Skip to main content
Gov. Tina Kotek’s office released a large batch of emails today in response to requests from WW and other news outlets following the departure of three of her top aides March 22.
It will take time to sort through the thousands of documents released today, but one theme quickly emerges from an initial reading: The role of first lady Aimee Kotek Wilson in the governor’s office raised ethical concerns among Kotek’s most senior and loyal aides.
One example: On Feb. 7, Abby Tibbs, Kotek’s special adviser and one of the three aides who later left the office, had an extraordinary email exchange with Juliana Wallace, Kotek’s behavioral health adviser.
“I realize I never followed-up with you in writing about the situation we discussed about the governor asking you to call Cascadia about a friend of the [first lady]’s who is upset with her supervisor,” Tibbs wrote. “And I also totally understand how the situation felt awkward at best, and confusing to the supervisor as to why the gov’s office was calling.”
Aimee Kotek Wilson, the first lady, holds a master’s degree in social work and was employed at Cascadia Behavioral Health in Portland prior to Kotek’s running for governor. The email implies that Kotek told Wallace to intervene in a workplace dispute on behalf of Kotek Wilson’s friend at a private nonprofit that relies on government funding.
Tibbs went on to say that Wallace and her newly hired assistant, April Rohman, needed to be wary of such requests.
“I do think you and April developing very clear lines of communication/expectations that she will let you know anytime GTK [Gov. Tina Kotek] or the FL [first lady] reach out to her/ask her to do something,” Tibbs wrote.
“And I also want to just recognize again that requests, and actions by the FL and/or governor like the ones above are indeed highly inappropriate at best.”
Kotek has characterized her wife’s role in her office as a gain for the public, saying she brings the benefit of her lived experience, which includes mental illness and alcoholism, to important conversations about state policy. The newly released emails, however, show a blurring of Kotek Wilson’s personal interests with the authority of the governor’s office. And the call to Cascadia shows the governor herself appearing to blur what should be a bright line between her official position and a personal concern.
Tibbs’ email made it clear the Cascadia phone call was not an isolated incident.
“The governor has been reminded several times now of the power she and the FL hold in this office and externally,” Tibbs wrote, “and the appropriate use of their power.”
When Tina Kotek won election as Oregon’s 39th governor in November 2022, many people expected she’d bring the kind of ruthless efficiency to the job that made her a highly effective speaker of the Oregon House for nearly a decade.
But the emails show Kotek, who generally earned high marks for her first year in office, had one blind spot: her wife, first lady Aimee Kotek Wilson.
Kotek Wilson held a variety of political jobs: She worked on Democratic campaigns; lobbied for Service Employees International Union; worked for the Democratic co-speaker’s office in 2011 and the Oregon secretary of state before going back to school to earn a master’s degree in social work, moving from politics into counseling.
The couple sold their North Portland home in September. That meant Kotek Wilson spent all of her time in Salem, separate from her social network in Portland and more involved in her wife’s work. Emails from Kotek to her top staff, for instance, show that she often included Kotek Wilson’s thinking in her plans, as if they were partners in the enterprise of running the state.
“The FL and I are still discussing how we want the year to go. That said, we are both committed to the visits with the Tribes,” Kotek wrote in one message. “We don’t see any trade missions happening this year. If there is absolutely something urgent for Asia that HAS to happen, please make the argument.”
Emails also show the governor included Kotek Wilson both in her thinking and in high-level meetings on mental health policy—one of the governor’s top priorities.
On Jan. 17, for instance, Kotek wrote an email to chief of staff Andrea Cooper and Tibbs, with the subject line “next steps on behavioral health.”
“I’ve been catching up on my reading of reports, thinking about our behavioral health work for the year and strategizing with the first lady,” Kotek wrote. Kotek favored taking a cross-departmental approach that would include top staff from the Oregon Health Authority and governor’s office staff in a “pod.”
“I really like the BH Pod approach,” she wrote, naming a number of top staff “+ FL,” i.e., the first lady. That meant Kotek Wilson would be included in the most meaningful meetings of key decision makers about a top Kotek policy area.
The plan, discussed at length in emails between the governor and top staff, was to convene key players in mid-February.
“And to confirm,” Kotek wrote to Cooper and Tibbs in a Feb. 5 email. “The First Lady is also attending and needs to have it on her calendar.”
The emails show considerable tension around the issue, as Cooper and Tibbs sought to create a legal, administrative and ethical structure for any role Kotek Wilson might want to play in the governor’s office.
In fact, it appears the concerns led to the governor withdrawing from the long-discussed white board session.
“I’ve been thinking more about the 2/13 meeting,” Kotek wrote in a Feb. 6 email to Tibbs and Cooper. “I think everyone has clear direction what product I need to see. So, I don’t need to be there. Or the FL.”
That response didn’t land well with Tibbs. “The purpose of the white board session was primarily for the conversations with BH [behavioral health] leaders and you,” Tibbs wrote Feb. 7. “This came about because [behavioral health adviser] Juliana Wallace has been working on her initiative workplan for months and we haven’t been able to give her clear direction from you.”
The governor’s office has confirmed that the first lady has attended behavioral health meetings, and some people familiar with the office say her involvement has slowed the creation of a clear action plan.
Kotek has also subsequently sought to minimize the significance of providing staff and Oregon State Police Dignitary Protection Unit services for the first lady, saying the ideas were preliminary. But the emails show Kotek was involved at a granular level in developing a plan for the office of the first lady, including reviewing a draft handbook. And, the emails indicate, there was significant internal disagreement on the matter.
On Feb. 9, Cooper wrote to Kotek, copying O’Brien, Tibbs and now deputy chief of staff Chris Warner, saying that the four staffers had reviewed a proposed job description with the first lady. “We believe this meets the goal of developing a meaningful role for the first lady while also upholding the ethical and legal standards of this office,” Cooper wrote. “However, before we initiate that work, and respecting the urgency you have around this matter, we would like to meet with you along with the legal team, early next week and discuss a few things first.”
One of the things senior staff wanted to discuss hints at how deep the disagreement between the governor and her top aides went. Cooper suggested “hiring a professional facilitator to support you and the leadership team in working through next steps.”
The emails suggest, however, that Kotek decided to go her own way.
“I understand that after the advice provided to the governor that she has clearly made a decision to move forward on the FL role in her own way including this chief of staff position out of the gate,” Tibbs wrote to Kotek and senior staff on March 10. “Having said that, how are we ensuring that there is a written job position for this position and that the responsibilities are for a full time position [and] that there are clear and transparent expectations about how the position fits into the office structure?”
In fact, there was widespread confusion. In a March 14 email, Shelby Campos, whose title in Kotek’s office is director of operations, had many questions about the new “office of the first lady.”
“Are there any specific guidelines that govern the activities of the new office?” Campos asked in her email. “Will there be clear guidelines provided to staff regarding their interactions and collaborations with the office of FL? If staff have questions or concerns, who should they direct them to?”
Those questions point to a central tension in Kotek’s office: Her wife, an unelected volunteer, showed up at staff meetings and meetings with lobbyists, weighed in on some personnel matters, and offered opinions on a variety of issues. Because she is the governor’s wife, it appears from emails and interviews that staff members feared disagreeing with or displeasing her. And, as emails show, the governor did not seem to want to hold her wife to the same standards to which paid advisers must adhere—such as obtaining their positions based on merit, working within defined job descriptions, or signing conflict-of-interest and other disclosure forms.
In a March 15 response to Campos, Tibbs said the questions Campos raised were among those senior staffers “have advocated be addressed over the last several months.”
Tibbs, who is a lawyer and served as Kotek’s budget expert, spelled out staff concerns.
“Because the [first lady]’s relationship with the state of Oregon is by virtue of their marriage to the governor, there are interesting/complicated legal/ethical/workplace implications across a variety of areas,” she wrote. “I continue to believe that the office has an obligation to not only meet the letter of the law/ethics rules but exceed them and center the spirit of the laws/ethics rules because there are significant issues of public trust and the obligation to the people of Oregon.”
But Kotek disagreed with her staff, leading to Cooper’s termination and Tibbs’ and O’Brien’s departures, all of which were announced March 22.
Some of Tibbs’ final words in an email a week before she resigned captured her concerns. “The office should take meaningful steps to address the appearance/perception related to a governor and spouse and staff re conflicts of interest, favoritism, bias, nepotism issues, complicated power dynamics, conflict resolution, retaliation—the things that can really impact governor’s office staff morale and sense of stability and the confidence in a governor’s office overall.”
This story will be updated.