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Ethics probe finds no conflict-of-interest violations but recommends misuse-of-office investigation

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By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — An investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission has found no violations of state conflict-of-interest laws by two Oakridge city councilors, but it recommends continued investigation of the two women for possible misuse of office.

Based on an investigator’s report, the commission on July 23 dismissed the conflict-of-interest complaints filed against councilors Christina Hollett and Melissa Bjarnson by Oakridge City Budget Committee member Priscilla Davidson. The panel did not act on the recommendation for continued investigation, but Davidson said that if necessary she will file new ethics complaints alleging that Hollett and Bjarnson violated the state’s use-of-office statute.

Davidson’s formal complaint questions whether it was lawful for Hollett and Bjarnson to discuss and vote May 19 on a budget committee motion to reduce stipend pay for the city’s EMTs (emergency medical technicians). Both councilors are EMTs, and both voted against cutting their stipends.

The ethics commission’s investigator, Lisa Christon, concluded that the two councilors did indeed have conflicts of interest, but they were “potential,” not “actual” conflicts. And because both councilors had declared the potential conflicts, their votes on the matter were not unlawful.

Government watchdog groups, including the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, have criticized the state’s government ethics laws for making this distinction.  Such conduct by elected officials may be legal, the critics say, but it is still unethical.

Christon, the investigator, also concluded that Hollett broke no laws at the May 19 meeting by discussing and voting on a proposed “pay freeze” that would have protected all city employees, including her husband, fireman Scott Hollett, from pay cuts being considered. Christina Hollett, who is council president, argued in favor of the freeze and voted for it.

Mostly because of overtime pay, Scott Hollett was the highest-paid government employee in all of Oakridge last year. The city compensated him with $188,399 in pay and benefits such as health insurance and PERS retirement funds. Christina Hollett collected $10,159 in EMT stipends, bringing total city spending on the Holletts to just shy of $200,000 last year.

Both the “pay freeze” and stipend reductions failed to pass in the May 19 budget committee meeting.

At the conclusion of her report, Christon brought up an issue not raised in Davidson’s complaint: possible misuse of office. Hollett, through her actions on the “pay freeze” and stipend cuts, “may have attempted to use her position to avoid financial detriment for herself or her spouse,” Christon wrote.

That would be a violation of ORS 244.040(1), which holds that a public official “may not use or attempt to use official position or office to obtain financial gain or avoidance of financial detriment for the public official, a relative or member of the household of the public official.”

The investigator reached the same conclusion about Bjarnson’s involvement in the stipend-pay issue.

“Further investigation is needed . . . to determine whether the respondent (Hollett and Bjarnson) may have used or attempted to use her official position to avoid a financial detriment for herself,” Christon wrote in her reports on each Oakridge councilor. “The Oregon Government Ethics Commission should move to investigate this complaint.”

Although the commission dismissed Davidson’s conflict-of-interest complaints, she said she will now pursue misuse-of-office complaints against Hollett and Bjarnson.

“I would suggest there are a lot of things public officials can do that might not be unlawful but are still unethical,” Davidson said. “Voting to protect your own pay is one of them.”

The two councilors have not responded to The Herald’s request for interviews.

“How can we keep these ladies on council?” Davidson asked. “Eventually, our city is going to go bankrupt if we keep the EMS/FD (emergency medical services and fire department) the way it is.

“I’m just a concerned citizen that has dared to speak up.”

 

 

 

 

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