An investigation into workplace conduct issues at the Clatsop County District Attorney’s Office is ongoing, but several current and former employees attended a Clatsop County Board of Commissioner’s meeting last week to draw further attention to the matter.
During a public comment period, Kaelee Kinney, a trial assistant, said district attorney staff have been bringing up similar workplace issues to county Human Resources for years.
“There’s been so many documented reports of these behaviors, valid legitimate reports, and they have fallen on deaf ears,” Kinney told the commissioners.
Currently, two employees are on indefinite leave related to the investigation. Several other employees, including Kinney and an attorney, are on family and medical leave. People familiar with operations at the district attorney’s office have described a toxic work environment.
Kinney told the county commissioners about threatening and bullying behavior at the office. As she spoke, four current and former district attorney office employees stood behind her in solidarity.
“There’s many employees’ lives that have been impacted severely by this,” Kinney said. “There’s many employees out on leave for physical issues that have manifested from this, for mental health issues, family issues. The list goes on and on.”
District Attorney Ron Brown oversees a staff of 20 people total, including seven deputy district attorneys. With people out on various types of leave and the already small office short-staffed, it has created a ripple effect through the Clatsop County District Court, Kinney said.
“It’s affecting the defense bar, it’s affecting courts, it’s affecting local law enforcement,” she said. “But the real victims in this are the Clatsop County employees — your employees — that are good, hard-working people that want to show up to work every day, do their job and they (trust) in Clatsop County to have a safe environment to do those jobs in and unfortunately Clatsop County has failed to act on so many previous reports of this same type of behavior and the nature of this behavior for many years and now it’s severely impacting people’s lives.”
Commission Chair Mark Kujala thanked Kinney for her testimony, replying, “I understand there is an investigation underway.”
Later, he told KMUN he couldn’t comment on Kinney’s statements or the ongoing investigation.
KMUN reached out to Clatsop County Manager Don Bohn for an update on the investigation and was told there were no updates to share.
Jennifer Benoit, a county spokesperson, told KMUN that the district attorney’s office has coordinated temporary support to help supplement staffing levels, using employees from other county departments who have experience with operations in the district attorney’s office.
“The (District Attorney) will continue to assess and address their staffing needs,” Benoit wrote in an email.
Click here for previous reporting by KMUN on this issue.