In-debt candidate changes states

PORTLAND – A City Council candidate who disappeared and owes the city of Portland over $95,000 in public campaign funds has taken a job as a broadcast reporter in Eastern Montana.

A city audit said Emilie Boyles violated the city’s public financing code earlier this year by taking out a year’s lease on her campaign headquarters and paying her 16-year-old daughter $12,500 for Internet marketing work.

Portland city Auditor Gary Blackmer said Wednesday that Boyles owes $95,250, including interest. Blackmer said the city was aware Boyles moved to Montana.

He said the city is trying to obtain a court order allowing it to garnishee her wages and seize her property.

The general manager of Glendive Broadcasting, Paul Sturlaugson, said Boyles’ status as a TV and radio reporter hasn’t changed.

“She did say she had some issues with a political campaign in Portland,” he said. “We discussed it briefly. It has very little to do with what she is doing for me.”

Boyles, who said she has experience in public broadcasting and cable television, said she wanted to be left alone to do her work.