Murmurs: Staff Departures Preceded Firing of OHSU Executive

STAFF DEPARTURES PRECEDED FIRING OF OHSU EXECUTIVE: Early this month, Oregon Health & Science University president Shereef Elnahal told staff the health system’s top executive, Tarek Salaway, no longer worked there, effective immediately. Salaway, who had only just begun in the key job in December, promptly told WW he had been fired as retaliation for raising concerns about spending and the workplace climate. (His attorney says Salaway cannot provide documentation of this “at this time” since the matters involve confidential information.) Prior to all of this, however, there was deeper churn in the upper reaches of the health system Salaway was tasked with running. At least three notable staffers were on their way out of the institution before he was fired. One was Tim Kringen, a senior adviser at OHSU Health. Another was vice president and chief ambulatory officer Brooke Lippincott. (The OHSU organizational chart lists the position among a small handful that reported directly to Salaway.) Another person who left was Tionna Foglio-Reed, senior executive assistant to the CEO. An OHSU spokesperson confirmed these recent resignations in an email to WW. Lippincott declined to comment, and the other two did not respond to inquiries. Asked about the exodus that occurred under his client’s watch, Salaway’s attorney said: “Leadership transitions occur regularly in large academic health systems, and it would not be appropriate for Mr. Salaway to comment on individual personnel matters. Mr. Salaway remained focused on fulfilling his responsibility as CEO to raise concerns when he believed important institutional issues warranted attention.”

PORTLAND SCRAPYARD OPERATOR IN HOT WATER: The Oregon Department of Justice asked a Multnomah County circuit judge this week to hold a contempt hearing for Moyata Anotta, owner of a North Portland metal scrapyard who the state says has flouted its environmental regulations for years. Anotta was repeatedly cited for operating his business, NW Metals, without the proper permits. In 2018, a fire at the scrapyard’s former location in the Cully neighborhood temporarily displaced 145 people (“Hot Rods,” WW, July 4, 2018). The state alleges Anotta is running a metal shredder without a permit, storing solid waste where it’s not allowed, and illegally discharging stormwater. For those violations, the Department of Environmental Quality fined him $357,000 last fall, a penalty Anotta is fighting. “The people living near his operation deserve clean air, clean water, and a neighbor who follows the rules,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement, “and we are going to use every tool available to make sure that happens.” Anotta said in a statement to WW he disputes the allegations: “NW Metals has made good-faith efforts to understand and comply with DEQ’s requirements, including repeatedly seeking clarification of the applicable permitting pathway, which remains unclear and disputed. We intend to present the full record to the court and are confident it will show this is not a case of willful noncompliance.”

JUDGE CAN’T BEG OFF TRIALS TO CAMPAIGN: The presiding judge of Multnomah County Circuit Court has rebuked a fellow circuit judge who asked her colleagues to fill in for her at trials so she’d have more time to spend on her reelection campaign. The Oregonian first reported Monday afternoon that Circuit Judge Adrian Brown asked via Microsoft Teams message for her fellow judges to step into her scheduled rotation conducting misdemeanor domestic violence trials. “None of us should be expected to be in trial while being tried in an election challenge,” Brown wrote in a message independently obtained by WW. “Indeed it’s an impossibility. I wouldn’t wish this on any of us.” Brown sent that message at 10:47 am Friday, April 3. A message newly obtained by WW shows Presiding Judge Judith Matarazzo kiboshed her request five hours later. “I would like to remind everyone that we, as public officials, must be ready and willing to do our jobs every day unless on vacation or out on sick leave,” Matarazzo wrote at 3:37 pm. “Any campaigning or the like must be done outside of work hours. We can’t rearrange dockets to allow for more convenient time off. One is either at work or not at work.” Matarazzo declined further comment, while Brown’s spokesperson told The Oregonian she looks forward to doing her job. Brown is the only sitting judge facing a challenger this election season, and is especially vulnerable after District Attorney Nathan Vasquez said his office would no longer try Measure 11 felony cases in front of her.

OREGON’S HIGH POVERTY DISTRICTS ARE DISADVANTAGED IN EDUCATION FUNDING: Oregon ranks among the most regressive states in its distribution of education funding between high- and low-poverty schools. That finding, released in December in a study by the Education Law Center, is reverberating through Salem. The ELC analyzed the most recent available school funding data from the U.S. Census Bureau for the 2022–23 school year, finding that Oregon distributes 18% less money to high-poverty districts. The average low-poverty district in the state receives $18,210 per pupil, and the average high-poverty district $15,014. (That’s in contrast to a state like Utah, where high-poverty schools receive 60% more funding per student. The ELC defines a state as progressive if high-poverty districts receive at least 5% more funding than low-poverty ones.) The 18% difference was enough for the ELC to label Oregon regressive and assign the state an F grade in funding distribution. “We maintain that flat or regressive distribution patterns are unlikely to adequately support low-income students and certainly put high-poverty districts at a disadvantage,” the study says. Two Oregon lawmakers, state Rep. Ricki Ruiz (D-Gresham) and state Sen. Janeen Sollman (D-Hillsboro), tried to tackle the distribution issue as part of Senate Bill 1555 in the latest short session. The bill, which sought a study to reevaluate how Oregon determines school funding, also aimed to unpack how poverty might affect a school district. In a statement to WW, Ruiz says he plans to convene a work group ahead of the 2027 session to take a deeper look at the state’s education funding formula and make it more equitable. There’s a growing body of research “that students in low-income communities continue to receive fewer resources despite increased overall education spending,” he says. “Our current funding distribution is not adequately meeting the needs of the students who need the most support.”