(Daily Caller News Foundation) – An Oregon Democrat who uses “they/them” pronouns has been working from Spain for over a year while being paid a $68,000 salary by taxpayers to help oversee the Portland metro area.

Democrat Mary Nolan was elected to Oregon’s Metro Council, a regional body overseeing the Oregon portion of the Portland metropolitan area, in 2020 and re-elected in 2024, attending nearly every meeting. However, records obtained by The Oregonian reveal that, over the last year, Nolan has been attending many of those meetings remotely from Spain.

Nolan, 71, is reportedly paid $68,000 every year by the residents of a city they reportedly do not live in. Nolan attended Metro Council meetings remotely in 2025 between March and June, July and September, November and January and again since Feb. 5.

Nolan told The Oregonian on Tuesday that they go to Spain “to visit my family occasionally,” and “when someone in my family needs help.”

They first came under scrutiny after a Feb. 24 Metro Council meeting during a verbal altercation with another councilor. Following a statement made by councilor Juan Carlos González, who is the council’s first Latino councilor, Nolan asked González, “can you say that in English?

Before sitting on the Metro Council, Nolan served as the Oregon House of Representatives majority leader. They nearly scored a top position at Planned Parenthood’s Columbia Willamette before being hired by Medicare and Medicaid healthcare provider FamilyCare in Portland, Oregon according to local Portland outlet Willamette Week.