Gov. Tina Kotek tapped LaVonne Griffin-Valade, a longtime government auditor in the Portland area, to become Oregon’s next secretary of state, an appointment that marks the end of a tumultuous chapter for the office following the resignation of Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, who left in early May amid a moonlighting scandal.
Kotek’s appointment, announced Wednesday, will be effective on Friday when Griffin-Valade is sworn into office. She will serve the remainder of the term, and voters will pick the next secretary of state in the November 2024 election. The Secretary of State’s Office, with 231 staff members, oversees elections, audits of state agencies and business filings for Oregonians.
Deputy Secretary Cheryl Myers has overseen the agency since Fagan resigned.
Griffin-Valade, who’s 69, retired in 2014 after working as an auditor for more than 16 years. She was hired as a senior management auditor at the Multnomah County Auditor’s Office in 1998 and later became the elected Multnomah County auditor. In 2009, Griffin-Valade was elected Portland city auditor.
“I told Oregonians in May that the primary objective of our next Secretary of State was to restore confidence in the office,” Kotek said in a statement. “LaVonne Griffin-Valade has the professional background and ethical judgment to rise above politics and lead the important work of the agency forward.”
Kotek later said at a news conference that she expects Griffin-Valade to scrutinize what the office is doing and how it conducts business and make any necessary changes.
“She will look at everything they’re doing,” Kotek said.
In the release, Griffin-Valade said she has the experience to bring back accountability and transparency to the office.
“It’s never been more important to have a leader who will focus on rebuilding the public’s trust in the Secretary of State’s office, and that is exactly what I will aim to do every day,” she said in a statement.
As Portland auditor, Griffin-Valade oversaw divisions requiring a high level of independence and ethical judgment from managers and staff, the release said. She also worked on government auditing nationwide and in Canada as a member of an international committee. After she left office, she earned a master’s in fine arts in writing and has published personal essays. She lives in northeast Portland, has been married 41 years and has four children and as many grandchildren.
The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System pays her a pension of $31,098 a year, according to data compiled by The Oregonian/OregonLive, and as secretary of state she’ll earn $77,000 annually, which is set in statute.
Griffin-Valade’s appointment follows the sudden downfall of a rising political star. Fagan resigned on May 2, just one day after she apologized for “poor judgment” in accepting a $10,000-a-month consulting job for a cannabis chain seeking to expand. The Secretary of State office was conducting an audit of the cannabis industry at the time. Fagan said she needed the side job to make ends meet with her secretary of state salary. A former state legislator, she won the role in the 2020 election.
On Feb. 20, Fagan began working with Veriede Holding LLC, an affiliate of La Mota, which grows, manufactures and sells cannabis products, while her office was auditing the state’s regulation of the cannabis industry. Fagan was researching other states’ cannabis regulations.
In early February, shortly before she started working for La Mota, Fagan recused herself from the audit, which was largely finished by that time. But Fagan had communicated with La Mota about the scope of the audit, raising questions about whether she had a conflict of interest that might have undermined the work of state auditors who were unaware of her side job.
In May, Sens. Brian Boquist, I-Dallas, and Art Robinson, R-Cave Junction, sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s office and requested an investigation after reading a Willamette Week article about the owners of La Mota who gave thousands in dollars in campaign funds to prominent politicians, including Kotek and Senate President Rob Wagner, and Fagan, all Democrats.
Since Fagan’s resignation, several investigations have started.
Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the Secretary of State’s Office, the Department of Administrative Services, the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission and the Department of Revenue for records related to Fagan and La Mota cannabis retailer owners Aaron Mitchell and Rosa Cazares.
Separately, the state Justice Department is investigating the audit, and the state ethics commission is investigating Fagan after receiving complaints.
Oregon Capital Chronicle
Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com.