Kitzhaber’s stonewalling consistent with Oregon’s “F” grade

by NW Spotlight

After Willamette Week’s Nigel Jaquiss began uncovering a series of problems with Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes, many other members of the Oregon media began requesting information about Hayes and her potential blurring of lines between her public and private activities.

Gov. Kitzhaber (D) successfully stonewalled most of those requests until after the November 2014 election. The Oregonian wrote in frustration about the stonewalling back in October, before the election. The article noted that Willamette Week had been waiting on requests since July, and that the governor’s staff was also stonewalling The Oregonian and the Associated Press.

Writing about some emails released in late December, The Oregonian’s Nick Budnick said “The emails between Hayes and Rowinski were requested in October. The governor’s office has yet to release many key records sought through public records requests, such as ethics files kept by Kitzhaber’s attorney, Reeves.”

In an op-ed calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor, the Eugene Register-Guard noted that the full extent of the Cylvia Hayes scandal is not known, “because the governor’s office has been slow in responding to requests for additional documents.”

Kitzhaber’s hiding of public records is consistent with the “F” grade that Oregon got in Public Access to Information on the Oregon Corruption Risk Report Card. The report card is produced by the State Integrity Investigation – a partnership of the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International.

Maybe the FBI will have better luck getting Gov. Kitzhaber to cough up the public records pertaining to Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes.

REFERENCE

Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes – List of Major Scandals

1. Allegations that the Oregon Department of Energy improperly steered business to Cylvia Hayes’ environmental consulting company (more from Willamette Week’s Nigel Jaquiss from June 2011)

2. Cylvia Hayes was paid $5,000 to marry an Ethiopian student for purposes of immigration fraud, a felony (statute of limitations has passed)

3. Cylvia Hayes bought property on the Canadian border for an illegal marijuana grow operation

4. Allegations that Cylvia Hayes has been using her role as a public official in the governor’s office to personally profit her private consulting business – including using taxpayer-funded public resources for her private business