Rep. Nosse rec'd contribution from MHACBO before declining to take action on complaint
Nosse, chairman of the House Behavioral Health Committee, received a total of $2,750 from nonprofit and its allies prior to telling complainant he couldn't help against his campaign contributor
State Representative Rob Nosse (D-Portland), received campaign contributions totaling $2,750 from a state-funded addiction nonprofit, a related for-profit business and an employee of the nonprofit less than a month before he learned of, and ultimately dismissed, credible allegations of sexual harassment and self-dealing against Eric Martin, an executive of the nonprofit and owner of the private business, a review of State of Oregon campaign finance records reveals.
As reported previously and exclusively by Oregon Roundup, Michael Razavi, a former employee of the Mental Health and Addiction Certification Board of Oregon (MHACBO) and the related for-profit Metropolitan Association of Addiction Peer Professionals (MAAPPS) filed an ethics complaint on January 22, 2022, against Martin with a national association for addiction professionals.
The complaint alleges Martin sexually harassed Razavi for years by sending him, from Martin’s MHACBO email account, links to gay prostitution websites and lewd images.
Nine days after Razavi filed his complaint against MHACBO and Martin, MHACBO made a first-time contribution to Nosse’s campaign in the amount of $1,000. MAAPPS donated the same sum, the same day. Kristi McKinney, the director of credentialing for MHACBO, chipped in $250. Nosse, at the time, was Vice-Chair of the House Behavioral Health Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Oregon Health Authority. MHACBO and MAAPPS receive millions of dollars in grants and contract payments from OHA.
**Update June 26, 2024: Tony Vezina, board member for MHACBO, also contributed $500 to Nosse on January 29, 2022, according to Oregon campaign finance records**
Less than a month later, on February 23, 2022, Razavi’s friend Fawn Preston, whom Razavi had made aware of his complaint, emailed Nosse on his legislative email account:
I am supporting someone right now who was groomed, exploited and fired by Eric Martin the head of The Mental Health and Addiction Certifying Board of Oregon and frankly after seeing the communications and documentation on the topic, I was sick.
Preston, herself an OHA-credentialed mental health peer wellness specialist, continued, “Oregon is failing people with mental health and addiction and the only way it is going to improve is by exposing the corrupt practices that are happening here.”
She warned Nosse, “I want to be clear and say that if it doesn’t make it past your office my next step is the media.”
Nosse took nearly two months, until April 19, to issue a brief response to Preston’s allegations against Nosse’s campaign contributor: “I am working on sending something to a lawyer in the legislature. I wonder why no media outlets responded.”
The next day, Nosse emailed Preston and Razavi to explain an attorney for the legislature advised Nosse there was nothing he could do regarding their allegations against his campaign donor MHACBO: “He did not think that there was actually much I could do to help you in your effort to expose what happened to you while working for MHACBO and in your effort to end Eric’s employment with them.”
Nosse asked for a copy of the non-disclosure agreement Razavi signed with MHACBO after his firing, asserting, “I cannot be certain but if you entered into an NDA before that time, the NDA might bind you to non-disclosure.” Razavi sent Nosse a copy of his NDA.
Nosse response twice cautioned Razavi and his friends against going public with Razavi’s allegations against MHACBO:
“I remain concerned that anything you do or try to initiate threatens the legal agreement you have signed.”
“I am concerned that your friends taking things to the media are really close to the line if not crossing it when it comes to the NDA/Employment agreement you have signed.”
Nosse cautioned that he was not an attorney, that Razavi should not take his email as “actual advice,” and urged Razavi to consult his attorney before “doing anything further.”
At no time in the emails in Oregon Roundup’s possession did Nosse disclose to Razavi or his friends that Martin-led MHACBO and MAAPPs were Nosse’s political allies and campaign contributor. At no time did Nosse offer to use his influence as then vice chair of the committee with jurisdiction over OHA to perform oversight over the activities of an OHA grant recipient and credentialing partner.
I emailed Nosse this morning, laying out the timeline of receiving his first-ever campaign contribution from MHACBO and urging Razavi to keep his allegations against MHACBO quiet, and asked him whether he has ever communicated with anyone associated with MHACBO regarding Razavi’s allegations.
Nosse’s response follows in full:
Good morning Jeff
Thanks for writing.
This is now my third email from you.
(I think).
Every time I try to explain or offer an explanation it never lands with you.
It is like you have already written the story in your head and then you twist what ever I write to fit what you want or think.
You don’t seem like a proper investigative reporter.
I think your reporting about all this is very one sided.
The whole situation with Michael which I know a lot about and don’t feel like it would be appropriate to talk about in the news or with you is quite sad.
I will not be replying to your inquires anymore.
Respectfully
Rob Nosse
On May 3, 2024, MHACBO gave another contribution to Nosse, this time in the amount of $2,000. That second and to date last such contribution came four (4) days after I published an article in which text messages from Tony Vezina to a then-unidentified person suggested going to Salem to “turn [Nosse] out” regarding a peer licensing bill then pending before the legislature. Vezina is a MHACBO board member and close associate of Eric Martin. I now know the recipient of the Vezina text messages was Michael Razavi.
I emailed Eric Martin for a comment regarding the timing of MHACBO’s two contributions to Nosse coming after the publication of negative information about MHACBO-affiliated individuals. He did not respond by the deadline of noon today.
MHACBO is not a frequent or particularly large contributor to campaigns, its largest, by far, coming in the form of a $10,000 contribution to Tina Kotek’s governor campaign in October 2022. Its second largest contribution was also to Kotek, in 2023 in the amount of $2,500. Its third largest was its 2023 contribution to Nosse.
In early 2023, Nosse, by then chair of the Behavioral Health Committee, introduced a bill to increase the value of MHACBO certifications. Midway through the legislative session, OHA did administratively what Nosse’s bill would have done legislatively.
Last Friday, the Oregon Health Authority fired Leann Johnson, its longtime director of equity and inclusion, two weeks after I published an article detailing OHA’s knowledge of Razavi’s allegations against Martin and MHACBO. OHA continued to fund MHACBO after learning of Razavi’s allegations, and provided the aforementioned regulatory assistance.
I am deeply concerned about the many individuals who were aware of these incidents and did not take action. I am also deeply concerned about the many other victims who have not come forward yet. In the world of recovery, we quickly learn the importance of not being passive bystanders to injustice. Those of us who did try to intervene faced retaliation. There are serious questions that need to be answered by the OHA, Oregon Recovers, and several others. Mike Rizavi amongst many others deserve justice.
Apparently Nosse's response is what would have been consider acceptable 70 years ago when a woman was sexually harassed in the workplace and the response would be something along the lines of "boys will be boys."
That was unacceptable now and its is just as improper now.