Kate Brown’s Willamette Falls trust controversy

Former Oregon governor, Kate Brown, and the Willamette Falls Trust don’t appear to be big on public disclosure.
By William MacKenzie,

On June 4, 2024, the Willamette Falls Trust announced Brown had been selected as the group’s new president. She occupied her new position on May 28, taking over from Andrew Mason, who led the trust’s work for more than six years.

Willamette Falls Trust, created in 2015, is based in Oregon City. Made up of local, regional and tribal leaders, it is a non-profit working to promote and preserve public access to the Falls. It’s likely Brown’s appointment was based, in part, on an assumption she could secure state funding for the Trust.

That bet paid off.

As the Legislature’s 2025 session ended, it approved giving $45 million to the Trust. The money will go toward the purchase of 60 acres of property on the West Linn side of the waterfall.

But the appropriation was not without controversy. Willamette Week reported that the Grand Ronde Tribe, which has historic treaty rights at Willamette Falls, had urged Gov. Tina Kotek not to give money to the trust. Grand Ronde tribal chairwoman Cheryle Kennedy panned the appropriation. “Any state investment in land at Willamette Falls must center the voices and rights of Tribal nations with ancestral ties to this sacred site, not a private nonprofit,” Grand Ronde tribal chairwoman Cheryle Kennedy told Willamette Week.

Going forward, you’d think the Trust would want to be transparent and straightforward about its operations in order to secure public support for its mission, but from the start it has been tight-lipped about what it’s paying Brown.

I e-mailed Brown asking her directly what total compensation she received from the Trust in 2024 and what her projected total compensation is for 2025.

David Perry, Vice President of Internal Operations at the Trust, responded, saying Brown asked him to reply.“Unfortunately, all personnel matters, including employee compensation, are considered confidential so I cannot provide the answers to your questions directly,” he said.

He noted, however, that Brown’s 2024 compensation will be noted in annual report the Trust and all other Oregon non-profits are required to file annually with the Internal Revenue Service and the Oregon Department of Justice. Those 2024 reports will be filed no later than November 15, 2025. Financial information for 2025 will go through a similar review and filing process, so will not be available until late 2026, he said.

As the conservative commentator John Stossel often says, “Give me a break!”.

The Trust, which is in line to receive an infusion of $45 million in taxpayer funds, wants to hide Kate Brown’s 2024 compensation until mid-November 2025 and her 2025 compensation until November 2026.

Why?

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