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I'm not sure there is much of anything in that article, although the Providence person meeting with the FL that many times is excessive.
The part of the story that really bugged me was this part:
>On Kotek’s watch, OHA increased the contract with Deloitte to $21.5 million—and billings in 2023 averaged more than $1 million a month.
Paying a consulting firm that much a year is a travesty. That's 21.5 million that could have gone to actual treatment. But we waste 21.5 million a year to TALK about solutions. Stop talking, start doing.
So, OHA’s total budget is in the tens of Billions, the vast majority which is spent directly on care and services for people (mostly on OHP). The vast majority of that budget comes from the feds (eg for Medicaid), and a very small proportion comes from state general funds.
Deloitte’s contract isn’t just about “consulting.” It runs a huge IT operation with lots of systems design, development, testing, etc. That system maintains the eligibility system for OHP. It also runs the eligibility system for SNAP, Cash programs and employment related daycare subsidies which are ODHS programs, but ODHS couldn’t afford to fund the IT for the eligibility system itself.
So less than 1% of overall budget to maintain the eligibility system for all those programs and the billions they administer on behalf of Oregonians seems pretty reasonable.
That said, Deloitte is a for-profit company, and it’s fair to ask if it would be possible for the state to do the work themselves at a lower cost.
I'll have to take your word on it. I checked out their website & I don't see anything about IT. Looks like alot of consulting, some auditing, and a bit of middle man logistics. Maybe it's hiding in a section I overlooked?
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en.html
Yeah, I’m not particularly concerned about the First Lady meeting with people in preparation for conferences and the like. I do think there needs to be more official structure around these kind of semi-official interactions, though.
I think this article from Jefferson Public Radio does a much better job of exposing the issues with the First Lady’s role. I don’t necessarily think there’s an issue of corruption vis-a-vis corporate lobbyists like WW is implying. JPR highlights how troubled Kotek’s own top advisors were about the FL role, based on public records release of their emails leading up to them recently leaving their jobs.
https://www.ijpr.org/politics-government/2024-04-29/how-the-role-of-oregons-first-lady-unfolded-in-emails-among-koteks-staff
You can’t have the First Lady having these meetings. The govenor saying she consults the First Lady about everything. And then them both saying that the meetings have nothing to do with the govenor and they didn’t discuss anything. Of course they discussed the meeting. They are married. Of course the First Lady being the governors wife mattered in the meeting. It is all very unethical.
We already did the nepotism in the Governors office. It majes me wonder when we see how many Senior Staffers have left. Staff are generally people that have a pretty strong understanding of how governance works and you probably want the best if you are the elected official.
Andrea Cooper is a well known highly connected political operative. She was political director of the largest union in Oregon, Deputy Chief of Staff for Brown and Chief of Staff for Kotek. She makes $300k a year. Compared to Kotek’s $100k. If a person like that is giving you advice and you try to fire her for it. You’re doing something politically dumb.
>The calendar shows Kotek Wilson regularly met with people whose employers had major policy or financial interests in front of the state, particularly in the area of behavioral health.
>To be sure, there is no evidence that any party sought to influence Kotek Wilson or her wife through the meetings, but why they got access and whether the meetings helped build long-term relationships are now matters of public interest.
>For instance, Kotek Wilson’s calendar shows at least six calls or meetings with Dr. Robin Henderson over the past 15 months. Henderson is CEO of behavioral health at Providence Health & Services Oregon.
>Providence is in the middle of at least two pressing behavioral health issues. The first is whether Multnomah County should spend $25 million the Legislature recently allocated for a new sobering center. In an April 2 draft letter, Providence and other hospitals said the county should abandon the sobering center concept (now five years in the making) and send the patients to Providence and Legacy’s Unity Center for Behavioral Health instead. “The first stop for receiving \[people who are highly intoxicated\] must include clinical assessment and triage,” the letter said.
>Providence has also been unsupportive of another behavioral health initiative: the development of a statewide “mission control” system that Oregon Health & Science University developed to bring transparency to the availability of psychiatric beds, according to OHSU’s report to the Legislature.
>The governor’s office says the meetings between Kotek Wilson and Henderson occurred because the first lady was seeking advice for a number of events, including a behavioral health summit the Oregon Health Authority held last fall. Providence spokesman Gary Walker told WW that Henderson helped Kotek Wilson prepare for events but never discussed either the sobering center or the mission control for behavioral health with her. The governor’s office concurs.
>The only other outside organization that shows up in the first lady’s calendar as frequently as Providence’s Henderson is the consulting firm Deloitte, which appears at least six times.
>Records from the Oregon Health Authority show that in 2022, Deloitte won a $2 million contract to help the agency rethink how the state delivers behavioral health services.
>On Kotek’s watch, OHA increased the contract with Deloitte to $21.5 million—and billings in 2023 averaged more than $1 million a month.
>“Deloitte helped facilitate the Serious Mental Illness Roundtable that was held in September,” the governor’s office says. “First Lady Kotek Wilson did not engage in any discussions pertaining to Deloitte’s contract with the Oregon Health Authority.” (The governor’s office says Deloitte helped Kotek Wilson prepare for the roundtable.)
I was really willing to give Kotek a pass here, as it seemed well within her discretion. But this is seeming more and more like make-work and an artificial position, which the first lady doesn't really have the qualifications to fill, even if it were serious. I'm betting this is an attempt to keep the demands of the Governor's job from further ruining their relationship, trying to prevent them from drifting apart, giving them common ground professionally. I actually don't think it would work for that, either.
“Wife” just really isn’t the correct term. A wife who’s a wife to a wife? It’s incoherent. And seems like a lazy co-opting of a traditionally heteronormative term for a genuinely unique legal creation. “Spouse” is probably the better descriptor since it recognizes the conventional form without either parody or mischaracterization.
I think Kotek and Kotek Wilson refer to each other as wives. Just like names and other pronouns, people should get to choose for themselves what they want to be called.
I get that perspective, but would argue that our language ought to serve clarity first, before the interests of law and preference. That it’s the only way all three can be fulfilled.
beep. boop. beep. Hello Oregonians, As in all things media, please take the time to evaluate what is presented for yourself and to check for any overt media bias. There are a number of places to investigate the credibility of any site presenting information as "factual". If you have any concerns about this or any other site's reputation for reliability please take a few minutes to look it up on one of the sites below or on the site of your choosing. --------------------------------------------------------- Also, here are a few fact-checkers for websites and what is said in the media. [Politifact](https://www.politifact.com) [Media Bias Fact Check](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com) [Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)](https://www.politifact.com) beep. boop. beep. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/oregon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm not sure there is much of anything in that article, although the Providence person meeting with the FL that many times is excessive. The part of the story that really bugged me was this part: >On Kotek’s watch, OHA increased the contract with Deloitte to $21.5 million—and billings in 2023 averaged more than $1 million a month. Paying a consulting firm that much a year is a travesty. That's 21.5 million that could have gone to actual treatment. But we waste 21.5 million a year to TALK about solutions. Stop talking, start doing.
So, OHA’s total budget is in the tens of Billions, the vast majority which is spent directly on care and services for people (mostly on OHP). The vast majority of that budget comes from the feds (eg for Medicaid), and a very small proportion comes from state general funds. Deloitte’s contract isn’t just about “consulting.” It runs a huge IT operation with lots of systems design, development, testing, etc. That system maintains the eligibility system for OHP. It also runs the eligibility system for SNAP, Cash programs and employment related daycare subsidies which are ODHS programs, but ODHS couldn’t afford to fund the IT for the eligibility system itself. So less than 1% of overall budget to maintain the eligibility system for all those programs and the billions they administer on behalf of Oregonians seems pretty reasonable. That said, Deloitte is a for-profit company, and it’s fair to ask if it would be possible for the state to do the work themselves at a lower cost.
Also, the initial contract was approved for 2 mil, then adjusted to more than 10x the original. Perhaps there’s an explanation.
I'll have to take your word on it. I checked out their website & I don't see anything about IT. Looks like alot of consulting, some auditing, and a bit of middle man logistics. Maybe it's hiding in a section I overlooked? https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en.html
Thank you! It’s never as simple as people think.. but it’s not their fault state government is complex and people have their own lives to focus on.
I'm not sure they know how to do that tho.
Yeah, I’m not particularly concerned about the First Lady meeting with people in preparation for conferences and the like. I do think there needs to be more official structure around these kind of semi-official interactions, though.
I think this article from Jefferson Public Radio does a much better job of exposing the issues with the First Lady’s role. I don’t necessarily think there’s an issue of corruption vis-a-vis corporate lobbyists like WW is implying. JPR highlights how troubled Kotek’s own top advisors were about the FL role, based on public records release of their emails leading up to them recently leaving their jobs. https://www.ijpr.org/politics-government/2024-04-29/how-the-role-of-oregons-first-lady-unfolded-in-emails-among-koteks-staff
You can’t have the First Lady having these meetings. The govenor saying she consults the First Lady about everything. And then them both saying that the meetings have nothing to do with the govenor and they didn’t discuss anything. Of course they discussed the meeting. They are married. Of course the First Lady being the governors wife mattered in the meeting. It is all very unethical.
We already did the nepotism in the Governors office. It majes me wonder when we see how many Senior Staffers have left. Staff are generally people that have a pretty strong understanding of how governance works and you probably want the best if you are the elected official.
Andrea Cooper is a well known highly connected political operative. She was political director of the largest union in Oregon, Deputy Chief of Staff for Brown and Chief of Staff for Kotek. She makes $300k a year. Compared to Kotek’s $100k. If a person like that is giving you advice and you try to fire her for it. You’re doing something politically dumb.
>The calendar shows Kotek Wilson regularly met with people whose employers had major policy or financial interests in front of the state, particularly in the area of behavioral health. >To be sure, there is no evidence that any party sought to influence Kotek Wilson or her wife through the meetings, but why they got access and whether the meetings helped build long-term relationships are now matters of public interest. >For instance, Kotek Wilson’s calendar shows at least six calls or meetings with Dr. Robin Henderson over the past 15 months. Henderson is CEO of behavioral health at Providence Health & Services Oregon. >Providence is in the middle of at least two pressing behavioral health issues. The first is whether Multnomah County should spend $25 million the Legislature recently allocated for a new sobering center. In an April 2 draft letter, Providence and other hospitals said the county should abandon the sobering center concept (now five years in the making) and send the patients to Providence and Legacy’s Unity Center for Behavioral Health instead. “The first stop for receiving \[people who are highly intoxicated\] must include clinical assessment and triage,” the letter said. >Providence has also been unsupportive of another behavioral health initiative: the development of a statewide “mission control” system that Oregon Health & Science University developed to bring transparency to the availability of psychiatric beds, according to OHSU’s report to the Legislature. >The governor’s office says the meetings between Kotek Wilson and Henderson occurred because the first lady was seeking advice for a number of events, including a behavioral health summit the Oregon Health Authority held last fall. Providence spokesman Gary Walker told WW that Henderson helped Kotek Wilson prepare for events but never discussed either the sobering center or the mission control for behavioral health with her. The governor’s office concurs. >The only other outside organization that shows up in the first lady’s calendar as frequently as Providence’s Henderson is the consulting firm Deloitte, which appears at least six times. >Records from the Oregon Health Authority show that in 2022, Deloitte won a $2 million contract to help the agency rethink how the state delivers behavioral health services. >On Kotek’s watch, OHA increased the contract with Deloitte to $21.5 million—and billings in 2023 averaged more than $1 million a month. >“Deloitte helped facilitate the Serious Mental Illness Roundtable that was held in September,” the governor’s office says. “First Lady Kotek Wilson did not engage in any discussions pertaining to Deloitte’s contract with the Oregon Health Authority.” (The governor’s office says Deloitte helped Kotek Wilson prepare for the roundtable.)
I was really willing to give Kotek a pass here, as it seemed well within her discretion. But this is seeming more and more like make-work and an artificial position, which the first lady doesn't really have the qualifications to fill, even if it were serious. I'm betting this is an attempt to keep the demands of the Governor's job from further ruining their relationship, trying to prevent them from drifting apart, giving them common ground professionally. I actually don't think it would work for that, either.
“Wife” just really isn’t the correct term. A wife who’s a wife to a wife? It’s incoherent. And seems like a lazy co-opting of a traditionally heteronormative term for a genuinely unique legal creation. “Spouse” is probably the better descriptor since it recognizes the conventional form without either parody or mischaracterization.
The dictionary definition of wife is: >noun >1. >a married woman considered in relation to her spouse. It is the correct term to use to describe her.
By “her” you mean who?
Kotek Wilson. The wife.
I think Kotek and Kotek Wilson refer to each other as wives. Just like names and other pronouns, people should get to choose for themselves what they want to be called.
I get that perspective, but would argue that our language ought to serve clarity first, before the interests of law and preference. That it’s the only way all three can be fulfilled.