State puts Joe Colello on leave; Gov. Brown asks for review of work

Joe Colello, who admitted to taking nearly $300,000 in bribes during his tenure with the Oregon Department of Energy, was put on unpaid administrative leave by his current state employer.

The Oregon Military Department took the action at the direction of Gov. Kate Brown, said Chris Ingersoll, spokesman for the agency.

News of Colello's guilty plea Tuesday rocked the hallways of Oregon's Capitol. He had admitted to receiving dozens of payments over a four-year span in connection with the pivotal role he played dispensing millions of dollars in energy tax credits while employed at the energy department.

Colello is a relatively new arrival at the military department, where he is classified as a Policy Analyst 2, earning $73,152 a year, within the installations operations branch. Some of his duties included running reports of energy usage at state facilities.

Brown has directed the military department to conduct an internal review of Colello's work, Ingersoll said.

In exchange for pleading guilty to accepting bribes, racketeering and other crimes in Marion County Circuit Court, Colello agreed to serve five years in prison and three years of supervised probation. He will also make restitution of $1.3 million to affected tax credit recipients.

-- Jeff Manning

503-294-7606, jmanning@oregonian.com

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