PORTLAND — Former Gov. John Kitzhaber will speak in Portland Monday, continuing his effort to reenter public life since resigning his elected office more than a year ago amid a federal influence-peddling probe.

But if you go hear him speak at First Congregational Church in downtown Portland, don’t count on hearing a lot about Kitzhaber’s departure from Mahonia Hall. The public’s questions at the City Club forum called “Healthcare in the U.S. — Are we ready for more reform?” will be limited to the topic at hand, says Mike Marshall, the City Club’s executive director.

“It’s out of deference to all of the panelists and all of the people coming who want to talk about health care,” Marshall said.

Other speakers at the 3 p.m. event include Don Berwick, former administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Alisha Moreland-Capuia, executive director of the Avel Gordly Center for Healing at OHSU; and Dr. Paul Gorman, an OHSU professor and single-payer advocate who will serve as moderator.

Kitzhaber and his partner Cylvia Hayes continue to be the subject of a joint FBI-IRS investigation, though no charges have been filed. At issue: whether federal laws were broken in Kitzhaber making Hayes an influential energy adviser even as she accepted outside payments from advocacy groups seeking to influence state policy.

Kitzhaber, who was largely invisible during the year following his resignation, has become more public of late. In March he released a video on Facebook and, in an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting, expressed confidence the probe would clear him. He told OPB reentering public life is part of his plan to become a consultant, saying, “If you’re going to do some consulting, people need to know you’re alive and well.”

Given Kitzhaber’s reputation in health care circles, his appearance is “a real coup” for City Club, Marshall said. The former governor is known for his role fostering the creation and evolution of the Medicaid-funded Oregon Health Plan, which provides services to low-income Oregonians and relies on rationing, privatization and the pursuit of alternative payment models to reduce waste.

Kitzhaber is “very excited” to speak about an issue he is passionate about, according to Marshall, who managed Kitzhaber’s reelection campaign.

In limiting speakers’ questions, the Monday event will differ from the City Club’s regularly scheduled Friday Forums, where attendees have a great deal of freedom to ask questions of speakers.

Marshall says the limitation on questions at the forum is not a matter of giving his former boss special treatment. Rather, he says, it is standard practice for the issue forums the City Club holds, which are organized by volunteers and draw a more specialized audience.

Organizers of the event have already had to change locations twice to accommodate the expected crowd.

Typically, the City Club’s Friday forums draw no more than 450 attendees, Marshall said. The more specialized issue forums tend to be muchsmaller. For Monday’s event, he added “we have over 500 RSVPs.”