Gov. Tina Kotek, apologizing amid backlash, says she will not create Office of the First Spouse

Amid strong public backlash, Gov. Tina Kotek announced Wednesday that she will not create an Office of the First Spouse for her wife, Aimee Kotek Wilson.

But what exactly Kotek Wilson’s role will look like moving forward is unclear. Kotek said she is waiting for guidance from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission to help her better define the role that her wife will have.

For more than five weeks, uncertainty and controversy over the first lady’s growing role has jarred the governor’s office and undermined public confidence in Kotek.

“I take responsibility for not being more thoughtful in my approach to exploring the role of the first spouse,” Kotek said in a statement addressed to Oregonians. “I am sorry for the way this conversation between my office and you has started.”

Kotek Wilson will not have a chief of staff or directly oversee any employees aside from those assigned to her for official duties, Kotek said. However, Meliah Masiba — who Kotek brought on temporarily last month to explore creating the Office of the First Spouse — will continue in her role.

Masiba’s job description shows she has extensive responsibilities tied to Kotek Wilson similar to those of a chief of staff, including managing the first lady’s initiatives, coordinating public engagement efforts and joining Kotek Wilson at state and national events. Emails released by the governor’s office last week show that Masiba, who makes $144,000 annually, was referred to as the first lady’s chief of staff in documents announcing her transition from the Department of Administrative Services to the governor’s office.

“Between now and when we learn more from (the ethics commission), the first lady will continue to accompany me and attend events representing the governor’s office, such as tribal visits and ceremonial events, and she will listen to Oregonians about the issues most impacting them, especially in the area of mental health and addiction,” Kotek said.

Kotek Wilson holds a master’s degree in social work, has lived experience with substance use disorder and mental illness and has “a profound commitment to standing up for the most vulnerable among us,” Kotek said in a statement.

Kotek’s spokesperson Elisabeth Shepard did not immediately respond to questions seeking more information on Kotek Wilson’s role in the office moving forward.

Kotek’s efforts to move quickly this spring to elevate her wife’s role led to the departure in March of Chief of Staff Andrea Cooper, Deputy Chief of Staff Lindsey O’Brien and Special Adviser Abby Tibbs, sources close to those employees have said. Cooper and Tibbs have moved into other roles, while O’Brien is on medical leave.

Two additional staffers in the governor’s office – Deputy General Counsel Lindsey Burrows and Communications Director An Do – have since resigned.

Emails and other public records that the governor’s office released last week in response to requests from The Oregonian/OregonLive and other news outlets shed light on Kotek Wilson’s longstanding significant role in her wife’s administration and the growing concern expressed by Kotek’s top staffers as the governor pushed to create an Office of the First Spouse.

A spokesperson for Kotek said in March that Kotek Wilson had participated in “several” of the governor’s weekly behavioral health meetings. But the records released last week show that Kotek Wilson played a deeper and more widespread role in the office for months.

In a Jan. 17 email, Kotek told Cooper and Tibbs that she had been thinking about “our behavioral health work for the year and strategizing with the first lady.”

Kotek Wilson has participated in numerous meetings with public health directors and outside officials and groups since Kotek took office last year, and she helped interview candidates to serve as Kotek’s behavioral health initiative director, her calendar shows. When Kotek hired Juliana Wallace for that role, Kotek Wilson met weekly with Wallace for about a month, records show.

The records show growing tension this spring as Kotek accelerated efforts to create an Office of the First Spouse, despite her top staffers’ concerns. Cooper, Tibbs, O’Brien and then-Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Warner reviewed a proposed job description for the first lady in early February and suggested to Kotek that she hire a facilitator to work “through next steps,” records show. Kotek did not hire a facilitator.

On Feb. 18, Kotek sent her executive team an agenda for a meeting the next day that included establishing protocols for the first lady’s work. In response, Tibbs told Cooper and Warner in an email that she hoped Kotek would provide them clarity about the governor’s reaction to the proposed job description and a legal memo produced by an attorney in the governor’s office. The governor’s office declined to make public the legal memo.

Kotek did not seek an opinion from the state ethics commission about her interest in creating the office until early April, after the departure of the three top staffers. At the time, she told reporters she hadn’t yet consulted the commission because “we weren’t sure what questions we needed to ask. We are now expediting that because of the public interest.”

In a press release Wednesday, Kotek said she is considering “how Oregon can emulate other states that rely on the time and talent of a first spouse who has no financial interest or benefit in state government.”

Nearly a dozen other states have offices for first spouses, but “There is no road map in Oregon for defining the role of a first spouse, who is a ‘public official’ under Oregon law,” Kotek said.

She said her office is currently creating a “First Spouse Manual to spell out policies and procedures related to that role, including protocols for addressing any staff concerns or complaints.” Kotek said her wife will continue to have an 8 foot by 8 foot office space inside the governor’s office.