Oregon ethics commission to investigate travel by 4 Washington County commissioners

The state ethics commission voted unanimously Friday to investigate whether four members of the Washington County commission violated state ethics law during trips they took on behalf of the county sewer agency.
Investigators said that Chair Kathryn Harrington and commissioners Pam Treece, Jerry Willey and Nafisa Fai may have committed violations by receiving airline miles for trips they took on behalf of the agency, Clean Water Services. In addition, investigators said Harrington and Treece may have violated the rules by tacking on personal vacation to the business trips.
The members of the Washington County Board of Commissioners also serve as the board of the sewer agency and sometimes travel on behalf of that agency. Commissioner Jason Snider, who joined the commission in January and has not traveled on behalf of the agency, is not under investigation.
The commission’s decision to launch an investigation into board members does not mean it will ultimately find that they violated state ethics law, only that it believes that preliminary evidence warrants further investigation. The investigation could take up to six months, at which point the commission could find a violation occurred, seek a settlement or dismiss the cases entirely.
The new investigation comes after the ethics commission voted unanimously in June to investigate whether questionable spending on local meals and travel by former Clean Water Services CEO Diane Taniguchi-Dennis violated state ethics law. That investigation remains ongoing. It came on the heels of an Oregonian/OregonLive series that uncovered lavish travel spending and sky-high food expenses at the sewer agency. The news organization found that a noteworthy amount of that spending was by Taniguchi-Dennis, who resigned in May.
The issues at the center of the new ethics investigation into the four board members are more technical.
During a meeting Friday, Investigator Daniel Pacheco noted that Clean Water Services did not appear to have a travel policy for board members and therefore, it would require a deeper look from the ethics commission to determine whether the board members accepted unauthorized travel benefits. He specifically noted that all four board members received frequent flyer miles when they traveled on behalf of the agency.
“The frequent flyer rewards do not appear to be included in her official compensation package,” Pacheco said while discussing the allegations against Harrington. “In fact, it appears that CWS does not have a travel policy applicable to board members nor compensation agreements and it does not compensate board members directly for their board service.”
Lawyers for the board members noted that staff at Clean Water Services specifically asked board members to provide their frequent flyer numbers when booking their travel, which left board members with the impression that they were allowed to receive those miles.
“Chair Harrington followed what CWS’ practices that were in place at that time regarding reimbursement,” Ashley Marton, a lawyer for Harrington, told the ethics commission. “These practices were explained to her when she was elected. She now understands that CWS personnel policies that were in place at that time only apply to employees, but the agency has recently adopted new policies that are extended to board members.”
Margaret Olney, Treece’s lawyer, pointed out that Washington County travel rules allow for employees to receive travel rewards as part of their compensation package and that personal travel taken in conjunction with business trips is allowed under that policy as long as there is no additional cost to the county.
Olney argued that the Washington County travel rules should have applied to the commissioners while they were serving in their role as Clean Water Services board members.
Along with receiving frequent flyer benefits, Pacheco said Treece tacked on personal travel when she visited Copenhagen, Denmark, for the 2022 International Water Association World Water Congress and Exhibition, and when she traveled to Washington, D.C., for the 2023 National Water Policy Fly-In. He said that may have constituted a violation.
Pacheco said that Treece spent two extra personal days in Copenhagen, and that Clean Water Services paid for her round trip flight.
Records provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive by Clean Water Services show that Treece also spent four days in New Jersey ahead of the Washington D.C., conference. Clean Water Services paid for her to fly into New Jersey, and out of Washington D.C., for the trip.
The agency also covered a $185 business class seat on Amtrak to allow Treece to get to Washington D.C., for the conference after her personal vacation, the records show.
Treece told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday that the combined cost of the train ticket and flight to New Jersey, were very close to the amount a single flight to Washington D.C., would have cost, and that her decision to purchase a business class Amtrak seat was “about timing to get to D.C. for the meeting.”
“I support full transparency and accountability to the ratepayers,” Treece wrote in an email Friday. “I appreciate the ethics commission reviewing this matter and will act accordingly based on their findings – including potential reforms to provide greater clarity and structure to the CWS travel policy.”
Pacheco also noted that Harrington extended her stay by three days when she attended the Copenhagen conference in 2022 and extended her stay by seven days when she traveled to the 2024 Utility Leadership Conference in Buffalo, New York. While Harrington paid for the expenses she incurred during her personal days, Pacheco said “she may have violated the prohibited use of office and conflict of interest provisions in Oregon government ethics law” because Clean Water Services paid for the round trip flights to the conferences.
Marton contended that “for the travel to Buffalo, she determined the difference in flight cost for the extended stay and only requested reimbursement for the lower cost of the original flight.”
Records Harrington provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive this week show that she did in fact charge Clean Water Services for the amount a flight would have cost if she had flown only to and from the Buffalo conference. However, that amount included the price it would have cost her to receive a preferred seat and check bags. Records from the Copenhagen trip show that Harrington charged Clean Water Services for the flight she took to and from Denmark, even though she stayed three extra days.
Pacheco also noted that Harrington failed to include the exact amount she received from the U.S. Water Partnership to travel to Singapore and Laos for a water partnership program in 2023 when she filed her 2024 Statement of Economic Interest, which elected officials are required to file with the ethics commission. Marton said that Harrington included an attachment with the filing showing the exact amount she received, but didn’t realize she also had to write that dollar amount on her SEI form so it would be publicly available. She has since amended the filing.
The Oregonian/OregonLive requested all records related to travel by board members of Clean Water Services on April 2, but the agency still has not provided complete records. Harrington and Treece provided the travel records they submitted to the ethics commission to The Oregonian/OregonLive this week after they learned that the news organization’s request had yet to be fulfilled.
Harrington declined to comment Friday following the ethics commission’s vote and Willey did not respond to a request for comment. Fai said she “welcomed the investigation.”
“I think it will provide a lot of clarity,” Fai said. “In the meantime, the board is taking steps to further clarify the policies and practices we have to ensure they support ethics rules in Oregon.”
— Jamie Goldberg oversees The Oregonian/OregonLive’s politics, education and homelessness coverage. She can be reached at jgoldberg@oregonian.com or 503-221-8228. You can find her on X at @jamiebgoldberg or Bluesky at @jamiebgoldberg.bsky.social.