What Dave Frohnmayer is up to now …

12/30/2010: … along with collecting $100K per year from UO, plus a secretary, GTF, 2 offices, and a $180K expense account budget. From Brent Walth in the Oregonian:

A top Kulongoski administration official has been put on leave following a criminal investigation into allegations that the Oregon Department of Energy tried to steer business to Gov.-elect John Kitzhaber’s girlfriend.

The official, Mark Long, was the interim director of the Energy Department when agency officials reportedly sought ways to give business to a firm owned by Cylvia Hayes, even though her firm had lost a bid for a consulting contract.

…

Long’s attorneys — former University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer and Eugene lawyer William F. Gary — met with Department of Justice investigators in November to learn why Long was a focus of the investigation.

Frohnmayer is also a former Oregon attorney general, and Long’s father, Stan Long, served as Frohnmayer’s deputy at the Justice Department.

Gary said that investigators wouldn’t say why Long was the subject of the investigation, and that he and Frohnmayer advised Long not to cooperate under those circumstances.

“It left Mark in a situation where he would essentially be shadowboxing,” Gary said.

Justice Department spokesman Tony Green said investigators used the best techniques they could to get to the truth.

“The purpose is to obtain information as part of the investigation,” Green said. “We felt this was the appropriate approach to take.”

Kitzhaber takes office on Jan. 10 and will inherit the issues created by the investigation into the Energy Department’s dealings with Hayes, who campaigned with him during the fall election.

The Oregonian reported in August that Hayes’ firm, 3EStrategies of Bend, lost in its bid to win a federal stimulus contract to help Oregon prepare its energy sources for major emergencies.

Seattle-based R.W. Beck won the $200,000 contract. Signed in June, it runs through May 2011.

An internal state document said that Energy Department officials sought to have R.W. Beck hire Hayes’ company as a subcontractor.

Her company later said that another firm owned by Hayes, Toward Energy Efficient Municipalities LLC, would work with R.W. Beck. Documents show that R.W. Beck formally proposed Hayes’ firm get part of the contract’s work. It’s not clear how much of the $200,000 contract went to Hayes’ company. 

Nice little deal the folks who run this state have got going. They do have to work at making it seem legal though.