10/01/2026
A public records request forced Portland’s Oregon Health & Science University on Friday to disclose a workplace investigation into the conduct of the health system’s former CEO.
Tarek Salaway was dismissed earlier this year after less than four months on the job.
Willamette Week obtained a copy of the health system’s Workplace Review after submitting a public records request. The inquiry found “an inherent theme of conduct that is not becoming of an executive leader,” the investigator wrote.
OPB also sought records related to Salaway’s dismissal – and ended up fighting OHSU for the records in court.
In Washington state, public records requests have led to the disclosure of completed workplace investigation reports. At times, the findings have been consequential.
Earlier this year in the Tri-Cities, a Port of Benton executive said she was fired after correctly disclosing a completed investigation report on one of the agency’s commissioners. The report resulted in four misconduct findings against Commissioner Scott Keller.
All three port commissioners are now facing a recall campaign.
This summer an investigation report concluded that appointees on the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife Commission violated state transparency laws as well as the commission’s own procedural rules.
The report was disclosed by the governor’s office, which reprimanded commissioners Melanie Rowland and Lorna Smith with warning letters. Their terms expire at the end of the year.
The Municipal Research and Services Center, which advises agencies in Washington state, offers guidance on workplace investigation reports in its public records guide.
MRSC cites a 1993 state Supreme Court ruling, which it says “determined that the public has a legitimate interest in records concerning acts of misconduct by city employees which have been investigated and sustained.”
Below, a 2011 file photo of the OHSU Hospital in Portland by M.O. Stevens via Wikimedia Commons; license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
