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Oregon secretary of state resigns over paid consulting work with cannabis company [1]

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Date: 2023-05-02  

But her situation began to deteriorate Thursday when the Willamette Week reported Fagan spent the last two months consulting for an affiliate of a cannabis company owned by two of her major donors, revelations that came the day before her office released a report arguing the state needed looser regulations for the industry. While auditors have insisted that Fagan had no role in their conclusions, it didn’t help that state and federal revenue collectors have filed a total of $7 million in liens against those owners and their businesses while vendors have also sued them.

Kotek responded to the news by asking state officials to investigate the matter, while Fagan’s chief of staff soon announced she’d be quitting. Fagan said Monday she’d left that $10,000 a month gig, which paid significantly more than her $77,000 salary as secretary of state, and argued she’d followed state ethics rules, though she acknowledged she’d shown “poor judgment.” She also said she’d recused herself from the audit days before signing on as a consultant, though the report was almost complete by then.

None of this was enough to stop Fagan’s former allies from arguing she needed to resign, with the head of the powerful SEIU Local 503 saying her problems were distracting from the legislature’s work. Kotek and the legislature’s top four Democrats responded to her Tuesday departure by saying her move was necessary to restore trust in state government.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/2/2167166/-Oregon-secretary-of-state-resigns-over-paid-consulting-work-with-cannabis-company

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