Last updated on 01/06/2016
Reporter Saul Hubbard of the Eugene Register Guard lays it all out in meticulous detail, here. You know it’s serious when VP for PR Kyle Henley sends the reporters to talk to serious people, instead of Tobin Klinger. Several UO Trustees also ponied up Kitz cash:
… Angela Wilhelms, secretary to the UO board, said, on behalf of the four trustees: “There is absolutely no correlation between personal political contributions by trustees and any decisions by Governor Kitzhaber.”
“Any insinuation of quid pro quo or any other connection is just flat wrong,” the statement said.
Well, that would be a little easier to believe if UO wasn’t stonewalling on the public records. It’s taken at least one public records order from Lane County DA Patty Perlow so far. But regardless, Hubbard has much more:
In recent weeks, TrackTown and Lananna have found themselves defending the IAAF’s April 2015 decision to award the 2021 championships to Eugene without a formal bidding process, after the IAAF awarded the 2019 event to Doha. French police are investigating alleged bribery in the IAAF, and the Eugene award itself. The revelation that Sebastian Coe, the new IAAF president, had been for years receiveing undisclosed annual payments of $150,000 from Nike, a potential conflict-of-interest, have sent shockwaves through the sport.
… On Oct. 30, the 42-day total of donations from Nike and its leaders and the four UO Trustees had reached $387,500 — roughly 8 percent of all Kitzhaber contributions during the 2013-14 election cycle.
By Nov. 14, Kitzhaber, who by then had won his re-election campaign, recorded his video message for the TrackTown bid presentation in Monaco.
In it, he used almost word-for-word the phrasing TrackTown had previously sent him. From his ceremonial Capitol office, Kitzhaber said: “I plan to support specific, bipartisan legislation that I believe will generate as much as $40 million to directly support the championships.”
It’s amazing what you can get for $400K these days. Here’s Kitzhaber promising $40M:
Back it up to see new Oregon Governor Kate Brown in Monaco, introducing Kitzhaber and his pledge.
You begin to wonder if there might be something wrong with these people.
Poor man want to be rich
Rich man want to be king
And a king ain’t satisfied
Til he rules everything
Who were the idiots that said getting an ‘independent’ board of trustees would improve things at the U of O?
Guilty as charged.
Wilhelms says “absolutely no correlation”, but the correlation is obvious. The legal issue will be about causation.
How about a law requiring the Indy board meetings at UO be televised ?