Oregon DAS Director Michael Jordan is out!

Michael Jordan

by NW Spotlight

The Oregonian and Statesman Journal are reporting that the Director of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, Michael Jordan, “has resigned with no explanation.”

According to a Feb 23rd Oregonian article, “Jordan was one of Kitzhaber’s closest allies in state government.”

Today’s Oregonian notes “Jordan had sparked controversy by, shortly before Gov. Kate Brown took office, launching a criminal investigation into the leak of former Gov. Kitzhaber’s emails from his personal account. He later placed two top managers in the state data center, a focus of the investigation, on leave. Later, a manager in the data center characterized the probe as ‘purely political’ and offered a version of events that at times conflicted with Jordan’s.”

Hopefully this is an indication that Gov. Kate Brown is reconsidering punishing the whistle blowers who refused to delete the Kitzhaber emails.

[UPDATE] Nigel Jaquiss at Willamette Week is reporting today that “Jordan, who is in effect the state’s chief operating officer, made what observers believe was a career-ending choice the morning of Feb. 18 when he ordered a criminal investigation by the Oregon State Police into how WW obtained personal emails from former Gov. John Kitzhaber,” and that “After launching the investigation, Jordan subsequently placed two Department of Administrative Services employees on administrative leave. That action gave the appearance of a witch-hunt. Jordan seemed to be  punishing employees who’d refused a Feb. 5 request from Kitzhaber’s office to delete thousands of Kitzhaber’s emails.”