By Yuxing Zheng, The Oregonian, June 18, 2013
Oregon State Hospital
The executive director of the Psychiatric Security Review Board has resigned.
Mary Claire Buckley‘s resignation is effective as of Aug. 15, board chairwoman Kate Lieber said at the board’s meeting Tuesday evening. The terms were not released.
Buckley has been on paid administrative leave since May 2 after the Department of Administrative Services launched a review of board management April 25 at the request of Lieber. Lieber declined to say why she requested the investigation.
The board also appointed Juliet Follansbee as interim executive director. Follansbee, previously a program manager, had been filling in for Buckley while she was on leave.
The state is dropping its investigation in light of Buckley’s resignation, said Matt Shelby, spokesman for the Department of Administrative Services.
Buckley has worked at the board since June 1991. Her annual salary was $99,636, not including benefits.
State investigators in February 2011 found Buckley had verbally abused an Oregon State Hospital patient who had declined to enter a secure residential treatment facility. Buckley implied the patient would suffer ramifications for defying the board and refusing the placement, according to a report from the Department of Human Services’ Office of Investigations and Training.
The Psychiatric Security Review Board has jurisdiction over people found “guilty except for insanity” of a crime. The 10 board members, who are appointed by the governor, have the authority to commit people to the Oregon State Hospital, conditionally release them to community-based programs, or discharge them from their jurisdiction.