Gov. Tina Kotek took the right step last week in announcing she would not create an Office of the First Spouse. The pullback and her apology for the messy handling of the issue ease some of the anxiety that has built up in the weeks since three top staffers left her office, reportedly due to conflicts with Kotek’s wife and her role in the administration.
But the move is too little and too late in light of internal emails that paint a concerning picture of what Kotek has allowed to unfold in her office over the past several months.
Kotek’s announcement suggests she doesn’t seem to recognize what is raising alarm for Oregonians. The public’s concern isn’t so much with the concept of creating a formal office with staff; it’s the reality of how the actions of Kotek’s wife have apparently roiled the governor’s office and threaten to undermine Kotek’s ability to achieve her ambitious agenda. Unfortunately, none of what the governor announced last week – neither the plan to produce a manual of policies defining the first spouse role, nor the news that her wife, Aimee Kotek Wilson, will limit her duties for now – dispels the worry that we may be at the beginning of another trip down ethically challenged lane. With so much of Kotek’s agenda for fixing Oregon hanging in the balance, the time to correct course is now.
While Kotek’s plan to compile a manual detailing policies and protocols suggests progress, it’s baffling that it’s taken so long to get to this point. Emails show that for months, Kotek’s top advisers repeatedly and unsuccessfully sought to put professional, ethical and workplace parameters on Kotek Wilson’s role. A special adviser to the governor, Abby Tibbs, laid out in a March 15 email the need to document not only the job description for a first spouse but “an articulated plan to address power dynamics and reporting structure.”
She listed some of the many implications of having someone in the office whose reason for being there stems from their relationship with the governor. A formalized structure should consider how the spouse works with other staffers and include meaningful guidelines for handling “conflicts of interest, favoritism, bias, nepotism issues, complicated power dynamics, conflict resolution, retaliation,” she wrote. Those are things, she added, that can greatly impact “staff morale and sense of stability and the confidence” in the governor’s office overall.
These are reasonable, sensible issues to consider that aren’t unique to the governor’s office, but are simply grounded in principles of good governance and workplace management. Yet Kotek failed to act.
As the governor has pointed out a few times, Kotek Wilson is a volunteer, not a paid employee. That means there are fewer protocols in place to navigate the inevitable issues that arise in any office. Even if Kotek Wilson does not personally oversee anyone, the fact that she is married to the governor introduces the potential for people to censor themselves in policy discussions or feel pressured to fulfill a request out of deference to Kotek – who certainly is their boss. Other emails reveal such pressures, including one referencing a “highly inappropriate” call that a staffer was told to make to the supervisor of a Cascadia Behavioral Health employee who is a friend of Kotek Wilson’s.
In a call with The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board, Kotek acknowledged that there was “confusion” among the staff regarding Kotek Wilson’s role, ascribing it to the “ad hoc-ness” of what Kotek Wilson might be doing – sometimes accompanying Kotek to meetings and other times meeting with individuals to research specific issues. But the governor’s responses reflected either a lack of awareness of how troubling the situation was for employees or a refusal to acknowledge it.
Kotek’s apparent resistance to defining Kotek Wilson’s role before the staff exodus is one reason the initiative to create a manual will lack credibility with the public. Oregonians will understandably question its independence, considering that an employee in Kotek’s office is compiling the manual. And while we appreciated her decision last month to seek guidance from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission on creating a first spouse role, the emails released last month reveal a complicated situation that demands more specific remedies than the commission would provide.
Kotek should instead ask Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to appoint an outside law firm or a justice department lawyer to take on the responsibility of exploring the role for a first spouse. That inquiry should examine whether any work beyond a ceremonial role is even appropriate, considering the numerous opportunities inside and outside of government where spouses can seek employment. Assuming there is a suitable role for a first spouse, the effort should include best practices in human resources and workplace management; research legal and ethical standards; develop clear pathways for handling conflicts, allegations of bias and retaliation; and explore the specific controls adopted by other states. And as uncomfortable as it may be, any such effort should include interviews with those in Kotek’s office – and those who have left – to better understand the nuances and real-life pressure points that emerged.
Additionally, Kotek should make clear that her wife will not work out of the governor’s office until there are clear workplace protocols. Any requests for staff assistance should go through a single point of contact. The duties that Kotek has laid out for her wife – visiting tribes, speaking on Kotek’s behalf at ceremonial events and meeting with those who seek to have an audience - are already responsibilities based outside of the Capitol.
This may seem punitive or unjust to someone who only wants to contribute to putting Oregon on the right track and who shares Kotek’s public service values. We recognize the unfairness of one partner’s public role curtailing or constricting the other partner’s ambitions. But in any workplace, it would be unusual for a boss to bring in their spouse as a high-placed volunteer vested with great responsibility and the credibility of the office. It’s especially fraught when the job involved is the work of the public and when the stakes for failure are so high.
We want Kotek to succeed. Her sharp policymaking skills, clear-eyed priorities and willingness to go the distance on complicated, impenetrable challenges have given the public hope that the state will see meaningful change. Her openness to working across ideological divisions and party lines impressed critics who were expecting none of that. The successes she and her staff have won so far in changing housing policy, encouraging federal semiconductor investment and sheltering thousands more Oregonians have shown her to be the leader that Oregon needed at this moment in time.
But with every new revelation that raises the ghost of governors past, that moment feels as fleeting as ever.
-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board