Washington County Board Chair Kathryn Harrington raised her middle finger at Commissioner Nafisa Fai during a Sept. 15 work session. The incident was followed by Harrington’s apology, demands that she resign and a closed executive session to consider possible discipline, while some public officials and community leaders characterized the gesture as racialized intimidation of the board’s only commissioner of color.
The gesture occurred around the 22-minute mark of the Sept. 15 meeting video, after Harrington asked Fai not to block her view of Jason Snider, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. The following day, the Washington County Board of Commissioners convened a closed executive session under Oregon Revised Statute 192.660(2)(b), which allows public bodies to consider discipline or dismissal of a public officer, according to the Bethany Beacon. An Oregon Government Ethics Commission handout says the statute requires at least 24 hours’ written notice to the official facing scrutiny.
Apology Without Resignation
Harrington apologized publicly on Sept. 15, telling Fai, fellow board members, county staff and residents that the gesture was “very plainly not appropriate in any instance.” She has not addressed demands that she step down. Seven Tigard-area leaders and state lawmakers, including State Reps. Ben Bowman and Sue Rieke Smith, State Sen. Courtney Neron Misslin and Tigard Mayor Yi-Kang Hu, issued a joint statement calling the episode a “blatant failure” of decorum and leadership, according to the Beaverton Valley Times. OPB later reported that the resignation calls had expanded to include Neron-Misslin, two state representatives, the Tigard mayor and council president, and Tigard-Tualatin school board leaders.
Commissioner Pam Treece, who was seated on the dais during the exchange, publicly denounced the gesture and said Harrington's behavior “cannot stand,” per OPB. Treece announced she would renounce Harrington's endorsement in the chair's race and return a $10,000 campaign contribution from Harrington, the Forest Grove News-Times reported. Treece had initially faced questions over why she did not react during the meeting, which the outlet attributed to the fact that she was not facing Harrington when the gesture occurred.
Leaders of Color Call Gesture Intimidation
Nafisa Fai, who came to the United States as a teenage refugee from Somalia, is the only person of color ever elected to the Washington County Board of Commissioners, according to OPB. She said she treats everyone with respect and dignity, and per OPB she has previously been targeted by racist, anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rhetoric online, which the commission did not publicly acknowledge at the time.
The response from elected officials and political organizations focused on the potential effect of the incident on officials of color. Kien Truong, a Portland Community College board member, said it was intimidating; Andre Miller, chair of the Oregon Democratic Party’s Black Caucus, said it harmed Black, African and African American communities, and the caucus joined the resignation call, according to OPB. Travis Nelson also called for Harrington to resign. Allie Ball, a Black woman running for Milwaukie City Council, said the silence after the incident was significant, while Juan Carlos Gonzalez, who had previously called attention to racist rhetoric targeting Fai, said he was not surprised by Harrington’s behavior, OPB reported.
A Pattern That Predates This Meeting
Fai is running for county chair and has said the race is partly about changing the commission’s culture, according to OPB. She faces Treece in a Nov. 3 runoff after the two received 39.1% and 33.1% of the vote, respectively, in the May primary, the Forest Grove News-Times reported. Harrington is not seeking reelection and is scheduled to leave the chair post at the end of 2026. OPB has also reported prior allegations of abusive behavior involving commissioners and staff.
The reported history includes a $25,000 independent workplace investigation discussed in an April 2022 report by The Portland Tribune, which described allegations of unprofessional conduct. Commissioners debated whether to release the full, unredacted findings. In 2021, the county paid more than $70,000 to settle a complaint by Harrington’s former chief of staff, Elizabeth Mazzara Myers, who alleged workplace bullying, berating and retaliation after staff mistakenly gave Harrington an outdated draft presentation, according to the Hillsboro News Times. Those reports distinguish allegations and settlements from formal findings that the conduct occurred.
More recently, Clean Water Services CEO Diane Taniguchi-Dennis was mentioned in reports about inappropriate text messages. The matter also involved outside investigators.
The Stakes of the Chair's Office
The Washington County Board Chair represents the entire county and presides over a five-member board that oversees a $2 billion annual budget. The position pays $145,840 a year, according to the Bethany Beacon, and carries a prominent public-facing role. Voters will choose Harrington’s successor in the November runoff; whether the closed executive session produces further action against Harrington remains unresolved.
What the available record shows
Washington County says its Ethics Matters process produces a written report summarizing the allegations and findings after an investigation concludes, according to Washington County. That process description does not itself establish what was substantiated in any particular workplace matter, and the public accounts cited here describe allegations, settlements and investigations without resolving every underlying claim. As a separate Oregon legislative precedent, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that a conduct committee found Sen. Chris Gorsek’s June 2025 interruption and raised voice toward a female Republican representative disrespectful but not a violation of the Legislature’s anti-discrimination policies. The county and legislative matters involved different bodies and procedures. Washington County also says voters approved a charter change in November 2020 establishing an independent salary commission to oversee compensation for the Board of Commissioners, according to Washington County.
