Special Oregon House committee says there were no harassment issues in comments last fall by Rep. Gomberg

By MAGGIE VESPA/KGWNews

SALEM — At the end of a nearly three-hour hearing Thursday that capped off a six-month independent investigation, Oregon’s House Special Committee on Conduct concluded a state representative’s comments about side-effects of medication for his prostate condition did not qualify as sexual or workplace harassment.

Rep. David Gomberg, D-Lincoln City, was at the hearing with his wife and spoke for roughly 15 minutes, both apologizing and defending himself.

“I honestly do not believe that most people in a similar situation would conclude that I was sexualizing the conversation,” he said.

According to the investigation, made public this week, the comments came in October 2019 at an Oregon Business & Industry Statesman Dinner.

The complainant, a woman, later told her supervisor she was standing in a small group with Gomberg when he told a story about a recent appointment with his urologist.

What happened next, and the specific verbiage used, is debated in a 13-page report, released this week by the House Special Committee on Conduct.

A woman, who chose to remain anonymous, reported to her supervisor that Gomberg “’joked” about the appointment “…and about being prescribed medication that would cause an erection.”

According to the report, the woman, who doesn’t work for the Legislature but interacts with lawmakers in a professional capacity, said, “Rep. Gomberg’s ‘joke’ at the October dinner made her think about his ‘private parts,’ which she felt was ‘creepy.’”

Her supervisor brought the complaint to Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, who turned it over to the Legislative Administration Committee, prompting the state to hire an independent investigator.

The complainant declined to be interviewed for the investigation.

The investigator writes that Gomberg’s wife and a female lobbyist detailed their memories of the conversation. Neither specifically recalled his using the word “erection,” though the lobbyist “does remember that being the implication, so he may have.”

Gomberg, a small business owner who says in his legislative biography he believes “in working hard and playing by the rules,” is quoted in the report, saying he recalls the conversation but disputes the details.

At Thursday’s hearing Gomberg elaborated, saying he was talking to a male lobbyist about a recent cancer scare.

He said he’d just learned he, in fact, did not have cancer but would need medication for a prostate condition. He said his doctor gave him options, one of which is used to treat erectile dysfunction.

“So let’s be very clear. I was speaking primarily to another man about my personal health. The conversation was about prostate cancer, not erections. I used medical language that you hear on television every day, and everything I said was factually true,” he said Thursday. “Oh, and my wife was present during the entire thing.”

The procedure that’s led them to this point was put in place only months ago, in an attempt to stop such behavior in Salem.

Beginning in late 2017, allegations of rampant sexual harassment and misconduct put the Capitol’s workplace culture under a microscope. Among the highlights was a string of accusations against former State Sen. Jeff Kruse.

Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, was among 15 women listed in a formal complaint against the longtime lawmaker. She, herself, accused Kruse of touching her breasts and her thigh without her permission. Kruse denied the accusations but eventually resigned.

Publicity surrounding the ordeal produced something of a watershed moment in Oregon’s Capitol, prompting other women to come forward and sparking an investigation by the Bureau of Labor and Industries that found “substantial evidence” of sexual harassment.

Among other lawmakers caught in the wave of accusations was Rep. Gomberg. He was accused of asking interns for “birthday spankings” and joking about one being a stripper.

Gomberg later publicly apologized.

In years that followed, the state paid more than $1.1 million in settlement fees to the victims in those cases and made changes to prevent, or at least better handle, future cases.

They created the non-partisan Legislative Equity Office to field concerns and oversee anti-harassment training, extending the statute of limitations on such complaints from one year to five years, and mandating reports of misconduct go to an independent investigator, which happened in this latest case.