Gov. Tina Kotek will bring on a state-funded adviser this week to explore the possibility of forming an Office of the First Spouse.
Meliah Masiba will join the governor’s office from the Department of Administrative Services on a six-month rotation beginning Monday to both explore establishing the new office and to support and assist Kotek’s wife, Aimee Kotek Wilson, “in her official capacity in support of the administration,” said Elisabeth Shepard, a spokesperson for the governor. Shepard said “many other states” have offices of the first spouse.
Willamette Week was the first to report on the plan.
The news comes as three high-level staffers are departing the governor’s office. Chief of Staff Andrea Cooper will leave Kotek’s office effective Friday, Deputy Chief of Staff Lindsey O’Brien will go on leave April 5 and Special Advisor Abby Tibbs will leave Kotek’s office to return to Oregon Health & Sciences University effective March 31. Deputy Chief of Staff for Public Administration Chris Warner will take over as Kotek’s chief of staff, her office announced last week.
Two sources who said they had spoken directly with people in Kotek’s office said ongoing tensions between Cooper and Kotek Wilson led to Cooper’s departure. One of those people said the tension also led to O’Brien and Tibbs leaving too.
Kotek Wilson, who has worked as a social worker and holds a master’s degree in the field, has taken a hands-on role in her wife’s administration. Shepard said the governor holds weekly meetings with staff to discuss behavioral health initiatives and that Kotek Wilson has attended several of those meetings in the last year, “in light of her professional experience as a social worker.”
“The governor makes all policy decisions on behalf of the office,” Shepard said in an email.
Kotek Wilson also has an 8 foot by 8 foot office inside the governor’s office, a similar size to other office spaces within the building, Shepard said.
Most Oregon first spouses have been less involved than Kotek Wilson has thus far in her wife’s work as governor. Kotek Wilson, for instance, took part in the vast majority of meetings and tours with the governor on Kotek’s listening tour visits to all 36 Oregon counties.
In John Kitzhaber’s third term, however, he allowed First Lady Cylvia Hayes, his fiancée, to play a powerful role in influencing some policies and recommending some personnel choices. They both got into serious ethical trouble – not because of Hayes’ policy work per se but because she accepted paid contracts from parties with a specific interest in policies she tried to promote.
Hayes eventually agreed to pay $44,000 for ethics violations arising from her use of public office for personal profit. She acknowledged securing work as a paid consultant by playing off her role as unpaid adviser to Kitzhaber. He resigned over the scandal.
Reporter Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Politics Editor Betsy Hammond contributed to this report.
— Jamie Goldberg oversees The Oregonian/OregonLive’s politics, education and homelessness coverage. She can be reached at jgoldberg@oregonian.com or 503-221-8228. You can find her on X at @jamiebgoldberg
— Carlos Fuentes covers state politics and government. Reach him at 503-221-5386 or cfuentes@oregonian.com.
Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe.