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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016
Whistleblower plans to sue lottery over alleged retaliation
Procurement
officer claims
lottery officials
forced him out
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A former
employee has filed notice he
intends to sue the Oregon Lot-
tery for retaliating against him
for blowing the whistle on the
agency’s leadership for ques-
tionable management practices.
Trinh Tran, a former lottery
procurement officer, resigned
from the agency in October,
several weeks after then-acting
Lottery Director Barry Pack
took disciplinary steps against
him, according to a tort claim
notice filed in December.
Tran claims the disciplinary
action came after he reported
issues concerning Jack Rob-
erts, who at the time Tran filed
his report was director of the
lottery.
Tran alleged that Pack pur-
sued disciplinary action against
him despite an internal investi-
gation of Tran that found “no
evidence of inappropriate con-
duct or violations of policy.”
The investigation, initiated by
Pack in May, alleged that Tran
engaged in “intimidating” and
“belittling” behavior toward
his colleagues.
“In short, any purported
concern with Mr. Tran’s ‘man-
agement style’ was a pre-
text for an investigation that
was simply and blatantly a
witch hunt in retaliation for
Mr. Tran’s raising and escalat-
ing his concerns about official
misconduct,” the tort claim
states.
The Oregon Lottery had
no comment on the pend-
ing litigation, said Joanie Ste-
vens-Schwenger, a lottery
spokeswoman.
Tran’s allegations are sim-
ilar to those of Roland Ipar-
raguirre, deputy director of
the Oregon State Lottery. Ipar-
raguirre resigned in August
on the same day the tort claim
says Pack placed Tran on a dis-
ciplinary plan.
“Mr. Iparraguirre’s place-
ment on administrative leave
was a blatant act of retalia-
tion for whistleblowing by for-
mer Director Roberts,” wrote
Loren Collins, Iparraguirre’s
former attorney, in a letter
to state officials. The letter
requested that the state offi-
cials reinstate Iparraguirre to
his job.
Collins said Tuesday he is
no longer representing Ipar-
raguirre and had no comment
on Tran’s claim.
Tran and Iparraguirre both
played roles in the April ter-
mination of Roberts, a for-
mer state labor commissioner
and Republican gubernatorial
candidate, as lottery director.
In March, Tran expressed
concerns to Lottery Commis-
sioner Liz Carle about “what
he saw as Roberts’ “misman-
agement and abuse of author-
ity,” according to Tran’s tort
claim.
The disclosure came as
Carle was reaching out to
lottery employees for infor-
mation about Roberts’ man-
agement practices, the claim
states.
Roberts was at odds with
Commissioners Carle and
Mary Wheat over Roberts’
hiring of Farshad Allahdadi
as interim assistant director
for sales and retail services.
Roberts requested in April
that the Governor’s Office
order an investigation into his
claim that the commissioners
were creating a hostile work
environment for Allahdadi,
based on his national origin.
An independent inves-
tigation by Kyle Abraham
of Barran Liebman LLP
found commissioners had
expressed concerns about an
anonymous email alleging
that Allahdadi had engaged
in questionable procure-
ment and contracting prac-
tices in the past. The inves-
tigation found no evidence
of discrimination against
Allahdadi for his national
origin.
In April, Tran and Ipar-
raguirre also went to Gov.
Brown’s adviser, Heidi
Moawad, to report their con-
cerns about Roberts, accord-
ing to an April email by
Moawad.
“They believe he was
being
punitive
toward
employees he could ‘prove’
were talking with (lottery)
commissioners,” Moawad
wrote.
Roberts placed Iparragu-
irre on paid administrative
leave in April after Roberts
claimed Iparraguirre had a
verbal altercation with a sub-
ordinate, Janell Simmons, a
human resources director at
the lottery.
Brown terminated Rob-
erts the following day and
appointed Pack as interim
director. Pack was confirmed
by the state Senate this month
to serve as the agency’s per-
manent director.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Utah is fastest-growing state
as West bucks sluggish trend
By LINDSAY
WHITEHURST
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY —
Utah is the fastest-growing
state in the country, leading a
cluster of Western states with
populations on the upswing
despite sluggish national
growth, according to new
numbers released by the U.S.
Census Bureau Tuesday.
The state that’s long had
the country’s highest birth
rate grew just over 2 percent
from July 2015 to July 2016,
followed closely by Nevada,
Idaho and Florida. Washing-
ton state, Oregon and Colo-
rado also took top percent-
age-growth spots.
Oregon’s population is 4.09
million.
The U.S. population, mean-
while, posted one of its low-
est growth rates since the late
1930s, shortly after the Great
Depression, said Brookings
Institution demographer Wil-
liam Frey. That’s largely
because baby-boomer genera-
tion population declines hav-
en’t been fully replaced by
new births or immigration.
Several Western states are
bucking that trend as peo-
ple are attracted by recover-
ing economies and affordable
housing, he said.
The demographic
shifts mean 24 percent
of Americans live
in the West...
“As things start to inch up,
people are finding good home
values in central California,
and that’s spilling out into
other mountain West states,”
he said, though in most places
the growth doesn’t yet match
pre-recession levels.
Other states that have been
recent growth powerhouses also
flagged this year. North Dakota,
for example, led the country for
the past four years during an oil
boom that started around 2004,
but its growth slowed amid
2016’s weak crude prices.
Eight states had population
losses this year, including three
— Pennsylvania, New York
and Wyoming — that posted
gains last year, according to
the U.S. Census Bureau. Illi-
nois had the biggest drop, los-
ing more than 37,000 people.
The demographic shifts
mean 24 percent of Americans
live in the West, and another
38 percent of the population
is concentrated in the South,
according to Census officials.
In Utah, the growth was
split nearly evenly between
new births and in-migration of
people attracted by the strong
tech and financial industries,
said Pam Perlich with the
University of Utah’s Kem C.
Gardner Policy Institute. The
state is also home base for the
growing Mormon church.
Utah’s population passed
the 3 million mark this year,
a milestone for the state that’s
nevertheless a far cry from
the country’s most-populous
states. No. 1 was California
with more than 39 million, fol-
lowed by Texas, with nearly 28
million people.
Still, Utah’s raw-number
population growth ranked No.
11 in the country as the state
added more than 60,000 peo-
ple, Perlich said.
In Nevada, gambling-sector
growth in Las Vegas has paired
with gains associated with a
Tesla battery manufacturing
plant in the north, pushing the
overall population to just under
3 million people, said state
demographer Jeff Hardcastle.
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joy, good health and love.
Probe of voter ‘robocalls’ suspended
confused voters, there is
no evidence that they con-
SALEM — The Oregon tained deliberately false
information.
secretary of state
She has said
is suspending an
previously that the
investigation into
contacts may have
automated
calls
relied on outdated
that told some vot-
voter rolls.
ers in the run-up
In a statement,
to the Novem-
Atkins says in the
ber election that
future,
political
they were marked
campaigns should
as ‘inactive’ vot-
consult with state
ers in registration
elections officials
rolls and their vote
Jeanne Atkins
to make sure their
might not count.
voter records are
Secretary
of
State Jeanne Atkins said up-to-date.
Voters all across the state
Tuesday that while the calls
Associated Press
received the confusing auto-
mated calls in the week
before the election.
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