Former City Contractor to Shut Down Following Oregon Department of Justice Probe

Linda Woodley, director of Diversifying Energy, whose $12 million city contract was pulled last year following an Oregonian investigation into her checkered history, has agreed to shut down the clean energy nonprofit, according to an agreement with the Oregon Department of Justice filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court yesterday.

Diversifying Energy was set to be one of the first recipients of money from the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund, which was passed by voters in 2018 to fund climate-related projects in low-income neighborhoods. But after The Oregonian revealed Woodley’s history of fraud and unpaid taxes, the City Council pulled the multimillion-dollar contract to distribute air-conditioning units.

But that didn’t stop Woodley from continuing to receive PCEF money. She sued the city last year, alleging it had destroyed her career. When a judge threw that lawsuit out, he noted that she had continued to hold a $200,000 city contract.

That contract, WW is told by a city spokesperson, ended in December. And now, facing an investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice into her financial dealings, she has agreed to shut down the nonprofit.

In the “assurance of voluntary compliance” filed Aug. 22, Woodley agrees not to take a “fiduciary role” in any nonprofit for the next 10 years and dissolve Diversifying Energy within two weeks.

The agreement is not an admission of wrongdoing by Woodley, but it does lay out the allegations she was facing.

It alleges Woodley failed to set up a board of directors for the nonprofit, but told a lender that the nonprofit’s board had approved her request for a $150,000 loan. She then used that loan for “non-charitable expenses,” including the purchase of a West Linn home, the agreement alleges. The document is signed by Woodley and assistant attorney general Mark Kleyna.

Woodley picked up the phone when called by WW, but hung up after learning she was speaking to a reporter.