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The Oregon Community Foundation may keep applications to the $125 million Project Turnkey housing program out of public view, the Oregon Department of Justice ruled earlier this month.
WW has been seeking the paperwork to see what applicants promised about their track records and what they pledged to do with the taxpayer money, granted to the program by the Oregon Legislature.
One of the largest Turnkey grantees, an LLC affiliated with the Rockwood Community Development Corporation, bought a Best Western on Northeast 181st Avenue for $6.7 million in 2021 and soon after began housing families there at Multnomah County’s expense. The county stopped contracting with Rockwood CDC last year, alleging it was billed for empty rooms and overcharged for maintenance, leaving the shelter almost empty.
There were signs of trouble in the years leading up to the grant award. Rockwood CDC’s board chair resigned in 2017 after founder Brad Ketch stonewalled her efforts to look at the nonprofit’s books.
WW sought Rockwood CDC’s application for Project Turnkey funds to see what Ketch disclosed about the matter. But the taxpayer funds were distributed by the Oregon Community Foundation, which denied to disclose the applications, arguing that public records laws don’t apply to private nonprofits.
WW petitioned the Oregon DOJ, which has a case-by-cased process for determining if non-state entities must disclose information. WW argued that OCF was the “functional equivalent” of a public body and should therefore disclose the records.
“On its face, the public records Law does not apply to private entities such as nonprofit corporations and cooperatives,” the state’s manual for seeking public-records says. “However, if the ostensibly private entity is the ‘functional equivalent’ of a public body, the Public Records Law applies to it.”
OCF met the definition of a functional equivalent of a public body, WW argued, because the foundation had total control of the $125 million in taxpayer funds. OCF evaluated the nonprofits that applied for the Project Turnkey money and chose winners with no input from the state.
The DOJ denied WW’s request.
“Transparency is a cornerstone of good governance,” Oregon deputy attorney general Benjamin Gutman wrote in a seven-page ruling. “But the question here is not whether disclosure of the requested records would promote accountability or confidence in state-funded programs. The question is whether the Oregon Public Records Law requires OCF to disclose those records.”
OCF’s administration of the Project Turnkey grants wasn’t “traditionally governmental in nature” in part because OCF wasn’t performing a “core” government function, such as enforcing criminal law or operating a fire department, Gutman wrote.
The decision “does not mean that nondisclosure is good governance,” Gutman wrote. “Nothing in this order precludes OCF from disclosing any of the requested records voluntarily or the Legislature from requiring public release of subgrant applications in the future.”
OCF had assets of $3.3 billion at the end of 2024, according to its latest tax filings. Chief Executive Lisa Mensah made $594,315 that year, the records show, down from $792,631 in 2023. Mensah became CEO in September 2022.
