The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office received between seven and 10 complaints about the mailers, including one from Save Gladstone Schools, the campaign backing the bond. The mailings were printed by PrintSync Inc., a Beaverton company, which said an individual registered voter paid for them. The company’s owner declined to identify the customer.

The mailers were sent using a Portland postal permit. PrintSync owner Angela Willis said the company produced 1,900 copies of each piece. She said her company handled printing and mailing, while the payer was responsible for the political disclosure.

Willis said the customer was planning another mailer as of Thursday, one that would include a “paid for by” notice. She said PrintSync would not process a mailing without the required disclosure on the supplied artwork.

The lack of a disclosure has different implications for the bond mailer and the two pieces targeting candidates. Political consultant Jake Weigler of Praxis Political said Oregon does not require a funder disclosure on communications about ballot measures. The bond mailer called on voters to reject the Gladstone School District’s $55.3 million request this November.

For communications supporting or opposing a clearly identified candidate, state guidance generally requires the name of the payer and its top contributors. Weigler said candidate-related mailers costing more than $250 should include a “paid for by” notice and be reported through the state’s campaign finance system, either by a candidate or as an independent expenditure.

One mailer called incumbent Councilor Vanessa Huckaby “dishonest, irresponsible, erratic,” without naming her challenger, Antonette “Toni” Perry. Another criticized Mayor Michael Milch, who is seeking reelection against Bill Osburn, but did not mention Osburn.

Councilor Mindy Garlington, who is listed as PrintSync’s secretary in state business filings and is Willis’ sister, said by email she did not fund the mailers. Garlington is also treasurer and chief petitioner of a committee seeking a 2028 ballot measure to cap the Gladstone School District’s combined bond and levy collections at $3 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Supporters need 838 valid signatures from district voters by Aug. 7, 2028, to qualify the measure. The bond mailer did not mention the proposed cap.

Milch said the mailers arrived in the days after a school shooting in Bend, when he saw parents picking up children and hugging them more closely. “That’s the kind of spirit I want to have in our community, not the spirit of hatred in these kinds of mailings,” he said.

Osburn denied sending the anonymous pieces. His campaign did mail postcards through PrintSync that week, but they included the disclosure “Paid for by Friends of Bill Osburn” and did not mention Milch.

Gladstone has seen anonymous political mailings before. In 2022, a group calling itself Residents for Integrity in Gladstone Government sent a mailer supporting four candidates but was not registered as a political action committee. The Secretary of State’s Office investigated and said it found no evidence linking those letters to a specific candidate.

The current mailers’ lack of an identified funder leaves voters without information that can help them assess who is trying to influence the council and bond decisions. The Secretary of State’s Office has not publicly identified a payer in the complaints it received.