Steve Mokrohisky: This is not about belief, but behavior

Presenter: The March 3 Lane County commissioners meeting opened with a statement from the county administrator about his June 2025 meeting with Commissioner David Loveall.  Steve Mokrohisky: 

Steve Mokrohisky (Lane County, administrator): We have important work to do for our community, and I wish that I did not have to take the time here today to address the escalating attacks and false statements by Commissioner Loveall about me and our employees. But I have an obligation to provide commissioners, our employees and the public with the facts.

These are my first substantive public comments about this issue to date.

Countless employees have asked if retaliation is now acceptable in the workplace, and if it is not, then who is going to stand up and say so? Well, here I am. My message today is as much for our employees and for our residents as it is for you. I want our employees and our residents to know the truth.

On June 17, 2025, I was instructed by Commissioner David Loveall to fire two employees because they raised concerns about his inappropriate behavior in the workplace. I said no. He threatened to fire me and has continued a public campaign of escalating retaliation ever since.

These are facts that have been sustained by an independent investigator hired by you, the Board of Commissioners. Every account of retaliation that was alleged was validated—over 10 counts of retaliation against multiple employees.

As public sector leaders, we must act with curiosity, humility, and respect for others, and we must accept responsibility when we make a mistake. Commissioner Loveall has spent the past eight months defending his behavior while attacking the people who appropriately raised concerns.

Let’s be clear. This is not about political ideology, religious beliefs, or free speech. No one has questioned any individual’s rights to those things. This is about one elected official using his power to threaten, intimidate, and retaliate against employees and claiming it is his right to do so.

I have not—and I will not—be bullied into silencing or firing employees for raising workplace concerns. It is not okay for any person to threaten, intimidate, or retaliate against the people that work for them. It’s not just wrong and against county policy. These behaviors are prohibited in government workplaces, and private sector workplaces by federal and state laws.

Our employees are public servants who work passionately for Lane County every day. They’ve earned appreciation, not retaliation.

I want to share some reflections on the two employees that Commissioner Loveall instructed me to fire. These are good, hardworking, and high-performing public servants. They do not seek drama or the limelight. They want to come to work and make our community a better place for everyone. They represent the best of us.

I have great respect and admiration for these employees. I spoke to both of them recently, and I’ve heard from many other employees over the past several months. They have shared with me the impacts of all of this.

Their first concerns were not for themselves, but rather for the work they do and the people they serve, that service to others would be jeopardized because they spoke up. In fact, there were people who didn’t speak up for just that reason—they feel vulnerable and they fear retaliation.

Our employees have told me how hard it is to be in the news, to read the comments on social media, and to feel like things are being said about them simply because they did what they were supposed to do.

Everyone involved attempted to resolve these issues in the most respectful ways possible, and our employees did exactly what our policies and trainings require that they do: to report conduct, and seek to resolve the issues at the lowest level possible.

Our employees are stunned and rattled to see someone who is elected by the people to be a leader defame and attack them, dismissing this as a ‘politically motivated, partisan attack by activist staff members.’ 

Commissioners, you know these employees. You know their names and you know their behaviors. They are not activists. They are humble public servants.

In fact, commissioners, I met with Employee #1 on Friday, and you’re aware that this person has now come forward to identify themselves publicly. This person has spoken to each of you to share their experience with you and to correct several false statements that Commissioner Loveall made publicly two weeks ago.

In addition to the false statements that have been called to your attention by Employee #1, there were numerous additional false statements made by Commissioner Loveall and his attorney that have been brought to my attention by multiple people. I have been asked to correct three of those false statements.

First, Commissioner Loveall and his attorney falsely stated numerous times that as an elected official, workplace rules do not apply to Commissioner Loveall.

This is a surprising assertion given that Lane Charter Section 26 (2), enacted by Lane County voters as well as Lane Manual Section 2.040.192 (enacted by the Board of Commissioners as a body, clearly states that elected officials are part of the unclassified service of the county, and ‘expected to comply with personnel policies and procedures that are designed to reduce liability for the county.’

These policies restrict ‘workplace violence, harassment, discrimination, mobbing, and retaliation.’ Commissioner Loveall has been provided these policies on multiple occasions.

Second, Commissioner Loveall falsely stated (as he has several times) that the board was not provided the final contract for the resource recovery facility before it was signed. In fact, commissioners were sent the final contract nine days prior to its execution.

On Sept. 25, 2024, county counsel at my direction sent all five commissioners the final contract, requesting questions be submitted within the following week. No questions or comments were received and the contract was executed on Oct. 4, 2024 pursuant to the direction given by the board to the administrator in Board Order 23-12-05-07.

Commissioner Loveall was given nine days to review the final contract and said nothing.

Third, Commissioner Loveall falsely stated that he met with Employee #1 and Laura Pancoast on June 16, 2025 to discuss state cuts. For context, Laura Pancoast is an executive assistant in Health and Human Services and has recently stepped up to fill a vacant supervisor role temporarily.

She’s conscientious, dedicated, and hardworking, and she was rather shaken when Commissioner Loveall called her out by name publicly on Feb. 16 because she has never met Commissioner Loveall, nor has she been in a meeting with Commissioner Loveall. The meeting Commissioner Loveall referenced never happened.

The meeting that actually happened took place on July 17, not June 16, and it included Employee #1, two other employees and Commissioner Loveall to prepare for a Board of Health meeting that took place on Aug. 5. Laura Pancoast was not in that meeting.

I want to apologize to Ms. Pancoast and express my displeasure that she was publicly and inappropriately named by Commissioner Loveall. 

There are many other additional attacks and false statements that Commissioner Loveall continues to make, most recently suggesting that my and our team’s work to address Sanipac waste exportation is to blame.

On that issue, the fact remains that we discussed waste exportation issues with the board in 2023, 2024, and 2025. So the assertion that the board wasn’t informed is yet another red herring.

Frankly, it is difficult to track the shifting narrative, and I will leave it to others to address additional attacks and false statements if they desire.

But please remember that retaliation is the issue at hand.

There are no winners here. And I hate that I have been placed in this position. I’ve successfully worked in public service for over 25 years with over 60 commissioners and other elected officials who represent a broad diversity of political views and perspectives.

I remain apolitical in everything that I do to serve our community. I have no concerns for the political views or religious beliefs of any elected official I work with, but I do care deeply about how people behave in the workplace.

Repeated behaviors are what create the culture of an organization. This is why we’ve worked so hard over the past decade to develop and reinforce our core behaviors in Lane County.

Commissioners, we recognize employees here in Harris Hall on Tuesdays, right here. We bring ’em up to the table, not for what they believe, but for how they behave.

So let me be clear on these two points.

One, I have never witnessed this level of threats, intimidation, or retaliation from anyone that I have worked with or for in my entire career.

Two, I will not allow and no one that works for me will allow illegal workplace behaviors to be silenced.

We should embrace spirited debate and healthy conflict. But public service requires a baseline standard of professionalism and respect. When a public leader retaliates against employees, we need to call that out as something we don’t accept.

If you choose to accept these behaviors, not only do you put taxpayer resources at risk, but the quality of your workforce and the quality of the service you provide to the public will decline exponentially.

The question today is this: Should an elected official be allowed to use his or her power to violate workplace laws by threatening, intimidating, and retaliating against employees? I say no, and my hope is that as an organization and as a community, we recommit to ethical and appropriate behavior for everyone serving the public, especially our elected officials. Thank you.

Presenter: County Administrator  Steve Mokrohisky makes his first substantive public statement about a June 2025 meeting with Lane County Commissioner David Loveall.