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Audrey Mechling, a former legislative staffer previously identified in a state Bureau of Labor and Industries investigation of sexual harassment in the Capitol as "employee A," today wrote an op-ed for The Oregonian. In it, she re-stated the case for the many victims of harassment described in an investigation released in January.
Mechling, now a graduate student in California, took issue with recent op-eds in The Oregonian and the Salem Statesman Journal written by Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (D-Portland).
The combative exchange between two of the harassment victims on newspaper op-ed pages displays the entrenched divisions between people working in the Capitol over who should ultimately be held responsible.
Steiner Hayward was one of two senators (Sen. Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis) is the other) who complained of harassment by former Jeff Kruse (R-Roseburg).
In her op-eds, Steiner Hayward defended embattled Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem), writing that Courtney responded to her concerns in admirable fashion. (Late last year, Courtney named Steiner Hayward Senate co-chair of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, which writes the state's budget.)
In contrast to the BOLI investigation, which faulted Courtney's handling of complaints, Steiner Hayward says she found his actions "swift and compassionate." She further says reports to the contrary are a "pre-determined narrative" that are "one-sided."
Mechling, who according to the BOLI report suffered harassment in the Capitol from male legislative staffer and was threatened by legislative administration when she filed a complaint, says Steiner Hayward's efforts to support Courtney undermine women in the Capitol who have suffered harassment.
"I am one of the aggrieved parties in the Bureau of Labor and Industries' complaint alleging that Courtney and others have systematically brushed sexual harassment complaints under the rug," Mechling wrote today.
"I can say with near certainty that none of the complainants shares Steiner Hayward's good fortune. I know that I am not alone when I describe my reporting of sexual harassment in the Capitol as a traumatizing experience in which I was intimidated into years of silence."
Gelser, who has been vocal in her criticism of Courtney and legislative administration, also took issue with her colleague's defense of the Senate president.
