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STATE Wallowa.com Wednesday, January 9, 2019 A9 State Capitol a hostile workplace, report claims By Aubrey Wieber, Paris Achen and Claire Withycombe Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — A five-month state investigation found that Democratic leaders in the Oregon Legislature knew legislative employees in the Capitol worked in a hostile environment amid pervasive sexual harassment but did little about it. A 52-page report released Thursday by the state Bureau of Labor and Indus- tries’ Civil Rights Division was spurred by a complaint filed by the division’s boss, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian. “Legislative leaders failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action when they knew as far back as 2011 that people were being harmed in the Cap- itol because of the hostile environment that existed,” Avakian said in a statement. “The investigation showed that people in our state Cap- itol have a fear of retaliation for coming forward, and there is no confidence in the processes in place to protect them.” The report said the con- duct amounted to illegal workplace conduct, but pro- posed no sanctions. State Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek both objected to the report, say- ing it miscast their efforts to address the harassment. The report paints an unflattering image of some legislators and a culture where power trumped law when it came to harassment of those working in the Cap- itol for legislators and their committees. The detailed allega- tions will cast a political pall as the 2019 Legislature convenes in less than two weeks, with leaders still in place who Avakian’s agency said were responsible for the culture investigators found. “Our hope is that the report would be the gene- sis for the development of a harassment-free work- place and that meaningful sanctions for future harass- ment cases can be put into place,” House Republicans said Thursday night in a statement. During the interim, the Legislature employs about 350. That doubles during the session, and nearly Anna Reed/Statesman Journal/Blue Mountain Eagle State Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, filed a formal complaint against then-Sen. Jeff Kruse, alleging the Roseburg Republican has touched her inappropriately repeatedly over the years. every class of employee had victims of what the report described as a hostile workplace. Avakian’s staff had to fight its way through the investigation as legisla- tive leaders tried to erect legal roadblocks to informa- tion. They relented and pro- duced internal records when ordered to do so by a state court. Investigators encoun- tered a history of silence by victims. One legislative employee signed a declara- tion in November that other workers “have disclosed to me that they have been sub- jected to sexually harassing conduct at the state Cap- itol,” the report said. The employee said the others didn’t want to speak out “due to fear that doing so will result in harm to their career opportunities.” The report said the evi- dence “reflects that peo- ple reporting issues were told to not speak about their complaints and some were warned about the possibil- ity of defamation or retali- ation claims for doing so.” In his statement accom- panying the report, Avakian said that “nobody should have to endure harassment at work or in a public place, and if there were ever a place a person should be guaranteed fairness and jus- tice, it is in the Oregon State Capitol.” Avakian turns over his office Monday to Val Hoyle. Hoyle said Thursday afternoon she hadn’t read the report and wouldn’t comment on how she intended to proceed after taking over the office. “I feel very strongly there is only one commis- sioner at a time, and I’m not commissioner until Mon- day,” Hoyle said. The report recounts in detail the reported sexual harassment by former state Sen. Jeff Kruse chronicled in earlier investigations. The latest report found Kruse, a Republican from Roseburg, was inappropri- ate toward several women — Sen. Sara Gelser and Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hay- ward, a lobbyist and two law students working in the Capitol. Kruse, who resigned last year, could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. Speaker Kotek vows to act following sex abuse report Claims that the report was rushed By Aubrey Wieber Oregon Capital Bureau In compiling a damn- ing report airing the Ore- gon Capitol’s dirty laundry, investigators failed to do their due-diligence and inter- view key witnesses, House Speaker Tina Kotek said Friday. Kotek said she knew all the details of the report, but having them in one 52-page document was hard to digest. “It’s not a very simple read,” Kotek said. “In gen- eral, particularly for the pub- lic, I think it’s a disturbing set of incidents described all in one place.” Notably, Avakian left out a remedy or recommenda- tion portion. That will be left to Val Hoyle, who will be sworn in as commissioner Monday. “It is a litany of things that have happened, but no determination past that,” said Kotek, who is refer- enced often in the report due to her leadership role. Kotek said she has always acted swiftly and seriously on allegations in the House. She doesn’t agree with the portrait the BOLI report painted of her and Courtney, but said they will work to protect Capitol workers. “This is a really import- ant issue,” she said. “I don’t want anyone feeling unsafe in the Capitol.” Kotek and Courtney were criticized in the BOLI report for hiding instances of sex- ual harassment, but Kotek said that was for victim con- fidentiality. With the report out, she worries the accused could identify their accusers and retaliate. However, she understands policies need to be changed and said she and Courtney were working to implement suggestions from the Ore- Merkley delays decision on presidential run until March By Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon Sen. Jeff Merk- ley said Wednesday that the high cost of campaigning for president is one of the big factors that could keep him out of the Democratic pri- mary field in 2020. Merkley last year made several visits to early pri- mary states and indi- cated at one point that he would decide before 2018 ended. But in his first pub- lic appearance after the hol- idays, Merkley said he is now looking toward the end of March for a decision. In an interview with OPB before holding a town hall in east Portland, Merk- ley said he’s still weighing several concerns. Perhaps chief among them is the high cost of mounting a presidential challenge — some- thing he said could cost Merkley tens of mil- lions of dollars. “You would really have to build a vast operation to be competitive given the design of our primary sys- tem,” Merkley said, “and that would require an all-out effort. And so it’s balancing that effort against putting all my efforts in through the Senate.” He noted that at least three of his potential rivals are billionaires and that several others have built national followings allow- ing them to raise large sums of money on the internet. Contenders have to build large staffs to compete at the grassroots level in Iowa and New Hampshire. And Cali- fornia has moved its primary to March 3, requiring can- didates to mount expensive advertising and get-out-the- vote efforts in the nation’s largest state early in the pri- mary season. Also complicating Merk- ley’s decision is the fact he is up for re-election in 2020. He could test his appeal in a presidential race in the early primaries and still file for re-election by March 10. But spending so much time out of state on the cam- paign trail could affect his political standing in Oregon. THE ONE PARTS ARTS S & STOP SHOP SERVICES FOR YOUR HVAC... MAINTENANCE gon Law Commission prior to Avakian filing his BOLI complaint in August. The commission was formed by the Legislature in 1997 and is housed at and staffed by the University of Oregon’s law school. It is an independent body that reviews state law and pro- vides recommendations. Following the Kruse scandal, the commission released a 51-page report on the Capitol’s workplace cul- ture and provided several recommendations, includ- ing the creation of an inde- pendent “Equity Office” which would investigate the workplace as well as take complaints and performs training. “I am very much focused on the recommendations from the Oregon Law Com- mission,” Kotek said. “We have tried to follow our pro- cess, and we need new poli- cies and procedures. That was very clear from the investiga- tion into Sen. Kruse.” Kotek said in the week before the 2019 Legisla- ture convenes on Jan. 22, there will be several days of new, comprehensive work- place training covering civil- ity, implicit bias, how to intervene when bad behav- ior is witnessed and how to act as a supervisor when Th e Public is Invited! 50 dealing with sexual harass- ment. Kotek said it’s the largest expansion of human resources training since she took the speakership in 2013. The Oregon Capi- tal Bureau reached out to Lore Christopher, the Leg- islature’s human resources director, to see if she also envisioned changes in light of the report. She and Leg- islative Counsel Dexter Johnson were thoroughly dressed down in the report, including accusations they tried to silence those report- ing harassment. Christopher deferred comment on human resources policies to John- son, who did not respond. Community Connection of Northeast Oregon, Inc. Invites everyone to Celebrate our 50 Year Anniversary! Monday, January 14, 2019 Enterprise Senior Center 702 NW First Street Enterprise, OR 97828 FREE Lunch Served 11:30-12:30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY Open House with refreshments and door prizes 12:30-2:00 Celebrating 50 years of Community Service Helping people, Changing Lives ® BARGAINS OF THE MONTH BARGAINS MONTH While supplies last. While supplies last. YOUR CHOICE 9.99 72 INSTALLATION 20 lb. Black Oil Sunflower Bird Seed L 106 363 1 16 lb. 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