PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Two Washington County commissioners are calling for the release of a full internal investigation into the behavior of the county’s top elected official Kathryn Harrington following a KOIN 6 News investigation.
Since December 2021, KOIN 6 has discovered that Harrington has been accused of creating a toxic work environment in Washington County in her role as county chair and at her previous job as Metro Councilor.
On Friday, KOIN 6 received a summary of Washington County’s internal investigation. It did not contain any conclusions or recommendations.
Commissioners Roy Rogers and Jerry Willey felt that they had to speak up about Harrington after an independent investigator hired by the county interviewed 20 employees. The two commissioners read the full report from the county that hasn’t been publicly released yet.
“She engaged in workplace harassment that was abusive, disruptive, unprofessional, and created a work environment that was not civil or respectful of county employees,” Willey said, reading from the report.
The report looked at aspects of Harrington’s behavior, including whether she was “yelling/screaming and engaging in unprofessional and disrespectful conduct” towards her chief of staff.
The most significant allegation says Harrington “borders on being unprofessional; her behavior can be hostile and abusive and beyond unprofessional.”
“So he is recommending,” Willey continued to read, “emotional intelligence training, benefit from counseling and training regarding her substantiated disrespectful conduct.”
“In the full report, you’ll see, they resign. There are people leaving. It’s in there and that’s a shame,” Rogers said.
The full County Commission will meet Tuesday, April 5, where Rogers and Willey will call for a vote to release the full report to the public.
“We both can be sued right now for talking too, but sometimes (what’s) right is more important (than) personal liability. Doing the right thing is really important,” Rogers said.