June 16, 2026
OPB’s responsibility as a nonprofit, independent journalism service is to report on matters of consequence for the public. Access to public records is a critical component of our mission and ensures the people of this region have the facts and knowledge necessary to hold institutions and public officials accountable.
That is why when OHSU fired a key senior leader, OPB requested records under Oregon’s Public Records Law.
OHSU declined to produce the records. OPB sought review by Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vazquez. In an order requiring the release of records, MCDA General Counsel Adam Gibbs stated:
“It is difficult to conceive of a stronger case for the public interest than the removal, by the institution, of the chief executive of OHSU Health after less than four months. OHSU is among the largest public institutions in Oregon, and its health system’s leadership is a matter of genuine public consequence. The public’s interest is not in the bare fact of a personnel action, which is already known, but in understanding how and why OHSU’s president concluded that its newly hired hospital chief executive could not continue in the role.”
Rather than follow the MDCA’s order, OHSU declined to produce the documents and has brought a lawsuit against OPB. Oregon’s public records law allows requesters to seek review of a public body’s refusal to release records. When the public body then sues a requester because the requester prevailed, this contradicts the foundational concepts of open government. Requesters who prevail with their district attorney reviews should not be required to defend themselves in court, particularly not if they are individuals or media entities operating in the public interest; this type of retaliatory lawsuit is so rare that it has happened less than a dozen times since the public records law was adopted in 1973.
Of those dozen times, OHSU has sued a requester twice.1
“OPB will not be intimidated in our pursuit of information on behalf of the communities we serve,” said Rachel Smolkin, OPB’s president and CEO. “We will continue to report on this story, and we appreciate the DA’s diligent order and strong acknowledgement of the public interest.”
OPB stands by its original requests for transparency and firmly believes that the legislature could not have intended for requesters to be sued by public bodies.
1 OHSU v Oregonian Publishing Company, LLC was the other time OHSU sued a requester who soughtpersonnel records after it lost at the DA level. OHSU lost at the trial and appellate courts on that issue.(It did prevail on one point of law relating to ORS 192.496(1).