Letter from the Editor: Investigation involving commissioner raises difficult questions for newsroom Updated Mar 10, 2021; The answer is at once simple and exceedingly complex. It is undeniably newsworthy when a sitting city commissioner is under investigation for a possible crime. And public officials will receive more scrutiny for minor run-ins with the law than the average Portlander. In some ways, the story followed a familiar arc. Longtime police and courts reporter Maxine Bernstein received multiple tips that Hardesty was named as a suspect in a police dispatch report. She reached out to Hardesty’s office at 8:23 a.m. Thursday to ask about it.