Former University Vice President and Provost John Moseley faces an ethics complaint filed by a professor who says Moseley did not properly report Deschutes and Lane county land transactions on state financial disclosure forms.
In a complaint to the Oregon Government and Standards and Practices Commission, associate economics professor William Harbaugh alleges that Moseley failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in transactions in Deschutes County around the time that Moseley was looking to become provost of a potential University branch campus in Bend – a potential conflict of interest.
Harbaugh also claims Moseley’s annual, legally required financial statements do not list more than $1 million in Lane County property transactions in which Moseley participated during a similar period.
Moseley, who is still employed in part as a liaison to University interests in Central Oregon, denied the allegations Tuesday, saying he properly completed the forms and that his land holdings in Deschutes County did not pose conflicts.
“His allegations are simply incorrect and unfounded,” Moseley said. “He’s clearly on some mission, agenda himself that has actually nothing to do with whether or not I owned rental property or where President Frohnmayer decided which house was his permanent residence.”
Harbaugh filed similar complaints to the GSPC, the state body that investigates ethics complaints against public officials, and to the Oregon State Bar at the same time last month against University President Dave Frohnmayer, accusing him of incorrectly reporting property transactions – allegations that Frohnmayer also denied.
Frohnmayer said last week that he never considered a potential conflict posed by Moseley’s Deschutes County property.
“None whatever,” Frohnmayer said. “The allegations are breathtakingly preposterous.”
Harbaugh said it is “disingenuous” for Moseley to say he was shocked by the allegations. “I think Mr. Moseley knows I’m well within my rights, and some people would say within my duty, to report these things,” Harbaugh said.
Both Moseley and Frohnmayer have filed responses to the complaints, and the commission may announce findings of its confidential preliminary investigation Nov. 17.
Harbaugh said Wednesday that he filed complaints after becoming frustrated with what he perceived as the administration’s reluctance to furnish public records relating to the Diversity Plan, including information relating to a 2001 discrimination lawsuit against Moseley and yearly affirmative action plans.
The University has since announced it will try to release the plans, he said.
Moseley said Harbaugh violated the confidentiality of GSPC complaints and should have resolved the matter simply by calling him about the concerns.
Deschutes interests
Moseley came to the University as a physics professor in 1979, working his way to the University’s second-in-command post by 2001.
As a skier and a hiker, Moseley has long enjoyed recreation with family and friends in the Bend area, he said. He has owned property in Deschutes County since the 1980s.
Near the end of his tenure, he expressed interest in becoming provost for a potential branch campus in Bend should the University win a bid to expand there. Frohnmayer named Moseley interim vice provost for the proposed branch in October 2000.
The University lost the branch bid to Oregon State University’s Cascades Campus in February 2001.
After his retirement in June 2006, Moseley became assistant to current Senior Vice President and Provost Linda Brady. His chief assignments include working as a liaison for Central Oregon to “strengthen and to develop relationships and represent UO’s interests, specifically including UO’s participation in the Cascades Campus.”
Moseley’s Verified Statement of Economic Interests for the years 2001 to 2005 do not list property holdings or transactions in Deschutes County.
In October 2001, Moseley and two other parties sold a Sunriver subdivision, located about 18 miles south of Bend, for $635,000, according to Deschutes County records Harbaugh provided.
Deschutes County property records list Moseley as a party in other transactions throughout the 1990s, but none of his property cited by Harbaugh in the complaint appears to lie within the City of Bend, according to Deschutes County property records.
The statute of limitations on GSPC complaints is four years.
Jurisdiction disagreement
Much like his complaints against Frohnmayer, Harbaugh alleges that Moseley should have reported Deschutes County property deals on sections of the form requiring officials to list “real property” within the jurisdiction of the government entity they serve.
Moseley, like former Oregon attorney general and licensed attorney Frohnmayer, said he is only required to report property within the boundaries of the University campus.
“I think any reasonable person would say the University can not have jurisdiction over property it does not own or rent,” Moseley said.
Yet Harbaugh said jurisdiction in this case applies to the State of Oregon.
“What would it take for them to have to report a property?” Harbaugh asked. “If he bought a piece of land in Bend right next to where he planned to put the UO campus branch, he wouldn’t have had to report it. That can’t be what the legislature had in mind.”
Patrick Hearn, who left the GSPC this spring after serving as director for more than 15 years, agrees, saying the law is clear that jurisdiction refers to the State of Oregon.
“I don’t know how you can limit the jurisdiction to campus or the City of Eugene or Springfield or anything else,” said Hearn, now director of Nevada’s ethics commission. “After 15 years, trust me, I know ORS Chapter 244 as well as anyone if not better, and that was my reasoning.”
Conflict allegations
Moseley said he had never considered land transactions in the same area as a possible new University campus as a potential conflict of interest, calling that allegation “absurd.”
Although Harbaugh said he does not have any direct evidence that Moseley’s transactions influenced University policy, he said Moseley’s actions raise ethical questions.
“As I understand the law, this means then Provost Moseley should have notified UO President Frohnmayer of the potential conflict of interest, and that this conflict should have been entered into the official UO records,” the complaint says.
As for the allegation that he should have reported income from the sale of Lane County properties, Moseley, like Frohnmayer, said Harbaugh is incorrectly interpreting sales as income.
Moseley sold a Lane County property for $610,000 in December 2002. He sold another in Lane County for $220,000 in June 2005.
“I may have lost money on that property,” Moseley said. “I mean, that’s just, like, B.S.”
Harbaugh defended his reasoning, saying the form “couldn’t be more explicit” that it requires gross, pre-tax income, such as any sale money.
Regarding the allegation that he didn’t report using business names as required by the form, Moseley said only one of seven listed in the complaint has ever had “any economic activity or gain.” That one holds his vacation home, he said.
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News reporter Jobetta Hedelman contributed to this report