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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Our View: Law lets lobbyists keep public in the dark ... Britt commissions NY composer Michael Gordon to capture Crater Lake in sound ... Murders at Crater Lake: The slaying of auto-parts reps in 1952 remains a mystery ... Our View: Law lets lobbyists keep public in the dark ... Britt commissions NY composer Michael Gordon to capture Crater Lake in sound ... Murders at Crater Lake: The slaying of auto-parts reps in 1952 remains a mystery ... OUR VIEW Our View: Emails contradict claims of Kitzhaber, Hayes Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Apr. 10, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated Apr 10, 2015 at 10:21 AM Posted Apr. 10, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated Apr 10, 2015 at 10:21 AM » Social News It turns out there was a good reason why former Gov. John Kitzhaber and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, fought against turning over her emails with administration staff. The now-released emails make it clear she was doing exactly what they insisted she wasn't: functioning as a public official and blurring the line between that role and her private consulting work. Anyone who still thinks Kitzhaber should not have resigned when he did will want to follow the revelations emerging from reports in The Oregonian based on the 94,000 emails released last week by Gov. Kate Brown's office. While nothing reported so far suggests any outright violation of the law, it is obvious Hayes was fully involved in the administration at the policy level, and that Kitzhaber encouraged that role. Email exchanges between Hayes and key figures in the governor's office make it clear she intended to function as if she were a deputy governor, inserting herself into policy decisions, building her "brand" as first lady of Oregon and behaving in a supervisory manner toward senior staff members. The emails also reveal that Kitzhaber facilitated this, instructing staff to send her correspondence regarding policy matters and include her as a participant in high-level meetings. Questions about conflicts of interest between Hayes' outside consulting work and her role in the administration are still being investigated. But in at least one case, a report by Willamette Week indicates the governor's staff attorney  changed the wording of a contract with a spokeswoman working under Hayes to make it appear the employee was working not for the first lady but for the Oregon Business Council, which used its own grant funding to pay the employee's salary as part of its anti-poverty Oregon Prosperity Initiative, headed by Hayes. The attorney was concerned that the arrangement would cause ethical and legal problems for the administration if it appeared the employee worked directly for Hayes. Despite Kitzhaber's insistence in January that his office took great pains to separate Hayes' private consulting work from her work in his office, she clearly says in her own emails that she was mixing private and public work on the same out-of-town trips, and she used the governor's office staff to coordinate meetings with the same people who were funding her consulting work. So far, only Hayes' emails have been released. Kitzhaber's email records from his state account have not been. If Hayes' emails are any indication, Kitzhaber's are unlikely to make either of them look any better.   MailTribune.com Writer Posted Apr. 10, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated Apr 10, 2015 at 10:21 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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