Gov. Tina Kotek asked the state ethics commission to weigh in Friday on how her wife and the partners of future governors can be involved in policy decisions, about two weeks after three senior officials left the governor’s office and Kotek acknowledged she wants to expand first lady Aimee Kotek Wilson’s role.
But the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, which has received multiple complaints about Kotek Wilson’s role, can’t provide guidance until after it resolves those complaints, commission Executive Director Susan Myers told the Capital Chronicle by email Friday.
She provided a copy of a letter she sent Kotek’s acting chief of staff, Chris Warner, on Friday afternoon.
“As you are aware, the Commission has received complaints relating to these issues and has opened a case in preliminary review,” Myers wrote. “Because the questions raised in your request relate to issues that may be addressed in the preliminary review case, the commission cannot provide any guidance, advice or opinions at this time.”
Myers said the commission received multiple complaints, but they’re basically duplicates of each other and resulted in only one preliminary review case. Under state law, commission staff have 60 days to conduct a preliminary review and present findings to the commission, which will decide whether to dismiss a case or proceed with a full investigation.
Warner wrote in his Friday letter to Oregon Government Ethics Commission Director Susan Myers that Kotek has been trying to clarify the role of the governor’s partner, who is considered a public official under state law.
“We have learned that the modern role of the first spouse or partner envisions spouses and partners using their official positions to support the governor’s priorities or otherwise advance initiatives consistent with a governor’s vision,” Warner wrote. “Regardless of party affiliation or gender identity, the governor’s spouse or partner serves a role as a public official to serve all Oregonians. That role should be clearly defined and transparent.”
https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/24534468-ogec-letter-april-5-2024/?embed=1&responsive=1&title=1
Kotek has three preliminary questions, Warner continued. Can the first partner help develop, advise or promote the governor’s priorities? If the governor’s spouse is performing official duties supporting the governor’s priorities, can the state provide staff and other office resources? And what other ethical considerations should the office take into account given the first lady’s unpaid volunteer role?
The ethics commission is also investigating at least one complaint levied against the governor’s office over Kotek Wilson’s expanded role. Myers did not immediately respond to an email Friday afternoon about whether other complaints exist, the commission’s timeline and whether it can investigate complaints and provide guidance on the same issue.
Kotek acknowledged in March that she was considering expanding her wife’s role in the office, shortly after three high-level staff members abruptly departed. Chief of Staff Andrea Cooper left the office on March 29, Deputy Chief of Staff Lindsey O’Brien went on leave on Friday and senior adviser Abby Tibbs returned to her previous role with Oregon Health & Science University on March 31.
Through spokeswomen and during a press conference on Wednesday, Kotek repeatedly declined to comment on the nature of and reason for those departures. The governor’s office has not yet processed records requests from the Capital Chronicle and other outlets that could shed light on the departures. But multiple sources described disagreements over Kotek Wilson’s role as an impetus.
On March 25, a few days after Kotek confirmed the three senior staffers planned to leave, the legislative director for the Department of Administrative Services joined the governor’s office on a six-month rotation that will include planning for an Office of the First Spouse and assisting Kotek Wilson. Meliah Masiba will be paid nearly $72,000 during her six months with the governor’s office. Kotek Wilson also now has an office within the governor’s suite of offices at the state library.
Kotek also ordered state police beginning in March to consistently provide security for Kotek Wilson when she attends events on behalf of the governor’s office, including a conference for first spouses that Kotek Wilson, Masiba and a state employee who manages the governor’s mansion attended last week. Those costs will be borne by the office’s budget, which totaled nearly $31 million in the current two-year budget cycle.
Kotek Wilson, who has a social work degree and shared last week that she struggles with an unspecified mental illness and is in recovery from alcohol use disorder, has also attended several of Kotek’s weekly meetings on behavioral health policy. Kotek has been vague about what her wife’s role on policy issues will be, beyond saying that as governor all policy decisions are ultimately hers and hers alone.
Friday’s letter was her first request to the ethics commission for guidance. Kotek said Wednesday that she didn’t ask before because she was still figuring out which questions to ask.
“We are now expediting that because of the public interest and going to the Ethics Commission to try to figure that out,” she said. “I hope we can ask all the questions we need to have answered.”
Governors’ spouses have taken on more responsibilities in other states than they historically have in Oregon. One exception – and one reason many Oregonians have been skeptical of Kotek’s plans – was Cylvia Hayes, the fianceé of former Gov. John Kitzhaber. Hayes served as an unpaid adviser to Kitzhaber on economic and environmental policy beginning in his third term, and the Oregon Government Ethics Commission found that she used her official role to benefit financially from private contracts tied to the policies she pushed in the governor’s office. Kitzhaber resigned over the scandal.
Unlike with Hayes, no one has suggested that Kotek Wilson hopes to benefit financially from her position in the governor’s office.
Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: [email protected]. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.
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Julia Shumway is deputy editor of Oregon Capital Chronicle and has reported on government and politics in Iowa and Nebraska, spent time at the Bend Bulletin and most recently was a legislative reporter for the Arizona Capitol Times in Phoenix. An award-winning journalist, Julia most recently reported on the tangled efforts to audit the presidential results in Arizona.
