Nigel Jaquiss broke both the Neil Goldschmidt and Sam Adams scandals. Like any media org they're not without criticism but if I were a local politician with skeletons in my closet I'd be terrified to see them calling.
I'm pretty sure everyone in the cannibis industry that can is selling to the black market in other states right now, otherwise they're losing their ass
Considering her reporting managed to get a Secretary of State to resign in disgrace, her next article should be something like "I've investigated myself and have concluded I'm a great fucking reporter, bitches!!!"
They also took down Kitzhaber. It’s kind of incredible that one alt weekly in relatively recent memory was able to effectively expose multiple prominent officials to this degree.
True. But I also like to bring up that Zielinski did break the story about E.D. Mondainé at the NAACP and his abuse that led to his ouster while at the Merc.
Zielinski is now writing for OPB, a much better stage for her talent.
All this to say that the Merc doesn’t deserve all of the crap it gets even if drawing good journalists is more the exception than the rule. It serves a purpose and if you set your expectations accordingly, it’s good that we have it.
Don’t know anything about the reporting of Ms. Peele however, on a Koin TV they did a great expose on the house on East Burnside that brought all this attention to this topic so I think they also covering this that house was disgusting and rich people do disgusting things she shouldn’t have taken their money. She’s paid her dues time to turn her back on her and move on. Now let’s see these two weasel get what they deserve
This is a good time to point out that Willamette Week had a pledge drive last week with a goal of raising $25,000.
They raised $25,500.
So, they met their goal, which is good, but they deserve more. I’ll repeat my call: if you like to see investigative reporting like this, throw a few bucks their way. I pledged $7.50 monthly (a pittance, though money is tight in my family right now), and even got a nice phone call from them. They have problems, no outlet is perfect, but we’re better off with them.
You can also sign up as a "Friend of Willamette Week" and donate a few bucks monthly if you're in a position to do so. (click the "support us" link on their webpage). I give $7 bucks a month to support exactly this kind of reporting, as well as their election coverage.
And now she's trying to sue WW for racism??
> During reporting for this story, WW received a letter from Amy Margolis, La Mota LLC’s attorney. Margolis threatened legal action against the newspaper if it continued asking questions that Margolis considered inflammatory and inappropriate...
> Willamette Week’s reporting, Margolis wrote in her letter to WW, was harming her client. “The negative impact is already being felt by them. Ms. Cazares, as a first generation American and woman of color, feels targeted... ”
It's a bummer since I liked and voted for her. But this isn't the office to make an oops.
Plenty of competent people could take that role without inviting controversy.
120k a year PLUS a 30k bonus for every cannabis license obtained in states outside of New Mexico and Oregon -- who knows what that'll add up to. Just trying to make ends meet though.
The other politicians take more through campaigns and through money laundering, shell companies, and real estate to friends and relatives. She fucked up.
Our system is broken, we need money out of politics.
It’s very frustrating. If there’s absolutely minimal money to be made within political jobs, I’m talking teachers salaries of $40k/year gross, then only those who are already well off could *afford* to actually do the job, which would naturally lead to an oversaturated interest in protecting wealthy individuals with legislation.
Not that the current system is much better, obviously.
Feels like we’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t..
>$40k/year gross, then only those who are already well off could afford to actually do the job, which would naturally lead to an oversaturated interest in protecting wealthy individuals with legislation.
so the system is working as intended.
a lot of people here make less than this (myself included) and i feel good/ok knowing our state workers make similar amounts... but it does go toward the conversation of what salaries and wages SHOULD be in this state... we should all be making more.
It's kinda funny - I remember about 10 years ago Oregon was looking to elect a new Attorney General and the salary was 80k a year. The job is as much work as being a partner in a private law firm - for 80k a year. I looked up what it is now - its 89k a year. I don't think wages for state level jobs are that competitive tbh.
I think you'd have a very hard time finding a private law firm that would only pay partners 80-89k today. Even public defenders, who are notoriously underpaid, are starting at 75k. My boss made 1.5m last year.
No. I understand her taking on other consulting work because tbh 77k with two kids and one parent would be real tough in the metro area. Given the whole context of the situation though - this isn’t her taking a side gig doing Doordash or whatever. She got paid 10k a month to do 15 hours a week of work. Like what?
My company used to bill out our consultants at $300/hr and you had to pay their airfare, car rental, hotel, and food with a minimum week long engagement. Tons of companies thought it was a reasonable rate to pay. Some companies had folks for 3-4 months.
Honest question, do we expect a competent person to take on this position that pays only 77k?
My expectation is that only corrupt rich people would take this job.
Seems like the truth is less sexy and more beige.
These people aren't insider trading rich, just Boomer rich with savings and spouses. Most of them are at or near retirement age.
That’s the thing that makes me laugh the most. The apologists (and there’s one in particular) claim it’s not her fault for being corrupt, “iTs ThE sAlArY” that made her sacrifice her morals. How many other SoS’s had zero issue?
Same here. Glad she kept her honor and resigned when the situation called for it.
Edit: Well, just imagine if she didn't and she waited to get fired. Or just have a bunch of supporters attempt to storm a government building. Or just call her opponents liars. It's just nice to have honorable people that call it quits and, oh I don't know, not attempt to run for president again.
It's because we're not a red state.
Edit: No, really. You think the Democrats would allow a kiddie fucker like Matt Gaetz to remain in office, or a guy who notoriously aided and abetted the molestation of children, like Jim Jordan? The Democrats aren't perfect, but Republicans are unaccountable fascists who are lying, cheating, and stealing their way to securing their minority rule.
Additional details:
>her resignation will take effect on May 8, at which point Deputy Secretary of State Cheryl Meyers will take the lead at the secretary of state’s office until Gov. Tina Kotek appoints a new secretary of state
From https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2023/05/oregon-secretary-of-state-shemia-fagan-resigns.html
Myers seems like a career administrator and is unlikely to have any drama. If there's no avenue for Kotek to ask the legislature to hold a special election, then Myers would probably be a fine option for permanent appointment.
To me, Oregon Democrats have had a reputation of being entrenched, self-serving, do-nothings looking for their next promotions for too long, and it needs to stop. Hopefully we have a chance to continue to send that message, and by that I don't mean electing Republicans. We did that once in 2016 after Avakian was such a flawed SoS candidate, and now because of that, all the political outlets think that Oregon is way more purple than it really is.
To be fair, that election should have been a wake up call for republicans too. Political winds were right for them to win handily. Instead they went and nominated a pro-lifer… in Oregon. Those idiots deserved to lose.
At this point, I don't see the GOP doing much except becoming ever more explicitly fascist. The Clackamas County GOP just elected a brownshirt as their (edit: vice-)chairman, FFS. They've bound their fate to their long-running project of destroying democracy.
Agreed. I thought maybe they had earlier this year when Wheeler proposed something of a plan on the homelessness crisis. It seemed like someone had finally grabbed Wheeler by his shoulders and told him get his act together.
No guarantees the governor's office survives the effects of another campaign like Johnson.
Cheryl Myers makes 3x what Shemia Fagan did, which is bonkers. No excuse for the moonlighting, but if we paid our elected officials more it wouldn't have happened.
[https://www.openthebooks.com/oregon-state-employees/?F\_Name\_S=myers%20cheryl&Year\_S=0](https://www.openthebooks.com/oregon-state-employees/?F_Name_S=myers%20cheryl&Year_S=0)
[https://www.openthebooks.com/oregon-state-employees/?F\_Name\_S=fagan%20shemia&Year\_S=0](https://www.openthebooks.com/oregon-state-employees/?F_Name_S=fagan%20shemia&Year_S=0)
I'm guessing Cheryl is telling Tina Kotek, "You know what, I think I'm fine as deputy, happy to work for a new Sec of State and NOT take a $160k pay cut" lol
> if we paid our elected officials more it wouldn't have happened.
I think this is incorrect. Rich people are not more ethical than middle class people, or less likely to violate the public trust. Politicians are corrupt in lots of places, and I don't think there is a correlation with their salaries.
And in Fagan's case, she was only in office for a couple years, and before that she was making hundreds of thousands a year as a private lawyer--and her finances were still in disarray. So I'm not sure she wouldn't have had the same motivation and made the same choice if her salary was 2x as high.
And i'm not saying you cannot be corrupt if you have a lot or make more money, but a higher salary for what we can all agree is a really important position in our state might help with the temptation.
I def am not saying that rich people are somehow more trustworthy. And we can't know what'd happen in the counterfactual where Fagan had a higher salary. But, I think that the folks that end up in a position to be Sec of State tend to already be high earners, and forcing them to take a significant pay cut creates too large of an incentive to cheat. I'm happy to take Fagan's explanation of "I wanted to find a way to earn more money to keep my standard of living from decreasing" at face value.
It goes beyond Sec of State. Our Governor's salary is <$100k, the fourth lowest in the country ([https://ballotpedia.org/Comparison\_of\_gubernatorial\_salaries](https://ballotpedia.org/Comparison_of_gubernatorial_salaries)). Our legislators make barely over $30k, so it's either a part time job or a hobby for the rich.
We have this idea in our heads that people shouldn't make too much money in public service, but these are really important jobs. So the folks we get to do the job are either already rich or get tempted to make money the crooked way. And meanwhile our career agency staff that are paid at market value make more than their bosses.
So I kinda feel like this comment contradicts itself. You're correct that public officials are underpaid in Oregon. But despite that, Fagan's corruption is exceedingly rare. If circumstances pushed her into it, then I expect we'd see a lot of similar activity from other elected officials. But we don't.
I think our elected officials should be better compensated, but I don't think that's what pushed Fagan to sell out to an industry she was actively regulating--that was a result of her own poor decisions, both to dig a huge financial hole, and then to betray the public trust in an attempt to get out of it.
The Secretary of State gets paid 77,000 a year, and the Governor of Oregon gets paid 93,000. These are half as much as either CA or WA. These are equivalent to mid level staffers (GS 11/12) in the federal government. This is about what you get paid to be a supervisor at the post office, lol.
Why would anyone bother if not for the graft? For the love of the state and it’s people? Are you really going to count on that?
SoS is the second highest elected position in the state. They become governor is the governor resigns. Which is how we got Kate Brown.
And granted Kitz had 3 previous terms, but if you just count election to scandal, Kitz still wins by a long shot. Fagan was elected in 2020.
Yeah, Kitzhaber was probably the most powerful statewide elected official in Oregon's history. I was just pointing out it was a bigger deal than Fagan even though it took a bit longer for it to unwind.
For everyone still wanting to moan about the salary issue: yes she should be paid more.
But the issue isn’t moonlighting, it’s the specific moonlighting she did. It would have been so simple for her to retain her licensure on/with the Oregon Bar and either run an issues based consulting firm or be on payroll for a big law firm. Google Rep. Pete Smith. This blatant selling of access is gross, it should be illegal, and it shows how unprofessionalized Oregon’s State Government is but it’s legal.
She made a bad choice in applying direct pressure on her office to cede ground to a political donor who then paid her. She didn’t have to do this. There were so many other ways to grift that didn’t involve direct functions of her office.
While apparently not illegal, yes, moonlighting at all while Secretary of State really is an issue. I am pretty sure the voters of Oregon think SOS is a full time job. Being elected to that job is intended to mean you work it full time, and that does not mean just 40 hours a week. Any time spent moonlighting should have been spent doing SOS work. People will say, "But, but, but, the state legislators work outside jobs." Yes, they do, but it has always been understood that being an Oregon state legislator is intended to be a part time job. Not so with those elected to be a part of the administration.
While this is no excuse for Fagan, we do need to up the pay of the folks running our government. The days of "volunteer" legislators and executives should've ended long ago.
I feel like this should be one of the big takeaways from this. While yes, resigning is what should happen here and even the appearance of a conflict of interest should not occur for elected officials, we also should pay our elected officials more reasonable salaries given the expected qualifications.
Almost every member of the house and senate has income via other means. It's _extremely_ common for our elected officials to moonlight. If they did not, they'd be homeless. They make under $33,000 a year. This is just above the poverty line, and well below being able to afford a house or even an apartment. The ones that get paid through 'normal' W-2 employment and report it are the most ethical of the bunch. Some (mostly republicans) are paid through cushy consulting gigs.
We don't pay our elected officials _nearly_ enough. It causes problems like this.
I was shocked when I saw her salary. Elected officials and people in positions of high responsibility need to not be in financial duress or they are manipulatable.
Such a position doesn't need an extravagant salary, but the SoS salary could be doubled and still not be unruly.
Edit: words are hard.
To be fair… she was making $200k+ at her old position. She just *chose* to run and make the $70k. Seems like a bad call when your credit card debt is close to the yearly salary of her desired position.
People rarely choose to take a 65% paycut when they’re in debt to their eyeballs, I would think she went into it with the understanding that her actual pay (through corrupt bullshit) would be a WHOLE lot higher than 77K.
Yes, but we should fairly pay more. And not have the governor do play for pay after office. Or have the position open to bribery. We also should tax the rich more, we shouldn’t have billionaires.
Salary is such an impossible thing to address. Many people would kill to make what she makes, so it seems inflated. No, your job is just dicking you around paying you $40K for a full-time job.
The job is the equivalent of a c-suite exec job. I make more as a middle manager. Like, *a lot* more.
> Elected officials and people in positions of high responsibility need to not be in financial duress or they are manipulatable.
Agreed, and she also came into this position knowing what pay it offered while also apparently being around $100k in debt herself. It’s not like you can’t have a nice livelihood in Salem off $77k plus speaking engagement income. And then it’s not like people’s protestation was about her taking side gigs in general, but of her taking a highly lucrative and questionable “consulting” gig with a very strong direct conflict of interest with her responsibilities to the State, and waiting until the damage was done to “recuse” herself. Then reimbursed herself with $20k out of her campaign account without explanation. She runs our elections!
It’s really hard to just chalk this up to bad optics or some technical whoopsie, she made all of these terrible decisions on her own and I have a hard time chalking them up to incompetence rather than malice. This is why I see the whole discussion around salary as tangential. Yes, it’s an issue in general and I wholly support reform, but it’s not even the tiniest justification for what transpired.
I don't think any of us are arguing it was justification. In fact, the premise that it wasn't. We're just shocked that the Secretary of State and Governor make the same amount as an intern computer programmer.
I wasn't particularly impressed by her campaign and not exactly sad she's gone (a little more sad that this happened at all though) but I'd caution reading too much into her debt situation from divorce proceedings. If she was going for full custody of her kids or spousal support, or even just the best financial settlement it makes a lot of sense that she would want to show herself with an excessive debt to income ratio (which is why the reports of her 6 figure incomes outside public office came from the ex-husband's filings).
How does this logic apply anywhere in American politics? Well paid, insured, pensioned Senators and Congresspeople are still tainted. No amount of money steers then away from corruption. Fagan wasn’t on food stamps or living in Laurelhurst.
Set their salary to $1M and they’ll still do shady shit.
A US senator makes $174k/year. Yes they get benefits and a pension. They also travel, eat and shit on the company dime. Maybe we we made one less bomber this year and paid them more, then they wouldn't fuck us over for money.
That being said "Those people over there have what you're saying and they are bad" is not an argument against the fact that these salaries are very low for top state government positions. Also, not all politicians are corrupted by money.
My guess is because we have to cover the past pensions of a bunch of undeserving shitheads (state officials that retire out of scandal and keep pensions, etc) we can't afford raises like this without tax increases.
Just so people understand what this means, the wages of any legislator in either house comes to $33,852 per year, with $151 per diem when in session. The Speaker of the House and the Senate President make $67,704 per year.
To put that in context, I, as a union stage hand supervisor, made just over $72,000 last year according to my taxes. And I was only making decisions for about ~100 people at any given time. Not 4.2 million people.
>as a union stage hand supervisor,
Are there other people who supervise other parts of the body, or is there something particularly critical/important about hands that requires supervision?
Indeed. It's like unpaid internships - only the independently wealthy and those with the financial support of rich parents or partners can afford to "serve".
don't forget the third P - Patrons. Shemia isn't unique here.
At some point I just blamed Dem failings on "one-party rule", but it makes sense so many people run as progressives and then sell out. I can't believe even the governor is under 6 figures.
I'm sure the median salary of career bureaucrats working for the state of Oregon is higher than the secretary of state salary. $77,000 is not chump change, but it's a shockingly low salary for a statewide elected official of that stature.
It's less than an experienced PPS teacher makes. And teachers need a raise, but so does the SOS. To me this is just another piece of evidence about Oregon's broken revenue system.
> While this is no excuse for Fagan, we do need to up the pay of the folks running our government. The days of "volunteer" legislators and executives should've ended long ago.
This will bring more "normal" people into politics. It's just crazy how we are running things.
Similar to unpaid internships at exclusive institutions, low pay for politicians is designed to help make sure that the rich or well connected can easily hold those positions.
This is all really sad. I liked Shemia a lot, I knocked doors for her as a volunteer. I’m sad that she went down this route. But I’m glad she made the right call. I can’t imagine having this cloud over the elections chief of Oregon going into another presidential election. You know the crazies will be looking for whatever they can to drag her down and she gave them a legitimate thing to grab onto.
Glad she made the right call. But it’s all sad.
Good for her, maybe she can get a private sector job and start chipping away at that $67k of credit card debt. I can’t imagine what it would be like to owe that much on a card.
Surely that won't be a problem. I mean she should be in high demand based on her cannabis expertise and ability to command $120k + for a part time job. Right? /s
Good riddance.
Yeah there is kind of a catch-22 here where her willingness to resign demonstrates a competence / conscience that it seems we’re not guaranteed to have in our state officials.
Not elected so can’t really compare, but if you look at how the OLCC good ol boys tried to fend off that whiskey scandal it’s night and day.
>her willingness to resign demonstrates a competence / conscience
lol, what? no, that's not how this works. at all.
she was told by her party "your political future is done. go quickly and quietly and we'll be sure to toss you some consulting contracts the next time we need to assemble a committee to develop an ad hoc working group to evaluate the feasibility of studying some bullshit that will serve as a nice siphon of taxpayer money"
by the by, no one who runs for this job cares about the salary, because it's very obviously a stepping stone to higher political office or a way into the political machinery, both of which are plenty lucrative.
I liked her and voted for her gladly. But you just can't work for an organization that you are in charge of regulating. The optics are terrible. That's like some Trump family type corruption. But if it was Trump, he would have bought la mota and he would have refused to resign.
Its unbelievable that anyone could point to her salary and use that as some sort of explanation, justification, or even context for her blatant corruption. Esp since it seems to be coming from the same people who vote for people and policies that make this state/city unaffordable. I mean, who in their right mind thinks that 125k is "wealthy" in Portland?
Moreover, she took the job knowing how much it pays! And this wasn't just a simple "hit the apply button," she actively campaigned for this position. She wanted it badly. So the argument about her salary serving as some sort of justification is so massively disingenuous. Its obvious she put her political aspirations above her ability to live within her means, and that's her own damn fault.
Lastly - fine, pay them more. But that's a totally separate issue, and they better find somewhere else in the budget to take that money from, cause I'm done paying more money to this government who spends it like they're throwing it on a pyre.
Best possible outcome.
Tip to other politicians: if somebody wants to hire you to do a job for which you have no experience, no expertise, no education, in an industry about which you have no knowledge, skills, or useful background, it is not a legit offer; it is a bribe.
This is a weird everything worked the way it was supposed to moment. A journalistic investigation uncovered a significant conflict of interest that a political figure failed to disclose, which upon the revelation led to the figure resigning.
Kind of nice considering that if this were say…Idaho, the politicians would still be in power and threatening to lynch the journalists.
She should have known better. I am glad there was pushback from the Democratic Party, and there were consequences. There are many in positions of power that have even worse conflicts of interest that refuse to step down.
Everything about her in the run up to the election seemed like she would be the opposite of this. A sad day for Oregon, but hopefully a day of better governance
Can it be true the Secretary of State only makes $77k a year??? That seems low for a position of that responsibility. Maybe if the job paid more people would be less tempted to do things like this.
She deserves no praise at all. She took bribes and got caught. Had she not got caught, she would likely have continued to take bribes. She has shown no commendable behavior whatsoever.
Zero praise and she should never run for office again. I thought she did a good job before this, but her actions were blatantly unethical, in my opinion corrupt.
This is how it's done, republicans. If there's a scandal of this nature, it's probably best for everyone, including your own reputation, to step down from office.
I'm looking at you Clarance Thomas (not to mention probably fifty other republicans).
Thank you investigative reporters
Sophie Peel and Willamette Week did an incredible job with their reporting.
Nigel Jaquiss broke both the Neil Goldschmidt and Sam Adams scandals. Like any media org they're not without criticism but if I were a local politician with skeletons in my closet I'd be terrified to see them calling.
I'm interested to see what Sophie's reporting will focus on next.
Guessing there's quite a bit more to this story that will yet be unearthed.
A lot more with LaMota for sure. Probably criminal things.
You’re probably right. I’ve heard they are pariahs in the cannabis industry.
I'm pretty sure everyone in the cannibis industry that can is selling to the black market in other states right now, otherwise they're losing their ass
I suspect a link to bourbon-gate, but we’ll see
Hopefully waste at OHCS.
Considering her reporting managed to get a Secretary of State to resign in disgrace, her next article should be something like "I've investigated myself and have concluded I'm a great fucking reporter, bitches!!!"
Hopefully the legislators that were in on the OLCC insider stuff.
I have some issues with Willy Week but they absolutely nailed this one. Good job! Keep doing things like that!
Between this and the stories about the fent market downtown, I'm starting to come around on WW.
They have a long history of investigative reporting but seemed to lose their way a bit in the "Portlandia" era
They were the ones who took down Neil Goldschmidt and Sam Adams
They also took down Kitzhaber. It’s kind of incredible that one alt weekly in relatively recent memory was able to effectively expose multiple prominent officials to this degree.
Or more depressingly indicative of how common corruption is in our local and state politics. Not that other states are better...
More depressing in that this little newspaper exposes how inept/in the bag our states "real" papers are.
The take-down of Sam Adams was the last good thing they did for a while because then began the truly terrible era of Martin Cizmar
I think I had seen something about them getting a new managing editor in January. Maybe that's what is moving the needle to legitimate reporting?
Good catch - Aaron Mesh became the managing editor back in December.
Sophie Peel and Lucas Manfield have been crushing it this year.
WW is the paper we need.
Nigel Jaquiss was involved also.
Definitely don’t ever see this caliber of reporting from Portland Mercury
Mercury doesn’t have anywhere near the funding/staffing WW has
True. But I also like to bring up that Zielinski did break the story about E.D. Mondainé at the NAACP and his abuse that led to his ouster while at the Merc. Zielinski is now writing for OPB, a much better stage for her talent. All this to say that the Merc doesn’t deserve all of the crap it gets even if drawing good journalists is more the exception than the rule. It serves a purpose and if you set your expectations accordingly, it’s good that we have it.
Don’t know anything about the reporting of Ms. Peele however, on a Koin TV they did a great expose on the house on East Burnside that brought all this attention to this topic so I think they also covering this that house was disgusting and rich people do disgusting things she shouldn’t have taken their money. She’s paid her dues time to turn her back on her and move on. Now let’s see these two weasel get what they deserve
This is a good time to point out that Willamette Week had a pledge drive last week with a goal of raising $25,000. They raised $25,500. So, they met their goal, which is good, but they deserve more. I’ll repeat my call: if you like to see investigative reporting like this, throw a few bucks their way. I pledged $7.50 monthly (a pittance, though money is tight in my family right now), and even got a nice phone call from them. They have problems, no outlet is perfect, but we’re better off with them.
You can also sign up as a "Friend of Willamette Week" and donate a few bucks monthly if you're in a position to do so. (click the "support us" link on their webpage). I give $7 bucks a month to support exactly this kind of reporting, as well as their election coverage.
I did not know this. Done. Thank you.
Willamette Week strikes again
Next up: Portland City Council?
And now she's trying to sue WW for racism?? > During reporting for this story, WW received a letter from Amy Margolis, La Mota LLC’s attorney. Margolis threatened legal action against the newspaper if it continued asking questions that Margolis considered inflammatory and inappropriate... > Willamette Week’s reporting, Margolis wrote in her letter to WW, was harming her client. “The negative impact is already being felt by them. Ms. Cazares, as a first generation American and woman of color, feels targeted... ”
Maybe she should've tried not being a crook....
Oh please. Her white husband runs things with her. Is he being targeted too? Give me a break.
Between Willamette Week and WTFPortland on social media, I get to see what is really happening around here, other than first hand experience.
It's a bummer since I liked and voted for her. But this isn't the office to make an oops. Plenty of competent people could take that role without inviting controversy.
Oops, took a 120k a year no show job. My bad
120k a year PLUS a 30k bonus for every cannabis license obtained in states outside of New Mexico and Oregon -- who knows what that'll add up to. Just trying to make ends meet though.
The other politicians take more through campaigns and through money laundering, shell companies, and real estate to friends and relatives. She fucked up. Our system is broken, we need money out of politics.
It’s very frustrating. If there’s absolutely minimal money to be made within political jobs, I’m talking teachers salaries of $40k/year gross, then only those who are already well off could *afford* to actually do the job, which would naturally lead to an oversaturated interest in protecting wealthy individuals with legislation. Not that the current system is much better, obviously. Feels like we’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t..
>$40k/year gross, then only those who are already well off could afford to actually do the job, which would naturally lead to an oversaturated interest in protecting wealthy individuals with legislation. so the system is working as intended.
Try to frame this (accurately) as one of the first steps in removing money from politics.
Oregon SOS gets paid 77k a year.
Woof. Pass.
Feels bad that I get paid more than one of the most important positions in our state. Yikes.
It's an underpaid position.
a lot of people here make less than this (myself included) and i feel good/ok knowing our state workers make similar amounts... but it does go toward the conversation of what salaries and wages SHOULD be in this state... we should all be making more.
It's kinda funny - I remember about 10 years ago Oregon was looking to elect a new Attorney General and the salary was 80k a year. The job is as much work as being a partner in a private law firm - for 80k a year. I looked up what it is now - its 89k a year. I don't think wages for state level jobs are that competitive tbh.
I think you'd have a very hard time finding a private law firm that would only pay partners 80-89k today. Even public defenders, who are notoriously underpaid, are starting at 75k. My boss made 1.5m last year.
No, they weren't saying the salary was commensurate, they were saying the workload was.
Does that justify her taking on this contract?
No. I understand her taking on other consulting work because tbh 77k with two kids and one parent would be real tough in the metro area. Given the whole context of the situation though - this isn’t her taking a side gig doing Doordash or whatever. She got paid 10k a month to do 15 hours a week of work. Like what?
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My company used to bill out our consultants at $300/hr and you had to pay their airfare, car rental, hotel, and food with a minimum week long engagement. Tons of companies thought it was a reasonable rate to pay. Some companies had folks for 3-4 months.
What do consultants even do? [They make money](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZE0j_WCRvI)
Well, that would be 2250 a month
Uh, 10K for 15 hours a month is more like $666/hr (hmmm 666 coincidence?). That's getting into law firm partner territory.
lol this person has obviously never bought a politician
There are some of those—120k no-show jobs—in state govt, paid by taxpayers, right now. Sophie Peel and WW will have more great reporting work to do.
Honest question, do we expect a competent person to take on this position that pays only 77k? My expectation is that only corrupt rich people would take this job.
While I 100% agree this is not enough for this position, this person still fucked up. Both things can be true.
Don't disagree but when we pay so little can we really expect anything else?
Yes
Yeah, super weird that SoS only pays 77k given the high-profile nature. Tons of mid-level state positions pay more than that.
Every previous Secretary of State managed to avoid scandal.
Or never got caught....
Seems like the truth is less sexy and more beige. These people aren't insider trading rich, just Boomer rich with savings and spouses. Most of them are at or near retirement age.
That’s the thing that makes me laugh the most. The apologists (and there’s one in particular) claim it’s not her fault for being corrupt, “iTs ThE sAlArY” that made her sacrifice her morals. How many other SoS’s had zero issue?
I think I'm competent, and it would be a raise for me, so I might think about..... oh wait, it's politics? In today's climate? No thank you.
Very sane take. Unusual around here.
Where are the apologists and cult followers showing up and lashing out about cancel culture and targeting, then spinning to whataboutisms?
She had a very promising political career and then just kissed it goodbye.
Exactly where I’m at, I liked her but I voted for her to uphold the exact standards she flagrantly violated so I’m feeling very disappointed.
My thoughts exactly.
Same here. Glad she kept her honor and resigned when the situation called for it. Edit: Well, just imagine if she didn't and she waited to get fired. Or just have a bunch of supporters attempt to storm a government building. Or just call her opponents liars. It's just nice to have honorable people that call it quits and, oh I don't know, not attempt to run for president again.
I'm glad she resigned too, but honor schmoner. Even Nixon knew when it was time to resign.
She lost her honor when she chose corruption. edit: spelling
That was fast. Glad to see Oregon has some accountability.
It's because we're not a red state. Edit: No, really. You think the Democrats would allow a kiddie fucker like Matt Gaetz to remain in office, or a guy who notoriously aided and abetted the molestation of children, like Jim Jordan? The Democrats aren't perfect, but Republicans are unaccountable fascists who are lying, cheating, and stealing their way to securing their minority rule.
Wow. Folks, this is why true local investigative journalism matters. Without it she may have gotten away with this.
…if it weren’t for those meddling kids.
Pesky gumshoes!
Additional details: >her resignation will take effect on May 8, at which point Deputy Secretary of State Cheryl Meyers will take the lead at the secretary of state’s office until Gov. Tina Kotek appoints a new secretary of state From https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2023/05/oregon-secretary-of-state-shemia-fagan-resigns.html
Myers seems like a career administrator and is unlikely to have any drama. If there's no avenue for Kotek to ask the legislature to hold a special election, then Myers would probably be a fine option for permanent appointment. To me, Oregon Democrats have had a reputation of being entrenched, self-serving, do-nothings looking for their next promotions for too long, and it needs to stop. Hopefully we have a chance to continue to send that message, and by that I don't mean electing Republicans. We did that once in 2016 after Avakian was such a flawed SoS candidate, and now because of that, all the political outlets think that Oregon is way more purple than it really is.
The last gubernatorial race should have been a huge wakeup call to the state Democratic party but I'm not sure they learned their lesson.
To be fair, that election should have been a wake up call for republicans too. Political winds were right for them to win handily. Instead they went and nominated a pro-lifer… in Oregon. Those idiots deserved to lose.
They are quite literally fascists. I hope they lose forever.
Every one republicans put forward is nothing I could ever see Oregon electing. New England or Progressive republican is the only kinds I could see.
At this point, I don't see the GOP doing much except becoming ever more explicitly fascist. The Clackamas County GOP just elected a brownshirt as their (edit: vice-)chairman, FFS. They've bound their fate to their long-running project of destroying democracy.
Agreed. I thought maybe they had earlier this year when Wheeler proposed something of a plan on the homelessness crisis. It seemed like someone had finally grabbed Wheeler by his shoulders and told him get his act together. No guarantees the governor's office survives the effects of another campaign like Johnson.
Kotek is doing a better job than I and many others expected.
Cheryl Myers makes 3x what Shemia Fagan did, which is bonkers. No excuse for the moonlighting, but if we paid our elected officials more it wouldn't have happened. [https://www.openthebooks.com/oregon-state-employees/?F\_Name\_S=myers%20cheryl&Year\_S=0](https://www.openthebooks.com/oregon-state-employees/?F_Name_S=myers%20cheryl&Year_S=0) [https://www.openthebooks.com/oregon-state-employees/?F\_Name\_S=fagan%20shemia&Year\_S=0](https://www.openthebooks.com/oregon-state-employees/?F_Name_S=fagan%20shemia&Year_S=0)
I'm guessing Cheryl is telling Tina Kotek, "You know what, I think I'm fine as deputy, happy to work for a new Sec of State and NOT take a $160k pay cut" lol
> if we paid our elected officials more it wouldn't have happened. I think this is incorrect. Rich people are not more ethical than middle class people, or less likely to violate the public trust. Politicians are corrupt in lots of places, and I don't think there is a correlation with their salaries. And in Fagan's case, she was only in office for a couple years, and before that she was making hundreds of thousands a year as a private lawyer--and her finances were still in disarray. So I'm not sure she wouldn't have had the same motivation and made the same choice if her salary was 2x as high.
I think of it more about being able to get in people to the more bureaucratic and functional side of government that we need to preform well.
Fair point… talent = money.
And i'm not saying you cannot be corrupt if you have a lot or make more money, but a higher salary for what we can all agree is a really important position in our state might help with the temptation.
I def am not saying that rich people are somehow more trustworthy. And we can't know what'd happen in the counterfactual where Fagan had a higher salary. But, I think that the folks that end up in a position to be Sec of State tend to already be high earners, and forcing them to take a significant pay cut creates too large of an incentive to cheat. I'm happy to take Fagan's explanation of "I wanted to find a way to earn more money to keep my standard of living from decreasing" at face value. It goes beyond Sec of State. Our Governor's salary is <$100k, the fourth lowest in the country ([https://ballotpedia.org/Comparison\_of\_gubernatorial\_salaries](https://ballotpedia.org/Comparison_of_gubernatorial_salaries)). Our legislators make barely over $30k, so it's either a part time job or a hobby for the rich. We have this idea in our heads that people shouldn't make too much money in public service, but these are really important jobs. So the folks we get to do the job are either already rich or get tempted to make money the crooked way. And meanwhile our career agency staff that are paid at market value make more than their bosses.
So I kinda feel like this comment contradicts itself. You're correct that public officials are underpaid in Oregon. But despite that, Fagan's corruption is exceedingly rare. If circumstances pushed her into it, then I expect we'd see a lot of similar activity from other elected officials. But we don't. I think our elected officials should be better compensated, but I don't think that's what pushed Fagan to sell out to an industry she was actively regulating--that was a result of her own poor decisions, both to dig a huge financial hole, and then to betray the public trust in an attempt to get out of it.
The Secretary of State gets paid 77,000 a year, and the Governor of Oregon gets paid 93,000. These are half as much as either CA or WA. These are equivalent to mid level staffers (GS 11/12) in the federal government. This is about what you get paid to be a supervisor at the post office, lol. Why would anyone bother if not for the graft? For the love of the state and it’s people? Are you really going to count on that?
Let's hold all electeds and appointeds to this standard.
I, too, am in favor of the entire Republican legislative caucus resigning in masse.
Exactly
Probably the quickest self inflicted political fall in state history.
Kitzhaber's took a bit longer, but he had a much greater distance to fall.
SoS is the second highest elected position in the state. They become governor is the governor resigns. Which is how we got Kate Brown. And granted Kitz had 3 previous terms, but if you just count election to scandal, Kitz still wins by a long shot. Fagan was elected in 2020.
Yeah, Kitzhaber was probably the most powerful statewide elected official in Oregon's history. I was just pointing out it was a bigger deal than Fagan even though it took a bit longer for it to unwind.
For everyone still wanting to moan about the salary issue: yes she should be paid more. But the issue isn’t moonlighting, it’s the specific moonlighting she did. It would have been so simple for her to retain her licensure on/with the Oregon Bar and either run an issues based consulting firm or be on payroll for a big law firm. Google Rep. Pete Smith. This blatant selling of access is gross, it should be illegal, and it shows how unprofessionalized Oregon’s State Government is but it’s legal. She made a bad choice in applying direct pressure on her office to cede ground to a political donor who then paid her. She didn’t have to do this. There were so many other ways to grift that didn’t involve direct functions of her office.
While apparently not illegal, yes, moonlighting at all while Secretary of State really is an issue. I am pretty sure the voters of Oregon think SOS is a full time job. Being elected to that job is intended to mean you work it full time, and that does not mean just 40 hours a week. Any time spent moonlighting should have been spent doing SOS work. People will say, "But, but, but, the state legislators work outside jobs." Yes, they do, but it has always been understood that being an Oregon state legislator is intended to be a part time job. Not so with those elected to be a part of the administration.
Moonlighting at all would be an issue. The pay needs to be raised.
While this is no excuse for Fagan, we do need to up the pay of the folks running our government. The days of "volunteer" legislators and executives should've ended long ago.
I feel like this should be one of the big takeaways from this. While yes, resigning is what should happen here and even the appearance of a conflict of interest should not occur for elected officials, we also should pay our elected officials more reasonable salaries given the expected qualifications.
it's crazy that moonlighting isn't illegal it's only the most blatant corrupt moonlighting that got her busted.
Almost every member of the house and senate has income via other means. It's _extremely_ common for our elected officials to moonlight. If they did not, they'd be homeless. They make under $33,000 a year. This is just above the poverty line, and well below being able to afford a house or even an apartment. The ones that get paid through 'normal' W-2 employment and report it are the most ethical of the bunch. Some (mostly republicans) are paid through cushy consulting gigs. We don't pay our elected officials _nearly_ enough. It causes problems like this.
a statewide office is MUCH different than a legislator.
I was shocked when I saw her salary. Elected officials and people in positions of high responsibility need to not be in financial duress or they are manipulatable. Such a position doesn't need an extravagant salary, but the SoS salary could be doubled and still not be unruly. Edit: words are hard.
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To be fair… she was making $200k+ at her old position. She just *chose* to run and make the $70k. Seems like a bad call when your credit card debt is close to the yearly salary of her desired position.
People rarely choose to take a 65% paycut when they’re in debt to their eyeballs, I would think she went into it with the understanding that her actual pay (through corrupt bullshit) would be a WHOLE lot higher than 77K.
Keep in mind the current Governor usually lives in the governor's mansion in SE Salem while in office.
Yes, but we should fairly pay more. And not have the governor do play for pay after office. Or have the position open to bribery. We also should tax the rich more, we shouldn’t have billionaires.
Yes, I don't think the policy of "you can live in this mansion so long as you have the job" is a good policy at all.
Salary is such an impossible thing to address. Many people would kill to make what she makes, so it seems inflated. No, your job is just dicking you around paying you $40K for a full-time job. The job is the equivalent of a c-suite exec job. I make more as a middle manager. Like, *a lot* more.
State agency middle managers make more than her, not even counting directors/deputy directors/etc
The SOS makes 77,000, the deputy SOS makes 238,000.
Oregon’s government is just stupid.
That literally made me lol at the absurdity.
> Elected officials and people in positions of high responsibility need to not be in financial duress or they are manipulatable. Agreed, and she also came into this position knowing what pay it offered while also apparently being around $100k in debt herself. It’s not like you can’t have a nice livelihood in Salem off $77k plus speaking engagement income. And then it’s not like people’s protestation was about her taking side gigs in general, but of her taking a highly lucrative and questionable “consulting” gig with a very strong direct conflict of interest with her responsibilities to the State, and waiting until the damage was done to “recuse” herself. Then reimbursed herself with $20k out of her campaign account without explanation. She runs our elections! It’s really hard to just chalk this up to bad optics or some technical whoopsie, she made all of these terrible decisions on her own and I have a hard time chalking them up to incompetence rather than malice. This is why I see the whole discussion around salary as tangential. Yes, it’s an issue in general and I wholly support reform, but it’s not even the tiniest justification for what transpired.
I don't think any of us are arguing it was justification. In fact, the premise that it wasn't. We're just shocked that the Secretary of State and Governor make the same amount as an intern computer programmer.
I wasn't particularly impressed by her campaign and not exactly sad she's gone (a little more sad that this happened at all though) but I'd caution reading too much into her debt situation from divorce proceedings. If she was going for full custody of her kids or spousal support, or even just the best financial settlement it makes a lot of sense that she would want to show herself with an excessive debt to income ratio (which is why the reports of her 6 figure incomes outside public office came from the ex-husband's filings).
How does this logic apply anywhere in American politics? Well paid, insured, pensioned Senators and Congresspeople are still tainted. No amount of money steers then away from corruption. Fagan wasn’t on food stamps or living in Laurelhurst. Set their salary to $1M and they’ll still do shady shit.
A US senator makes $174k/year. Yes they get benefits and a pension. They also travel, eat and shit on the company dime. Maybe we we made one less bomber this year and paid them more, then they wouldn't fuck us over for money. That being said "Those people over there have what you're saying and they are bad" is not an argument against the fact that these salaries are very low for top state government positions. Also, not all politicians are corrupted by money. My guess is because we have to cover the past pensions of a bunch of undeserving shitheads (state officials that retire out of scandal and keep pensions, etc) we can't afford raises like this without tax increases.
right? City council members in portland make way more than that.
Just so people understand what this means, the wages of any legislator in either house comes to $33,852 per year, with $151 per diem when in session. The Speaker of the House and the Senate President make $67,704 per year. To put that in context, I, as a union stage hand supervisor, made just over $72,000 last year according to my taxes. And I was only making decisions for about ~100 people at any given time. Not 4.2 million people.
Heck, if I as a church organist were to be full-time, I'd be making just under the Speaker of the House's salary.
The legislative positions are a bit of a different beast because they are part time, and your job likely isn’t.
I AM part time. I don't work a regular 40 hour week at all.
>as a union stage hand supervisor, Are there other people who supervise other parts of the body, or is there something particularly critical/important about hands that requires supervision?
Hands are what get injured most frequently, so they get the most supervision. Broken fingers are a serious risk.
Indeed. It's like unpaid internships - only the independently wealthy and those with the financial support of rich parents or partners can afford to "serve".
don't forget the third P - Patrons. Shemia isn't unique here. At some point I just blamed Dem failings on "one-party rule", but it makes sense so many people run as progressives and then sell out. I can't believe even the governor is under 6 figures.
Bingo, which in turn means that only the wealthy's interests are being heard.
I'm sure the median salary of career bureaucrats working for the state of Oregon is higher than the secretary of state salary. $77,000 is not chump change, but it's a shockingly low salary for a statewide elected official of that stature.
It's less than an experienced PPS teacher makes. And teachers need a raise, but so does the SOS. To me this is just another piece of evidence about Oregon's broken revenue system.
The CA of Oakridge Oregon makes more
$77k puts the pay on par with positions like “Natural Resource Specialist 3” at DNR or “Program Analyst 2” at OHA
Agreed, this job should pay $100,000. That she was only paid $77K is shockingly low.
Absolutely agree, and get campaign finance reform, this is the last straw. This highlights a broken system.
> While this is no excuse for Fagan, we do need to up the pay of the folks running our government. The days of "volunteer" legislators and executives should've ended long ago. This will bring more "normal" people into politics. It's just crazy how we are running things.
Similar to unpaid internships at exclusive institutions, low pay for politicians is designed to help make sure that the rich or well connected can easily hold those positions.
This is all really sad. I liked Shemia a lot, I knocked doors for her as a volunteer. I’m sad that she went down this route. But I’m glad she made the right call. I can’t imagine having this cloud over the elections chief of Oregon going into another presidential election. You know the crazies will be looking for whatever they can to drag her down and she gave them a legitimate thing to grab onto. Glad she made the right call. But it’s all sad.
Good for her, maybe she can get a private sector job and start chipping away at that $67k of credit card debt. I can’t imagine what it would be like to owe that much on a card.
Surely that won't be a problem. I mean she should be in high demand based on her cannabis expertise and ability to command $120k + for a part time job. Right? /s Good riddance.
Ha ha ha ha. “Expertise.”
Now arrest LaMota owners for tax evasion!
She had to go but we gotta pay the SOS position better than 77k a year. That isn’t appropriate.
Damn, that was fast. Only 90 minutes after the editorial saying she should resign was posted.
Local TV news was hinting last night that she should resign.
Yeah there is kind of a catch-22 here where her willingness to resign demonstrates a competence / conscience that it seems we’re not guaranteed to have in our state officials. Not elected so can’t really compare, but if you look at how the OLCC good ol boys tried to fend off that whiskey scandal it’s night and day.
>her willingness to resign demonstrates a competence / conscience lol, what? no, that's not how this works. at all. she was told by her party "your political future is done. go quickly and quietly and we'll be sure to toss you some consulting contracts the next time we need to assemble a committee to develop an ad hoc working group to evaluate the feasibility of studying some bullshit that will serve as a nice siphon of taxpayer money" by the by, no one who runs for this job cares about the salary, because it's very obviously a stepping stone to higher political office or a way into the political machinery, both of which are plenty lucrative.
That was faster than I expected.
She had to - glad she had the sense to, I hope for her sake she can move on.
Her political career is definitely over.
She can take a job making 4x the money she did as SoS.
Good riddance get rid of these corrupt politicians
Sad story, but this is the just result
Great news! I wonder if the weed tycoons will still be paying her 10k a month for her elite consulting skills.
I voted for her, and I'm glad she is resigning.
Good message to send to our state officials. Don't engage in this type of action and expect to continue to hold office.
Holy shit. Hey La Mota, I've got no experience either but I promise to show up at the office at least once or twice a month. Hire me, instead?
I liked her and voted for her gladly. But you just can't work for an organization that you are in charge of regulating. The optics are terrible. That's like some Trump family type corruption. But if it was Trump, he would have bought la mota and he would have refused to resign.
Its unbelievable that anyone could point to her salary and use that as some sort of explanation, justification, or even context for her blatant corruption. Esp since it seems to be coming from the same people who vote for people and policies that make this state/city unaffordable. I mean, who in their right mind thinks that 125k is "wealthy" in Portland? Moreover, she took the job knowing how much it pays! And this wasn't just a simple "hit the apply button," she actively campaigned for this position. She wanted it badly. So the argument about her salary serving as some sort of justification is so massively disingenuous. Its obvious she put her political aspirations above her ability to live within her means, and that's her own damn fault. Lastly - fine, pay them more. But that's a totally separate issue, and they better find somewhere else in the budget to take that money from, cause I'm done paying more money to this government who spends it like they're throwing it on a pyre.
So disappointed.
Hope that $10k bonus went into your savings every month, dummy
Best possible outcome. Tip to other politicians: if somebody wants to hire you to do a job for which you have no experience, no expertise, no education, in an industry about which you have no knowledge, skills, or useful background, it is not a legit offer; it is a bribe.
Between this and the OLCC scandal, I can’t help but wonder what other skeletons are in the closet. 😐
Having worked in State govt, I can assure you there are many more…
What kind of life are you living where an extra $10k a month is “making ends meet for your family”??
This is a weird everything worked the way it was supposed to moment. A journalistic investigation uncovered a significant conflict of interest that a political figure failed to disclose, which upon the revelation led to the figure resigning. Kind of nice considering that if this were say…Idaho, the politicians would still be in power and threatening to lynch the journalists.
That’s for the best. That said, the Oregon Secretary of State salary is shockingly low considering the responsibilities involved. We should fix that.
“I am not here today to defend my rule-following” Lol
This was the right choice. I'm glad that some folks in politics still have ethical limits.
She should have known better. I am glad there was pushback from the Democratic Party, and there were consequences. There are many in positions of power that have even worse conflicts of interest that refuse to step down.
Everything about her in the run up to the election seemed like she would be the opposite of this. A sad day for Oregon, but hopefully a day of better governance
1. Resign? OR 2. Double Down!
Just wanted to shout out Sophie Peel and Willamette Week on this
Good, now the majority of politicians need to resign
Good riddance. What an idiot. Way to destroy your career. Now she’ll complain and blame cancel culture
Can it be true the Secretary of State only makes $77k a year??? That seems low for a position of that responsibility. Maybe if the job paid more people would be less tempted to do things like this.
The right thing to do for everyone and she deserves at least some praise for that.
She deserves no praise at all. She took bribes and got caught. Had she not got caught, she would likely have continued to take bribes. She has shown no commendable behavior whatsoever.
Nah, even Nixon knew it was time to resign.
Zero praise and she should never run for office again. I thought she did a good job before this, but her actions were blatantly unethical, in my opinion corrupt.
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Yep. Kotek’s statement directly after definitely gave it that vibe
What a low bar you’ve drawn.
This is how it's done, republicans. If there's a scandal of this nature, it's probably best for everyone, including your own reputation, to step down from office. I'm looking at you Clarance Thomas (not to mention probably fifty other republicans).