Oregon to pay $286,000 to email leaker

The state has reached a settlement with the Department of Administrative Services IT manager who leaked former Gov. John Kitzhaber's emails to the Willamette Week newspaper in February.

Michael Rodgers will get $286,200, two years' pay, in two lump sums. He'll also get more than $12,000 for attorney fees, 300 days of paid vacation and health insurance through the rest of the year.

Until he formally resigned on Sept. 18, Rodgers had been on paid administrative leave.

As a part of the settlement, Rodgers agreed to drop his claim against the state that he was subject to investigations without proper notice and that he was mistreated.

In his attorney's July notice sent to then-acting DAS Director George Naughton, Rodgers alleged the state and DAS published false reports about him and retaliated against him for disclosing information he believed had been handled improperly.

In February, Rodgers handed over 6,000 of Kitzhaber's personal account emails to a reporter at the Willamette Week. He said he believed the emails were subject to disclosure under public records law and that they would be illegally mishandled after an assistant from Kitzhaber's office made a request to remove personal emails from state servers.

Shortly after, Rodgers was placed on leave.

He could have faced criminal misdemeanor charges related to leaking the emails, but Gov. Kate Brown said it was not in the public's interest to pursue charges. Oregon does not have whistle-blower protections for criminal charges.

Jonathan J. Cooper of the Associated Press contributed to this report.

gfriedman2@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6653 or on Twitter @gordonrfriedman