Former DOC official agrees to $1,000 fine in ethics case

Former Department of Corrections Deputy Director Mitch Morrow has agreed to pay $1,000 to the State of Oregon and admit to two ethics violations, following an investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission that concluded Friday.

Morrow negotiated the agreement over the course of a year, said Ron Bersin, director of the commission.

The commission began in May 2013 looking into allegations Mitch Morrow had used his influence to secure his son a promotion and other benefits as part of his job with Oregon Corrections Enterprises, the semi-independent agency that employs state prison inmates.

A year later, it decided to launch a full-blown investigation.

That probe found that Morrow had not declared his conflicts of interest in writing, and he had not reported them to Corrections Director Colette Peters, as Oregon's ethics law requires.

The order agreed to on Friday is essentially a settlement, a compromise on both sides, said Morrow's attorney, Colin Hunter, at the Friday commission meeting.

Peters said she was glad the case had been resolved.

"This matter has been with the Department of Corrections for some time, and I am grateful the agency now has closure on this issue. We want the public to be assured this agency is committed to upholding our code of ethics," she said.

Morrow originally came under scrutiny in 2012 when the Department of Justice released its findings of a months-long investigation of the department and its relationship with OCE, whose former director, Rob Killgore, reported the allegations.

The attorney general's office released two reports, one focused specifically on Morrow. That one was done by Stephen Krohn, a senior assistant attorney general in the labor and employment section, at the request of the state's Chief Operating Officer, Michael Jordan, who heads the Department of Administrative Services.

The report drew no conclusions, but provides expanded information about the hiring, transfer and light-duty status of Morrow's son at OCE.

Krohn found that former OCE directors Robert Killgore, who initiated the DOJ investigations, and Nick Armenakis thought Morrow exerted too much influence over his son being hired, and one email in the report indicated a coworker of Zachary Morrow felt the same way. It also shows Zachary Morrow was hired by direct appointment, rather than through a hiring process.

It also showed Mitch Morrow intervened when his son was transferred from Madras to Salem to work at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Emails make it clear that Morrow asked for his son to have his moving stipend increased, but they also show that Zachary Morrow sent an official request without his father's involvement and asked for the financial arrangement he received.

Finally, the report addresses a situation where Zachary Morrow injured his shoulder outside work and needed surgery. He didn't have enough leave to cover his recuperation time and was worried he would have to take time off without pay.

He asked for, and successfully arranged, "light-duty" work so he could keep working without getting injured again. Meanwhile, Mitch Morrow was under the impression light duty wasn't allowed and sent an email to Killgore and Armenakis explaining why it should be and clarifying he thought it was a necessary policy for any employee.

Killgore wrote back and explained that the policy did exist and said the situation had been handled badly by his department.

The report concluded with no analysis, opinion or recommendations.

However, the report factored heavily into the preliminary review by the ethics commission. Investigator Deborah Tuss concluded, "There appears to be a substantial objective basis to believe that violations of Oregon Government Ethics law may have occurred and that Mitch Morrow may have committed such violations."

Morrow no longer works for the corrections department. He retired on Aug. 1 and stayed on in a temporary capacity into January 2015 to train his successor.

hhoffman@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6719 or follow at twitter.com/HannahKHoffman