Semyr >.> oN " 2 8 14 5 16 v7 18 19 OREGON GOVERNMENT ETHICS COMMISSION PRELIMINARY REVIEW CASE NO: 16-140EMS DATE: September 28, 2016 RESPONDENT: HACK, Jodi, Representative, Oregon Legislative Assembly COMPLAINANT: PERRY, Richard RECOMMENDED ACTION: Move to Investigate Possible Violations of ORS 244,040 (Motion 4) PRELIMINARY REVIEW: The Oregon Government Ethics Commission (Commission) received a letter of complaint from Richard Perry on 8/30/16 (#PR1). Mr. Perry alleged that Jodi Hack, State Representative, might have attempted to use her position get her ‘son out of paying fines for traffic citations. Receipt of the complaint was acknowledged in letters to Richard Perry and Jodi Hack. Representative Hack was provided with the information received in the complaint and invited to provide any information that would assist the Commission in conducting the preliminary review in this matter. ‘The complaint alleged that Rep. Hack “tried to use her position to intimidate a police officer in regards to citing her son, who was involved in a traffic collision, and also had multiple unpaid traffic fines from previous incidents... Clearly using her position in an attempt to get her son out of traffic citations should be illegal. She also tried to pass her son off as just a constituent, so it also appears that she knew he was trying to get around the law.” #PR1. The complaint contained a link to an article in the Salem Statesman Journal. #PR1. That. article alleges that Rep. Hack attended a court appearance with her son, Reece Hack, who had been issued traffic citations by Portland Police Officer Laurent Bonczijk after Mr. Hack was involved in a crash on I-5 in Portland. According to Officer Bonozijk as quoted10 "1 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 2 22 23 24 25 26 7 28. 29 30 at in the article, Rep. Hack ‘was trying to impress upon me that she's a state legislator and for that reason | better be dismissing tickets.” #PR2. According to the article, Mr. Hack pled no contest to two citations and received $695 in fines and an order to complete a high-risk drivers’ course and get a valid license. Two citations were dismissed. #PR2. The article also described, and linked to, a letter to Rep. Hack from the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles about a constituent who was concerned about the rules about provisional licenses. According to the article, Rep. Hack told the Statesman Journal that the constituent mentioned in the letter was her son. #PR2. Representative Hack provided a letter in response to the complaint, which will be provided in its entirety to the Commissioners with this report. After describing the circumstances surrounding the accident and citation, the letter reads: “One of the citations involved a claim that my son had an improper “Provisional License” because he was over 18 and still had the license he obtained when he was 16. My son and | had the question regarding the meaning of the ‘Provisional License,” which was one of the issues the officer said he was citing my son for. My son was also a constituent at that time, living in Salem. After a legislative hearing in January, | asked the DMV legislative coordinator to clarify what a provisional license is, because a constituent had asked about it. The article goes on to imply that | improperly used my position as State Representative when “requesting information from a state official.” The information request | verbally made to the DMV legislative coordinator regarding the nature of a “provisional driver's license is precisely the kind of service I and the other 89 Oregon legislators perform for constituents every day. In fact, | took great care to make sure my request was not given preference because the request had come from my son. | did not tell DMV. the information request was on behalf of my son precisely because | did not want to receive preferential or expedited treatment for the request to DMV. At no point did | ask for preferential treatment. The request was processed as an ordinary one from a legislator on behalf of a constituent... HACK PRELIMINARY REVIEW - Page 2Soervre® eon “ 2 43 14 18 16 7 18 19 20 2 22 23 24 25 26 a 28 29 30 34 Prior to entering the Courthouse, | specifically instructed my son to remove his identification as a legislative employee, and | did the same, because | did not want him to receive preferential treatment. | removed my official legislative identification that | usually wear on my lapel My only interaction with Officer Bonczijk was at the Multnomah County Courthouse on the day of my son's hearing. | never interacted with the Judge at the hearing nor advocated for lesser fines for my son. In court, | never appeared before the judge to advocate on my son’s behalf, | never spoke to the Judge or identified myself as a representative, and (to my knowledge) the judge was never aware of the letter from DMV to me regarding the “provisional license.” When my son was called up, he was instructed to confer with Officer Bonczijk Officer Bonezijk was the last officer to show up in the courtroom that day, and when he saw my son he rudely said, “Oh, you are here.” When we asked him why this would be surprising to him, he said to my son, "just figured you wouldn't show up.” At this point, | knew that the unprofessional conduct of Officer Bonezijk that my son had reported was accurate. During our conversation, | gave the Officer all of the vehicle records, along with the letter from DMV regarding the ‘Provisional license. | informed him that | was a State Representative to avoid confusion over my name being on the letter in my professional capacity. | then repeatedly stressed that | was there as my son's mother, not as a State Representative, and more importantly as the owner of the vehicle involved in the accident. The Officer suggested my son attend driving school and pay his fines. | strongly agreed with the Officer and conveyed this to both the Officer and my son. At the ‘end of our conversation, Officer Bonczijk seemed satisfied with our discussion and even stated, “my mom would have done the same." | never attempted to influence Officer Bonezijk’s actions, never appeared before the judge, and in fact strongly HACK PRELIMINARY REVIEW - Page 310 4 2 13 14 16 16 17 18 19 20 2 22 23 24 26 ar 28 29 30 34 ‘supported the decision to order my son to complete driving school and pay his fines. Further, my son pled no contest to the subject matter of the DMV letter, so no preferential treatment was requested or given. Again, | never interacted with the Judge regarding my son’s fines, and to my knowledge the Judge did not know | am a State Representative, However, the citation Officer Bonczijk issued regarding the car’s registration and insurance status were cleared up by the records | brought as the owner of the car. There was nothing improper about requesting factual information from DMV or accompanying my son ~ as his mother ~ to his court hearing. The news article cites attorney Chris Best in stating that ‘ifa legislator acting within their position as a public official compelled a police officer to absolve parking fines then there is ‘no doubt’ that would constitute an abuse of power.” First, | did not act in my official capacity in accompanying my son to his court hearing. Second, | did not — and indeed could not ~ “compel” the police officer to “absolve” parking fines, which were not at issue in this case in any event. I never attempted to have my son's fine reduced. | only showed the Officer that the vehicle was properly registered and insured. Here, the only person with the power to compel or absolve the driving citations was the judge, whom | did not speak with or appear before. | hope that by providing you further details of the interactions, the commission will understand the misleading nature of the news story, and that at every tum | took clear steps to ensure that in serving in my role as the mother of a son that I love, | would not be violating my official duties as a State Representative.” #PR4. In a phone call to the Commission, Rep. Hack said that the ticket appeared to be for a provisional license (it turned out to be for a non-operational license), and many young people have them, so she asked DMV to clear up the confusion. #PRE. When contacted by the investigator for the Commission, Officer Bonczijk stated that Rep. Hack “bee-lined’” for him and that one of the first things out of her mouth was that she was HACK PRELIMINARY REVIEW - Page 4Seaero "1 2 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23, 24 25 26 ar 28 29 a4 Jodi Hack, a State Representative. He recalled the conversation as rude and aggressive, He said, “She wanted to impress upon me that in the social interaction we were having, she was the big dog, she was in charge." He stated that there was no reason for that, because he was willing to dismiss all of the tickets anyway provided certain conditions were met. “I don't think she realized that,” he said. #PR3. According to Officer Bonezijk, he had given Mr. Hack four citations for no registration, no insurance, driving on an invalid license, and causing the accident. He offered the same deal to Rep, Hack’s son that he offered to everyone: he would dismiss all four of the tickets if Mr. Hack took a driver’s safety class and fixed the paperwork on the registration, insurance and license. At the court date, Mr. Hack told the officer that he had gone to DMV that morning and paid the fines, but was unable to produce a receipt. The court clerk, hearing the conversation, looked up Mr. Hack in the DMV system and found that his license was still not valid, even though he had what Officer Bonczijk recalled to be a regular, non-provisional license in his hand, #PR3. Officer Bonczijk stated that Rep. Hack told him that he had written the ticket for the license improperly and brandished a letter from DMV, telling him that he had no right to cite her son. #PR3. The investigator contacted Frances Stuckey, the clerk in the courtroom where the incident occurred. She did not hear anything about Rep. Hack’s position at the time of the incident, but she did hear part of the conversation, She said that Rep. Hack was rude and “kind of bullying’ the officer over the provisional license, which Rep. Hack appeared to believe Officer Bonezijk did not understand. Ms. Stuckey looked at the DMV record for Mr. Hack, which she had printed out before court due to the launch of a new computer system, and pointed out that his ticket was not related to the provisional license. Ms. Stuckey clarified for the investigator that the ticket was not for a suspended license or a provisional license, it was for having no operator's license, meaning that he had previously paid a ticket but had not paid the additional fee to have his license reinstated. His license was therefore not valid. Two of the tickets before the court on 6/3/16 were dismissed at the time of the trial and two were dismissed later. The no operator's license citation was dismissed after he complied with the requirements to pay the DMV fee on 6/3/16, the day of the hearing, HACK PRELIMINARY REVIEW - Page 5Soe vreareon “ 2 43 14 18 16 "7 18 19 20 24 22 23 24 25 26 ar 28 29 30 31 and the careless driving citation was dismissed after he took a driving class. This deal had nothing to do with who his mother was. #PR6. RECOMMENDATIONS: Jodi Hack was a State Representative for the State of Oregon during the period relevant to this preliminary review. As an elected state official, she was a public official as defined in ORS 244.020(15). Her son is a relative by the definition in ORS 244,020(16). ORS 244,040(1) prohibits a public official from using or attempting to use their official position or office to obtain financial gain or avoidance of financial detriment for, among others, the public official or a relative of the public official, if the financial gain or avoidance of financial detriment would not otherwise be available but for the public official's holding of the official position or office. From the available information, it appears that Representative Hack may have attempted to use her official position to obtain avoidance of financial detriment for a relative when, in light of her son’s citation that she believed was for driving on a provisional license, she asked the DMV legislative coordinator to clarify what a provisional license is. Because Rep. Hack might not have had access to the DMV legislative coordinator but for her official position as a state legislator, this option for communicating with DMV might not have been open to her but for her holding of her official position or office. Rep. Hack then presented this letter to Officer Bonczijk at her son's court dale, together with the information that she is a state legislator, apparently in an attempt to help her son avoid the financial detriment of paying a ticket for driving on a provisional license, because she believed that the ticket was given in error. Again, the letter might not have been available to her but for her position as a state legislator. There appears to be a substantial objective basis to believe that Jodi Hack may have violated Oregon Government Ethics law by requesting a letter from DMV related to her son’s traffic citation and by presenting that letter to the officer before the hearing. The HACK PRELIMINARY REVIEW - Page 610 " 12 13 14 15 Oregon Government Ethics Commission should move to investigate whether Jodi Hack may have violated ORS 244.040 (Motion 4), ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTS: #PR1 Complaint signed by Richard Perry, received on 8/30/16. #PRZ Article from Salem Statesman Journal, dated 7/7/16, and copy of letter from DMV to Representative Jodi Hack, linked in article. #PR3 Memorandum to file by M. Scheffers re. conversation with Portland Police Officer Laurent Bonczijk, 9/1/16. #PRA Letter from Representative Jodi Hack to investigator M. Scheffers, received by email on 9/13/16. #PRS Investigator notes on phone cail with Representative Jodi Hack, 9/16/16. #PRG Memoradum to file by M. Scheffers re. conversation with Frances Stuckey, 9/27/16. PREPARED BY Marie Scheffers, investigator Fp alze| ie APPROVED BY Ronald A. Bersin, Executive Director) alze\ TO BE REVIEWED BY Lynn Rosik, Assistant Attorney General veview Confira 'o4 email leslie HACK PRELIMINARY REVIEW - Page 7