Councilors Nishioka and Nordyke admit wrongdoing to Ethics Commission even though Mayor Hoy was the chief wrongdoer

Sadly, this is typical among elected officials these days.

Those who have done something mildly wrong admit to it and apologize for the violation. Those who have something majorly wrong refuse to admit it and say there’s nothing to apologize for.

This appears to be the case here in Salem, where two members of the City Council, Linda Nishioka and Vanessa Nordyke, have told the Oregon Government Ethics Commission that they agree with the commission’s finding that they, three other members of the council, and Mayor Hoy engaged in violations of our state’s public meetings law last February.

A Salem Reporter story by Joe Siess, “Nishioka, Nordyke settle ethics case, conceding meeting violations, ” says:

Salem City Council President Linda Nishioka and Councilor Vanessa Nordyke have agreed to accept a letter of education from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, conceding their participation in an illegal serial meeting in February.

The ethics commission found that Nishioka, Nordyke, Salem Mayor Julie Hoy and Councilors Deanna Gwyn, Paul Tigan and Micki Varney “deliberately coordinated and orchestrated” an illegal serial meeting earlier this year to avoid publicly deciding on the employment of Keith Stahley, the former city manager.

The commission will consider executing the settlements and issuing the letters on Friday, Dec. 12. Such actions, usually routine, would close the ethics matter for Nishioka and Nordyke.

This is both morally sound and politically smart. Nordyke is running against Hoy in next May’s mayoral election. By taking the high ground now, Nordyke has made it clear who occupies the low ground: Mayor Julie Hoy.

As I said in an October 1 blog post, “Ethics investigation concludes Mayor Julie Hoy and five city councilors violated Public Meetings Law,” Hoy was the chief wrongdoer in this ethics scandal. I was one of two people who filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission.

However, in my decidedly personal, yet well informed opinion (I spent a lot of time researching and writing my complaint), the real ringleader here is Mayor Julie Hoy.

She deserves to have a greater punishment than the five city councilors because Hoy was the one who instigated the private serial communications. It seems clear to me that Hoy wanted Stahley removed as City Manager. Rather than try to accomplish this through open public meetings, Hoy chose to talk with a majority of the city council privately, hoping to pressure Stahley into resigning by telling him (via Linda Nishioka) that a majority of the city council wanted him gone.

Yet not only has Mayor Hoy refused to apologize for what she did, Hoy continues to lie about her actions, as I noted in “Mayor Julie Hoy lied about not wanting City Manager Stahley gone. That’s her third lie about Stahley.”

Time will tell whether Hoy’s no-apology gambit helps or hurts in her reelection campaign. In my opinion, she would have been better served by admitting early on that what she did was wrong, and she apologizes to the Salem citizenry for her actions. Since the City Attorney, Dan Atchison, had told her in advance that privately talking with a majority of the city council about Stahley’s employment status was fine, Hoy could have used that (bad) legal advice as an excuse.

But now that the Ethics Commission has found that Mayor Hoy violated the public meetings law, Hoy either needs to publicly apologize soon, or double down on an appeal of the commission’s finding. The Salem Reporter story says:

The commission recently notified Mayor Julie Hoy and the councilors that they had 21 days to either agree to a settlement or declare their intent to fight the commission findings.

Nishioka and Nordyke are the only city officials to respond in time to be included on the agenda for the Friday commission meeting.

Hoy and her campaign manager Betsy Schultz didn’t respond Monday to a request for comment. Hoy’s attorney, Jill Gibson, acknowledged the questions but provided no responses or update on Hoy’s intention.