Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office billed Portland taxpayers $1,123 a night for an aide’s hotel accommodations while at a conference in Austin, Texas, in likely violation of city rules, according to newly released documents.

The files show Wheeler’s office paid for Elisabeth Perez, a senior adviser, to attend the 2019 South by Southwest technology conference and charged $3,371 for three nights at Marriott’s luxury W Austin hotel.

Including airfare, meals and conference registration, the trip in early March cost $5,714, according to the documents, provided to The Oregonian via public records request.

Wheeler has since made Perez an acting bureau director.

City rules require lodging expenses to be “reasonable.” Employees may only stay in standard rooms. And the rules state hotel costs significantly higher than standard per diem rates must be clearly explained.

The per diem rate for Austin hotels during the time of the conference was $164 a night, according to the federal General Services Administration. Perez’s travel forms do not show an explanation of the extra cost.

In an interview Thursday, Wheeler’s chief of staff, Kristin Dennis, said she approved Perez’s travel expenses and that the high hotel costs were “a minor, isolated mistake” made by another aide who was being trained on how to book travel arrangements for the mayor’s staff.

Dennis said she spoke to the aide after learning of the hotel expense, who Dennis said became “mortified” upon the realization he spent so much.

“It was a mistake that we have since corrected for all future travel,” Dennis said. She added that she strives to be a vigilant steward of taxpayer money and that the mayor’s office spent less than its allotted budget last year.

Perez’s attendance at the conference was approved just days before the conference, which Dennis said left no other nearby hotel rooms available. Documents show the room was marked as one of the hotel’s “premium” options, though it’s unclear what kind of room it was. Dennis said she did not know and Perez was not made available for interview.

The conference webpage shows the W Austin offered rooms between $379 and $1,165 a night during the South by Southwest event. A search of the hotel’s offerings during the dates of next year’s conference shows rooms booking above $1,000 a night are all suites.

At the time of the conference, Perez was a senior adviser to Wheeler on Portland’s “Smart Cities” initiative, which calls for using sensors to collect data that informs policy-making. In June, Wheeler named Perez the interim director of the Office for Community Technology, a small bureau that manages city telecom licenses.

Perez’s travel request documents state her attendance at the conference would benefit the city by listening to talks that provided “insight into smart cities.” Attending another panel on city politics “offers new ideas and ways to govern” and is “a great networking event,” the documents state.

Dennis said Thursday that Perez reported to her about what she learned at the conference, which left her satisfied the expense was justified.

The information Perez gleaned from the conference was “unique and valuable,” Dennis said, adding, “It is something I think the city and taxpayers got value out of.”

— Gordon R. Friedman

GFriedman@Oregonian.com