SALEM — Outgoing Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian is again taking the Legislature to task over sexual harassment, this time in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
Avakian wants a state judge to find legislators and staff in contempt for failing to comply with subpoenas in the administrative case he’s brought against them over their handling of harassment allegations.
He’s seeking a massive trove of documents, including all documents pertaining to reports or allegations of harassment involving legislators, employees, student interns or lobbyists since Jan. 1, 2011.
Avakian also wants copies of the Legislature’s personnel rules, any draft personnel rules proposed since 2011, policies and procedures for placing student interns at the Capitol, as well as documents that could identify any student interns working at the Legislature since 2011.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Nov. 19.
While the bureau commonly subpoenas documents, it said in a statement Friday that its motion for the contempt order was “unprecedented.”
This summer, Avakian, a Democrat whose term ends in January, accused legislative leaders of allowing a hostile work environment to fester at the Capitol and reacting too slowly to various reports of sexual harassment.
Avakian filed what’s called a commissioner’s complaint with the Bureau of Labor and Industries, and the subpoenas, in early August. Avakian believed the Legislature wouldn’t cooperate or be “reliable,” court documents show, and feared the records would be destroyed.
Avakian now wants a judge to order Senate President Peter Courtney, Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, and state Sen. Jackie Winters, R-Salem, the Senate minority leader, along with other legislative staff, to comply with the subpoenas, and to level $1,000 fines against them for every day that they have not done so since Aug. 20.
“State respondents are not above the law and their conduct is not beyond all scrutiny,” an attorney for the Bureau of Labor and Industries wrote in the motion, filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
“This case is about investigating allegations from women who were harmed in the Capitol, and the Legislature’s failure to address their experiences,” the bureau said in a written statement Friday. “Now, after professing cooperation with the investigation, the Oregon Legislature is continuing to ignore the experiences of these women and refuses to provide information necessary in order to uncover the truth and, if the law has been broken, find redress for those who were harmed.”
Legislative leaders are contesting Avakian’s moves.
“I think it’s very surprising and I think it’s very unfortunate and frankly sad, because the commissioner knows that the Constitution of Oregon doesn’t give him the authority to either impose or apply remedies,” Edwin Harnden, an attorney representing the Legislature.
The Legislature has already provided several hundred pages of documents outlining its response to sexual harassment in the Capitol.
Avakian filed the administrative complaint Aug. 1, nearly a year after the rise of the #MeToo movement and an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against a state senator from Roseburg.
Avakian’s complaint alleges that on multiple occasions, legislative staff, including attorneys and human resource officials, failed to properly handle reports of sexual harassment.
Avakian said the complaint was requested by two employees and two student interns who sought redress for “the harm they suffered and to remedy the intolerable conditions that respondents have failed to correct.”
In Avakian’s complaint, he details a history of sexual misconduct in the Capitol going back years.
In 2015, a legislative employee reported that a man who had sexually assaulted her had since been hired as a legislative intern, according to the complaint. She had recently found out that the intern had also assaulted a friend of hers.
The employee also reported that since being hired, the intern had asked her about her sexual relationship with someone else.
The employee reported the conduct, and legislative attorney Dexter Johnson and employee services manager Lore Christopher told her that the harasser is not to contact her again, the complaint recounted. His internship was nearly finished, and the employee was told that she would be notified if her alleged assailant was hired again, according to the complaint.
Christopher and Johnson also warned the employee about speaking publicly about the issues, saying it could be seen as retaliatory or defamatory, according to the complaint.
Also in 2015, a legislative employee reported to Johnson and Courtney’s chief of staff, Betsy Imholt, that Courtney’s communications director had inappropriate contact with her at a bar, and then sent her lewd song lyrics over Facebook. Johnson told the employee he was working out an informal settlement between her and the communications director, and that she was not to contact him or talk about the allegations, according to the complaint.
In March, 2016, state Sens. Sara Gelser and Elizabeth Steiner Hayward reported inappropriate touching by state Senator Jeff Kruse of Roseburg. A student intern working in Kruse’s office also reported Kruse was inappropriate toward her, calling her “sexy,” “little girl,” touching her thighs despite being asked to stop and saying her husband was lucky, according to the complaint.
In early 2017, a different legislative intern in Kruse’s office reported experiencing unwanted touching by Kruse, including touching her breasts and hips while he hugged her, according to the complaint. The woman told other legislative staffers about the conduct, who responded they had heard similar things before.
Harnden, of the Portland law firm Barran Liebman, said prior to the complaint, the labor bureau and the Legislature were working well together to fix the issues. Taking legal action, he said, “lacks common sense.”
“To politicize it and legalize it, I think it’s just frankly horrible,” he said.
The bureau said it has expanded privacy protections for victims or witnesses of sexual harassment through a protective order.
But Harnden said his concern is that the protections don’t last after the investigation ends. There is no assurance about what happens to the victims’ information after that, Harnden said.
Avakian’s subpoenas have a “chilling effect” on victims, Harnden said.
“It’s telling people who are vulnerable that the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries might re-victimize them, and that shouldn’t happen,” Harnden said.
The bureau called the protective order “strong and enduring,” and said names and personal information wouldn’t be disclosed.
Avakian’s term ends in January, and Val Hoyle, a Democrat and former majority leader in the House, will take the post then.
If the complaint isn’t resolved by the time she’s sworn in, her administration will determine how to handle the complaint in a legal and transparent way, Hoyle said.
“I can’t comment on what I would do, because I don’t know what we’re going to deal with,” Hoyle said. “But we’ll just move forward and do what is appropriate and legal and we will be completely transparent about it.”
Reporter Claire Withycombe: [email protected] or 503-385-4903. Withycombe is a reporter for the East Oregonian working for the Oregon Capital Bureau, a collaboration of EO Media Group, Pamplin Media Group, and Salem Reporter.
Reporter Aubrey Wieber: [email protected]or 503-575-1251. He is a reporter for Salem Reporter working with the Oregon Capital Bureau, a collaboration of the Pamplin Media Group, EO Media Group, and Salem Reporter.
