Man of the Year 2015
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Friday, January 01, 2016
GoLocalPDX News Team
Billy J Willams
Over the course of 2014 and 2015, Oregon has been embarrassed as details of the convoluted relationship between former Gov. John Kitzhaber and first lady Cylvia Hayes were broadcast to the public. The time has come to move on from the disgraceful episode, and the onus falls on Billy J. Williams, the U.S. Attorney covering Oregon, to help the state do just that.
Kitzhaber was forced to resign in February of 2015, just months after being elected to a fourth term as governor, after connections between Hayes’ consulting firm, 3EStrategies. Accusations of corruption spread like wildfire, and Kitzhaber handed in his resignation after calls for the end of his tenure came from both sides of the aisle.
Kitzhaber has yet to face any charges related to the accusations. He is currently under investigation by Williams’ office.
Williams has been serving as acting U.S. Attorney since March of this year. He took over from Amanda Marshall after she stepped down and later resigned, citing health concerns (though her departure did coincide with an internal investigation involving an apparent conflict with a subordinate. He was officially named as the U.S. Attorney in December.
Now that he has officially been named to the position, it will be time for him to get down to business. Investigations by the Oregon Department of Justice and the Oregon Ethics Committee are on hold while Williams and his team finish their investigation.
Now that Williams is the permanent U.S. attorney, it is time for that to change. Oregon needs to move on from the embarrassing episode, and it falls on Williams to close the book on Kitzhaber’s term in office.
Williams and his team need to either charge the former governor or clear him of criminal prosecution. This would allow Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Ethics Commission to conclude their investigations into Kitzhaber and Hayes’ relationship, and bring Oregon one step closer to moving past the incident.
That isn’t all Williams should have on his radar, however.
In November, Rosenblum admitted that at least one person within the Oregon Department of Justice was spying on Twitter users who used the #BlackLivesMatter on Twitter. Rosenblum quickly announced an independent internal investigation, but many affected by the surveillance say that is not enough.
“I think an investigation by the U.S. Attorney would be entirely appropriate,” Adrienne Cabouet, an activist and organizer with Black Lives Matter, told GoLocal. “This is a civil rights issue. I think that it’s inappropriate to have the Department of Justice investigate their own misconduct, or to have a law firm paid by the DOJ to conduct the investigation.”
If Williams wants to truly lead as U.S. attorney, he needs to investigate both Kitzhaber and the charges of spying against racial justice activists now.
Those affected by these actions deserve answers, and if crimes were committed, those responsible should face the music (and Williams) on their day in court. If no crimes were committed, then Williams owes it to those involved to clear their names and lay the matter to rest.
Related Slideshow: GoLocal’s Top 15 Stories of 2015
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#15
Oregon's Greatest Scoundrels
Oregon is a state enjoying growth and popularity. Many people are moving to the Portland area due to culture, beauty and growing economy. While Portland and Oregon are on a roll, announcements like the recent news that the U.S. Military killed a leading al-Qaeda operative who was born in Oregon is a reminder for all the wonderful people in the state, there are some less than upstanding ones.GoLocalPDX took a look at some of the biggest scoundrels in Oregon - murderers, racists, terrorists and just all around creeps. While Governor John Kitzhaber and his "First Lady" Cylvia Hayes have given the state a political black eye, they have been discredited, but yet to be convicted of any crimes.
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#14
20 of Oregon's Strangest Laws
Portland prides itself on being strange, but the rest of Oregon gives the city a run for its money when it comes to unusual legislation. Some of Oregon's dated, unusual laws may be holding the state back, while other obscure codes are not enforced. In some places, unusual laws are clearly not being enforced. For instance, an "Occult Arts" code in Yamhill County forbids that anyone "analyze or define the character of a person or personality," or "give advice or information concerning any matter or event." Meanwhile, hundreds of therapists, psychologists and counsellors work legally throughout the county.
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#13
Portland’s 50 Wealthiest and Most Influential
The 50 Wealthiest and Most Influential in Portland is an analysis of those individuals who combine wealth, influence, and philanthropy in the Portland area. This list is not simply those with the largest wealth, nor is this a list of raw political power – those who make the decisions in Congress or the State Capitol. This is a ranking of both the best known and those that are far less known. Make no mistake about it – the individuals on this list make things happen in commerce, philanthropy and in political circles.
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#12
Did Portland State Make a Big Mistake?
In December, protestors flooded the Board of Trustees meeting at Portland State University, demanding, among other things, that tuition be lowered and that campus safety officers be disarmed. The Trustees ultimately relocated the meeting, claiming that students disrupted the agenda and made it impossible to continue in the public forum, but experts familiar with protests at Missouri State University told GoLocal that refusing to enter a dialogue could be a costly mistake. Arthur Jago, a professor of management at the University of Missouri, told GoLocal that if Wiewel and other PSU leaders want to avoid a situation like the one in Columbia, they need to take protestors seriously. “Each situation and each school is unique, but the first step is opening up a dialogue,” Jago said. “If and when students approach you, Presidents should respond with open arms and respond and take the opportunity to talk to the students and the protestors to create a conversation.”This won't be the only time we hear fromPresident Wiewel
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#11
Oregon Doctors - Who Prescribes the Most Oxycodone
One Physician Assistant in Medford, who has been previously disciplined by the Oregon Medical Board, prescribed Oxycodone more than 780 times under Medicare in just one year. Mary “Lorry” Huebner of Touchtone/Medford Pain Management prescribed 788 prescriptions and 26% more than the number two most prolific Oregon prescriber - Dr. Stuart Rosenblum of OAG Interventional Pain Consultants. Oxycodone, morphine and opium are all highly regulated and highly addictive drugs — defined as Schedule Two drugs — under the United States Substance Control Act.
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#10
The 20 Wealthiest and Poorest Cities in Oregon
The wealthiest cities in Oregon are concentrated in the suburbs surrounding Portland, while the state’s lowest-income communities are spread throughout rural southern and eastern counties, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Based on data from the Census Bureau's 2009-2013 American Community Survey, GoLocalPDX ranked incorporated cities throughout the state with the highest and lowest median household incomes. The three wealthiest communities in Oregon were all in unincorporated areas of Washington County. They were Bethany, with an median income of $109,948, Cedar Mill, with a median income of $99,708 and Bull Mountain, with a median income of $92,860.
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#9
Why Portland’s Urban Pioneers are Moving to Detroit
The real hipsters of Portland have had it. With the cost of living in Rose City steadily rising, some Portlanders are packing up and heading to Detroit in pursuit of the music and art scene Portland was known for in the 1990s. Realtor Larry Else of Realty Flo, who famously represented a Detroit man selling his house for an iPhone in 2014, said he has helped at least five Portlanders buy homes in Detroit in the last year. He said he is in the process of helping a handful more, all connected through word of mouth.
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#8
Teacher of the Year Threatened With Discipline After Filing Complaints
Brett Bigham, the first openly gay teacher of the year to use the position as a platform for LGBT rights, spent the better part of 2014 criss-crossing the state giving speeches about how LGBT students can deal with bullying. He now claims he's become the victim of bullying, as his own district, he says, is retaliating against his attempts to fight back. Bigham filed a grievance with the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission against several senior staff at the Multnomah Education Services District (MESD) in September 2014 for what he alleges is harassment and bullying for his sexual orientation. He then filed another complaint with Oregon’s labor watchdog in November for retaliation. Bigham later settled with the district
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#7
Portland’s Most Dangerous Neighborhoods
Portland’s most dangerous neighborhoods*, ranked by crime, fire emergencies and the presence of dangerous intersections, are disproportionately clustered in east Portland, according to a GoLocalPDX data analysis. Taking five years of police and fire data from the city, and combining it with the Oregon Department of Transportation’s ranking on the city’s 60 most dangerous intersections, GoLocalPDX crunched the numbers to see where the dangers lay.
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#6
Man Missing Since Christmas Among 18 Oregonians Who Vanished in 2014
On Jan. 14 Portland police asked for the public’s assistance in finding Jerry Kent Boyer, an 88-year-old Portland man, missing since Dec. 25, 2014. Boyer was just one of the 18 people who went missing in Oregon during 2014. Boyer was recorded on surveillance video at an Umpqua Bank in Northeast Portland on Christmas Day. He was reported missing on Dec. 29 after neighbors noticed the newspapers pilling up outside his home. No foul play is suspected in the case, but Boyer is reported to have minor dementia, according to police. Boyer is one of dozens who go missing in Oregon each year.
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#5
Bernie Sanders Rally Sets Record at Moda Center
The Bernie Sanders rally at the Moda Center hit an all-time high for the Presidential candidate for this election cycle. The Portland rally nearly doubled the 15,000 attendees in Seattle. According to Sanders' campaign, over 28,000 people attended the Portland campaign event, causing a stadium overflow.
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#4
PSU President Wim Wiewel's Contract Comes Under Scrutiny
GoLocal unveiled a series of investigations into the compensation for Portland State University President Wim Wiewel this year. First, we looked at the unheralded perks in Wiewel's new contract. Next, Wiewel's use of his university-owned home and university-employed executive assistant for his private, for-proft consulting business received harsh criticism from students and experts alike. A subsequent investigation found that Wiewel's consulting firm was unique among Oregon university and college presidents.
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#3
INVESTIGATION: Cylvia Hayes Plagiarized Portions of Her Consulting Report
A GoLocalPDX investigation into the writings of Cylvia Hayes found portions of her Green Jobs Growth Plan: 2011-2019 report were plagiarized from a pre-existing state report. Hayes was paid tens of thousands of dollars to write a report intended to provide a roadmap for job growth in green industries in Oregon. Hayes’ consulting firm, 3E Strategies, was approved by Oregon’s Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development to author the Green Jobs Growth Plan: 2011-2019 report, published in October, 2010. GoLocalPDX found seven distinct passages in the 116-page report that were copied, verbatim, without attribution, from the 2009 Workforce Oregon report The Greening of Oregon’s Workforce: Jobs, Wages and Training, published by the Oregon Employment Department (OED).
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#2
INVESTIGATION: AG Rosenblum and Meeker’s Ownership in Willamette Week is a Tangled Web
An ongoing six-month investigation into the tangled relationship between Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and her husband, Willamette Week publisher Richard Meeker unveils a lack of boundaries between her office and his business interests. This is the first in a multi-piece series on the relationship between the business interests and the Department of Justice in Oregon. In some cases, Meeker’s Willamette Week received favoritism and in other cases his company benefitted economically by avoiding paying costs that other news organizations, the public, inmates and attorneys were requested to pay for preparing documents.
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#1
Governor John Kitzhaber Resigns
Four-term Oregon Governor John A. Kitzhaber announced he would resign Friday afternoon amid a storm of controversy over his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, and allegations of corruption. Kitzhaber's resignation came after a tumultuous three days of speculation, calls to step down, new revelations and a frenzied state media. In a statement made by the Governor Friday, he announced he would resign his post Wednesday, Feb. 18. Secretary of State Kate Brown will succeed Kitzhaber as the state's next chief executive. "As a former presiding officer I fully understand the reasons for which I have been asked to resign," he wrote.
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