Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has now announced that she is appointing LaVonne Griffin-Valade to serve as Oregon's next Secretary of State. Griffin-Valade worked as a government performance auditor for over 16 years, including eight years as an elected auditor.

“I told Oregonians in May that the primary objective of our next Secretary of State was to restore confidence in the office. LaVonne Griffin-Valade has the professional background and ethical judgment to rise above politics and lead the important work of the agency forward,” Governor Kotek said. “This role demands accountability and transparency, especially at this moment, and I am eager to see her leadership restore faith in the Secretary of State’s office.”

Griffin-Valade was hired as a Senior Management Auditor at the Multnomah County Auditor’s Office in 1998 and later went on to serve as the elected Multnomah County Auditor. In 2009, LaVonne was elected the Portland City Auditor. By the time she retired in 2014, The Oregonian Editorial Board credited her audits with exposing “mysteries about spending or management that would have otherwise gone unchecked and unknown – even by those in charge of the spending and management.”

“I have the experience to bring back credibility, accountability, transparency, and trust to the Secretary of State’s office,” Griffin-Valade said. “It’s never been more important to have a leader who will focus on rebuilding the public’s trust in the Secretary of State’s office, and that is exactly what I will aim to do every day.”

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

As the City of Portland Auditor, Griffin-Valade oversaw several divisions that required a high level of independence and ethical judgment from managers and staff, including government performance auditing, elections, archives, ombuds office, and additional accountability functions. Throughout her years working as a staff auditor and then as an elected auditor, she was a member of an international committee shaping the course of local government auditing throughout the U.S. and in several Canadian jurisdictions.

After leaving office, Griffin-Valade went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in writing from Portland State University and has since pursued a successful writing career.

Griffin-Valade will serve the remaining 18 months of the current term. She will be sworn in on Friday, June 30 in Salem.

Despite her credentials as an auditor, Secretary of State Designate Griffin-Valade will have her hands full as Oregon's chief elections officer.

After Secretary of State Shemia Fagan focused much energy and taxpayer resources countering what she called "false election information," some have questioned the role that the Secretary of States office has played in what they call "countering false election information." Many find it inappropriate for the agency involved in managing elections in Oregon to engage in suppressing investigations into election integrity -- especially with cartoonish productions that treat voters like children.

In an open letter to Oregonians, acting Secretary of State Cheryl Myers pointed out that during the last legislative session that Legislative funding for programs designed to combat false election information was reduced from $370,000 to $150,000. According to Myers, "With election workers bracing for a challenging 2024 election season, states like Washington, Colorado and California are making significant investments in this area." Legislative budget writers apparently have less of an appetite for this kind of information control.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2023-06-28 17:49:03

Last Update: 2023-06-28 22:16:05