Audit slams Rep. Hoyle over her BOLI crisis

Sec of State Audit Slams Hoyle’s Mismanagement and Neglect for Current BOLI Crisis

–DeSpain Criticizes Hoyle’s Pattern of Incompetence, Disastrous Policies, Blaming, and Excuses
By Monique DeSpain for Congress campaign,

Eugene, OR —  Oregon’s 4th Congressional District candidate, retired Air Force Colonel Monique DeSpain, reacted to last weeks damning state audit report on the crisis at Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) of a massive backlog of wage and hour violation claims caused by poor management and unclear policies that “started or worsened” under the “prior leadership” of then BOLI Commissioner, now Congresswoman Val Hoyle.

“Career Politician Val Hoyle has let us down again,” said Monique DeSpain. “When Oregon’s workers needed bold solutions-oriented leadership the most, no one was in a better position to address these problems than Val Hoyle; instead, she gave them neglect, mismanagement, and crisis at BOLI.”

Significant backlogs led to Oregon’s workers waiting years for complaint resolution, damaging public trust in the agency. Hoyle responded, offering the excuse that she fought for more funding. However, the audit made clear that “money alone” could “not fix BOLI’s problems” because “many of its challenges stem from years of neglect and mismanagement” that occurred under Hoyle’s leadership, which “failed to maintain basic agency operations, leaving BOLI in crisis.”

“Lest we forget, BOLI Commissioner Hoyle failed to adequately address serious allegations of racial discrimination—failures that resulted in multi-million-dollar judgments paid by taxpayers,” added DeSpain. “At the same time, Hoyle was strong-arming her pay-to-play scheme with the marijuana company La Mota – a company facing multiple workplace complaints before BOLI.”

“It’s a pattern with Congresswoman Hoyle: grossly incompetent leadership, disastrous policies, deflecting blame, and insisting that every problem can be solved with more taxpayer money. Now Hoyle has taken this legacy of incompetence and corruption to Washington, D.C. It’s no surprise Hoyle has delivered close to nothing for our 4th District starving for a champion who will put their interests first. When elected to replace her, I will be that bold champion,” stated DeSpain.

In 2023, two racial discrimination lawsuits stemming from Val Hoyle’s tenure leading Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) resulted in a combined $3.2 million in damages and attorneys’ fees. In both cases, Black employees in BOLI’s Civil Rights Division—whose job was to investigate workplace discrimination—were found to have experienced racial discrimination themselves. Despite being directly informed of these issues at the time, Hoyle reportedly “did not take further action,” thereby contributing to the legal judgments against BOLI.

In 2024, incumbent Val Hoyle was exposed as the ringleader of a pay-to-play scheme to strong-arm the illegal BOLI grant of over $500,000 for La Mota’s nonprofit Endeavor in exchange for campaign contributions, which earned her an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Most recently, in September 2025, Hoyle admitted to blatantly violating the STOCK Act by failing to report over 200 stock trades for more than a year while enriching her personal assets by over 400% in less than three years.