An Ethics Commission employee, a longtime head of the state’s workplace safety division, a former law professor who now works for the state and a former CIA officer are the finalists to head Oregon’s ethics watchdog.
Oregon could have a new leader for its Government Ethics Commission as soon as January. The commission enforces state ethics and public meetings law and investigates complaints. It also provides training for public officials and lobbyists on how to comply with laws.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission voted unanimously Friday to move Susan Myers, Michael Wood, Jay Messenger and Robert Candrian to its next round of interviews to replace retiring executive director Ron Bersin. The finalists will meet with commission staff, Gov. Tina Kotek and others before interviews with the full nine-member commission, tentatively scheduled for Jan. 11.
The ethics commission enforces state ethics and public meetings law and investigates complaints. It also provides training for public officials and lobbyists on how to comply with laws.
Its executive director oversees a staff of about 15 full-time employees and serves under a nine-member volunteer commission appointed by the governor. The posted salary range for the job was between $8,379 and $12,961 monthly, or between about $100,000 and $155,000 annually.
Susan Myers
Myers has worked for the commission since 2018, first as an investigator and now as a compliance and education coordinator. She previously worked as an assistant attorney general under both Democratic and Republican attorneys general in Arizona from 2008 through 2016, focusing on antitrust cases.
She’s a licensed attorney who served on the Oregon State Bar’s legal ethics committee from 2020 to 2021. Myers obtained her law degree and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Arizona and a master’s degree in literature from the University of New Mexico.
Myers wrote in her cover letter that Bersin encouraged her to develop her leadership skills and step into the role, involving her in all aspects of the commission’s administration, including budget development, legislation and communicating with reporters, lawmakers, the governor’s office and other agency leaders. She was involved in recent legislation that expanded the commission’s scope to include investigating public meetings law violations.
“Our agency is undergoing a significant transition,” Myers wrote. “Over the past year, we have seen substantial increases in the number of complaints and requests for training and advice. These increases have been a challenge, and I am proud to say that it is one we have met. I am confident that I will be able to build on the solid foundation Ron has established to ensure the agency meets its future challenges and fulfills its mission.”
Michael Wood
Wood has worked for the elected Washington insurance commissioner since 2021, most recently as chief deputy commissioner. From 2005 to 2021, he was the administrator of Oregon OSHA, the division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services that enforces workplace safety laws. He oversaw roughly 200 employees.
Wood holds a bachelor’s degree in English and political science from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. With the exception of a three-year stint in the Democratic communications office of the Washington State House of Representatives, he has spent his four-decade career working in state agencies in Washington and Oregon.
“I have spent my entire long tenure as a government employee in an environment that has been too often prepared to believe the worst about those who work in the public sector,” Wood wrote in his cover letter. “The best defense – perhaps the only defense – against such cynicism is adherence to both the letter and the spirit of the ethical standards to which we subscribe. I would be proud to play a more direct role in making such adherence a reality.”
Jay Messenger
Messenger has been the internal controls officer of the Oregon Department of Revenue for a little more than a year after working from 2019 to 2022 as the legal and enforcement director for the state’s office of child care.
He was chief of staff for California Assemblymember Tony Thurmond from 2016 to 2018 and taught for six years at Willamette University’s College of Law. Messenger has a bachelor’s degree in biology and a law degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, a master of laws degree from Erasmus University in the Netherlands and a master’s degree in educational leadership and policy from Portland State University.
“I believe that my management and legal experience has provided me with the background necessary to be successful as the executive director,” he wrote.
Robert Candrian
Candrian spent 12 years working for the CIA with postings in Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Rim and Washington, D.C.
“I would bring that same prosecutorial and investigative mindset to the OGEC, working to investigate and root out corruption in Oregon’s state government,” he wrote.
After leaving the agency in 2018, he worked on identifying and preventing threats from within the organization at Wells Fargo and semiconductor company AMD. He has a law degree from Pepperdine University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Utah.
This story was originally published by the Oregon Capital Chronicle.
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