Cylvia Hayes’ Emails Show Perverse Relationship Between Business and “First Lady” Role
Monday, April 06, 2015
The emails show a pattern of communication in which Hayes, Governor John Kitzhaber and the Governor’s staff mixed state work with Hayes’ consulting work. In fact, Hayes used her private business email to communicate for both her business and for state interests.
In addition, it is clear that Hayes used state staffers for both personal use and for business work without limitation. Mary Rowinski, an aide to the Governor, was tasked with scheduling, travel, phone calls and tasks.
Hayes had an official state government email address that was assigned as part of her self-proclaimed “First Lady” role. As GoLocalPDX unveiled in 2014, the designation of “First Lady” is not statutory, but the Governor’s staff argued that her designation was official.
“Our office has treated her as a public official,” said Rachel Wray, spokeswoman for then-Governor Kitzhaber last October. Wray agreed the role of "First Lady" had no basis in the reality of Oregon law. “The First Lady role is not articulated in statute; there's no formal definition to my knowledge. Regardless of whether the First Lady would be legally found to be a “public official” for purposes of the ethics statutes, our office has always treated her as such and put measures in place related to ethics rules that pertain to public officials.”
The state email address was rarely used. Hayes used her consulting business email for her private work, for her work associated with state government and for the projects that were a mix of both.
The email address established by the state, [email protected], was primarily used only as a cc:ed address.
Throughout the Thousands of Emails the Roles Were Clearly Confused
The tens of thousands of emails show that neither Hayes, the Governor or his staff tried in any way to create any appropriate or legal or ethical boundaries. The Governor’s office was an extension of her private for profit consulting business. Moreover, the issues she worked on in the Governor’s office were often the same as her consulting business.
In the email chain below, where Hayes exchanged emails with her client, Demos, she clearly used state staff to schedule her meeting.
In 2013, Demos hired Hayes as a consultant for $25,000.
From: Cylvia Hayes[[email protected]]
To: Lew Daly[[email protected]]
CC: Mary Rowinksi[[email protected]]
BCC:
Date Sent: 2014.05.10 20:10:59
Date Received: 2014.05.10 20:11:11
Attachment(s):
Subject: Re: can we reschedule call?
Greetings Mary,
Please set up a call as soon as you can for me and Lew.
Thanks,
C
Cylvia Hayes
CEO, 3EStrategies
541.280.5040
[email protected]
http://Www.3estrategies.org
From: Lew Daly <[email protected]>
Date: Friday, May 9, 2014 1:50 PM
To: Cylvia Hayes <[email protected]>
Subject: can we reschedule call?
Hi Cylvia: I’m really sorry but I got dragged into a meeting with a donor (not on GPI!) and got backed up today. Can we reschedule or perhaps talk over the weekend? Sorry, Lew
Lew Daly
Director of Policy and Research
Demos
220 Fifth Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10001
212 419 8762
[email protected]
http://www.demos.org
In a February, Demos distanced themselves from Hayes. “We should not have trusted Ms. Hayes,” said a spokesperson for Demos, a national advocacy group headquartered in New York City.
According to GoLocalPDX reports, Demos paid Cylvia Hayes $25,000 in 2013 to advocate in several states for “genuine progress indicators,” an alternative metric to the GDP, or gross domestic product, the figure widely used to measure the economic health of a country or state.
Since October of 2014, Hayes’ contract with Demos had drawn scrutiny onto the former self-proclaimed Oregon First Lady, and had fueled an ever-expanding number of questions regarding her dual role as a private consultant and government official. The Demos contract specifically brought into question whether or not Hayes advocated for the agenda of an outside group while holding public office.
“Although we were assured that the contract was reviewed by Oregon counsel, we (Demos) now know that we should not have trusted Ms. Hayes to carefully monitor the balance between her public and private roles,” Demos spokesperson Elektra Gray said in a statement.
The relationship had become so distorted, that staff of the Governor’s office seemed to be staffing and proactively working for Hayes’ private interests. In one email Hayes claimed that she needed to cancel her trip to Russia because of escalating US and Russian tensions. In the follow up email below, Hayes communicates her importance to the global issues.
From: Cylvia Hayes[[email protected]]
To: HARMON JOHNSON Nkenge * GOV[[email protected]]; Patricia McCaig[[email protected]]
CC: Mary Rowinksi[[email protected]]
BCC:
Date Sent: 2014.06.11 11:18:57
Date Received: 2014.06.11 11:19:13
Attachment(s): New Reality DRAFT Agenda JT 2014 06 11.doc
Subject: FW: Draft Annotated Agenda
Greetings,
I wanted to attend this but had declined due to the Russia trip. Now that Russia is not happening I'd like to attend this. I will forward another email with a list of attendees. This is a deep, problem-solving exploration of the economic issues I swim in with many of the major foundations in the country. I think it would be very useful to get on the radar screen with these folks and let them know about many of the system change efforts we are implementing in Oregon.
This event will be held at the Wingspread conference center run by the Johnson Foundation. It is near Chicago. Mary, please check into travel options for getting there by early afternoon the first day of the conference.
They are holding a spot for me and I need to get back to them pretty quickly.
Thanks,
C
Cylvia Hayes
CEO, 3EStrategies
541.280.5040
[email protected]
http://Www.3estrategies.org
Johnson was the only Kitzhaber staff member to speak out.
Related Slideshow: Timeline of Cylvia Hayes’ Life and Misdeeds
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