oregonian was directed to speak with Westling and Deputy Chief Executive Officer Yousef Awwad, who gave new, but ultimately also false, information about the issue.

"What we have learned after the fact is we haven't really followed that practice consistently," Awwad said, indicating clear retention schedules and procedures were needed. "We are looking at this process as we speak. It's unfortunate this happened."

That wasn't true either.

The district does consistently keep background check records on all of its employees. District officials figured that out after finally letting The Oregonian/OregonLive speak to an employee in human resources who actually handles the records.

Westling said some of the confusion occurred because she consulted the district's security department, which processes background checks, and not human resources, which handles personnel records.

Richter Taylor, who was only tangentially involved in the personnel file mishap, said in an interview this month that she's thought about the gaffe a lot. It's part of a question she's trying to answer as she tries to imagine what a communications overhaul should look like.

"How does the communications office, if its job is relay information to the public and to families and other concerned citizens, how do we ensure that there are systems in place to make sure the information they're receiving is accurate and answering the right questions?" Richter Taylor said. "I think this incident shows that internally that doesn't exist internally -- It doesn't exist consistently."

Richter Taylor said she wasn't placing blame on anyone and that in large organizations miscommunications happen.

The Chicago-based firm handling the search for a new superintendent flagged communications as a "significant issue."

"The internal and external communication needs in the organization are paramount," the firm's report assessing the district said. "While problems and issues exist within the system, they are often exacerbated by poor communication."

The communications department's current organizational chart, which will change, shows 23 jobs, five of which are vacant. That includes employees in translation services.

It's a committed crew, many of whom are doing two jobs, Richter Taylor said.

Westling is the district's lobbyist but has been having to also act as Portland Public Schools spokesperson since the summer.

The department has seen many departures, including the communications chief, who quit a few months before the lead scandal hit, though ended up implicated.

The investigation by an outside firm noted that "in one significant instance," former Chief of Communications Jon Isaacs "knowingly" gave Willamette Week incomplete excerpts of a water-testing database in 2015, causing confusion, according to the report.

The district has also struggled to meet its obligations when the public directly asks them for information.

Part of Richter Taylor's job is helping refashion how district officials respond to public records requests.

Not only have more people been filing requests, but more people are subsequently filing appeals with the Multnomah County District Attorney to complain about being denied records or sluggish responses.

In November the district attorney ordered Portland Public Schools to do better, noting the school district's problems were of its own making and not an excuse for failing to provide public information.

"One thing that has become clear is there has been a dramatic increase in public records requests and there definitely needs to be a clearer process and system for how those requests come in," Richter Taylor said. "There needs to be a clear policy and protocols for public records requests."

In hopes of doing that, the district has hired a temporary employee to help process requests and take notes on what's working and what isn't. In the long term, the district hopes to add a public records officer to its communications team.

As it is, Portland Public Schools lacks guidelines about when it charges for records.

This month, the district told The Oregonian/OregonLive it would cost $100 to search for and review two documents that together totaled four pages. The documents were notices from two two employees about their intent to file lawsuits.

The district's most delicate communication priority right now is a plan to put a $790 million bond on May's ballot. For that, the district is paying Strategies 360 $15,000 a month to have former Portland mayoral spokeswoman Amy Ruiz engage the public in a way that will "maximize the chances of a major bond passing in May," her contract says.

Once the board officially votes on the ballot language, the bond will be promoted by a campaign funded and operated by an independent organization.

Richter Taylor said working with Portland Public Schools has been eye-opening as the communications needs of a school district versus a governor's office where she's clocked time before are vastly different.

"(Portland Public Schools) is a school district that provides as a direct service that has a responsibility to communicate in real time when urgent issues arise," Richter Taylor said. "I'm actually optimistic and excited. It has been a very difficult period of time, and there is so much going on, there is a lot of work still to do."

-- Bethany Barnes

Got a tip about Portland Public Schools?
Email Bethany here: bbarnes@oregonian.com

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