New Oracle Lawsuit Against Gov. Kate Brown Accuses Her of Violating Public Records Law

As reported earlier, Oracle America Inc. today filed a new lawsuit against Gov. Kate Brown, alleging that contrary to Oregon's public records law, Brown is withholding emails sent and received by former Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said in a statement the company is growing frustrated with Brown.

"Despite numerous commitments to greater transparency and public disclosure in government dealings, Kate Brown has not lived up to her promises," Hellinger said. "The repeated excuses and delays that have made Oregon infamous continue under Kate Brown."

Brown's spokeswoman, Kristen Grainger, disagrees.

"Oracle's latest lawsuit is redundant of a motion already filed by the State in Marion County Circuit Court, scheduled for a hearing in a few days," Grainger said in a statement. "That motion asks the judge to settle this question about the email accounts. It appears Oracle is just wasting the public's money and time by filing yet another lawsuit."

The underlying dispute between Oracle and the state of Oregon concerns the failed online health care insurance exchange Cover Oregon, which cost $300 million but never worked.

In August 2014, Oracle sued the state in U.S. District Court for withholding payments for the Cover Oregon project. Later the state sued Oracle in Marion County Circuit Court, accusing the computer giant of racketeering and other criminal conduct. The litigation remains unresolved.

The new lawsuit filed today is aimed at a subsidiary issue. As WW has reported, emails show that campaign consultants in Kitzhaber's successful 2014 bid for re-election were involved in shaping public perception of Cover Oregon, which had become a liability for Kitzhaber.

Separate from the dueling lawsuits, Oracle in April filed a public records request with Gov. Brown's office, seeking copies of Kitzhaber's emails that related to Cover Oregon. (Kitzhaber resigned Feb. 18.)

Oregon's public records law says any documents, such as emails "owned, used or retained" by a government body, are public records, subject to certain exemptions.

Although all public employees and elected officials are given government email addresses, Kitzhaber used private email accounts almost exclusively, even when dealing with public business.

In 2011, Kitzhaber's first year back in office, his assistants requested that his private emails be stored or archived on state servers.

There is now a dispute whether that request covered all or just some of the private accounts he used, but what is undisputed is that there remains an unknown but substantial number of Kitzhaber's emails stored on public servers that have not yet been turned over to Oracle and various media groups that have requested them.

The argument put forth in the new lawsuit is that Brown has failed to turn over Kitzhaber's emails in a timely fashion.

Instead, the lawsuit says, Brown's state attorneys have deferred to Kitzhaber's criminal defense attorney, Janet Hoffman. The lawsuit says Hoffman threatened to sue the state if Brown turns over the emails without first allowing Hoffman to review and designate which emails should be turned over.

"In the face of this threat," the Oracle lawsuit says, "Gov. Brown has failed to timely review and produce these public records."

Updated at 5 pm with a statement from the Oregon DOJ.

"A court hearing on these particular emails is already scheduled for Nov. 20. That is now one week away," said Michael Kron, Rosenblum's special counsel for legal matters. "The state has not agreed to allow former Gov. Kitzhaber's attorneys to determine which responsive emails are public records. Instead, the state has prudently sought the court's guidance with respect to its possession of the emails, and stands ready to review and release the records if the court concludes that it may. The state does not have any further comment at this time. Oracle's lawsuit will be answered in court."

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