Scott Bruun: Oregon’s Failing Grade in Ethics

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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Scott Bruun GoLocalPDX MINDSETTER™

By any account, Oregon earns an “A” grade in livability, cultural and culinary intrigue, natural beauty, and in the quality of her people. However, in a report issued last week by the Center for Public Integrity, Oregon fails absolutely – earning an “F” grade – in government ethics, integrity and accountability.

In other words: Oregon is a great state despite its government, not because of it.

The Center for Public Integrity’s report is a laundry list of areas where Oregon falls short. Whether executive accountability, public access to information, ethics enforcement, judicial accountability, internal auditing or even basic procurement, Oregon ranks at the bottom nationwide.

Topping the report are issues surrounding the Kitzhaber-Hayes scandal. Yet not only the scandal itself, but lack of oversight that led to the scandal, lack of teeth to deal with the scandal while it was still occurring, and lack of investigative follow-through in the months following the scandal.

An F from start to finish.

How does all this happen? How does a good state with (generally) well-intentioned elected leaders fail across the board in ethics? One telling example is the Oregon Ethics Commission, a microcosm of all that’s wrong with government accountability in Oregon. Membership on the commission comes from nomination and appointment by the governor’s office, or nomination by leaders in Oregon’s legislature. Recall, of course, that the governor’s office in Oregon has been held by Democrats since 1987.

Most members of the commission, just like Oregon’s governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general, labor commissioner and legislative leadership, come from the same political party. As I’ve written before, they are friends and insiders. They run in the same circles, belong to the same clubs, attend the same parties and white wine charitable events.

Given this, is it any wonder why these people do not ask hard questions of each other? The fact is, hard questions don’t get asked because asking those questions upsets the delicate status quo balance. And if there is anything that Oregon’s political elites do not want to do, it’s upset the balance.

The bottom-line is that Oregon’s poor performance in government ethics and accountability is a direct result of four decades of single-party political control, insider complacency, and a penchant for “Oregon nice.”

“Oregon nice” also creates other ethical problems. For years, including instances with Goldschmidt, Wu and Kitzhaber, Oregon’s political elites have politely stood by and watched as problems fester. Wouldn’t want to rock the boat or appear rude, right? Wouldn’t want to endanger access to power or risk losing a plum appointment, right? So political “friends” keep quiet until the problem is out of control and made public. Once this happens, those same friends suddenly become outspoken paragons of virtue.

At that point, the long knives come out in ways that would make Machiavelli proud. How convenient, for example, that the most damning revelations about Kitzhaber leaked out only days after one of those pesky elections. How convenient that any risk of a Republican victory had passed. How convenient for certain special interests in Oregon. Special interests, that is, who viewed Kitzhaber’s efforts around PERS and public education reform as a direct threat.

How convenient, indeed. And how utterly abysmal for the people of Oregon.

We are kidding ourselves if we think the problem is somehow going to self-correct. We are fooling ourselves if we believe that the insiders who thrive within the status quo are suddenly going to change. As long as the fox guards the henhouse, Oregon’s government will continue to fail in ethics, accountability and transparency.

In college, an F grade will get you a warning. Multiple F grades will get you kicked out. Oregon’s F in government is systemic and decades in the making. Repeated warnings have been ignored by Oregon’s political elite. It’s now far past time for those elites, whether they are well-intentioned or not, to be kicked out.

Oregon voters of every stripe, whether Republican, Democrat, Independent or non-affiliated, are beginning to see that decades of single-party political control is a recipe for failure. Single-party rule, given enough time, almost always leads to disaster. Oregon may not look like Detroit. Yet. But the component pieces are eerily similar.

For Oregon voters and citizens, the election of 2016 provides an excellent opportunity to clean house. An opportunity to begin improving our GPA.

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Related Slideshow: Kitzhaber’s Emails - 10 Emails That Unveils the Culture

Related Articles

• Governor Brown Introduces New Ethics Bills and Public Records Legislation
• Hayes Faces Second Ethics Complaint
• Kitzhaber Will Not Consider Resignation, Regardless of Ethics Findings
• Oregon GOP to Demand State Ethics Commission Investigate Kitzhaber
• Gov. Calls in Ethics Commission Over Role Hayes Played in Government
• GOP Files Ethics Complaint Against Kitzhaber, Hayes
• Ethics Commission Not Investigating PSU President Wiewel
• Ethics Investigation Could Cost Gov. and Hayes Tens of Thousands in Legal Fees
• Ethics of the Plagiarism Industry
• Ethics Commission Denies Governor, Investigation Moves Forward

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