Kotek appoints former Portland city auditor as next secretary of state

By GARY A. WARNER/Oregon Capital Bureau

SALEM — Gov. Tina Kotek on Wednesday appointed former Portland city auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade as the Secretary of State.

LaVonne Griffin-Valade will be sworn in on June 30. She will fill out the term of Shemia Fagan, who resigned May 8 amid reports she was moonlighting as a consultant to a marijuana firm licensed by a state agency her office was auditing. The office will be up for election in 2024.

Griffin-Valade worked as a government performance auditor for over 16 years, including eight years as an elected auditor. 

“I told Oregonians in May that the primary objective of our next Secretary of State was to restore confidence in the office,” Kotek said in a statement. “LaVonne Griffin-Valade has the professional background and ethical judgment to rise above politics and lead the important work of the agency forward. This role demands accountability and transparency, especially at this moment, and I am eager to see her leadership restore faith in the Secretary of State’s office.” 

Fagan worked for two months as a paid consultant for a subsidiary of La Mota, a major Oregon marijuana business that heavily contributed to Democrats in political campaigns. The consulting job, first reported on April 27 by Willamette Week, paid Fagan $10,000 per month, with bonuses three times that amount if she helped the company get licensed in other states. She argued that she needed the outside work because of the $77,000 annual salary for the secretary of state. The amount has not changed in nearly a decade.

While Fagan was consulting, her office was auditing the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.

Fagan apologized for the consulting job on May 1, but said she planned to serve the remaining 20 months of her term. However, the next day, May 2, she announced she would resign effective May 8.

The Oregonian reported early this month that the U.S. Department of Justice has ordered five state agencies to turn over records related to former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan and the cannabis company she worked for on the side as part of a grand jury investigation now underway, according to subpoenas issued late last month.

Turnover goes back a decade

No Oregon secretary of state has completed their four-year term for over a decade. Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned in 2015 and Secretary of State Kate Brown became governor. She appointed Democrat Jeanne Atkins as Secretary of State. Atkins did not seek election in 2016.

Republican Dennis Richardson scored an upset victory in the 2016 election over Labor commissioner Brad Avakian, becoming the first Republican statewide office holder in several elections.  Richardson died of brain cancer in 2019 and Brown appointed former Republican House Speaker Bev Clarno of Redmond, with the understanding that she would not seek the job in the 2020 election.

Fagan then defeated Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, in the 2020 election.

Under the Oregon constitution, the secretary of state replaces the governor in event of death or resignation. However, an appointee cannot become governor. Currently, Treasurer Tobias Read would be next in line to become governor. 

Oregon and impeachment

Oregon is the only state that does not allow for the impeachment of executive officers, but the Legislature last week moved toward a constitutional amendment to put before voters in 2024 to allow for impeachment by the House and trial in the Senate.

The lack of impeachment caused a brief constitutional crisis in 2015. Kitzhaber won a fourth non-consecutive term in 2014, but a growing scandal over allegations of influence peddling by Kitzhaber’s fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, led for calls for his resignation soon after he was sworn into office in 2015. Kitzhaber said he would resign, then briefly balked. If he had opted to stay in office, the only way to remove the governor was through a long recall effort that could take more than a year. 

Kitzhaber ultimately decided to resign and the constitutional crisis was averted. If Fagan had not resigned, there was no way to remove her from office other than a recall.

The Legislature will send a ballot measure to voters in November 2024 to change the constitution to allow for impeachment by the House with a minimum two-thirds vote of the 60 members. The impeachment would then go to trial in the Senate, with the Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice presiding. If two-thirds of senators vote to remove the executive officer, they would be replaced immediately and the office would be up for election at the next general election.

The appointee

Griffin-Valade was hired as a senior management auditor at the Multnomah County Auditor’s Office in 1998 and later went on to serve as the elected Multnomah County auditor. In 2009, LaVonne was elected the Portland city auditor. By the time she retired in 2014, The Oregonian editorial board credited her audits with exposing “mysteries about spending or management that would have otherwise gone unchecked and unknown – even by those in charge of the spending and management.”

“I have the experience to bring back credibility, accountability, transparency, and trust to the Secretary of State’s office,” Griffin-Valade said. “It’s never been more important to have a leader who will focus on rebuilding the public’s trust in the Secretary of State’s office, and that is exactly what I will aim to do every day.”

After leaving office, Griffin-Valade went on to earn a master of fine arts in writing from Portland State University and has since pursued a successful writing career.  Griffin-Valade will serve the remaining 18 months of the current term. She will be sworn in on Friday, June 30 in Salem.

•  The Oregon Capital Bureau is a collaboration of EO Media and Pamplin Media Group and provides state government and political news to their newspapers and media around Oregon, including YachatsNews.com