Emails Show Ex-Gov. John Kitzhaber Made Only One Paid Speech While In Office

Willamette Week:

In December 2012, then-Gov. John Kitzhaber took the extraordinary step of asking the Oregon Government Ethics Commission if could have permission to make paid speeches. It was a surprising request for a public servant who'd prided himself on high ethical standards. Taking money for speeches could give at least the appearance that Kitzhaber was trading on his position as governor.In January 2013, the ethics commission approved his request to make private speeches but placed strict conditions on that approval. Kitzhaber could not get paid to speak in Oregon, he could not use his title or any public resources including staff time, computers or supplies to prepare his speeches and he had to book his speeches through an agency, rather than directly.

Now, emails that Kitzhaber’s office sought to delete from state servers on Feb. 5 reveal what Kitzhaber did with that blessing.

The emails show last year Kitzhaber agreed to be paid $20,000 to the World Health Care Congress at a conference in Maryland. (Emails show Kitzhaber’s booking agent took 25 percent of the fee as commission.) The event sponsors also provided first-class airfare, a hotel room and meals with expenses capped at $4,500.

The emails are among the thousands that Kitzhaber’s assistant, Jan Murdock, asked state officials to remove from state servers. The emails were subject to records requests by WW and The Oregonian. Kitzhaber has claimed the emails, from personal accounts, were private. WW's reporting has show Kitzhaber was using his personal email to do state business, making them public records.After he finished his first two terms as governor in 2003, Kitzhaber supported himself in part by making speeches around the country about healthcare reform. The former emergency room doctor had built a national reputation while a lawmaker and governor as one the architects of the Oregon Health Plan, which aimed to spend public healthcare dollars more efficiently.

When Kitzhaber returned to the governor’s office in 2010, he was short of money. His salary was less than  $100,000. That’s not peanuts but he was twice-divorced, had a mortgage on his primary residence and as The Oregonian has pointed out, had alimony and child-support payments to make and would soon begin paying for his son’s college education.The emails show another group tried to hire Kitzhaber. In July 2013, Bill Leigh, the agent whose speakers’ bureau represented Kitzhaber, wrote to the governor with an opportunity.

“Mid-Atlantic Permanente is interested. Can you speak for them, as they are a Kaiser subsidiary—one which does not work in Oregon,” Leigh wrote to Kitzhaber on July 2, 2013. “If so, would they be prohibited from using [the title of] Governor in their publicity?”

Kitzhaber ran that request by Liani Reeves, his general counsel. 

“Liani says groups that invite you to speak  . . . should not be marketing you as 'Governor,'" Kitzhaber’s assistant, Murdock, told him via email on July 3, 2013.

That speech never happened.

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