The Oregonian: Kate Brown’s public records reform plan faces questions about independence, politics

Hillary Borrud for The Oregonian:

Brown’s skepticism about putting the ombudsman in the Secretary of State’s office appears to be a somewhat recent development.

…

“We started with the secretary of state, but that didn’t end up feeling like — there’s political, you know, implications there as well. So (the Department of Administrative Services) is where it ended up.”

Translation: We were going to go with the Secretary of State until Republican Dennis Richardson was elected. Then we decided it was best for the monkeys to watch the bananas.