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By Jamie Goldberg | The Oregonian (TNS)
HILLSBORO, ORE. — The head of Washington County’s sewer district tendered her resignation this week in the aftermath of an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive that uncovered lavish spending at the public agency.
Clean Water Services CEO Diane Taniguchi-Dennis told the sewer board that she is stepping down from the position she’s held since 2018, the agency announced Thursday. Her final day will be June 6.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported in March that executives from Clean Water Services, the state’s second-largest sewer agency, stayed in luxury resorts during annual business trips to Hawaii that cost tens of thousands of dollars and that the agency paid $440,000 on local and travel meals over five years – four times more than its two metro area counterparts spent on food during that time combined.
A noteworthy amount of that questionable spending was by Taniguchi-Dennis, who as recently as last week appeared to be fighting to keep her job as board members expressed skepticism over her plan to restore public trust in the agency.
Washington County Commissioner Pam Treece, who serves on the Clean Water Services board alongside her fellow commissioners, said in a phone call Thursday that she appreciated Taniguchi-Dennis’ decision to resign. She declined to comment on the circumstances that led to the resignation.
“It’s a difficult time,” Treece said. “We’ve been through a difficult process and I want to make sure we are supportive of our customers, employees and partners in this process. It’s not easy.”
Taniguchi-Dennis is among several sewer executives who traveled to Hawaii for business trips that cost at least $91,000. She and others stayed at a rotating cast of five-star resorts that hosted annual insurance conferences, but Taniguchi-Dennis’s trips typically cost more than others. Her combined premium lodging and first-class airfare for a 2023 insurance conference on the Big Island, for example, cost nearly $8,400. The agency said the trip was “booked as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Oregon law” even though that hotel advertises accessible rooms at all price points, not just in Gold rooms or suites.
Meanwhile, Taniguchi-Dennis also regularly dined out locally during the time period reviewed by the newsroom, spending at least $5,100 in under two years on meals she shared with some of her top executives.
To date, Taniguchi-Dennis has not provided an explanation for the spending or agreed to be interviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive. She said in a statement released nearly three weeks after the newsroom’s report that she took the investigation seriously.
Acknowledging the need for more oversight, Washington County’s sewer board last month adopted new measures for the agency and required Taniguchi-Dennis to work with it “on a plan to restore the trust of the community, local government partners, employees, and the board.”
But when Taniguchi-Dennis presented the agency’s progress implementing that plan three weeks later, on April 30, the board was not impressed. Officials chided her for failing to provide sufficient details or outline bold action during a presentation where she read from prepared slides that included only vague descriptions and lacked timelines.
“Your actions and your communication with this board has fallen off since early last fall and you need to take ownership for that and turn that ship around,” Kathryn Harrington, who serves as both Washington County chair and the chair of the sewer board, said during the meeting.
Harrington did not respond to a request for comment from The Oregonian/OregonLive on Thursday.
During the April 30 meeting, Taniguchi-Dennis, an engineer by trade who first joined the agency as deputy general manager in 2011, reiterated that she believed she was the right person to lead Clean Water Services. She told the board she planned to step down in the next couple years and recommended that the agency begin a search for her replacement in the summer of 2026.
But in an email to colleagues sent Thursday, Taniguchi-Dennis said she decided to resign.
“This was an extremely difficult decision,” wrote Taniguchi-Dennis, who did not respond to a request for comment from the newsroom. “Ultimately, it became clear to me that stepping down was the right thing to do for both the organization and my health. I am hopeful that my decision will create space for individual and organizational healing and renewal.”
Ratepayer Mike McDonnell said Taniguchi-Dennis’ resignation is an important first step in helping restore his trust in the agency. He questioned why it took reporting from a newspaper for the sewer board to provide strong oversight but praised it for asking tough questions of Taniguchi-Dennis.
“It certainly builds some trust with our county commissioners,” McDonnell said. “We still have to see what happens within the agency, if behaviors change.”
It was not immediately clear whether Taniguchi-Dennis will receive any sort of severance package. A spokesperson for Clean Water Services did not respond to questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive on Thursday seeking Taniguchi-Dennis’ resignation letter and the financial terms of her resignation. Taniguchi-Dennis submitted her resignation Wednesday.
The board is not required to provide severance to Taniguchi-Dennis if she resigns, according to her most recent contract, which the board approved two weeks before publication of the newsroom’s investigation. However, the board can decide “to provide severance pay of up to 1,040 hours of base salary if Taniguchi-Dennis provides the district with written advance notice of her decision to resign from employment,” the contract states.
Taniguchi-Dennis now makes a base salary of $357,000, according to the agency, but she earned a total salary of nearly $400,000 last year. Separately, Taniguchi-Dennis filed retirement paperwork in 2023, enabling her to earn what is now an annual benefit of $147,119 from the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System on top of her regular salary.
Clean Water Services has yet to disclose performance evaluations for Taniguchi-Dennis requested by the newsroom on April 11, among other records.
In a press release Thursday, the sewer board expressed its gratitude for Taniguchi-Dennis and said it was committed to “supporting the operational success of Clean Water Services and its employees without interruption.” The board said it would announce an interim executive director and launch a national search for a replacement in the coming weeks.
Clean Water Services provides wastewater treatment, stormwater management and watershed enhancement to about 610,000 people in Washington County. It is largely supported by funds collected from ratepayers. Officials expect to receive nearly $187 million in service charges this fiscal year from businesses and homeowners, whose rates rose 4% this year.
The agency’s budget committee is meeting Friday and on May 23 to review its proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which includes another 4% rate increase. The agency announced this week that the rate adjustment will be further reviewed in a June 3 board meeting in recognition of “the extraordinary circumstances.”
— Jamie Goldberg oversees The Oregonian/OregonLive’s politics, education and homelessness coverage. She can be reached at [email protected] or 503-221-8228. You can find her on X at @jamiebgoldberg or Bluesky at @jamiebgoldberg.bsky.social.
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