Cylvia Hayes

Early life and education Hayes was born in August 1967 in Seattle. Her father, Orville Johnson, was the brother of her mother's first husband. The family lived near Carnation in King County, Washington, and Hayes has described the home as a dilapidated shack with no running water or electricity. At sixteen, Hayes moved out, stating, "alcoholism and mental illness took a real toll on my parents."

She graduated from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, with a bachelor's degree in 1994, and with a master's degree in 1997.

Hayes' late teens and early twenties have been described as a difficult period in her life. In 1997, Hayes entered into a green card marriage with an Ethiopian immigrant that ended in 2002. That year Hayes founded 3EStrategies, a Bend-based clean-economy consulting firm that grew out of the nonprofit organization she launched two years before, called Earth Connections. As CEO of 3EStrategies, Hayes helped launched the Building Green Council, which is now a component of the Central Oregon Builders Association. The council was started to make it easier for people to build energy- and resource-efficient homes and commercial buildings, and bring together developers interested in promoting and learning more about green construction. Hayes published and edited the Green + Solar Building Oregon magazine from 2004 to 2009, created with contributions from writers and photographers throughout the state. She served as a member and co-chair of the Oregon Renewable Energy Working Group (REWG), which developed the state Renewable Energy Standard, Renewable Fuels Standard, and other clean energy policies. Since 2012, Hayes has also worked as a professional writer, contributing to online news sources including The Huffington Post and Grist. In 2015 Hayes launched an independent blog which included a public statement about her appearances in the media that year, and in 2016 she joined Bend-based Issue Magazine as a staff journalist.

Political career Four years after she moved to Bend, Oregon, Hayes ran for the Oregon House of Representatives in District 53 against Ben Westlund, the Republican incumbent, as a Democrat. She changed her party registration from independent to Democratic in February 2002, shortly before announcing her candidacy, and she originally considered seeking a nomination from a minor party, such as the Pacific Green Party. Hayes lost to Westlund in the November election, with 30.5% of the vote. Willamette Week described her in 2014 as playing a "central role" in the Kitzhaber administration, and she was described as a policy adviser to the governor on clean energy and economic development issues, fields where she had nonprofit and consulting experience prior to becoming first lady.

During her time as first lady, Hayes worked on the Prosperity Initiative that aimed to reduce income inequality in Oregon. In the 2011 legislative session, she supported the centerpiece of Kitzhaber's economic agenda, Cool Schools energy retrofit program, and also lobbied the Legislature on poverty issues. In the same year, Hayes was named to a seven-member team charged with writing Kitzhaber's ten-year energy plan, touted by the administration as a path toward Oregon's energy independence. Hayes frequently delivered speeches on clean economy during her time as First Lady, such as the 2013 commencement address to Oregon State University. According to Willamette Week she did not draw a state salary and like the partners of other elected officials continued her private consulting work during her time in the governor's office.

Kitzhaber announced on January 30, 2015, that Hayes would not play a role in his administration during his fourth term. Hayes' "First Lady" website was taken down four days later. On February 13, 2015, Kitzhaber announced his intention to resign as governor effective February 18, 2015.

Influence-peddling scandal In 2014, Hayes was the subject of a series of articles and media coverage that weakened Kitzhaber's reelection campaign and the governor's office. On October 8, a month before the gubernatorial election in 2014, Willamette Week reported on Hayes's previously undisclosed "green card marriage" from 1997 to 2002. A few days later, Portland television station KOIN reported on Hayes' role over a decade prior in purchasing property for a planned grow operation in Washington, also in 1997. In a statement to the news station on October 13, Hayes admitted to and apologized for her role in the planned operation. According to Hayes, she went along with the property purchase while in a relationship with an abusive boyfriend, whom she left soon after. On January 27, 2015, the Portland Tribune reported Hayes was paid $118,000 for communications work with the Clean Economy Development Center at the same time she was listed as an adviser to Kitzhaber on renewable energy. The newspaper suggested the dual roles could be considered a conflict of interest. The Oregonian raised similar questions in a report a few days later.

In December 2014, The Oregonian requested emails from Hayes' personal email accounts related to state business. commented on the lack of investigation and Rosenblum's self-proclaimed reluctance to comment on the case. and ordered the release of emails to The Oregonian. claiming Fifth Amendment rights against the release of the emails and citing Rosenblum's order that Hayes had asked for a state email but was ineligible without employee status.

In 2017, after 28 months of investigation, the federal government announced that it had dropped its investigation into allegations that Cylvia Hayes and her fiancé, Governor John Kitzhaber, had used their positions for personal gain. No criminal charges were filed.

On January 18, 2019, Hayes agreed to pay Oregon Government Ethics Commission fines of "$44,000 for ethics violations arising from her use of public office for personal profit." Kitzhaber had also agreed, in January, to pay $20,000 in civil penalties to the commission for conflicts of interest regarding Hayes while he was governor.

Personal life Hayes' current surname is from her two-year marriage to her first husband Todd Hayes. Hayes filed a divorce from Abram in October 2001.

Hayes participates in running, weight training, and racquetball,

Hayes is currently engaged to Oregon former governor John Kitzhaber, who is 20 years her senior and with whom she became romantically involved after her 2002 House campaign. When Kitzhaber was elected governor of Oregon in 2010, Hayes, as his live-in girlfriend, assumed the role of the state's first lady. The couple announced their engagement in August 2014. Hayes owns a home in Bend, Oregon, while also sharing Kitzhaber's home in Portland.