A Salem food vendor and former Marion County Fair Board chair, Mike Adams, recently addressed an ethics case that concluded this summer with a letter of education from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.
In August, the commission finalized a settlement that said Adams violated state ethics law by not properly disclosing conflicts of interest and by participating in board discussions where his food business stood to benefit. The violations, stemming from 2022 meetings, involved Adams’ comments during discussions about food trucks at the fair and his proposal for a new catering fee. The case closed without a civil penalty and after hearing the whole story, it’s clear that Adams did not benefit from his participation in the board discussion.
In a recent interview, Adams said he disagrees with the conclusions and feels his actions were misunderstood. “Clearly a complaint was filed,” he recalled, noting that he did not learn about it until months after the initial inquiry began. “By the time I got an email from the ethics board, it was an email stating that they were going to be deciding what charges. It had already been decided.”
Adams said he later discovered the commission had sent notices to the wrong email address, leaving him little time to prepare for the process.
The two issues at the center of the complaint related to his role in discussions about fair food operations. The first involved whether food trucks should be allowed at the fair. Adams, who has run Adam’s Rib for years and operates food trucks, said his comments were intended to draw from his industry experience.
“I was brought on to the Fair Board for my expertise in the food industry,” he said. “I didn’t realize I was supposed to recuse myself. What I said was that food trucks can be slower because of fresh preparation, and that the fair should look for booths that can handle volume. I wasn’t saying, ‘Pick me.’ I had already been in the fair for 15 years.”
The second issue concerned catering at the fairgrounds. Adams said he already held a catering contract before joining the board and argued his proposal to apply a 10% fee to caterers was meant to create more revenue for the fair, not himself.
“Is that me making more money, or is that me taking another 10% off of mine and giving it back to the fair?” he said. “I wasn’t trying to profit for myself at all.” Adams emphasized that he never intended to misuse his role. “My answers were purely innocent. I never intentionally tried to manipulate the system or profit,” he said.
Adams has since stepped down from the fair board, citing family responsibilities, including caring for his 87-year-old mother, and a desire to simplify his commitments.
The experience, he said, has changed how he views community service. “I know now that if they want me on for my expertise, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” Adams said. “It makes no sense to bring somebody with food industry experience and then not utilize that food industry experience.”
For others serving on local boards, Adams offered a note of caution: “If you’re already doing business with that organization, just be careful. It can get complicated.”
