Top staffers for Gov. Tina Kotek expressed concerns internally in recent months over the degree to which the governor and her wife, Aimee Kotek Wilson, sought to use the perks and powers of the governor’s office to benefit the first lady, newly released records show.
In emails, the high-level aides worried about the impact that Kotek Wilson’s growing role might have on the governors’ office budget, as well as public trust, accountability and the success of the Kotek administration.
On March 15, Special Adviser Abby Tibbs wrote in an email to other staffers that the governor’s office needed to take action to address pitfalls including the appearance or reality of “bias, nepotism issues, complicated power dynamics, conflict resolution, retaliation — the things that can really impact (governor’s office) staff morale and sense of stability and confidence in a (governor’s office) overall.”
Several examples of the concerns raised involve Kotek Wilson’s requests to have state employees accompany her to events.
Last month, Kotek announced three high-level staffers including then-Chief of Staff Andrea Cooper were leaving the office. Multiple sources who said they had spoken directly with people in Kotek’s office told The Oregonian/OregonLive that tensions over Kotek Wilson’s increasing role led to the departures of Cooper, Deputy Chief of Staff Lindsey O’Brien and Tibbs.
The Oregonian/OregonLive and other news outlets immediately filed public records requests seeking to learn more about the reasons the three staffers departed and Kotek Wilson’s role in the administration. On Friday afternoon, the governor’s office released more than 6,000 pages of emails and other public records. They showed the three women had indeed raised concerns about Kotek Wilson’s ill-defined yet expanding role in the governor’s office.
Tibbs wrote in a March email that she, Cooper and O’Brien had been advocating, presumably to Kotek, for “the last several months” for a specific plan to govern the extent that governor’s office employees would be detailed to work with the first lady, the occasions when she would receive state police transportation and security and the limits of the first spouse role, including whether Kotek Wilson could direct staffers.
Additionally, Tibbs wrote March 15 that Kotek Wilson, who is not paid in her role as first spouse and does not hold outside employment, had not signed governor’s office policies and procedures paperwork and urgently needed to do so “since she has started to be in meetings with staff” and was spending “time in the office again.”
Last month, Kotek disclosed she had brought on Meliah Masiba from the Department of Administrative Services on a six-month rotation to assist Kotek Wilson and explore the creation of an Office of the First Lady. However, the emails refer specifically to Masiba, who makes $144,000 a year, as Kotek Wilson’s chief of staff. They also shed light on the speed with which the governor moved to bring on Masiba.
Tibbs wrote in a March 10 email, “I understand that after the advice provided to the governor that she has clearly made a decision to move forward on the (first lady) role in her own way/direction including this (chief of staff) position out of the gate. Having said that, how are we ensuring that there is a written job description for this position and that the responsibilities are for a full-time position, that there are clear and transparent expectations about how the position fits into the office structure, expectations set about who (Masiba) reports to, and what the work flows are and a plan to communicate this to the office staff?”
Beyond the compensation costs for Kotek Wilson’s new chief of staff, Tibbs and Cooper worried about the impact of spending approximately $3,000 per person to send Masiba and Kotek Wilson’s state police detail to a National Governors Association conference in March. Tibbs emailed then-Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Warner about those concerns, noting the governor’s office budget is “really tight.”
Kotek told The Oregonian/OregonLive in a statement Friday, “The assertion that I have used the ‘perks and powers’ of my office to personally benefit my wife is unfounded.” The governor said she wouldn’t comment on the concerns raised by her departed top staffers.
The records released on Friday also provided more routine examples of Kotek Wilson’s requests that raised questions for the former top aides.
In late January, the first lady’s executive assistant Yasmin Solorio emailed Cooper to request that one or more of the governor’s policy advisers accompany Kotek Wilson to an event at the University of Oregon in Eugene focused on the history of the city’s lesbian community and that a governor’s press staffer tag along to photograph the first lady during a visit to a behavioral health program. Solorio noted the first lady also wanted state police in the dignitary protection unit, the governor’s security detail, to transport Kotek Wilson to the event in Eugene and to a later event at the Portland Japanese Garden where Kotek Wilson was scheduled to speak.
Cooper responded that the governor’s general direction to aides “has been to not over staff things, so I would like to limit to two people max as much as possible, including you and (dignitary protection unit).”
Specifically commenting on the event in Eugene, Cooper wrote in an email that “providing after hours opportunities to staff is always welcome, where appropriate, but more complicated when it’s pulling them away from their day to day work of the office.”
Cooper also emailed Michael Bates, head of the governor’s security unit, to ask whether a security detail was needed for anything more that driving Kotek Wilson. Bates wrote in a response that he had no “security concerns” about Kotek Wilson’s presence at the UO event. But he wrote it would “give me some time with her to catch up on things.”
As for Kotek Wilson’s request for state police transport to the Portland Japanese Garden, Cooper wrote that “my understanding of our agreed to policy from a few months ago was (dignitary protection unit) would attend if there was a security need or risk (i.e.: going to the state hospital or a prison) and we would avoid having them take the place of being the driver as that is not their role.”
In March, Kotek ordered that her wife be provided a consistent state police detail when Kotek Wilson attends events on behalf of the governor’s office.
Kotek had previously disclosed that her wife had participated in several weekly meetings on behavioral health initiatives. But the newly released documents show that Kotek Wilson has had an active role since last year, participating in meetings, attending events on the governor’s behalf, serving as a key adviser to Kotek and even working on reports.
In a Jan. 17 email, Kotek told Cooper and Tibbs that she had been thinking about “our behavioral health work for the year and strategizing with the first lady.”
Other emails show Kotek Wilson being invited to meetings, including a January session with Becky Hultberg, president of the Hospital Association of Oregon.
Another email includes an after action report from the governor’s office on a roundtable series on serious mental illness. The report begins with a letter signed by Kotek Wilson and Juliana Wallace, the governor’s behavioral health initiative director.
It was Wallace who fielded a directive from the governor to fulfill a personal request on behalf of the first lady that Tibbs described in an email as “highly inappropriate at best.” The governor asked Wallace to call a supervisor at Cascadia Health, a nonprofit that receives state funding, “about a friend of the (first lady) who is upset with her supervisor.”
Kotek Wilson, who holds a master’s in social work, previously worked at Cascadia.
Tibbs apologized to Wallace that she had to make the “awkward” phone call and praised how diplomatically she handled it. Tibbs said she and others in the office would take steps to prevent similar situations in the future.
“I also want to just recognize again that requests and actions by the (first lady) and/or governor like the ones above are indeed highly inappropriate at best, and you flagging this and anything else that doesn’t feel right for me and (Cooper) is totally the right thing to do,” Tibbs wrote to Wallace on Feb. 7. “The governor has been reminded several times now of the power she and the (first lady) hold in this office and externally and the appropriate use of their power.”
Kotek declined to comment on Tibbs’ email, but confirmed that she asked staffers to call Cascadia Health.
“I can confirm that I was made aware of a potential workplace safety issue at Cascadia Behavioral Health and directed staff to follow up,” Kotek said in an emailed statement. “When Oregonians raise concerns about a safety issue, I will always consider the appropriate steps to address it.”
Another top staffer in Kotek’s office announced her resignation this week in a letter to the governor and Warner, who is now chief of staff. An Do, the governor’s communications director, said in the letter that she will depart on May 8, but she did not provide any information on the reason for her departure.
Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Carlos Fuentes contributed to this report.
—Hillary Borrud is an investigative reporter. Reach her at 503-294-4034, hborrud@oregonian.com or @hborrud.
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