A former employee alleges retaliation for blowing the whistle on potential records law violations among staff in Jessica Vega Pederson's office. by Courtney Vaughn

Updated: Nov. 20. This story has been updated with additional input from the county clarifying its investigation into alleged unlawful workplace behavior.

Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson is defending what she calls limited and “rare” use of private email channels to conduct county business.

The remarks came in a newsletter from the county chair's office over the weekend, in light of reporting on a lawsuit filed against the county by Vega Pederson’s former deputy chief of staff. The former employee claims she lost her job after reporting potential public records law violations by staff in the county chair’s office.

In a lawsuit filed November 12, Tabitha Jensen claims she was retaliated against and ultimately fired for bringing up concerns about staff in Vega Pederson’s office using private backchannels of communication, effectively shielding the messages from public records law disclosure.

Jensen was hired in July 2023 to serve as Vega Pederson’s deputy chief of staff. Six months later, in January, Jensen was shifted to oversee budget and strategic projects for Vega Pederson.

According to her lawsuit, Jensen began raising concern with county officials, including a county attorney, about instances of potential records law violations in May. Jensen claims she was denied a permanent position as a director of the county’s Youth & Family Services department in October, even though she was already performing that job on an interim basis.

She says she was also denied the chance to transfer back to her job as Vega Pederson’s budget and special projects director, and then was notified she would soon be terminated.

Jensen believes she was ousted for blowing the whistle on high-ranking county staff.

Under Oregon law, communication between government employees is generally considered public record. Employees who are subject to the law aren’t supposed to use private email or personal phones to conduct official business.

Vega Pederson said that a records request from The Oregonian for emails that have come through her private inbox yielded 189 emails out of 90,000 sent since her time as a county official.

“The emails I provided showed that two former members of my staff chose to correspond with me on my personal email, not at my request. They no longer work for me, and since bringing in a new Chief of Staff, we’ve re-trained my team to assure transparency and use of county devices for our work," Vega Pederson wrote in her newsletter. "We’re also clear that county business records, no matter where they’re kept, must be retained—this is the law and a strongly held value by myself and my team. Since this training, there have been no communications coming to me from my team in personal email."

Jensen’s lawsuit raises questions about the county’s compliance with state records laws on a broader level.

"It is the long established policy of the County that all employees comply with Oregon Public Records law and retention policies,” Julie Sullivan-Springhetti, director of Multnomah County's communications office, told the Mercury. “The impact of these rules is that employees must retain and provide any work records created or maintained on personal devices, including but not limited to emails, electronic documents, texts, chats, and voicemails.”

Sullivan-Springhetti said county employees review personnel rules annually, and staff are now instructed not to use their personal cell phones for work-related business, except for "brief, occasional, or intermittent use."

In a public statement, an attorney representing Jensen called his client a “respected member of the greater Portland community,” whose professional work includes human services and administering programs for homeless youth and young adults.

“The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold the County accountable to its stated mission, vision, and values,” Michael Fuller of Underdog Law Office stated. “Based on our investigation, Tabitha experienced retaliation in the workplace after she raised concerns that the County was not complying with Oregon’s public records laws. Specifically, Tabitha raised concerns after she was asked to communicate using the County Chair’s personal email, then noticed that the County was not timely producing communications involving the County Chair’s personal email account. The communications were ultimately produced, but only after Tabitha raised her concerns with the County Attorney.”

Vega Pederson said her handling of emails and records has been "mischaracterized."

“I care a lot about transparency and have championed public records updates during my time as Chair,” Vega Pederson stated in her newsletter. “Our last budget included investments in a new public records system and manager in response to the vast increase in requests that have been made of the County these last few years. I also led a change to our internal rules that explicitly states County employees should use County cell phones, not personal cell phones, to conduct regular county business. This was a significant policy shift from past practice.”

County says legal counsel is investigating Jensen's complaints

Shortly after learning her employment at the county was ending, Jensen reported the alleged illegal workplace behavior to the county's Complaints Investigations Unit. It appeared the county took Jensen’s complaint seriously, and tried to schedule a meeting with Jensen and outside investigators with the law firm Beery, Elsner & Hammond.

But soon after Jensen informed a county investigations coordinator of her pending lawsuit against Multnomah County over the same employment issues, the investigations unit halted its investigation.

“I'm not sure if the CIU is aware, but there are other legal activities related to my reporting that are happening concurrently," Jensen told the investigations coordinator. "Just wanted to make sure this was on your radar."

"We are not able to continue with the CIU investigation at this time," the coordinator told Jensen, citing advice from the county's attorneys.

Sullivan-Springhetti, the county communications director, says that doesn't mean the investigation has been abandoned. She says the county's attorney is looking into Jensen's claims.

She provided additional clarification Wednesday, November 20, noting there are several pathways employees can take to file a complaint.

"When an employee brings complaints through multiple channels, the County coordinates internally to assure that complaints are addressed efficiently and without duplication of efforts. Here, Tabitha brought both a legal claim and an allegation of personnel rule violations," Sullivan-Springhetti told the Mercury. "The County Attorney is currently investigating those claims and will provide advice to the County on next steps.

Jensen is seeking reimbursement of her attorney fees, and non-economic damages of up to $425,000.

Multnomah County Chair Defends Herself Against Former Employee's Lawsuit