Oregon Department of Transportation Director Kris Strickler, left in orange, talks with Gov. Tina Kotek, right, and others during a cleanup at Sullivan’s Gulch in Portland. Strickler has come under fire from lawmakers, but Kotek has stuck by the agency head, even as she’s shown others the door over headline-generating controversies. Photo courtesy of the governor's office

When Gov. Tina Kotek took office, she pledged to hold state agencies accountable. Just over two years into her tenure, she’s proven she’s not afraid to fire people to do so.

Since winning the state’s top office, Kotek has ousted at least five key agency leaders and encouraged the resignation of at least four other state agency leaders or top administrators. This year alone, Kotek has pushed out the leaders of the Oregon Youth Authority, the Oregon State Hospital and the Oregon Public Defense Commission.

In some cases, Kotek has publicly fired agency leaders, criticizing their performance and calling for quicker improvement. In others, she has quietly pushed for or accepted agency heads’ resignations, then strongly praised their replacements for their integrity and turn-around skills.

Some lawmakers and highly placed state employees say the firings are an extension of Kotek’s high expectations for her executive agencies. Several sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Kotek has been more hands-on with agency operations than her predecessor, Gov. Kate Brown, and quicker to fire leaders when they don’t meet her standards.

Several agency heads confirmed they face high expectations and detailed scrutiny from the governor’s office, which they said represented a departure from the Brown administration.

But other state government players say some of the recent ousters point to Kotek’s struggle to run a massive state government. Two individuals who worked for past Oregon governors, both of whom spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about Kotek’s administration, said they view some of the removals as reactionary responses from a governor lacking the in-depth engagement with her agencies that would have helped her see those crises coming.

Brown declined to comment on her or her successor’s management styles.

Kotek, when asked this week what she would tell Oregonians concerned about dysfunction in state agencies that prompted the high-profile firings, said she’s carrying out her campaign promises.

When running for governor, “I said: I’m going to sweat the details. I’m going to look under the hood. I’m going to ask hard questions. I’m going to ask people to achieve certain goals,” Kotek said. “And that’s what I’m doing.”

Governors have to walk a fine line between engaging with state agencies while not attempting to involve themselves in every decision, said Kristoffer Shields, director of the Rutgers University Eagleton Center on the American Governor. “If you sort of overdo it, you can be seen as making decisions too quickly and then people start to lose trust in your decisions,” he said.

Kotek acknowledged that she “can’t know everything in the state” but said she is willing to make hard decisions when necessary. “I’m not looking to shake things up. I’m just looking to make things work better.”

There is little doubt that many of the agencies whose leaders she forced or nudged out were either marred by scandal or producing less than stellar results. Still, it is not clear that her hand-picked replacements will do better across the board – in part because Kotek has yet to install permanent leaders at half those agencies.

She’s sent signals that she’s seeking top talent for some of the key roles she’s made room to fill. At least four agency heads she’s hired were selected after a national search, and four more national searches are underway, according to Kotek communications director Elisabeth Shepard.

Hands-on approach

On her third day as governor, Kotek sent a letter to heads of all state agencies telling them she was instituting a “new focus on public administration.” Kotek doubled down on improving how agencies function and wrote that she expected agency leaders to partner with her staff to solve problems and to deliver on her priority areas of housing, behavioral health and education.

Each agency director must now undergo a biennial performance review, which even Kotek’s frequent critics applaud. They include feedback from a director’s peers, direct reports and labor leaders. That level of review hadn’t been required in years, if ever, Kotek said.

Betsy Imholt, director of the Oregon Department of Revenue, said Kotek has provided clear expectations for agency heads to improve customer service and internal operations.

“(Agency directors) provide her regular updates, and we all know that she reads them because she asks us very detailed questions at very random times,” Imholt said. “In a very big enterprise, she finds a way to be very hands-on.”

Multiple agency heads said they meet regularly with Kotek’s policy advisers and occasionally with the governor to get feedback on agency performance. Kotek sets high standards for agency leaders, as she should, said Ben Cannon, executive director of Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission. Directors have the responsibility to meet that bar or expect consequences, he added.

“She is impatient with inadequacy or impatient with average,” Cannon said. “She wants to get things done. I think that has characterized her whole political career.”

Kotek says that she doesn’t govern in reaction to public controversy – but that she doesn’t like to get caught off guard by agency missteps or worse. Those unpleasant surprises have preceded some firings or departures, she acknowledged.

Series of shakeups

Kotek ushered in several transitions when she entered office in 2023. She quickly replaced the heads of the Oregon Health Authority, the Oregon Lottery and the Oregon Department of Emergency Management. She also announced the upcoming retirement of Oregon’s state schools chief and demanded the resignation of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission director. Not long afterward, she put her education policy adviser in charge of Oregon’s teacher licensing agency.

And since the start of 2025, Kotek has ousted three agency heads and the acting head of the state psychiatric hospital.

Some of the departures were directly tied to poor agency outcomes. For example, the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission had come under fire for a huge backlog in processing applications and complaints of educator misconduct, and Kotek had made it clear she was unhappy with the agency’s handling of reading instruction in colleges of education.

Similarly, Kotek followed through on her campaign promise to replace former Oregon Health Authority Director Pat Allen. Allen led Oregon’s public health response to the COVID pandemic, which sparked controversy including over his support for keeping schools closed longer than nearly all other states. Under his tenure, the department also drew criticism for failing to quickly distribute dollars for behavioral health programs. Allen resigned shortly after Kotek won election.

“I did make some comments during the campaign that I think sent the message that I was looking for new leadership” at the health agency, Kotek said. “I wanted to see more flexibility to try some new things.”

Other firings were tied to scandals or damaging reports revealing widespread failings.

Kotek asked the Liquor and Cannabis Commission Director Steve Marks to resign days before The Oregonian/OregonLive revealed an investigation that found agency leaders had reserved highly-sought bourbons for themselves. (Kotek’s office later said she asked for his resignation before learning of the investigation.)

State Forester Cal Mukumoto resigned in January in a cloud of controversy regarding the agency’s culture, including an inappropriate supervisor-subordinate sexual relationship and criticisms about an inadequately acknowledged funding shortfall that required lawmakers to call a special legislative session. Mukumoto told The Oregonian/OregonLive this week that one of Kotek’s policy advisers asked for his resignation on behalf of the governor, citing an Oregonian/OregonLive story reporting the agency treated employees to a training at a luxury resort.

Kotek fired Oregon Youth Authority Director Joe O’Leary in March, one day before The Oregonian/OregonLive disclosed the scope of the agency’s failure to investigate thousands of abuse complaints by incarcerated teens and young adults spanning years.

“In cases where there has been significant public pushback because of a trigger event, I don’t blame her,” Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham of The Dalles said of the firings. “She is a politician at the end of the day and she responds to political pressure.”

Firing agency leaders is far from novel. Former Gov. John Kitzhaber replaced at least seven agency heads when he began his third term in 2011, after directing 24 agency heads to submit letters to him pledging their commitment to his agenda. Brown, who suddenly entered office in February 2015 following Kitzhaber’s resignation, was far less apt to push agency directors out, ousting the heads of only two major agencies in her first two years.

But several state government observers noted Kotek has been quicker to fire agency heads than her predecessor – and more transparent than several former governors about her motivation for doing so.

“Other governors in the past may have been more subtle about changes where people may be stepping down,” said Rep. Kevin Mannix, R- Salem. “I think this governor has been very upfront about her efforts to maintain accountability, so it’s noticed more. … Whether one agrees with her actions or not, she has certainly been very open about it.”

Mixed degrees of transparency

Not every ouster early in Kotek’s term had transparent motives, however. Kotek gave no public reason for jettisoning lottery chief Barry Pack, a longtime Brown ally, or emergency management director Andrew Phelps, who played a key role in Oregon’s response to the pandemic and record-breaking 2020 wildfires. Both announced after Kotek won the governor’s race that they would step down as she took over.

Kotek said this week she simply wanted a new leadership approach at those agencies. “Was there anything specific? No,” she said. “I think it’s just a feeling (of wanting) someone new to try something new there.”

Where other governors have hemmed and hawed about how to deal with agency leaders in the midst of a problem, Kotek seems more willing to just rip off the Band-Aid, said Joe Baessler, executive director of Oregon AFSCME, a union which represents state workers.

“It’s better to make a decision and move forward, as opposed to keeping folks in limbo,” Baessler said.

Yet Kotek has not ousted directors of other agencies that have generated controversy during her time in office.

The state transportation agency has received heavy criticism from Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the past year for errantly registering noncitizens to vote, significant budget forecasting errors and major project overruns. Union members have called on Kotek to fire Department of Human Services Director Fariborz Pakseresht, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. He has led the department as it weathered huge controversies including a lawsuit over the state’s treatment of foster children which cost taxpayers more than $34 million.

But Kotek has stuck by leaders at those two agencies, saying that they have been forthright about problems and communicative about plans to address them. When DMV Administrator Amy Joyce considered resigning in September after it was revealed that the agency mistakenly helped hundreds of non-citizens register to vote, Kotek’s office said she saw no need for a leadership change, state transportation agency director Kris Strickler said this week.

Kotek said at an April press conference that Pakseresht also has her support. He keeps her apprised of the department’s response to “very difficult issues” and its efforts to improve internally, Kotek said.

“I would rather have someone from an agency tell me something difficult, and then we will work through whatever that is,” Kotek said, “than finding out about it in the press or finding out in some other form.”

Pakseresht has a direct line to Kotek and her chief of staff, he told The Oregonian/OregonLive this week. Whereas Brown was engaged with the department at a high level, Kotek wants to know details about department operations and how it plans to solve problems that arise, he said.

“With this governor, if you give her a document, you better have read it,” Pakseresht said. “She reads everything that you give her.”

External hires, internal promotions

Kotek said that ​​finding new leaders requires a “broad swath” of candidates and noted that she’s done national searches for many of her key appointees.

Oregon Health Authority Director Dr. Sejal Hathi previously worked as New Jersey’s deputy health commissioner for public health services after a two-year stint as a senior health policy adviser for the Biden administration. Kotek’s pick to take over the emergency management agency, Erin McMahon, is a retired army officer and had more than 15 years of experience managing emergency responses at the national level.

But Kotek has also turned to in-state hires appointed by Brown to lead several high-profile agencies.

When state Department of Administrative Services Director Berri Leslie announced her upcoming retirement for personal reasons earlier this year, Kotek announced that Imholt, head of the Department of Revenue and longtime government insider, would step into the role. She named David Gerstenfeld, director of the Oregon Employment Department, as Imholt’s replacement. And she announced that Andrew Stolfi, head of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, would lead the employment agency.

Kotek said she’s “trying something new” by moving those staffers around. She praised Imholt’s performance. And though she told reporters before taking office that she was “possibly” considering replacing Gerstenfeld, Kotek said he proved himself to be a “clear leader” navigating a difficult situation during the pandemic.

Most of Kotek’s early hires have not made many headlines, although Hathi received criticism from some employees last year for pushing out the agency’s highly respected equity and inclusion director and also drew negative attention for taking an unpaid out-of-state weekend gig as a doctor treating patients.

Some new agency heads have notched notable progress. Phil Castle, whom Kotek named director of the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training early in her term, last year eliminated the agency’s monthslong backlog to train officers at the state’s police academy.

Castle said that achievement was possible because of the governor’s support and engagement. “If I did not believe in the governor as my leader, I would not be here,” he said. “She’s shown up for me and my team whenever we’ve needed her.”

Agency leaders ousted by Gov. Tina Kotek

• Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission: Director Steve Marks was terminated Feb. 15, 2023, after Kotek demanded that he resign. The resignation came as The Oregonian/OregonLive revealed top agency officials had set aside special bourbons for themselves, but Kotek said she decided to fire him before she learned of that scandal. Permanent replacement: Craig Prins, formerly inspector general for the Oregon Department of Corrections.
• Oregon Department of Forestry: State Forester Cal Mukumoto resigned in January. He told The Oregonian/OregonLive that a key Kotek staffer acting at the governor’s behest pressured him to step down. Permanent replacement: Being sought in a national search.
• Oregon Youth Authority: Kotek fired longtime director Joe O’Leary March 12 after learning that more than 3,000 reports of abuse and other complaints by incarcerated teens and young adults had not been investigated on his watch. Permanent replacement: Being sought in a national search.
• Oregon State Hospital: Kotek mandated the ouster of Dr. Sara Walker, the hospital’s acting superintendent, in mid-April, less than 24 hours after learning more details of the death of a patient held in seclusion at the psychiatric institution. Permanent replacement: Being sought in a national search.
• Oregon Public Defense Commission: Kotek fired Jessica Kampfe, the commission’s executive director, on April 17. “It is unacceptable that more than 4,000 defendants in Oregon do not have attorneys assigned,” Kotek said in announcing the shakeup. Permanent replacement: Plans for replacing Kampfe will be determined after the legislative session ends in late June, a Kotek spokesperson said.