Former Capitol watchdog sues Oregon for $1.2 million

As he threatened late final yr, the person who served as Oregon’s legislative fairness officer for 2 months in 2021 has filed a whistleblower lawsuit in opposition to the state of Oregon, saying he was pushed out of the job after reporting severe issues in his workplace and within the higher ranks of legislative administration.

The go well with paints a detrimental portrait of former Home Speaker Tina Kotek, now a number one candidate for governor, in addition to many others in energy on the Capitol, significantly legislative human assets chief Jessica Knieling.

Knieling mentioned Monday she couldn’t remark as a result of pending lawsuit.

Katie Wertheimer, spokesperson for the Kotek marketing campaign, mentioned, “Tina strongly believes the state Capitol needs to be a secure and welcoming surroundings for everybody.” Kotek declined to deal with the lawsuit straight, nonetheless, saying she doesn’t touch upon pending litigation.

Nate Monson, who held the office watchdog job from April to June of 2021, filed the go well with in Marion County Circuit Court docket Monday. Attorneys Michael Fuller and Kim Sordyl signify him.

The place of legislative fairness officer, the top of a one-person workplace in control of investigating complaints of office harassment on the Capitol, was created within the wake of a damning 2019 report by the state Labor Bureau.

The company’s five-month investigation concluded that essentially the most highly effective lawmakers and directors within the Capitol mishandled, downplayed and ignored allegations of sexual harassment, together with inappropriate touching, sexually suggestive language and the lopsided energy dynamics that enabled the conduct.

Monson, employed after a nationwide search to be the workplace’s first everlasting fairness officer, says within the go well with that as quickly as he arrived in Salem, he reported considerations concerning the workplace’s shoddy operations previous to his arrival: no information, unpaid authorized payments, unreturned cellphone calls and allegations of harassment that had gone uninvestigated.

In his go well with, he additionally stories an environment of infighting, backstabbing, name-calling and the like. He attributes statements to his predecessor, appearing fairness officer Jackie Sandmeyer, Knieling, Kotek and others laced with f-bombs or accusing others of psychological instability or each.

A sampling from the go well with: “Sandmeyer mentioned Rep. Dan Bonham filed a grievance in opposition to Rep. Kotek for telling him to ‘get the f*** out of my workplace.’ Sandmeyer didn’t take motion on the grievance. On Mr. Monson’s first day of labor, Sandmeyer advised him that Knieling is ‘loopy, evil, controlling and transphobic.’ Regardless of her function and place, Sandmeyer didn’t examine complaints in opposition to Knieling. On Mr. Monson’s third day, Knieling advised him that she cries most nights as a result of Sandmeyer bullies her.”

Monson, within the lawsuit, says that his good religion complaints about misconduct, conveyed to Kotek and to Senate President Peter Courtney primarily by way of Knieling, weren’t acted upon. Slightly, he was accused of falsifying data on his resume and, with out being given a possibility to rebut the accusation, was pressured out, the lawsuit says.

Monson says that Rep. Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, a co-chair of the Joint Committee on Conduct, performed a task in his firing. The lawsuit says Fahey advised Monson “he wouldn’t be capable of get well from Knieling’s allegations of resume discrepancies,” and that Fahey “reminded him that she had advised him early on that the LEO place was a nasty job and the place is ‘loopy.’”

The committee subsequently emailed what Monson mentioned ought to have been non-public personnel data relating to him to Capitol workers and the press, together with a write-up “attacking his character.”

Knieling then withheld his closing paycheck and solely gave it to him after he filed a proper grievance with the state labor bureau, the go well with says.

The go well with seeks a minimum of $1.2 million in financial and compensatory damages.

The Conduct Committee has been recruiting candidates to turn into the subsequent legislative fairness officer for almost a yr and is now “partaking an out of doors agency” to help with the search, Knieling mentioned Monday. Within the meantime, two legislation companies, Stoel Rives and Jackson Lewis, are serving as appearing legislative fairness officers, she mentioned.

— Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@oregonian.com; @OregonianPol