Oregon Department of Corrections patch

The first person to fill the role of Oregon’s corrections ombudsman in decades confirmed late Friday that he has been fired by Gov. Tina Kotek.

Adrian Wulff, a former therapist at the state women’s prison, was hired in 2021 and reported to Kotek. Contacted by The Oregonian, Wulff said he advocated consistently for more support and staff and those requests were not granted. He said he was terminated by Chris Warner, Kotek’s chief of staff.

“I shared my concerns from the beginning that without staff, there was not a way to adequately respond to individual complaints,” he said. “It’s been a frustrating experience.”

Kotek’s office declined to comment on Wulff’s employment status but released Warner’s letter firing him.

Warner wrote that Wulff delivered three bankers boxes of mail to the governor’s Office of Constituent Services, “where they discovered the vast majority was unopened.” Wulff said he sent them to the division for help organizing and processing the mail.

Warner cited Wulff’s failure to review the mail and “other inadequacies in meeting the office’s expectations” as the basis for Kotek’s decision. Warner said Wulff showed a lack of judgment ”and integrity essential to performing the role.”

The failure to review mail undermines the “trust and confidence” of prisoners’ families in Wulff’s office.

“This core performance issue is in direct opposition to the Kotek administration’s commitment to transparency, accountability, and excellent customer service,” Warner wrote.

In an internal memo he drafted earlier this year, Wulff said Kotek’s top aides and Department of Corrections leaders had stonewalled or ignored his repeated attempts to investigate complaints of abuse and “malfeasance” in state prisons.

In a Jan. 18 email to a Kotek staffer, Wulff likened his situation to a “whistleblower situation” in the memo, calling the position “incredibly stressful” and stating that he worried he would be fired for advocating for more resources.

At the time, Kotek’s spokesperson said the governor’s office attempted to provide Wulff with support and that the governor expected Wulff to prioritize responding to individual complaints from prisoners.

Former Gov. Kate Brown hired Wulff; the position’s salary is $158,000.