Salem Mayor Julie Hoy is digging herself deeper into an unethical hole. Yesterday Hoy claimed at a meeting of the Oregon Government Ethics Commission that contrary to the finding of a commission investigator, she never told City Council President Linda Nishioka that after speaking privately with members of the council, a majority wanted City Manager Keith Stahley to resign.
Joe Siess of the Salem Reporter wrote in a story, Ethics commission finds Salem Mayor Julie Hoy, 5 councilors broke public meetings law:
Hoy and Nishioka each disputed the other’s version of events during the commission meeting.
Nishioka has repeatedly said the mayor told her a majority of councilors wanted Stahley to resign, while Hoy has denied making that statement.
The ethics investigation centered on whether a majority of councilors discussed Stahley’s employment and not on whether or not Hoy or Nishioka’s accounting of events was truthful.
But in his report, the investigator explicitly concluded that Hoy told Nishioka a majority of the council wanted Stahley to resign.
Hoy told the commission that was a lie.
She and her attorney, Jill Gibson, appeared virtually for the Friday meeting held in the commission’s Salem office.
During her five minute testimony she read a prepared statement and showed little emotion as she maintained she never told Nishioka that a majority of the council wanted Stahley to go.
Hoy said on Friday that the council president lied to protect herself after Stahley’s resignation, contradicting the investigator’s findings.
Hoy also said that Nishioka asked her if she had enough votes during their phone call prior to Nishioka’s conversation with Stahley.
“The truth is, Councilor Nishioka went ahead of council on this by inserting herself into the matter. I have no way of knowing what was said in that meeting (between Nishioka and Stahley), and I believe it was in the aftermath that she lied to protect herself,” Hoy said. “We could have followed the process and landed in an executive session or in a council meeting to discuss the matter.”
Hoy said she was genuinely surprised when Stahley resigned and she maintained that her version of the story is the true version and that she did nothing wrong.
“In my role as an elected official I take ethics very seriously. Basing this investigation’s findings on one person’s version of events over another is wrong,” Hoy said. “There is no evidence to corroborate Councilor Nishioka’s claim that I told her I had enough votes. That is simply not true.”
Nishioka attended the meeting in person. She also read from her statement and showed little emotion while disputing Hoy’s assertion that she lied to protect herself after Stahley’s resignation.
She said she did not “solicit or engage in any cooperative deliberation towards a decision with councilors regarding Mr. Stahley’s evaluation or employment.”
Nishioka maintained that when Hoy told her that a majority of the council wanted Stahley to go, she asked Hoy, “All of them?” and Hoy responded that she was waiting for one councilor to “call her back.”
If someone lies, then lies about having lied, obviously this compounds the seriousness of the initial lie. This is in line with the saying, “the cover up is worse than the crime.” I’m almost completely certain that Hoy is lying about not telling Nishioka that a majority of the city council wanted Stahley gone. Here’s why.
(1) The Ethics Commission investigation found that Mayor Hoy and five councilors violated the Public Meetings Law when Hoy spoke privately in early February with the councilors about whether the City Manager, Keith Stahley, should resign. On October 10 the commission affirmed the findings of that investigation.
(2) Mayor Hoy lied about a majority of the City Council wanting Stahley to resign. Actually none of the councilors did. (Hoy is a member of the council, but not a councilor.)
(3) In the complaint against Hoy that I filed with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission on March 12, I included a quote from a February 16 Statesman Journal story by Whitney Woodworth “Salem city councilor calls for transparency after city manager’s exit.”
Nishioka said a discussion with Hoy led to her reaching out to Stahley. She said Hoy told her a majority of councilors believed Stahley should resign.
That statement from Nishioka was released on February 15, just eight days after Nishioka met with Stahley. Until yesterday, October 10, eight months later, I’m not aware that Mayor Hoy ever challenged the veracity of Nishioka’s version of what Hoy told her, namely, that a majority of the councilors believed Stahley should resign.
So I’m much more inclined to believe Nishioka than Hoy, since Nishioka made her statement soon after Stahley resigned, while Hoy waited until the Ethics Commission meeting.
(4) Keith Stahley said in his resignation letter:
I understand the desire of the Mayor and Council to move forward and have a fresh start. I hope that my resignation per Section 14: Severance (b) (3) of my contract will help to facilitate that. I am submitting this resignation based on a meeting that I had with Councilor Nishioka on Friday February 7, 2025, where she represented that she was the duly authorized representative of the Mayor and a majority of City Council and requested that I tender my resignation.
(5) The Ethics Committee investigation contradicts Hoy’s contention that she never told Nishioka that a majority of the council wanted Stahey to resign.
Linda Nishioka speaks to Julie Hoy over the phone. They talk about the leadership audit and Hoy informs Nishioka that a majority of the City Councilors wanted Keith Stahley to resign. [page 10 of Nishioka investigation]
The Mayor admits she spoke to every Councilor about the matter through one-on-one conversations. Mayor Hoy then communicated the results of her conversations that a majority wanted the City Manager to resign and communicated that to Councilor Nishioka. [page 17 of Hoy investigation]
During these conversations, Julie Hoy was gathering information from City Councilors that could be used by the City Council to make a decision about Keith Stahley’s ongoing employment with the City. Julie Hoy weighed this information and determined that a majority of the City Council was in favor of Keith Stahley’s resignation. Julie Hoy then shared this determination with multiple members of the City Council, including Council President Linda Nishioka. Finally, following her receipt of this information, Council President Nishioka informed Keith Stahley that a majority of City Councilors wanted him to resign, before asking him to consider submitting a letter of resignation. [page 20 of Hoy investigation]
So just as Hoy claimed that a majority of the city councilors wanted Stahley to resign, but actually only Hoy herself did, now Hoy is the only one claiming that she never told Nishioka that a majority of the council favored Stahley’s resignation — calling Nishioka a liar and, by implication, calling the Ethics Commission investigator a liar, since he supported Nishioka’s version of events in his reports.
It seems to me that Mayor Hoy is acting in accord with the dictum favored by Donald Trump and his MAGA acolytes: Never admit you’re wrong; never back down; never apologize. Even when you have to lie to do all that.
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