Did Kotek conceal OR booze scandal and lie about it?

Oregon's governor wrote on February 8 that she was unaware of the bottle set-aside scandal when she forced out the state liquor director. The timeline of events suggests that may not be true.

Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, an apparent favorite of Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Control officials and, perhaps, Oregon legislators. (Photo courtesy KPTV).

You’ve probably seen the headline by now: six Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (“OLCC”) allegedly abused their position by setting aside rare and very valuable bottles of whiskey for their personal use.

Since The Oregonian first broke news of the ethics scandal early this week, however, a timeline has emerged that suggests Oregon Governor Tina Kotek may have lied about what she knew about the bottle scheme and when she knew it. Willamette Week also added the juicy, and originally unreported detail, that Oregon legislators asked for and received bottles of liquor unlawfully set aside by OLCC officials.

Here’s what we know this Saturday morning about the timeline of this rapidly developing story.

April 29, 2022: Departing OLCC employee tells investigator of longstanding practice of setting aside bottles for personal use of OLCC managers. (Source: Oregonian).

June 3, 2022: OLCC human resources investigation of bottle set-aside allegations commences. (Source: Oregonian).

July and August 2022: Investigator interviews OLCC managers, including Director Steve Marks and Director of Distilled Spirits Chris Mayton, who confirm the bottle set-aside scheme. (Source: OLCC HR Report).

July 29, 2022: Mayton tells investigator that he has procured bottles for individuals, including legislators, “hundreds of times.” (Source: OLCC HR Report).

August 30, 2022: Marks tells investigator that his position reports to OLCC Commission and Governor’s policy advisor. (Source: OLCC HR Report).

December 22, 2022: Rich Evans, OLCC Statewide Director of Liquor and Compliance, issues memoranda finding OLCC managers, including Marks and Mayton, violated Oregon laws prohibiting state employees from benefitting personally from their official position. (Source: OLCC HR Report).

Sometime in 2022: Then-Governor Kate Brown is informed of the allegations against OLCC managers, but “it appears her office wasn’t apprised of the outcome of the investigation.” (Source: Oregonian).

January 9, 2023: Tina Kotek sworn in as governor.

January 11, 2023: Someone (perhaps Evans) reprimands Marks for the violations, according to a notation on Evans’s memo to Marks. (Souce: OLCC HR Report).

February 1, 2023, time unknown: “Gov. Tina Kotek learned of the investigation and its findings. (Source: Oregonian).

February 1, 2023, 3:57 p.m.: Willamette Week reports, “Gov. Tina Kotek has asked for and received the resignation of longtime director of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, Steve Marks[.]” Source: Willamette Week story timestamped 3:57 p.m., February 1).

February 8, 2023: Kotek sends letter to OLCC Commissioners stating:

After requesting the head of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s (OLCC) resignation, my administration became aware that leaders within the agency, including the director himself, abused their position for personal gain per their own admission in an internal investigation. This behavior is entirely unacceptable. I will not tolerate wrongful violations of our government ethics laws.

(Emphasis mine) (Source: Oregon Capital Insider).

February 10, 2023: Oregon Attorney General announced that she has opened a criminal investigation into “ethics violations related to the purchase of liquor by some staff of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission and possibly others.” (Emphasis mine) (Source: Willamette Week).

Well then. If the reporting cited above is accurate, Tina Kotek’s written statement that her administration was unaware of the bottle scandal at the time she asked for Steve Marks’s resignation was a lie unless all of the following are true:

(1) Kotek asked for Marks’s resignation before she learned on February 1 about the investigation and its conclusions, and Marks just happened to tell his staff of the resignation on February 1, according to a Willamette Week report time stamped 3:57 p.m February 1;

(2) Prior to Kotek’s asking for Marks’s resignation, no one from Kate Brown’s administration told anyone in Tina Kotek’s administration of their knowledge of, at least, the allegations against OLCC managers; AND,

(3) Prior to Kotek’s asking for Marks’s resignation, no one in Tina Kotek’s administration, for example a person filling the position of policy advisor to which Marks said he officially reported as of August 30, 2022, knew of the allegations, the investigation, the memoranda containing the findings of the investigations, or the resulting official reprimand issued to Marks on January 11, 2023, and to the other managers on or around that same date.

It’s possible all of those things are true, and Tina Kotek really didn’t know anything about the bottle scandal when she asked for Marks’s resignation. But it’s also possible she did know, and lied about it. What follows is speculation, based on the foregoing facts, about why Kotek may have chosen not to disclose the scandal when she first learned about it, and why she may have lied about what she knew when she asked for Marks’s resignation.

Based on the timeline of events, it seems to me more plausible that the events of February 1 unfolded in the following order:

1. Kotek learns of investigation and its conclusions;

2. Kotek asks for Marks’s resignation;

3. Marks informs his staff of his resignation; and

4. Willamette Week reports that Marks resigned at Kotek’s request.

If (again, if) Kotek lied about the sequence of events on and around February 1, why might she have done that? There are plenty of reasons why Kotek may have chosen not to make investigation and its conclusion public when she asked for Marks’s resignation.

Governors tend to avoid a big public scandal on their watch if they can. Kotek may have thought she could get rid of the OLCC problem, or at least Steve Marks’s share of the problem, quietly and without causing a stir.

Or, on the more salacious and speculative end of the spectrum, recall that the OLCC HR memoranda and investigation report recounted Chris Mayton’s claim that he had obtained bottles “hundreds of times” for individuals, including legislators.

Kotek served as a legislator for 15 years before resigning in January 2022 to run for governor. She has many, many political allies and, presumably, friends who are currently, or were formerly, legislators. A legislator who received liquor unlawfully from the OLCC would probably prefer Chris Mayton’s statement in the OLCC HR Report remain unknown to the public.

(Please note, I have no information suggesting Kotek or any ally or friend of hers received liquor unlawfully from the OLCC).

Then, our hypothetical continues, sometime between February 1 and February 8, Kotek became aware someone was going to break the bottle scandal story and decided to get ahead of it with a strongly worded condemnation. If that’s what happened, she may have included the claim that her administration did not know of the scandal at the time she asked for Marks’s resignation in a clumsy, unnecessary and administration-endangering, effort to disguise the fact that she decided not to make the scandal public when she found out about it a week earlier.

It would not be the first time a politician’s attempt to hide a mistake or wrongdoing proved much worse than the original slip.

I don’t know whether Tina Kotek lied in her February 8 letter, and if she did lie, why she did. Draw your own conclusion from the facts, and keep a close eye on this developing story.