Copyright The Oregonian
Six thousand dollars a month. That’s how much Gina Yunker was paid during this year’s legislative session while employed as a full-time aide of her husband, Republican Rep. Dwayne Yunker. It’s unclear how often she came to work in person. Several Republican lawmakers, legislative aides and lobbyists who work near Yunker’s office told The Oregonian/OregonLive they didn’t recall seeing her at the Capitol during this year’s five-month session. That’s likely because Yunker is also a full-time fifth grade teacher at a private school near Grants Pass. Yunker is one of at least five legislative aides related to their boss who have quietly collected taxpayer-funded paychecks this year while infrequently being spotted in the state Capitol and leaving behind few traces of substantial work in records, The Oregonian/OregonLive has found. Dwayne Yunker did not respond to an email or a phone call seeking comment and Gina Yunker did not respond to a voicemail left at a number listed under her name. This inconspicuous practice has flown under the radar partly because legislative aides are subject to few oversight or transparency requirements that are common in other government jobs, such as performance reviews or attendance tracking, the newsroom found. Oregon largely allows lawmakers to run offices and oversee staff however they see fit. There are virtually no policies to require tracking of what tasks legislative aides accomplish or oversight of where or how they spend time. The vast majority of the state’s 90 lawmakers don’t list their aides on official websites. To assess activity levels for aides employed by relatives, The Oregonian/OregonLive obtained salary and employment data, remote work agreements and three months of email logs and calendars. The newsroom interviewed more than 30 aides, lawmakers and lobbyists who were in the Capitol regularly during this year’s session to gauge which aides were frequently present or absent. Most requested anonymity to speak freely on the subject. At least 17 legislators paid their spouse or child to work as an aide this year, employee records indicate. Fifteen of those lawmakers are Republicans; most represent rural areas. Most of the aides regularly work long hours and are frequently seen in the Capitol. The newsroom reached out to the handful of lawmakers whose employed relatives were rarely or infrequently spotted, asking them to provide documentation of their aides’ work, a list of their responsibilities and general details of their work schedule. To be sure, much of the work that aides do can’t be easily detected through public records. Activities like daily phone calls, conversations over coffee and meetings with local elected officials and constituents don’t always leave a paper trail. Many aides also regularly conduct legislative business through their boss’s email inbox and calendar, leaving their own email logs and calendars bare. That makes it hard to nail down what work they are doing. The lack of oversight in state legislatures is intentional, said Ben Brunjes, an associate professor at the University of Washington who studies public management. He pointed out that lawmakers are held accountable by voters, who can decide for themselves if they approve of their elected officials’ employee practices. But that high degree of autonomy and lack of basic accountability mechanisms leave room for legislative aides to be paid without clear evidence of work performed, advocates for open and transparent government say. “Lawmakers should have autonomy in running their offices, but they are using public dollars to represent their constituency,” said Kate Titus, executive director of public interest group Common Cause Oregon. “So there’s an expectation (of) a level of accountability that they need to have back to the public in how they do so.” Little proof of work At least 23 states ban lawmakers from hiring relatives, according to research from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Oregon does not. Every legislative aide in Oregon has slightly different responsibilities, making it difficult to identify whether employees are doing sufficient work to justify their paychecks. When the Legislature is in session, many aides work long days and weekends. Some respond to constituent emails, prepare newsletters and post to social media. Some keep offices tidy, others help craft complex policies. A few even drive their boss daily to and from the state Capitol. That wide range of job responsibilities, combined with a lack of oversight, means there’s no easy way to know where aides work or what tasks they are responsible for. Although remote work agreements outlining specific job responsibilities are technically required for aides who primarily work remotely, Legislative Human Resources Director Tracey Yee said her office does not actively track these agreements or enforce the policy. Some lawmakers enforce their own accountability policies, such as maintaining weekly activity logs for aides or conducting informal performance reviews, but those vary by office and are entirely optional. Most full-time aides earn significantly higher salaries than the lawmaker they work for. For example, while Sen. Fred Girod of Marion County earned a base pay of $37,000 in the fiscal year that ended in July 2024, his wife and staffer Lori Girod earned $107,000 in the same period. In the past, some lawmakers have cited their low pay as a reason to hire their spouse, essentially supplementing their own income. Lawmakers were given $176,209 to spend on staffing and supplies for the 18-month period starting in July, although they don’t have complete control over salaries. While legislators can hire whoever they want, individual aides’ salaries are set by the human resources office, which establishes pay based on education and experience. For example, Rebecca Starr was paid about $2,700 a month as a part-time aide for her husband, Senate Republican Leader Bruce Starr of Dundee, receiving about $27,000 for the year. More than a dozen lawmakers, lobbyists and aides who interacted with Starr’s office this session said they rarely or never saw her in the Capitol. She didn’t send a single email from her own legislative email account over the 90-day period reviewed by the newsroom. That timeframe ended in late August and included the last five weeks of this year’s legislative session. In a similar time frame, Starr logged just one hour-long meeting on her calendar. Meanwhile, state records show she was also employed at Avangrid Renewables, an energy company with an office in Portland. Bruce Starr said his wife primarily worked remotely for much of this year. He described her role as “behind the scenes,” with duties including helping manage his calendar, tracking constituent emails and staying up to speed with news in his district. “We regularly review emails, discuss issues and coordinate tasks both during the day and after hours,” Starr said. “The work doesn’t always happen between 9 and 5. It gets done when it needs to and she’s always been dependable in that way.” Starr provided the newsroom with monthly spreadsheets detailing the days and hours worked and tasks completed by his wife for this year. The spreadsheets show that Starr has worked a total of 73 days this year, including zero days during the session in April and May. The “hours logged” column for the days she worked is empty for all but three days in late September and early October when she logged 30 hours. In the majority of cases her tasks completed are listed as “email, calendar,” and less frequently, social media. Rarely at the Capitol Rebecca Starr isn’t the only relative of a lawmaker whose records show little documented activity. Yunker, the elementary school teacher and aide to her husband from Grants Pass, had similarly bare email and calendar records during the timeframe reviewed by the newsroom for late spring and early summer. She sent one email in July and logged one meeting in mid-June. She’s been paid $47,600 this year, in part because she was reclassified as a part-time employee after the session ended. Yunker was employed full-time at New Hope Christian School in Josephine County during the 2024-25 school year, an administrative worker at the school confirmed this week. Ryan McIntire, husband and chief of staff to Republican Rep. Emily McIntire of Eagle Point, was also rarely seen in the Capitol by six sources who said they interacted with that office or worked nearby during the session, including one who said they frequently visited McIntire’s office. Email and calendar records offer little insight into the work activity of McIntire, who received about $69,000 this year as a part-time staffer. In the three-month period ending in late August reviewed by the newsroom, he sent eight messages from his email, all in a two-week period. In a similar time frame, he logged one hour-long meeting in his calendar. Emily McIntire’s office didn’t respond to an email or phone call requesting additional information. Ryan McIntire, who is listed in state records as the owner of a Pizza Schmizza in Central Point, didn’t respond to a phone call seeking comment. Gin Reschke, who was listed this year as the only legislative assistant employed by her husband, Republican Rep. Werner Reschke of southern Oregon, has been paid $93,000 this year. Her email and calendar records showed one meeting and four outgoing emails during the late spring and early summer period reviewed by the newsroom. Eight sources said they rarely or never saw her in the Capitol this year, although two said they interacted with her through texts or calls. She and her husband didn’t respond to an email or phone calls seeking comment. Mollie Javadi, wife and aide to Rep. Cyrus Javadi, a Tillamook lawmaker who recently switched from the Republican to Democratic Party, was also rarely seen in the Capitol during the session, several sources said. She has received roughly $76,000 this year. Cyrus Javadi acknowledged that his wife was infrequently in the Capitol but said she regularly works long hours each week from home, managing his official social media accounts, scheduling meetings, interacting with constituents, regularly sending emails from his legislative account and occasionally working on policy. “Working remotely and on a flexible schedule allows her to balance her professional responsibilities with her family obligations,” Javadi said. “She is a longtime resident of Tillamook County and Clatskanie. Her deep knowledge of the district ... gives her a unique advantage in managing the workload that comes with representing such a large and diverse district.” None of the employed relatives of lawmakers who were rarely seen in the Capitol this year have a remote work agreement on file, which is required of employees who primarily work remotely, according to the Legislative Human Resources office. Calls for accountability Several lawmakers, good government advocates and public management experts acknowledged that the lack of accountability mechanisms for legislative aides creates the risk of abuse. But most said they don’t see a need for greater reform. “I would say that we should trust our duly elected lawmakers to set the rules that govern their behavior, to allow them to produce the best laws that they can,” said Brunjes, the University of Washington professor. “Unless we see a major trend of huge corruption, which I don’t think you’re seeing in Oregon, then we probably don’t need to put more guardrails.” Some Democrats have pushed to prohibit lawmakers from hiring relatives, saying it would improve public transparency and accountability. But some lawmakers of both parties have long defended the practice, arguing that family members often bring a high level of trust and honesty to the role. “For some members, having their most trusted people involved in their service is crucial,” said Ashley Kuenzi, spokesperson for the Oregon Senate Republicans. “It’s not something that can be judged as simply right or wrong.” Titus, the good government advocate, said family members can often serve as effective staffers. But she said lawmakers who choose to hire their spouses or children should be forthright with constituents about their decision and transparent about the work their relatives do. “Legal or not, appearances matter when you are a public servant,” Titus said. “Just because you can do something as a public official does not mean you should if it could be viewed as ethically questionable.” Spokespeople for Senate President Rob Wagner, a Lake Oswego Democrat, and House Republican Leader Lucetta Elmer of McMinnville declined to comment or did not respond to a request for comment. Jill Bakken, spokesperson for House Speaker Julie Fahey, a Eugene Democrat, said Fahey supports barring lawmakers from hiring their own relatives. She noted that Oregon’s legislative body has become more professionalized in recent years, and said prohibiting nepotism would continue that trend and strengthen public trust. But there’s no sign the practice will end any time soon. As House Majority Leader in 2023, Fahey introduced a bill that would have barred lawmakers from employing relatives. Early in that year’s months-long session, the bill was sent to the House Rules Committee, chaired by Fahey. It never received a public hearing.
