UO Matters: Dave Frohnmayer shoves Melinda Grier under the bus...

UO Matters: Dave Frohnmayer shoves Melinda Grier under the bus...: 5/1/2010: Greg Bolt of the RG finally gets Frohnmayer to talk about the Bellotti contract. Frohnmayer was waiting to see exactly how much t...

Dave Frohnmayer shoves Melinda Grier under the bus:

5/1/2010: Greg Bolt of the RG finally gets Frohnmayer to talk about the Bellotti contract. Frohnmayer was waiting to see exactly how much the AG's report unearthed before he went on the record with his version. And the report has just one mention of Frohnmayer - he delegated signing authority to Grier - and none of the $440,000 in donations from Pat Kilkenny, before and after Frohnmayer appointed Kilkenny AD and let him negotiate the Bellotti deal. This is a professional courtesy from the new AG to the old one. Neither wants anything in the papers that makes the office of Attorney General look bad.


So, now that the Oregon DOJ and the investigator David Leith have let Dave Frohnmayer off the hook, he shoves Melinda Grier under the bus:

“I assumed the contracts would be handled in due course,” he said.

“I think I reasonably relied on the usual course of business being followed by the general counsel’s office.”

“I wasn’t always happy with how the relationship worked,” he said.

“Even with direct reporting, I felt I wasn’t always getting direct reports.”

The attorney general’s report also was critical of Grier, saying she gave the university “deficient legal representation” and failed to report problems with Bellotti contract issues to the justice department.

Frohnmayer declined to comment on those issues but defended Grier’s dedication to the university.

“Melinda is a very hard-working person,” he said.

“I don’t know anyone whose car was in the parking lot on weekends and holidays more than Melinda Grier’s. There was no lacking of energy and devotion to her job.”

Nice job reference, Dave: "Ms Grier served as my loyal General Counsel for 12 years, covering my ass even when this led the Oregon Bar to start an ethics investigation of her. But in the end it turned out she was incompetent, made me look like a fool in the press, provided deficient legal representation and had to put in a lot of hours to accomplish even that. However, I did find her to be an excellent scapegoat."