Kotek's top 10 most deceptive statements on First Lady

Oregon Gov's dishonesty with Oregonians has fueled the First Lady flap, and she's not letting up

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek relishes her 2023 swearing in, a happy Aimee Kotek Wilson by her side. (Photo Dave Killen/The Oregonian/Pool photography)

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek is under fire for the role of her wife, Aimee Kotek Wilson, in her office mostly because Kotek insists on trying to mislead Oregonians when talking about the issue.

Kotek’s statements, always crafted to minimize the importance of Kotek Wilson’s role based on half truths, misleading implications and outright lies, have persisted since the story of Kotek Wilson’s role broke when three of Kotek’s top advisors (Chief of Staff Andrea Cooper, Deputy Chief of Staff Lindsey O’Brien and Senior Advisor Abby Tibbs) left the office suddenly, reportedly in response to Kotek Wilson’s role in the office and Kotek’s expansive approach to it.

Kotek doubled-down on her campaign of deception - I don’t know what else to call it - in a lengthy press conference held on May 1. During that press conference, Kotek repeatedly misrepresented facts and tried to shift attention to immaterial edicts that don’t address the underlying nature of Kotek Wilson’s controversial role.

The problem for Kotek is that her office produced, in response to requests from media outlets including Willamette Week and The Oregonian, Kotek Wilson’s official calendar along with 6,199 pages of emails between Kotek, her senior staff, and Kotek Wilson. A careful review of those documents reveals when and how Kotek has been untruthful, or misleading.

Below, I compare Kotek’s statements, before and after her press conference, with the facts on the record. When I cite the publicly released emails, I indicate as much with the word “Emails,” with a link, and the page number. References to the calendar are similarly demarked “Calendar.” For Kotek’s statements made during her May 1 press conference, I link to a video of the press conference, with the approximate time stamp for the statement.

Please note that the produced email file is very large. I have uploaded it to my Google Drive, which is where the link takes you. My computer makes me download the document to access it, because of its size, and also tells me Drive can’t scan it for viruses because it’s too big. I downloaded without issue. However, you can also access the produced emails via this link to the Governor’s record production website. Scroll down to the link provided in response to a records request from The Oregonian on March 27, 2024.

During the many hours I’ve spent with these documents, one statement in a February 7, 2024, email from the since-departed Abby Tibbs stood out to me the most:

“The Governor has been reminded several times now of the power she and [Kotek Wilson] hold in this office and externally and the appropriate use of that power.” (Emails, p. 3063).

Perhaps you will keep that ominous warning in mind as you read what follows.

Kotek falsely minimizing the extent of Kotek Wilson’s involvement in Kotek’s floundering Behavioral Health initiative.

The term “behavioral health,” in Salem circles, encompasses much of what currently plagues Oregon: its twin and intertwined crises of addiction and mental health. Kotek frequently cites behavioral health as one of her three priorities, along with housing and schools.

Public documents and reporting by other outlets show that Kotek Wilson was deeply involved with behavioral health policy-making in 2023, and less, but still, involved in 2024. But, that’s not what Kotek told Oregonians before the records became public.

On March 23, Kotek’s spokeswoman Elisabeth Shepard told Willamette Week,

The governor has a standing weekly meeting with staff to discuss behavioral health initiatives. First lady Kotek Wilson has attended several meetings in the last year of the administration, in light of her professional experience as a social worker.

Once Kotek’s office produced the records, The Oregonian reported that Kotek Wilson’s involvement in behavioral health extended far beyond “several meetings.”

In March of [2023], Kotek Wilson began meeting every other week with Cooper, met twice about Alamo Health Management’s behavioral health beds and held meetings with both Ebony Clarke, the state’s behavioral health director, and Kathy Shumate, a manager in the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Division, her calendar shows. In June, Kotek Wilson helped interview candidates to serve as Kotek’s behavioral health initiative director. Once Kotek hired Juliana Wallace for that role, Kotek Wilson met weekly with Wallace for about a month.

In part of 2023, Kotek Wilson had bi-weekly check-ins with advisors with the UK-based consulting firm Deloitte, which holds tens of millions of dollars in contracts with Oregon for behavioral health.

Source: Aimee Kotek Wilson’s calendar.

According to Willamette Week, Deloitte charges the State of Oregon between $280 and $395 per hour for its behavioral health work for the state. The three biggest contracts Deloitte has with the State of Oregon paid the firm $57 million last year alone, according to WW.

Oregon is, by any measure, failing spectacularly in what it calls behavioral health. On February 7, Abby Tibbs emailed Kotek that she was concerned the governor had failed to “provide clear and consistent direction” to inform her administration’s behavioral health work plan. Kotek responded

[Behavioral Health] is complex. We spent a good part of the first year staffing up, understanding the landscape, and opportunistically addressing issues. We need to be more intentional in 2024 so we can understand if we are making progress.

(Emails, p. 2957).

A big part of the “staffing up” in the first year of Kotek’s administration was giving Kotek Wilson a prominent role in trying, and ultimately failing, to shape state policies around mental health and addiction.

Kotek falsely implied she might have her staff call the former employer of any Oregonian to discuss potential workplace safety issues.

Before Kotek became governor, Kotek Wilson worked as a social worker for Cascadia Behavioral Health, a Portland addiction and mental health provider. According to a February 7, 2024, email from Tibbs to Juliana Wallace, Kotek’s Behavioral Health Initiative Director, Kotek asked Wallace “to call Cascadia about a friend of [Kotek Wilson’s] who is upset with her supervisor[.]”

Wallace made the call, according to the email, but Tibbs described Kotek’s request as “highly inappropriate.” And, ominously, “The Governor has been reminded several times now of the power she and [Kotek Wilson] hold in this office and externally and the appropriate use of that power.” (Emails, p. 3063).

When asked, Kotek told Oregon Public Broadcasting, about the call,

I can confirm that I was made aware of a potential workplace safety issue at Cascadia Behavioral Health and directed staff to follow up. When Oregonians raise concerns about a safety issue, I will always consider the appropriate steps to address it.

Entire state agencies exist to field, investigate and adjudicate Oregonians’ concerns about workplace safety issues, including the Bureau of Labor and Industries and Oregon OSHA. Kotek Wilson’s friend was afforded a different kind of assistance, because of the friend’s relationship with Kotek Wilson and Kotek Wilson’s marriage to the governor. Kotek’s implication that less-connected Oregonians might receive the same benefit is simply not credible.

Kotek says she will base the role of first spouse on advice from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, but her questions are superficial and any resulting advice immaterial and late.

On April 5, when the first lady scandal was reaching full bloom, Kotek’s new chief of staff Chris Warner sent a letter to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission with three questions the answers to which Kotek already knew. The purpose of the letter at the time was, presumably, to show that Kotek was taking action in response to public concerns about the first lady arrangement, because the actual questions posed are pointless otherwise.

Warner first queries whether the first lady, as a public official under Oregon law, may “participate in in the development of, advise on, and/or promote the Governor’s priorities” consistent with a public official’s ethical duties? The answer to that question is, obviously, yes. Any person on the planet without a financial conflict of interest may lawfully help Kotek develop and promote her priorities, including Kotek Wilson. The purpose of the question is not to clarify the role, but to create a strawman concern raised by no one, and obtain an outside answer to it in the affirmative.

Next, Warner asks whether the first lady may be “supported by staff and provided other office resources necessary to perform such assigned official duties.” Again, the answer is yes. Oregon taxpayers have provided Kotek Wilson with staff support for at least the last year, and surely still do so. No one has seriously questioned whether it is a violation of state ethics laws to do so, and if Kotek was concerned about it she presumably would stop providing staff.

Finally, Warner asks a question that is not really a question at all but a means of repeating Kotek’s oft-repeated talking point that Kotek Wilson is not a paid state employee, but a volunteer. Kotek Wilson’s status as a volunteer is relevant ethically because, if she were paid, Kotek would be in plain violation of Oregon’s ethics laws, which prohibit hiring family members for paid positions, but specifically allow it for volunteer positions. (ORS 244.177(3)(a)).

According to Oregon Capital Chronicle, the Ethics Commission will not respond to Warner’s letter until it has processed pending ethics complaints against Kotek or Kotek Wilson arising from the scandal.

So, Kotek’s reliance on OGEC’s opinion serves to both deliver her answers to questions she is pretending are relevant and to deliver them much later, when Kotek surely hopes this scandal will have blown over.

Kotek’s three “lines in the sand” regarding Kotek Wilson’s future role rely on semantics and will change nothing.

During a press conference last week intended to try to put the Kotek Wilson scandal behind her, Kotek said, at about 6:15 into a video recording of the press conference,

After listening to and reflecting on the concerns that Oregonians have raised - they’ve contacted my office - as well as the advice of my staff, I want to be clear about the following: there will not be an office of first spouse; there will not be a chief of staff to the first spouse; and other than staff that is assigned to support the first lady in her official duties, no staff will report to her or be supervised by her.

Those three claims are form the foundation of of Kotek’s most recent attempt to bury the first lady story. But those claims, like so many of Kotek’s other claims relating to her wife’s role in her office, are false or, at least, misleading. Let’s take them one at a time.

“There will not be an office of first spouse.”

There has been since Kotek became governor and continues to be, after Kotek made the above claim, an office of first spouse. Kotek Wilson literally has an office in the Governor’s suite in the Capitol building in Salem. She also has her own office in the Governor’s residence, Mahonia Hall, for which Kotek Wilson requested, and apparently received at taxpayer expense, her own printer ($1,178.38) and “monitor/docking station/web camera . . . like she has at the [ed. - other] office” ($1,000). (Emails, pp. 3986, 4377).

Now, Kotek said later in the press conference that Kotek Wilson has an office in the Capitol and also at Mahonia, so presumably Kotek did not mean Kotek Wilson has literally no office. But, Kotek Wilson has staff that report to her, attends events with and without Kotek, has her own contact and scheduling request forms on the Governor’s website and determines her own schedule. In other words, Kotek Wilson already enjoy all the trappings of her own “office.”

True, there is no authorizing law for an office of first spouse in Oregon. There is no separate budget line item for the first spouse office; the expenses associated with Kotek Wilson are run through the Governor’s office budget. But those are not things about which Oregonians or Kotek’s staff has raised concerns. They have raised concerns about the influence Kotek Wilson has exerted and appears to continue to exert in the administration, and Kotek’s repeated obfuscation of the same. The claim that there will be no office of first spouse does not address the first concern, and should add to the second.

“There will not be a chief of staff to the first spouse.”

Actually, the person chosen by Kotek Wilson to be Kotek Wilson’s chief of staff will still work for Kotek Wilson, and report to her, but will no longer be called her chief of staff because Kotek wanted to say that Kotek Wilson will not have a chief of staff.

On March 8, Director of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services Berri Leslie emailed members of the Governor’s staff to inform them, “The First Lady has asked Meliah to be her Chief of Staff starting as a 6-month rotation agreement.” (Emails, p. 5019 - Emphasis mine).

Meliah Masiba worked for DAS as a legislative director, a political position in which she interacted with legislators on bills DAS though important. She is currently on loan from DAS to the Governor’s office to staff Kotek Wilson. Here’s her job description, which is linked via Kotek’s statement sent in advance of her press conference:

For comparison, here’s a draft of Masiba’s job description emailed between Kotek’s staff on March 11, before Kotek Wilson’s role in the office became public as a result of the departure of much of Kotek’s top staff:

(Emails, p. 5238).

The same person with the same expertise that Kotek Wilson handpicked to be her chief of staff will still staff her, but Masiba will no longer be called chief of staff. Kotek’s office scrubbed references to her role in policy initiatives, legislative priorities and legal considerations, presumably in response to public outcry. The insertion of Masiba’s work to “explore formalized guidelines” for the first spouse at the beginning is a nice touch, too.

“Other than staff that is assigned to support the first lady in her official duties, no staff will report to her or be supervised by her.”

The missing word here is, “officially.” Andrea Cooper, Abby Tibbs and Lindsey O’Brien were not officially supervised by Kotek Wilson, either. But the publicly available emails show countless times when those senior staff responded to requests from the first lady. The following is a non-exhaustive list:

Andrea Cooper arranged for staff dedicated to Kotek Wilson while she and Kotek were at a National Governors Association conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. (Emails, p. 2368).

Her dedicated staffer Yasmin Solorio suggested to Cooper that Kotek Wilson receive remarks, to be prepared by the Governor’s communications staff, well in advance of a speaking engagement because “it really helps support her with practice and tone reassurance.” (Emails, p. 2437).

Kotek herself directed her staff to text Kotek Wilson for approval on photos of Kotek Wilson to appear in the Governor’s social media posts: “Please make that a standard protocol.” (Emails, p. 2654 - Emphasis Kotek’s in original).

Kotek Wilson wanted to add a plaque to the Carter suite in Mahonia Hall “to honor Rosalynn Carter,” and it was Cooper’s job to deal with that. (Emails, p. 2826).

If Kotek Wilson makes requests of Kotek’s staff, they will bend over backwards to accommodate her, because she is their boss’s wife. Whether they “officially” report to, or are supervised by, Kotek Wilson is irrelevant.

Kotek falsely claimed that Kotek Wilson has not been meeting with staff since the first of the year.

During the press conference, a reporter clarified an earlier question about Kotek Wilson’s role going forward, as follows:

Will staff still be expected to take her calls and engage with her on policy? Will she still be meeting with the behavioral health advisor frequently, one on one?

Kotek responded:

As you can see from her calendar, she has not been meeting with staff since the first of the year in our interest of trying to figure this out.

(Press conf. at 8:35).

Kotek Wilson’s calendar in fact shows that Kotek Wilson has met with the Governor’s staff repeatedly since January 1, 2024. She was part of weekly scheduling meetings that included staff. (Calendar, pp. 368, 375, etc.)

She had a Zoom call with Richard Lane, Kotek’s top lawyer, for a “legal check-in” on February 5. (Calendar, p. 401).

She attended a Zoom meeting regarding “Draft Communications Plan (Internal)” on February 27. (Calendar, p. 423).

On March 7, she had a zoom meeting with Lindsey O’Brien, then Kotek’s Deputy Chief of Staff, about a letter of support Maybelle Center wanted from Kotek Wilson. (Calendar, p. 432).

On March 8, she met with Meliah Masiba, then with the Department of Administrative Services, whom she decided to hire as her chief of staff (see above) but who is definitely no longer her chief of staff. (Calendar, p. 433).

In a cryptically worded calendar entry for March 12, Kotek Wilson had lunch at the Best Little Roadhouse steakhouse in Salem with the “BHI team.” BHI means Behavioral Health Initiative. (Calendar, p. 437). A March 4 email from Kotek about the lunch provides more detail:

“[Kotek Wilson] and I would like to have lunch with Juliana [Wallace, BHI Director] and April [Rohman, Behavioral Health Advisor]. Just an opportunity to get to know each other better.”

(Emails, p. 4337)

Kotek Wilson has definitely met with the Governor’s staff since January 1, in contrast to what Kotek claimed. It is possible, because of the compound nature of the reporter’s question, that Kotek meant that Kotek Wilson has not met with behavioral health staff one on one since January 1, but that’s not what Kotek said. Additionally, the apparently otherwise unstaffed lunch with Wallace and Rohman certainly provided Kotek Wilson the opportunity to talk policy with Behavioral Health staff, unsupervised by Kotek’s by-then-increasingly-wary senior staff.

Kotek falsely claimed that Kotek Wilson is not involved in personnel decisions.

At the press conference, Kotek asserted, “[Kotek Wilson] is not involved with personnel decisions.” (Press conf. at 14:30). If you’ve read this far, you already know that claim is patently untrue.

According to DAS Director Berri Leslie, as described above, Kotek Wilson “asked Meliah [Masiba] to be her chief of staff.” Offering someone a job is involvement in personnel decisions.

In a separate email, Leslie described it a little differently: “I connected with the First Lady last night and she met with Meliah today. Meliah has agreed to a 6-month rotation to join the Governor’s team as the Chief of Staff for the First Lady.” (Emails, p. 5030).

What was the purpose of the meeting - one might call it an interview - except to obtain Kotek Wilson’s approval for hiring Masiba as her chief of staff? The very fact of the meeting prior to hiring is involvement in personnel decisions.

Back on June 28, 2023, Kotek Wilson participated in a “BH Director Interview,” according to her calendar. (Calendar, p. 179). The Governor’s office announced the hiring of Juliana Wallace as Behavioral Health Initiative Director in early August 2023. If Kotek Wilson attended an interview for the BH Director position, she was involved in personnel decisions.

On at least two occasions, Kotek Wilson was involved in personnel decisions. Her involvement in hiring Mesiba occurred less than two months before Kotek claimed Kotek Wilson has no involvement in personnel decisions.

Kotek falsely implied that nothing was out of the ordinary about providing Kotek Wilson with state police protection and driving services.

During her press conference, Kotek read a statement that apparently was provided by the Oregon State Police at Kotek’s request, for the purpose of justifying the state police’s increasing role in driving Kotek Wilson to and from events. (Press conf. at 27:00). The statement said that the Oregon State Police’s Dignitary Protective Unit (DPU) provides security to the Governor and members of the Governor’s family, and nothing about that arrangement has changed.

But DPU did ramp up its driving of Kotek Wilson in response to her request. She requested DPU driving and protection services for a February 15, 2024 event at the University of Oregon in Eugene called “Outliers and Outlaws: Stories from the Eugene Lesbian History Project.”

Cooper asked DPU sergeant Michael Bates whether there was a security concern justifying his driving Kotek Wilson to the event and attending it with her. Bates responded,

FLO (First Lady of Oregon) requested DPU for that event at the last scheduling meeting. I don’t have any security concerns but I’m available personally to go with her and it would give me some time with her to catch up on things.

(Emails, p. 1730).

So, yes, the Oregon State Police still provides dignitary protection services for the Governor and her family. However, it provided those services to Kotek Wilson, at her request, when it did not believe there was a security reason to justify it. Indeed, in March, Kotek ordered that the DPU to drive Kotek Wilson to and from events, and attend those events with her, regardless of the security risk.

Conclusion

Kotek is not the first politician to make a scandal worse by trying to cover it up. But her persistence in attempting to mislead Oregonians in her public statements, even as records are available that undermine those statements, indicates an especially self-harmful arrogance. Kotek seems to think she is the smartest person in the room, but also seems to think none of us will do our homework to check what she’s telling us.

Maybe that’s the way it’s been, for her. It can’t be that way any longer.