Heads may roll in Oregon agency due to love for rare bourbon – KTVZ

By ANDREW SELSKY
Related Press

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A thirst for uncommon bottles of bourbon seems set to value the manager director and different high officers of Oregon’s liquor and marijuana regulating company their jobs.

An inside investigation by the Oregon Liquor and Hashish Fee, obtained by The Related Press by way of a public information request Wednesday, concluded that Govt Director Steve Marks and 5 different company officers had diverted sought-after bourbons, together with Pappy Van Winkle’s 23-year-old whiskey, for his or her private use.

The officers had been paying for the whiskey, which might value hundreds of {dollars} a bottle, however they’d used their information and connections on the fee to acquire them, and consequently disadvantaged members of the general public of the spendy booze, the investigation mentioned. And that violated Oregon statutes, together with one which prohibits public officers from utilizing confidential info for private achieve, the fee’s investigation mentioned.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Wednesday requested the company’s board of commissioners to take away Marks and the opposite implicated officers, alleging they “abused their place for private achieve.”

“This conduct is wholly unacceptable. I cannot tolerate wrongful violations of our authorities ethics legal guidelines,” Kotek mentioned in her letter to the board of commissioners.

In his responses to questions from the investigator, Marks denied that he had violated Oregon ethics legal guidelines and state coverage. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that he had acquired preferential therapy “to some extent” in acquiring the whiskey as a fee worker. Marks and the opposite officers mentioned they by no means resold the whiskeys they obtained.

“This incident underlines the significance of getting public accountability,” mentioned company spokesperson Mark Pettinger. “The OLCC might want to work on rebuilding and restoring our public belief … and cling to Oregon’s ethics legal guidelines.”

After taking workplace final month, Kotek, a Democrat who was a long-serving Oregon Home speaker, requested for Marks’ resignation, however no purpose was introduced. Kotek mentioned she discovered of this enterprise concerning the bourbon afterward.

The board of commissioners is appointed by the governor and in flip selects the manager director, based on a fee spokesman. The commissioners’ subsequent common assembly is subsequent Wednesday. The company is the state’s third-largest income generator.

Kotek has requested Lawyer Basic Ellen Rosenblum to conduct an unbiased civil investigation into the extent of any wrongdoing and suggest stronger protocols for guaranteeing ethics legal guidelines are adopted.