Marks, the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s executive director, announced his resignation in a letter Monday. The move followed an internal investigation by the commission and came five days after Gov. Tina Kotek (D) requested that he and other agency leaders who abused their power be removed. Marks’s last day will be Wednesday.
“Because I believe that the Governor is entitled to have her own management team,” Marks wrote Monday, “I will honor that request.”
Marks didn’t respond to an interview request Monday night. In an interview with investigators in August — which The Washington Post obtained a recording of — Marks took responsibility for the misappropriation of liquor, which included bottles of the notoriously difficult to find Pappy Van Winkle bourbon.
“We really were treating ourselves differently than the public in a material way,” he said, according to the recording. “It was my deficit for the organization not to address that earlier.”
In December, the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission completed its investigation into Marks and five other accused employees. After the Oregonian/OregonLive published investigation documents last week, Oregon’s Department of Justice announced Friday it would launch a criminal investigation into the matter.
Mark Pettinger, an Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission spokesman, said the other accused employees received “verbal reprimands.”
The internal investigation began in June, about five weeks after a departing employee told human resources in an email that staffers set aside bourbon bottles and sent them to stores to later purchase, according to the documents obtained by The Post.
In one of the interviews, a distribution director said commission leaders asked her to ship alcohol — typically Pappy Van Winkle and Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel bourbon — to designated nearby stores. Those liquors can sell for thousands of dollars on secondary markets, but in investigation interviews, employees denied selling them.
Oregon law prohibits public officials from using or trying to use their positions to divert public resources. On Wednesday, the governor wrote a letter to commission leaders, requesting changes in administration and protocols.
“This behavior is wholly unacceptable,” Kotek wrote. “I will not tolerate wrongful violations of our government ethics laws.”
Marks said he had requested to divert liquor “a few times,” according to a recording of his investigation interview. He acknowledged in his interview that he used his professional leverage to obtain the liquor, including one of his preferences, Pappy Van Winkle 23-Year.
Still, Marks told investigators he didn’t think his actions crossed a line.
“I don’t believe it was an ethics violation,” Marks said. “But I do believe it is a practice that we should’ve ended in the earlier days.”
