Portland City Commissioner Carmen Rubio, one of the city’s top mayoral candidates, has received 150 parking and traffic tickets since 2004. As first reported by the Oregonian/OregonLive.com, Rubio regularly failed to pay these citations, adding to these fines.
The record has come to light as the city continues to struggle with declining transportation revenue, which partially comes from parking meters and traffic tickets.
Most of Rubio’s tickets racked up before she was elected to City Council in 2020, during the years when she worked for elected city officials and led the nonprofit Latino Network. She collected 26 parking tickets in 2012 alone.
Carmen Rubio
Courtesy of Carmen Rubio
The tickets were largely due to unpaid or expired meters, along with her car registration being expired. Most recently, Rubio was fined $145 in 2023 for not updating her expired June 2021 registration tags. This wasn’t the first time: She received a $145 fine in 2022 for this same expired tag.
She received her latest citation in July, for parking in a loading zone near Portland City Hall. Court records show Rubio paid the $95 ticket in late August. A photo of the license plate included in court records shows updated tags.
According to the Oregonian/OregonLive.com, Rubio’s license was suspended at least six times for failing to pay fines or to appear in court.
Rubio has since paid all tickets and overdue fines she accrued over the past two decades.
Rubio is not the only mayoral candidate with a history of parking tickets – but the sheer volume of her violations is unmatched. City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, another mayoral hopeful, has racked up 20 similar infractions in the same time frame. Mayoral candidate Commissioner Mingus Mapps has zero parking violations.
In a statement sent by her campaign, Rubio attributed the pattern of not paying for parking – or for tickets – to prioritizing her career over other responsibilities.
“I’ve never hid the fact that in my younger years I put my family financial and career obligations first - and that I learned some hard lessons about when life catches up with you,” wrote Rubio in a statement first shared with The Oregonian/OregonLive.com. “I now know and try very hard to never put my personal life on the back burner even when times are tough.”
She said these experiences make her a “better leader,” as she can better empathize with Portlanders who’ve also struggled to pay meters or fines.
Rubio declined an interview request Monday.
As reported by the Oregonian/OregonLive.com, Rubio was earning $100,000 annually as the executive director of Latino Network during the times she accrued the most tickets.
Unpaid meters, fines, and registration fees have hampered the city’s transportation budget since the state lifted its pandemic-related pause on DMV citations in 2021. The Portland Bureau of Transportation pointed to these revenue shortfalls as a contributing factor to a $32 million budget gap earlier this year.
In June, City Council approved funding to hire nearly two dozen new parking enforcement officers to crack down on registrations and unpaid parking fees.
“Addressing expired tags and other parking violations is of critical importance as we seek to maintain order and ensure safety in the public right-of-way,” PBOT Director Millicent Williams said at the time.