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For nearly a year, WW sought copies of text messages sent and received by U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) on her personal phone when she was commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries, the state agency responsible for ensuring employers treat their workers fairly.
The texts sought were by law public records because they involved state business. During her four years as labor commissioner, Hoyle had conducted state business on her state-issued phone, which is standard, but also on her personal phone, which is not advised for elected officials.
For 10 months after entering Congress, Hoyle failed to turn over her texts to BOLI, the agency she previously ran. It was not until November of last year that Hoyle and her attorney provided those texts to the bureau.
This spring and summer, BOLI released to WW all of Hoyle’s texts on her personal phone that involved state business from Jan. 1, 2021, until the end of 2022.
The interest in Congresswoman Hoyle’s texts stem from her interactions as labor commissioner with the embattled Oregon cannabis outfit La Mota. As WW reported in March 2023, the constellation of companies under the La Mota name controlled a substantial share of the Oregon cannabis market and its co-founders became prominent Democratic Party donors, yet had been issued over a million dollars in state and federal tax liens, was a defendant in more than two dozen lawsuits, and had left behind a trail of unpaid bills. (The company’s relationship with Secretary of State Shemia Fagan resulted in her May 2023 resignation—a stunning blow to a rising star in Oregon’s Democratic Party.)
Hoyle assisted La Mota when it had business before the state. In the fall of 2022, she helped shepherd a $554,000 BOLI grant to ENDVR, a new nonprofit co-founded by La Mota’s CEO, Rosa Cazares. Records previously reported by WW show Hoyle vouched for Cazares’ nonprofit and, when it fumbled its first pitch to the voting body that awards grant funding, Hoyle departed from standard agency protocol to ensure the nonprofit had another shot at the money (“Puff, Puff, Pass,” WW, April 12, 2023).
Hoyle’s assistance to Cazares was all the more notable because Cazares and her partner, La Mota owner Aaron Mitchell, had made campaign contributions to Hoyle of $26,800—including $20,000 to her reelection campaign as BOLI commissioner, then $5,800 to her campaign when she announced she was running for Congress, the maximum amount the cannabis executives could contribute to her congressional bid under federal campaign laws.
Hoyle has always maintained there was nothing inappropriate about her relationship with Cazares.
During WW’s reporting on Hoyle and Cazares, it became clear through records that Hoyle had a habit of discussing state business on her personal devices. BOLI knew that, too; records show that bureau staff asked Hoyle to turn over all public records on her personal devices as she was leaving office in December 2022. But as of September 2023—nine months after arriving in Congress—Hoyle still hadn’t provided copies of texts sent on her personal devices that were, by law, public records. (She gave back her state-issued phone in late September.)
Current BOLI leaders persisted in demanding that Hoyle turn over her personal texts that counted as public records. Hoyle retained an attorney, Emily Matasar, to help sort through her texts before handing them over.
WW requested all of Hoyle’s texts on her personal phone provided to BOLI from Jan. 1, 2021, to the end of Hoyle’s term on Dec. 31, 2022. The bureau produced nearly 8,000 texts.
Most of the texts are innocuous—Hoyle texts back and forth with her agency’s leadership team, fellow state officials and lawmakers, and lobbyists representing labor unions. Sometimes Hoyle texted with reporters; at other times, she criticized their stories in texts to her staff.
But the last batch of texts produced by BOLI—more than 5,000 messages—includes a number of exchanges between Cazares and Hoyle that are unusual.
The texts show an informal and cozy relationship between the two women in the months leading up to Cazares’ nonprofit receiving the half-million-dollar grant from BOLI.
In texts between Hoyle and Cazares from April 2021 to the end of 2022, Cazares asks for two letters of recommendation from Hoyle, seeks clarification on state rules for employers, and gives advice on legislation.
The texts are especially noteworthy because they show a chummy relationship between an embattled employer and the state elected official most responsible for ensuring employers treat their workers fairly. At the time Cazares and Hoyle exchanged texts, La Mota was the subject of more than 15 worker complaints filed with BOLI and hundreds of thousands of dollars in state and federal tax liens.
Had she known then what she knows now about La Mota, Hoyle says she wouldn’t have helped Cazares the way she did.
“Rosa Cazares presented herself as a reputable entrepreneur working to advance a growing industry in Oregon, but what we’ve learned since is that she was lying,” Hoyle says. “I look forward to a full investigation into the allegations against her and her business partner. If I knew then what we know now about Cazares and her business partner, I would have responded differently to her requests for help.”
Here are eight text exchanges between Hoyle and Cazares, and why they matter. The exchanges are verbatim, but some texts have been omitted for clarity.
April 20, 2021
Cazares: Policy Question: What is the standard procedure for dispersion of tips
Hoyle: There really isn’t a standard and there’s nothing on this in Oregon law. Feds waffle with whoever is in charge but seem to have settled on no managers in a tip pool and no back of the house for restaurants. So splitting tips equally is fine. I don’t know of any standard distribution tho.
Cazares: Thank you so much for the information.
Why it matters: In March 2021, Cazares and Hoyle dined together at Portland City Grill. One month after that meal, Cazares, a major employer in Oregon, casually texts Hoyle on her personal phone to ask a question about employer rules. As the elected official in charge of safeguarding workers’ rights, the fact that Hoyle texts a policy clarification to an employer with hundreds of workers is unusual.
May 7, 2021
Hoyle: I got this bill passed yesterday that should help.
Hoyle: [Sends link to OPB story about an unemployment benefits bill]
Cazares: It’s so tough right now
Cazares: No one wants to work bc they make more money on unemployment
Hoyle: With my bill, they could make up to $300 and still get their unemployment. It’s a good pro business / pro labor bill
Hoyle: This is why we need people who signed the front of a paycheck in Govt
Cazares: It’s tough that’s for sure. The entitlement from staff is outrageous. I think we need to figure out ways to give a hand up not a hand out.
Hoyle: Did you read about my bill, that’s exactly what it does
Why it matters: Cazares complains about the work ethic of her employees to Hoyle, the elected official in charge of safeguarding workers’ rights and watchdogging employers. Hoyle writes that Oregon needs more people in office that have “signed the front of a paycheck.” As WW reported last year, Cazares had aspirations to one day become governor.
Aug. 24, 2021
Cazares: What’s your state email address
Hoyle: [Sends email address]
Hoyle: all ok?
Cazares: Can I use u as a reference
Hoyle: Of course
Cazares: https://thecannabisindustry.org
Cazares: Applying to join their board. Can you write me a letter? Please
Hoyle: Yep
Cazares: I really need to get involved federally
Cazares: Thank you!!!
Cazares: Maybe talk about apprenticeship program we are working on?
Hoyle: I’ll do it first thing tomorrow. Dealing with getting my agency’s independent report out
Why it matters: In this exchange, Cazares asks for a recommendation letter from Hoyle in hopes she’ll get appointed to the board of the National Cannabis Industry Association—an association that lobbies for pro-cannabis legislation. By this date, 11 employees had filed complaints with BOLI alleging misconduct by La Mota. Still, Hoyle agrees without question to write a letter on behalf of Cazares, even as her agency investigated complaints about La Mota’s treatment of workers.
Feb. 16 and 17, 2022
Cazares: BOLI question: if we request a doctors note for 1 day of absence. Are employers required to pay. Not the required one after 3 days?
Hoyle: I’ll find out.
Hoyle: so yes.
Why it matters: Once again, Hoyle clarifies her agency’s policy for an embattled employer. She does so on her personal phone, not her state-issued one. That means that while the exchange is by law a matter of public record, it’s harder to track because it was conducted on a personal phone—not a state-issued one. It’s off the books, unless someone requests it.
Not all communications between Cazares and Hoyle are captured in these texts. For instance, Hoyle in January 2022 placed a call to the mayor of North Bend, Ore., asking if she could provide Cazares with the mayor’s contact information when Cazares was lobbying to obtain a cannabis permit in the city.
April 13, 2022
Cazares: [Sends link to the text of a bill in Congress called the Billionaire Income Tax]
Cazares: This bill would put us out of business.
Cazares: do not support it.
Why it matters: Cazares sends Hoyle a link to a federal bill that would close income tax loopholes for anyone with $1 billion in assets or more than $100 million in annual income. She writes that it would “put us out of business” and urges Hoyle not to support it. Cazares also sends the texts to Annie Ellison, executive director of Emerge Oregon, who was involved with Cazares’ ENDVR nonprofit. Hoyle does not reply.
By this point, Cazares and Mitchell had positioned themselves as top Democratic donors in Oregon. They’d contributed nearly $100,000 to campaigns for Hoyle, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan and then-Speaker of the House Tina Kotek.
Based on their failure to consistently pay taxes and bills, it’s unlikely that Cazares and her partner, Aaron Mitchell, were billionaires—yet Cazares seems to assert they are or soon hope to be.
May 4, 2022
Cazares: will you tell Lisa [Ransom, then director of BOLI’s Apprenticeship and Training Division] to [pen] me please I have a lot of questions
Hoyle: Okay. From ATD.
Hoyle: Apprenticeship?
Cazares: yes apprenticeship.
Cazares: I just need to know if the grant that BOLI is giving out - if cannabis can benefit or not i am just setting up the nonprofit so i just want to ensure that we hit the ground running with all of our plans in the right way before we submit.
Why it matters: As WW reported last year, Hoyle helped shepherd a $554,000 BOLI grant to ENDVR, a nonprofit founded by Cazares, for a cannabis apprenticeship program. (Hoyle’s successor as BOLI commissioner would retract the grant in March 2023, following WW’s reporting on La Mota; it also emerged that the apprenticeship program ENDVR promised to create wouldn’t have been viable under federal law, which still outlaws cannabis.) Until this text message was released, it wasn’t clear when Hoyle first discussed with Cazares the prospect of her nonprofit receiving BOLI money.
The texts now show that, shortly after the grant application period opened May 2, Cazares asked Hoyle whether ENDVR would be eligible for the state dollars. Hoyle previously told WW she couldn’t recall if she’d spoken to Cazares about the grant.
May 12, 2022
Cazares: We need recommendation letter for city of Portland!
Hoyle: Ok
Hoyle: to whom and what points do you need made?
Why it matters: This exchange occurs two weeks before Cazares’ nonprofit, ENDVR, submitted its application for $554,000 in BOLI funds. Previously, Hoyle told WW she couldn’t recall if she’d spoken to Cazares about ENDVR’s aspirations to receive grant funding from BOLI. But this exchange and subsequent correspondence shows that Hoyle, before her agency had ever approved funds for ENDVR or its apprenticeship program had been tested, agreed to write a letter of recommendation for the nonprofit to receive city of Portland funds.
In a subsequent text, Laura Vega, co-founder of ENDVR, sends three paragraphs to Hoyle to guide her as she writes her letter of recommendation. “We are looking for a letter of support that highlights the work we have done with bOLI and ir [sic] efforts to create the cannabis apprenticeship program…a testimony to support the good work we believe Endeavor will do in transforming the cannabis work space and any observations about Endeavor (or our personal) dedication and passion for creating a strong industry through positive and EQUITABLE leadership.”
The city of Portland tells WW it cannot find a letter written by Hoyle on behalf of Cazares in its records. ENDVR did not receive city grant money. Hoyle did not say whether she’d ever sent the letter.
June 30, 2022
Hoyle: you doing ok?
Cazares: Yes I am going good! Please do! Just staying busy! How about you?
Cazares: you build such an amazing team at BOLI
Hoyle: [Likes message]
Cazares: just submitted application in new Mexico for cannabis
Hoyle: [Likes message]
Cazares: I really want BOLI to take over OLCC
Cazares: What you built is what is needed for our industry
Hoyle: It’s not that hard. I don’t know why it hasn’t happened.
Cazares: we need to make it happen. I think it’s totally possible. When is your term up?
Cazares: when you win?
Cazares: i would love to see it under your leadership
Hoyle: Jan. 2023
Why it matters: As WW has previously reported, Cazares was displeased with the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, the state agency that regulates cannabis. She’d complained to state auditors in 2022 that the agency treated her and La Mota unfairly because she was a woman of color, and said the rules were so stringent they were suffocating her company.
In this exchange, Cazares compliments Hoyle’s leadership of BOLI and encourages her to take over the OLCC after her term as labor commissioner expires.