A week after a report was released finding that Lane County Commissioner David Loveall retaliated against county employees, his colleagues have asked him to formally apologize.
Loveall and his attorney, Jill Gibson, disagreed with the findings during Wednesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.
Gibson said personnel policies don’t apply to elected officials, and the report was flawed and inaccurate.
“Commissioner Loveall has very strong legal claims that the investigative process violated his rights to due process, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, his liberty interest and I have advised him to file a lawsuit," Gibson said.
Loveall, who represents Springfield, is accused of retaliating against three employees, including County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky by threatening his and complaining workers’ jobs, and disparaging Mokrohisky in public. He’s also accused of subjecting an employee to unwanted religious language.
Loveall could have had a private hearing on the findings, but requested discussion be held in public instead, arguing the county had inappropriately released incomplete information to the public.
He denied many of the accusations in the report, saying he didn’t realize the person he sent a card with religious language had religion-related trauma, and that giving Mokrohisky the lowest possible marks on his annual performance review was his fulfilling his oversight role as a commissioner, not retaliation.
Loveall said he’s given Mokrohisky low marks for years because of other disagreements, including the county’s involvement in the CleanLane project, which he strongly opposes.
“These scores are not retaliatory, but consistent,” Loveall said.
Loveall previously called the release of the report a partisan attack, echoing that concern in a statement sent out after the meeting.
“Releasing partial and inaccurate information and demanding responses in the middle of an election year is a reckless way to handle a serious matter that deserves fairness and transparency,” Loveall wrote in the statement.
Commissioners didn’t publicly discuss the contents of the report, or respond to Loveall and his attorney’s comments. They did meet in a closed-door executive session for more than two hours, however.
Afterwards, they voted to make a public statement of unity for those reporting discrimination and harassment and to ask Loveall to apologize and acknowledge the harm he caused. Loveall and Board Chair Ryan Ceniga voted no.
During the vote, Ceniga also said he thought the process was flawed.
