I’ve heard that Mayor Julie Hoy attended Trump’s Washington D.C. inauguration in January of this year. I’m surprised that she hasn’t gotten a job with the Trump administration, because Hoy is fully Trumpian when it comes to refusing to admit obvious wrongdoing.
An Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigation found that Mayor Hoy orchestrated an illegal “serial communication” among a majority of the members of the City Council that ran afoul of the Public Meetings Law requirements.
Last February Hoy subverted what should have been a public process of deciding whether City Manager Keith Stahley should remain in his position into a series of secretive individual meeting with councilors because she was eager to get rid of Stahley, who apparently was standing in the way of Hoy’s desire to use city government for her nefarious conservative purposes.
That was bad enough. But Hoy lied when she told the council president, Linda Nishioka, that her private conversations had revealed that a majority wanted Stahley to resign. Actually, the Ethics Commission investigation found that no one on the City Council wanted Stahley to resign except Hoy herself.
Bizarrely, the five councilors who were unwitting participants in the violation of the Public Meetings Law — Nordyke, Varney, Nishioka, Tigan, and Gwyn — have all signed stipulated final agreements with the Ethics Commission where they admit to wrongdoing and will receive a letter of education.
But the ringleader of this scandal, Mayor Julie Hoy, who was responsible for initiating the Public Meetings Law violations, is still claiming that she did nothing wrong despite all the evidence to the contrary and a finding by the Ethics Commission that she is guilty.
A recent story in the Statesman Journal by Whitney Woodworth, “Ethics commission votes to resolve cases of 3 city councilors,” (the other two councilors resolved their cases in December) says:
Mayor Julie Hoy remains the sole Salem elected official who has not signed an agreement. Hoy said that while she respects the Oregon Government Ethics Commission and the process they undertook, she would not be signing an agreement.
“I could not in good conscience sign a document that says I held a serial meeting, because I disagree with that finding,” she said.
Well, like I said, this is fully in line with the adage the Trump administration lives by: Never apologize, never admit you’re mistaken, never acknowledge wrongdoing. Mayor Hoy has been found guilty of ethics violations. She instigated the prohibited private conversations that should have taken place at a public meeting. She lied about what she was told in those conversations.
Yet Hoy is the only person who has failed to admit wrongdoing and reach a stipulated final agreement with the Ethics Commission. Since I was one of the two people who filed an ethics complaint against Hoy, I’ve gotten files of those agreements. They all say the same thing. This is the one for Deanna Gwyn.
25-166PJS Gwyn, Deanna Stipulated Final Order.docx
The penalty section says:
4. Assessment of Penalty.
A. ORS 244.350(2) authorizes the Commission to assess civil penalties of up to $1,000 for each violation of ORS 192.610 to 192.705. ORS 244.350(5) authorizes the Commission to issue a letter of education.
B. Based on the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, the parties stipulate that the Commission will issue a letter of education in lieu of assessing any civil penalties.
A letter of education makes sense for the five city councilors who were unwitting participants in the prohibited serial communication initiated by Hoy, and have agreed they were part of the ethics violation even though they didn’t know this was occurring.
On the other hand, as noted above Mayor Hoy has continued to claim that she did nothing wrong, and won’t sign a stipulated final agreement with the Ethics Commission. It sure seems like this should earn her a more serious penalty. Yet the Statesman Journal story says:
OGEC Executive Director Susan Meyers said the resolution in Hoy’s case will most likely take place at the commission’s Feb. 6 meeting. While the language of Hoy’s default final order will differ from the councilors’ stipulated agreements, the result will be the same: a letter of education.
Since Hoy won’t sign a stipulated final agreement, it seems to me that she should be fined $1,000 for each of the seven Public Meetings Law violations. I don’t understand why the Ethics Commission would let her off so easy. What good is sending a letter of education to Hoy when she won’t acknowledge that she needs any educating?
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