Oregon’s 12-Year Ethics Walkaway: When Justice Is Just Too Much Trouble
Hello everyone. Have you ever played an RPG where you slog through a tedious, bug-ridden fetch quest for hours, only for the quest-giver to shrug, toss you a single copper coin, and say, “Eh, never mind”? Well, welcome to Oregon politics circa 2024, where ridiculously drawn-out “investigations” end not with justice being served, but with the kind of anticlimax that could sedate an armadillo.
We’re talking about the Oregon Government Ethics Commission’s decision to finally close the book-after 12 years-on the scandal involving Liane Richardson, former Lane County Administrator, fired back in 2013 for some creative reinterpretation of public policy regarding her pay. And when I say “creative reinterpretation,” I don’t mean a charming Italian chef adding basil to your pasta. I mean bending the system until it’s doing yoga poses it was never designed for.
The Longest Ethics “Investigation” Ever
The OGEC basically admitted they didn’t know why the process took over a decade. That’s right: the people responsible for oversight were like, “Don’t ask us why this took so long, we’ve all had birthdays since then and lost track of time.” Executive Director Susan Meyers even said the case was “very old” and that it would be difficult to proceed because witnesses might not be available anymore. That’s code for: “Everyone’s either retired, forgotten, or playing shuffleboard in Arizona.”
If I treated a patient and said, “Sorry, I was going to diagnose you, but you’ve been sick for so long I lost interest,” they’d call that malpractice. In politics, apparently, it’s just Tuesday.
The Core of the Scandal
Richardson, while Lane County struggled with a $13.5 million shortfall, decided it was an excellent time to ignore county policy, take PTO, and pocket deferred payment anyway. Yes, because why shouldn’t the captain get a private lifeboat while the crew rearranges deck chairs on the Titanic?
Things get murkier. There was talk about an “affair” involving a Eugene police officer who coincidentally ended up on an internal committee approving her payoff plan, and was also scheduled to tag along to an out-of-state conference. Now, I won’t theorize how deep this rabbit hole goes, but let’s just say if this were a video game side-quest, it would have “hidden conspiracy” written all over it … only without the fun loot at the end.
The documents explaining her firing were originally redacted to the point of absurdity, like a CIA alien report with whole pages of black ink. Later versions didn’t clear the air much, leaving the great mystery: Was this a solo act, or were county commissioners happily playing the part of the choir?
Justice Delayed… and Then Just Skipped
The OGEC voted 7-0-1 to close the matter, with one abstention. No charges ever came. No meaningful accountability happened. Just shrugging, shoulder pats, and a collective “Well, that was awkward” from officialdom.
If this was a competitive multiplayer game, we’ve just witnessed griefing at an administrative level-you follow the rules, they don’t, but by the time you get the match replay reviewed, the server’s been shut down for years and nobody can ban the offender anymore.
The Larger Problem
What we have here is a perfect case study in why public trust in institutions is circling the drain like a badly flushed toilet. If an ethics commission, whose stated job is “oversight and accountability,” can’t complete an investigation before the thing becomes a historical footnote, then they’re not an oversight body-they’re a slow-moving herd of bureaucratic tortoises hoping time will make the mess go away.
In medicine, we say that untreated infections fester. In politics, apparently, untreated corruption just gets filed under “Old Business” and forgotten.
Final Verdict
This isn’t justice. It’s giving up because it’s inconvenient. The fact that there’s no definitive accounting for who knew what, no consequences, and no reform coming out of it should anger anyone who gives half a damn about public integrity. My impression? An absolute farce from start to finish, and an insult to the idea that public service should be, you know, about serving the public.
Overall rating: Bad. Very bad. You don’t need to be a political analyst or a gamer to see that this was the equivalent of rage-quitting without even trying to win.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.
Article source: Fired Lane County administrator’s ethics case closed after 12 years, The Register-Guard
