SALEM, Ore. — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on Monday asked a state commission for a formal opinion on whether his fiancee is subject to state ethics laws and, if so, whether she’s broken them.
The questions the governor’s lawyer submitted to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission follow a Willamette Week report saying that Cylvia Hayes used her role as first lady to advance her consulting business.
Kitzhaber says his office has taken care to make sure that Hayes’ consulting work doesn’t pose a conflict of interest, including proactively reviewing her contracts before she agreed to work. But all three contracts made public by the governor’s office were reviewed only after they went into effect.
One had expired and two were ongoing in summer 2013 when senior officials in the governor’s office proposed restrictions on her work that would keep Hayes from running afoul of ethics laws. Those restrictions were watered down before Hayes ultimately signed them as part of an internal disclosure of a potential conflict of interest.
Hayes said last week that she was paid to marry an immigrant illegally in 1997. Her sham marriage is not mentioned in the request submitted to the ethics commission.
Her contracts have become a political liability for the Democratic governor as he seeks a fourth term. His Republican opponent, state Rep. Dennis Richardson, has argued that Hayes’ outside work is part of a pattern of missteps that show Kitzhaber’s administration is “inept and unethical.”
In a debate on Friday, Kitzhaber rejected Richardson’s request that he appoint a special prosecutor to look into Hayes’ business arrangements.
“The question that remains for all of us is…What else is he hiding?” Richardson said in a statement after Kitzhaber’s request of the ethics commission Monday.
Liani Reeves, the chief lawyer for the governor’s office, wrote that Hayes has been treated as a public official subject to the same ethics laws that apply to the governor and other senior officials on his staff. If the commission determines Hayes is not a public official, she is not subject to government ethics laws and the commission has no authority to sanction her.
The seven-member ethics commission enforces laws that prohibit public officials from using their office to enrich themselves.
A decision before the election is unlikely. The commission can take up to 120 days to respond, and there are no scheduled meetings before the Nov. 4 election.
Before Kitzhaber was elected governor, Hayes ran a consulting business, 3E Strategies, that worked on renewable energy issues. As first lady, she’s taken a public and active role, advising the governor on energy policy while advocating programs that reduce hunger and poverty. She’s uncompensated and has continued her outside consulting.
The governor’s office has released copies of three contracts from 2013 worth nearly $86,000, along with draft and final conflict disclosure forms. The drafts, dated in July 2013, suggest Hayes couldn’t use her first lady title in her consulting work or any state facilities, including Mahonia Hall, the governor’s official residence.
But the final versions of the documents include exceptions, allowing Hayes to call herself first lady in “a biographical profile” and use Mahonia Hall for meetings on contracts already obtained.
Rachel Wray, a spokeswoman for Kitzhaber’s office, said the documents were changed after Hayes “asked for clarification.”
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