Commissioner vs Newspaper Part IV: The Phantom Investigation

Carrie Bartoldus March 24, 2008

Part IV of a 4 part series about the Daily Astorian and Clatsop County Commissioner Richard Lee

Investigation?

The Daily Astorian’s headlines on February 12, 2008 read, “Criminal investigator probes Lee” with a subheading stating: Attorney says commissioner’s actions adverse to county. Most would say that the two were related, however they were two different stories. The subheading appears to have been used merely to give credence to the headline.

The opening sentence in the Daily Astorian DOJ Investigation article states:The Oregon Department of Justice is investigating Commissioner Richard Lee. But after phone calls, interviews, emails, and numerous Public Information Requests, NorthCoastOregon has been unable to find a paper trail of any investigation of Richard Lee of any kind by the Department of Justice in at least the last year. As a matter of fact the only “investigation” that could be found is the one that the county arranged into the allegations made by Jennifer Bunch involving a Human Resource issue.

“Criminal Investigation” is a powerful term according to the The Oregon Court of Appeals. They ruled that any and all documents of a Criminal Investigation are available to the Media. And if the agency chooses redact part of the documents they must state why.


Last fall, during the political frey of the 4-123 campaign, the Oregon Secretary of State’s office was contacted by Larry Taylor with allegations that Lee had made false statements in an advertisement. The state compliance officer ruled that clear and sufficient evidence had not been provided by Taylor to support his allegations. Taylor also filed a complaint stating “suspicious circumstances” occurred regarding a woman from Hubbard making a contribution of $4,000 to the committee that Taylor opposed. Taylor accused four county commissioners of “directly or indirectly” giving the woman money to contribute, Lee being one. The Secretary of State’s office ruled again that there was insufficient evidence to pursue an investigation of the allegations on that complaint as well.

The Daily Astorian wrote that the Oregon Department of Justice was investigating Commissioner Richard Lee according to Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin. The story went on to state that the Sheriff “would not give any details” of the investigation but he did state that the investigation had been ongoing for two weeks, it was being conducted by criminal investigator Page McBeth, and that McBeth had interviewed a number of people inside and outside county government.

A phone call to media representative Stephanie Soden produced interesting results. When first contacted on Friday, February 29th, by NCO editor Tryan Hartill, and asked about an investigation of Commissioner Richard Lee, Soden replied that there hadn’t been an investigation in the Clatsop County area by the Department of Justice in at least 3 months.

Subsequently Soden was emailed by this reporter to clarify Soden’s conversation with Hartill. When Soden replied March 3rd her story changed slightly yet she confirmed that there had not been an investigation by the DOJ regarding “Commissioner Robert Lee”. It was confirmed that Soden meant Commissioner Richard Lee. Soden continued, “A preliminary inquiry was conducted in response to a request that criminal allegations be investigated. That inquiry has concluded and DOJ determined that insufficient facts and evidence exist to warrant a criminal investigation at this time.”

Documents and Emails

In a Public Information Request a email from Soden to District Attorney Marquis shows up. In that February 29th email Soden says, “District Attorney Marquis -I wanted to give you a heads up that I received a call this afternoon from Tryon Hartell (sp?) from the North Coast News asking for confirmation that DOJ completed its investigation of Commissioner Lee and copies of any conclusive reports. I responded by informing this “reporter” that there was not an investigation – concluded or otherwise – at DOJ on this issue……”

The email omits the first part of the conversation when Soden was read the first sentence of the Daily Astorian article and she replied “They got it wrong”. But the email did include the end of the conversation when NCO told her that the Daily Astorian is the “largest Newspaper in the County…..and they got it wrong?”, to which she did not respond. The email from Soden to Josh Marquis finishes with, “This email is intended to keep you in the loop on the news media inquiries at DOJ on this issue as a result of our phone discussion a few weeks ago. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss this.”

Emails from Sheriff Bergin reveal some confusion as to what is going on. On February 13th Bergin writes: “… what usually occurs first is that citizens from our community bring the alleged criminal activity to Law Enforcement or the District Attorney’s Office where then it is determined the best course of action is to be taken. In this scenario, the Sheriff’s Office was not the one who brought it to DOJ because the allegations were not brought to us. I was asked a few weeks ago by DOJ to provide him with some names/info that they were requesting for interviews.”

By February 29th the Sheriff has changed his answer a little, “DOJ did ask for names or should I say ask for info on some people who they could interview regarding a complaint but I don’t know if it would be considered an investigation or more of an inquiry to see if there was something they needed to actually investigate.”

March 12, 2008: “I also want you to know that you or anyone else is welcome to come to my office anytime and go through anything pertinent that could help you in your endevours. I am a big proponent of open government and do not believe in hiding anything. I also believe that when someone asks you a question you should answer directly and to the best of your ability.”

On March 17th, after being asked if he took the story to the Daily Astorian, Bergin writes, “I did not go to the Daily A but was talking to Joe Gamm and thought he was referencing Lee because of all the media surrounding him in the paper and the radio at the time and that’s when I said yes it is true that DOJ is looking at him. I did not “go” to them, he called me. I honestly thought he (Joe) knew by the way he was talking and remember by the time I made that comment, Page the “investigator” for DOJ had interviewed several people around the county so I am sure the word was already out.”

On March 17th Bergin was also asked: “Another point I am confused on is what did the DOJ ask for from you? You have said you gave him a list of names and numbers, but pertaining to what? What made you decide whose name to give to Page McBeth?” The Sheriff has not, as yet, responded to these questions.

Ken Dobson, the lawyer representing Richard and Lynda Lee, recently wrote, “I spoke with Donna Maddox, an investigator with the Department of Justice this afternoon regarding the alleged “investigation” of Richard. It turns out that the DOJ is not investigating Richard. She says that some people asked them to open an investigation, they checked into it and determined that there was insufficient evidence to even open an investigation. There was just nothing there.”

Public Information Requests Yield Very Little

On March 5, 2007, NCO began sending Public Information Requests (PIRs) out. The PIRs were sent to the Clatsop County Sheriff’s office, the District Attorney’s Office of Josh Marquis and to the Oregon Department of Justice requesting copies of any documentation the agency was keeping on Richard Lee, had shared with another agency on Lee, had collected on Lee and the original complaint on Richard Lee. The PIR to the Sheriff’s office did not turn up any documentation (hence the confusion as to what was turned over to the DOJ agency).

The Sheriff said he did not keep a copy of the list of names he gave the investigator and he stated the complaint had not originated with him. The PIR to the District Attorney’s office turned up only the email from Soden to Marquis, but questions as to what Soden and Marquis discussed “a few weeks ago” persist. Marquis has declined to comment on the issue. The PIR to the Department of Justice has not as yet been answered.

Despite the fact that there was no investigation and, even more importantly, no originating complaint to give it credence, the Daily Astorian continued reporting to the public on a supposed investigation. During a time when the pubic was making a decision on whether or not to recall their commissioner the paper couldn’t have obtained a confirmation from the Department of Justice media representative Stephanie Soden or it would have gotten the same response we did. If the Daily Astorian had sought confirmation from the DOJ department head, Donna Maddox, they would have received the same response Lee’s attorney received. The question is, how did the Daily Astorian confirm their story, or did they?

Richard Lee has not been the only commissioner criticizing the Daily Astorian’s lack of credibility. Commissioners Hazen, Roberts and Sammuelson have all asked the Daily Astorian to step up their fact checking, or retract a misleading story, or apologize for unsubstantiated attacks..

At the town hall meeting Richard Lee held he said that this is a lack of respect on the part of the paper. The paper misleads its readers and leads them to think suspicious thoughts over innocent matters. Recently the paper’s editorial section wrote, “Lee stocked the County Planning Commission with new members who were inclined to support his interests…” and other news articles staff write, “[Lee] interferes in the selection of members of Clatsop County Planning Commission …” This issue upsets Lee because it infers that commissioners who go out and recruit people to sit on committees and commissions are doing something wrong. “It is what we are supposed to do, encourage community to become involved. If I see someone who I think would do a good job I am going to encourage them to go for a position on one of the committees. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and it is how it is done all across the state,” Lee recently said when asked if he approached people to sit on committees. Do those people support the same things Lee supports? “Possibly, that is why we probably were talking about an issue, it is normal to look for and want to work with [like minded] people.”

As can be witnessed throughout government agencies and administrations throughout Clatsop County this holds true and there is nothing sinister about it. It is actually a healthy component of a community according to many sociological studies. Case in point is the relationship between Auerbach and Weston, one a property owner and another a planner for Clatsop County planning division. While Auerbach also sits on the County Recreational Lands Advisory Committee both Auerbach and Weston sit on the board of Warrenton Trails Association. It is mutually beneficial to the community at large that a good rapport has developed between the two as they look for ways that will work best for the lands they are responsible for and make recommendations to the BOCC on how to manage. While sometimes matters arise that make it difficult to give an unbiased viewpoint committee members, staff and commissioners are cautioned by county counsel to use their own judgment as to whether or not recuse themselves from a discussion or vote.

If people in these positions started recusing themselves from everything in the county they had any knowledge of part of very little progress would be made. Many members of the county staff as well as committee members and commissioners belong to a wide variety of the local groups, clubs and associations, as can be seen by looking at a staff directory and the lists of any local organizations.

What is not good for a community is bad reporting, according to the Communications Research Center at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The report written by Jack Haskins states: The bad news created a negative image of the community not only on characteristics directly related to the news topics (safety, crime, and violence) but also on general characteristics (standard of living, neighborhoods, and environment). The bad news also created negative perceptions of the newspaper on both news-related characteristics (constructive approach, realistic balance) and general characteristics (trustworthy advertising, editorial staff competence).

How we see ourselves as well as how others outside of our community perceive us could directly impact our economy and ability to attract business, industry as well as tourism. It appears to be something that more people are becoming aware of as might be seen soon in upcoming actions being contemplated in administrations and organizations around the county.

Related:

Part 1: Yellow Journalism

Part II: Leaving Things Out

Part III: Ready To Attack

Protestors threaten to disrupt Board of County Commissioner’s meeting

Carrie Bartoldus March 23, 2008

Thursday, March 2oth, as the county commissioners prepared to start their special session of a regular board meeting papers were passed around to throughout the audience. The folded in half signs had been requested to not be displayed as disruptive to the process, yet the request was not to be honored by the group of the discontented constituents.

The meeting started at 4 pm and ran through three hours, with two short 5 minute breaks. During this time period the Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) hammered out the wording on numerous documents to clearly delineate the meaning behind their intentions in each area being addressed. While many in the crowd of watchers appeared to be listening intently to what was being said another part of the crowd appeared to be waiting for moments to interject loud comments, boos, and derisive laughter.

While the BOCC pushed on, covering the agenda items each person in the crowd had in their hands, those in attendance looked for opportunities to take pot shots, a plan which won them accolades from one another. Often the crowd vied with one another to make the most disruption without getting actually tossed out.

“I’m not saying I don’t care about public safety,” said Samuelson, at one point. “I just don’t want us to say, ‘Here’s your Powerball ticket and you don’t have to come to the table and figure this out.’” At that moment Samuelson was interrupted by a holler from the Columbia Riverkeeper Executive Director Brent Foster, “Depends who you give the ticket to.” Samuelson paused, sighed, and continued, “I would like to see cooperation and communication happening.”

Connections on many layers

Repeatedly, Chair Roberts rapped her gravel to ask the audience to contain their comments. In rehearsed unison the crowd would moan, groan and sigh together. Early on in the proceedings a call for Commissioner Lee to recuse himself from all matters relating to the LNG issue was read by County Counsel, Andy Jordan, from a letter by Marc Auerbach, chairman Northwest Property Rights Coalition and member of the Clatsop County Parks and Recreational Department. The Northwest Property Rights Coalition has been one of the leading activists in the fight against the Bradwood Landing development.

Auerbach, a free-lance Web designer and grassland hay farmer living in Berkenfeld, has been a vocal opponent of LNG for a number of years, advocating extensively via his multiple websites. Auerbach is also a founding member of Warrenton Trails Association and serves on its board of directors along with Mike Weston, a planner for Clatsop County Planning Division. The sale of the DeLaura Beach to the State of Oregon will have a profound impact on Warrenton Trails Association. Most recently the Parks and Recreational Department refused to cooperate with a request from the BOCC in regards to preparing information for the sale of the DeLaura Beach property if it would lead to anyone aside from the state buying the property.

Gail Galen, another member of the Clatsop County Parks and Recreational Department, is also on the Board of Directors for Warrenton Trails Association. In August 2007, Auerbach’s term on the County Planning Commission expired and was not renewed. This has been a bone of contention for Auerbach in his communications with Lee. In January 2008 fellow director, Mike Weston, complained to an investigator that Richard Lee, “hand picks the Planning Commission.” Gail Galen and Marc Auerbach are both supporters of the recall effort against Lee.

Crowd controls mood of the room

After reading the request Lee declined to recuse himself amidst loud calls of “boo” from the crowd. As Lee read his statement justifying his reasons not to recuse himself he was interrupted by peals of laughter from the crowd. Chairman Roberts had to bring the gavel into play to remind the room they were adults.

The Board was able to finally come to a multitude of decisions despite an angry crowd, outbursts from lawyers shouting at the Board, audible mutterings and loud laughter. In successive four to one votes the Board approved: the wording on a condition in the findings stating that before any permits for development will be issued Bradwood must have a Public Safety Plan approved by all participating First Responder departments; the wording on a contract between the BOCC and Bradwood Landing, LCC which in essence states that Bradwood will hold to the conditions of approval even if FERC states they don’t need to. The crowd moaned with the announcement of each vote. Finally the Board approved and had the second reading and adoption of Ordinance 08-05 – Relating to the Bradwood Landing LNG Proposal and Amending The Clatsop County Combined Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Map, the Text of the Clatsop County Comprehensive Plan and Text of the Clatsop County Land and Water Development and Use Ordinance (Ordinance 80-14). At this some in the crowd bounced to their feet, while others sat in their chairs, all waving the computer generated signs that had been passed around much earlier in the day.

The signs read, “Bad decision. See you at the ballot box.” A young woman in the front row leaned forward, screaming, “YOUR OPPOSING THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!” Chair Roberts exclaimed, “That’s it, everyone OUT!” For the first time the crowd did not move in unison. Some waved their signs and danced from the room. Others hastily folded the signs in half and sushed one another, one could be heard whispering, “No, no, not yet.” Chair Roberts amended her pronouncement, “If you have a sign, leave, you have already been warned.” A few more left, gathering in the hall outside.

Closing statements at a gesture of goodwill

When Roberts moved to Board comments Sam Patrick passed and Ann Samuelson was next. As Samuelson read her statement the remaining members of the crowd began rising and calling out, “Boo, boo” loudly and repeatedly. Samuelson resolutely adjusted her tone to rise above the catcalls and continued on, “I don’t know about how the rest of you see your world, but I know and appreciate deeply that I don’t get to have this day ever again. I believe we must move toward reconciliation and forgiveness for the betterment of our County.”

“Like we believe that with the vote you just gave,” hollered one man as he exited out the door. Samuelson unwaveringly plowed on, “So for me, that means I forgive those who have set out to harm me and those close to me. Now that isn’t always easy, sometimes I need to remind myself every 5 minutes that I’m forgiving that act or person. It is much easier to blame than take responsibility. We must get beyond personal attacks, he said she said, our egos, and what has become chronic negative news in our local newspaper. I want to talk briefly about a painful issue we have all shared and that is the stipend for the District Attorney.” A few more people shook their heads and left the room.

Samuelson continued, “Frankly this was a simple human resources issue that became a very hurtful campaign and ballot measure, which was ultimately defeated. I voted against that ballot measure, but that does not mean that I believe we should not pay a stipend to the District Attorney. The DA has submitted his performance measures. I originally voted to cut the stipend because performance measures were not done , now it is done, so I believe it should be put back in the budget.” At this point the rest of those calling themselves the “red shirts” started once again booing, one of them hollered, “Too little, too late, that won’t save you!”

Out in the hallway cheering erupted for each group that emerged. “Good job!” was heard often and the young screaming woman was grinning ear to ear as colleagues gave her congratulations. One of the crowd members who wanted to be named only as “Robert” was asked what he had hoped would happen at the meeting. “Well it went pretty much like we expected, but I had hoped they would have the courage to say no.” When he was asked no to what? He replied, “No to everything, they let this go too far!” He was asked at what point did he expect the Board to say no, and he stated, “From the very beginning when they first were approached by Bradwood, they should have just said, ‘No’ because then it would be over. Bradwood went up and down the coast looking until they could find the most crooked bunch of greedy politicians and they found them here.” When “Robert” was asked what these politicians were greedy for he said Bradwood’s money and that four of them were in Bradwoods “back pocket” only Patrick wasn’t. When Robert was asked if he knew what due process was or if he knew what would happen if the BOCC didn’t follow it Robert said to ask the Columbia River Keeper’s lawyer because that’s where Robert got his information aside from what he gets from the Daily Astorian and a few other places which he declined to name.

As the evening ended deputies from the sheriff’s department arrived and the group decided to leave for a more hospitable climate. “Let’s meet up at the Wet Dog,” exclaimed Foster, who also identified himself as one of the many lawyers with Columbia River Keeper, “the first round of drinks is on me!”

Commissioner Ann Samuelson’s full statement read at the close of the March 20, 2008 meeting can be seen here.

Lee’s Town Hall: The Commissioner fights back

Carrie Bartoldus March 20, 2008

The back room at Golden Star was filled to capacity Wednesday evening as people gathered to take in Clatsop County Commissioner Richard Lee’s “town hall” style meeting, held to answer questions regarding accusations of permit violations on his development voiced by a committee formed to recall commissioners and perpetuated in a multitude of the Daily Astorian’s articles. While the tone of the meeting was relaxed and informal, with Lee going through a litany of the permits the Clatsop County Planning Division has at one time or another accused him of not having, there were times when the discussions got heated as the diverse crowd side barred with a few intense debates that Lee wasn’t even involved in.

The interaction of the crowd represented people clearly there to both support the County Commissioner as well as those who were determined to show his faults and a smattering of people intent on getting answers to their concerns. Frequently throughout the evening people called out to Daily Astorian reporter Joe Gamm, “Did you get that answer, Joe?” and “You going to quote the whole sentence, Joe?” Good naturedly Joe Gamm chuckled and nodded ascent. Although Lee was good natured through much of the exchange, he did drive home the point that the Daily Astorian had lied in many of its articles in regards to his permits, about having a vendetta against District Attorney Josh Marquis, about being the “leader” of the drive to take away the stipend and various other allegations that the paper as published.

“I did not vote to take away the District Attorney’s stipend,” stated Lee, “and I admit that was politically motivated. I knew if I did the paper would say I did that because of his wife running against me. I voted against removing the stipend. When the District Attorney’s budget came before the Board, I voted to approve it as recommended by the Budget Committee. The recommended budget did not include a stipend for the District Attorney. I did not vote against the stipend, ever.”

When someone from the crowd pressed Lee about why the stipend had been removed Lee responded that the District Attorney had three years to come up with performance measures and had refused to comply with the request to do them. At the end of the three year deadline the Budget Committee and the majority of the Board felt that if he didn’t want to do as asked for the county there was no reason for the county to pay him. “And here is another example of what the paper does, of what you, Joe Gamm, do. You misquote me. In this instance you say I said,” and at this point Lee read from an article in the Daily Astorian, “I don’t know, after you asked me what performance measures we were looking for from the District Attorney, and you ended my quote there, ‘I don’t know.’ You then go on to say that if the commissioners don’t know what to look for in the performance measures how can the District Attorney know. Now, that wasn’t my whole quote, and it was at that point I told you I wasn’t going to talk to you or the Daily Astorian anymore. I said I didn’t know right then, I didn’t have the paperwork with me right there. The Board knows what it wants and it had been conveyed to the District Attorney.”

Lee then added, “People want to know why I hired a PR firm to handle some of the campaign, this is the reason why, here. The saying goes, ‘You can’t fight a man who buys his ink by the barrell,’ so I needed professionals who knew how to combat this,” Lee held up a Daily Astorian paper folded back to an article, “to handle these lies here and because of Joe Gamm right there,” Lee finished, pointing to the Daily Astorian reporter, “Joe, you’re the reason I had to hire a PR firm.”

Commissioner Patricia Roberts spoke from the audience and said, “I would like to say here that we now understand that the public hadn’t been informed that we had been working on these performance measures for three years, for three years Mr. Marquis had been asked to do them, had been told the kinds of things we were looking for to be on them and for three years he fought doing them. When the deadline was up we were through waiting. We, along with the Budget Committee, said, ‘We’ve had enough of this.’ What we didn’t really realize was that the public wasn’t getting this information, this paper,” and Roberts paused to point at Joe Gamm, “wasn’t informing the public of what was going on, of the performance measures everyone else was doing, and we didn’t realize you didn’t know our frustration with waiting for the district attorney to get on board.”

Roberts also detail the things that the public hadn’t been told about Richard Lee by the newspaper, “Richard was part of the Board that implemented a long term financial plan for the county, the first one we have had, and Richard was instrumental in getting that done. There was no stability in funding; there was no facility to use to lead us into the future. We used timber revenue to acquire land, we renovated the health building to use to house elections material and use for meetings, we’ve brought all the buildings up to code, we’ve used this timber revenue in a responsible manner. We completed a 4.8 million dollar project without coming back to the community for any additional funding, we built a transition center without coming back to the community for additional funding, we moved offices out of a nationally registered historic building while it was being renovated, without asking for additional funding, without raising taxes. We are the envy of other counties, and you don’t know any of this because the paper never tells it!”

Lee explained in great detail the permits that he allegedly hadn’t completed or was operating without were indeed in possession. “I have not done anything illegal!” he stated, punctuating each word with a whack on the table with a rolled up map. “I have submitted the same type of plans, the same type of maps, that every other developer has submitted. When things change, ideas change about how we are going to do something, we submit new plans, new maps. Each requirement they ask me to do, I will do it if it is reasonable, if it doesn’t seem reasonable I call Salem and ask them if that’s the way its supposed to be done. Joe Gamm calls it, ‘Doing an end run,’ I do it because the local office doesn’t always know what its talking about.”

Lee then when on to a subject which has caused some uneasiness at County, the discussion of Ed Wegner being the director of the Planning Division. “I think Ed is a great administrator, he does a good job at it, but he isn’t a planner, he doesn’t know that field. When he has a question or has to make a decision he asks the planning staff how to rule. When the problem is a decision the planning staff has made he can’t make the ruling on his own he asks the staff. He doesn’t know planning.”

From the floor someone asked Lee if he felt, given the fact that gas prices keep soaring, it made good economic sense to have an RV park at this time? Lee responded it was a very good time to, because people were still traveling and the Astoria area was designated as an area people were travelling to. His RV park contributed to that in that helping to keep people here more people were shopping locally and going to local restaurants.

Another person asked if Lee’s golf course was meeting the requirements set forth on it. Lee said, again, yes he was. Dave Ambrose stated that he had worked a lot with the planning division and he never had a problem with them in regards to the permit process and he did many development projects in flood plain areas, where there are more stringent rules than normally zoned areas. Lee agreed that there were more stringent rules however the rules should be applied even handedly, in Lee’s view.

Lee’s step-daughter, Jennifer Moore, stepped into the answer questions as to what was happening on the golf course. Moore said that golf courses were the number one pollutants to the waterways because of all the chemicals used to treat the lawns yet, because what was mowed was used to feed their cows, the Lees went all organic, and even used artificial greens so that they weren’t using chemicals to keep the lawn artificially short.

A number of people stood up to speak out against recalls in general, unless the person being recalled had done something that was proved to be illegal. Ambrose said he would like to give some perspective to the ideas of those who were for the recall as many of those people were his friends and they were a minority who felt as if they weren’t being heard and who were not a part of the community. “These kinds of things happen [recalls] when you have a group of people who feel like they aren’t being hear.” Shouts from the audience erupted and a woman sprang to heer feet. “I would like to answer that one,” Zorich continued, “this recall has nothing to do about not being heard it is politically motivated by a group of people who aren’t getting their way on two subjects, the DA’s stipend and LNG. Will, it went against their wishes this time. You don’t recall when something goes against your wishes, that isn’t what the recall is for. This is politically motivated action and these people are using Richard’s private life to exploit the situation for themselves.” Zorich went on to detail a personal account of problems she had with the planning division.

After Ambrose shared a quote from Madison’s federalist papers, regarding what would happen without the power to recall another speaker from the floor said he felt that the new way democracy was run was that any time the minority wanted something the majority had to cave in to it.

The discussion and questions rocked back and forth between questions on the permitting process and questions concerning the District Attorney’s office. Although the session was scheduled for one hour people stayed until after 9 pm, a full hour later than scheduled, to ask questions and receive answers. Although it appeared as if many were satisfied with answers given, others were still asking questions between one another as they left the building. Commissioner Ann Samuelson added comments throughout the evening regarding open permits on Lee’s property that the plumbing firm she recently sold had completed or was in the process of completing as well as her beliefs that the recall was politically motivated.

A member of the audience bound to his feet and proclaimed, “Its blackmail, that’s what it is. These people have said since the ballot measure that they were going to take down the commissioners for not voting the “right” way. They used Richard Lee’s personal life and if this recall goes through and the remaining commissioners don’t vote for the person this group wants them to, they’ve already said they’re going after Ann Samuelson. That’s blackmail and it isn’t right!”

Lee said that during the last year the commissioners had asked the county manager to arrange for these types of town hall meetings in each of the districts throughout the year, with the commissioner of that district, the county manager, the road master and maybe one other commissioner to help field questions and answer concerns that the community members may have. A suggestion from the floor was that with only three minutes on the agenda per speaker many people felt as if they were not getting an opportunity to speak to the Commissioners in a public format and they felt left out or just plain not heard before important votes were taken.

Commissioner VS Newspaper: Part III

Carrie Bartoldus March 19, 2008

Doubtful Dealings in Planning Department Emerge

The Daily Astorian failed to report on the fact that while Jennifer Bunch was investigating the alleged wrong doings of Richard Lee in regards to his development Bunch was helping a coworker process paperwork on his own development, paperwork that looked as messed up as Bunch said Lee’s looked. At the same time that the Lees were receiving notification from Bunch for having made an illegal partition of their property 10 years previously, Bunch was signing paperwork that changed co-worker Jeff Heinzman’s development from an RA-2 zone to an RA-1 zone.

A Resolution and Order No. #070613 Dated June 27th, 2007 is an approval of a partition to create three parcels on Heinzman’s development with no mention of a measure 37 claim, yet one of the lots created would only be 1.25 acres in a RA2/AF zone. One of the boxes checked on the list is that all lots would meet minimum requirements.

Another odd thing about the application, signed by Ed Wegner, is the line by geological hazard is checked “no” when, in fact it is in said zone. The partition plat looks as if it is recorded without a sign-off from Ed Wegner (one still can’t be found in the voluminous amounts of paperwork), for sure there was no water available to the development through February 10, 2008 when last NCO checked with Burnside Water Association.

Rule Bending

Yet, through the help of his coworkers, Heinzman was able to get his measure 37 claim development partitioned, approval on and septic system installed, a manufactured home set on a geohazard overlay site, a road put in and named, an address given to his developed site, electrical and septic hooked up and a permit for a deck all without water rights to the site, one of the first things essential and without which a development permit should never have been granted.

The only reason this is stressed is because Jennifer Bunch, and her co-worker Stewart Scarborough both said that the only developer to enjoy special privileges with impunity was Richard Lee because of his status as a commissioner and their fear they would lose their jobs. Jennifer Bunch’s boss, Patrick Wingard, also commented that he felt in fear of his job if he didn’t allow Lee to bend the rules.

Why did they allow Heinzman to bend the rules, with impunity? Why, when they found out he lied about the water and had placed the manufactured home on his site back in July of 2007, didn’t they make him move the home, follow the rules for developing a site for a manufactured home on a geohazard overlay, but first make him follow the rules for getting the proper development permit? Were they afraid for their jobs on this development, too? They were helping Heinzman’s Measure 37 claim in September through December 2007 and into January 2008, the same period of time they were saying Lee was “running amok”. The Daily Astorian’s disregard for this story is telling.

The same planner that Goldsmith reported complaining that he had to step down from his job as head planner because of the preferential treatment he saw being given to Lee also signed off on Heinzman’s permits. Scarborough issued two permits to Heinzman after another planner, Kunland, had discovered that the Burnside Water District didn’t approve Heinzman’s request to join their association so issued a stop work order.

The Daily Astorian was so focused on “getting Lee” they either missed theses stories, or, as some contend, once again refused to run them. With the discovery of Jeff Heinzman’s preferential treatment in the planning department the accusation against Lee could lose all merit.

Daily Astorian ready to attack?

In November of 2007, after the defeat of ballot measure 4-123 District Attorney Josh Marquis turned in to the Board of Clatsop County Commissioners a letter containing a list of performance measures that he purposed using for his budget. He asked the Board to get back to him as soon as possible on whether or not the list met their criteria. The Board responded, according to the minutes of the November 20, 2007 with thanks and Derickson offered to meet with Marquis to go over the measures. Ed Wegner was brought in on the meeting with Marquis as he had previously volunteered to help department heads develop their budgets using the performance measure method. Through Wegner’s diligent help and training Marquis was able to turn in a performance based budget for review on time in 2008.

The editorials for that month call the commissioners to task for the close race. Forrester or Webb, whichever wrote Close election begs for a solution, lied saying, “Clatsop County will pay its thrice-elected district attorney less than any other county in Oregon.” Clatsop County joined 13 other counties in choosing not to pay a district attorney stipend. Zero is the same amount for all fourteen counties. The editorial goes on to misinform the readers regarding the relationship of the district attorney with the commissioners in regards to having an attorney for negotiations in regards to the MOU. It would be like saying that Richard Lee can no longer talk to anyone at county, other commissioners included, now that he has an attorney for the tort claim. It is not a sensible statement. And, repeatedly, the editor refuses to show the readers what a performance based budget is, instead drawing upon the tired argument that no one will tell Marquis exactly what they want from him. Offering nothing more than his opinion, the editor asserts that the Board is, “obsessed with its own importance,” and is “unwilling to learn from their mistaken tactic.” He attacks Derickson, “we have an administrator who has failed to exercise restraint, but instead has egged on commissioners in their reckless, needless and costly behavior.”

The next editorial plants in the readers mind that it is Lee who is the boss, Clatsop County has an old-time Boss. “Voters have already glimpsed Lee’s willful dominance of county government in his bold venture to slash the salary of the popularly elected district attorney.” Ignoring the three other commissioners for a short moment, the editor states Lee lead the charge. But for what reason does Lee have for doing this? Vendetta, is all the editor replies. Logically, a vendetta comes about when someone has lost, when someone has been damaged. Marquis wife lost, Marquis’ pride and pocket book were damaged, however, the editor has decided that it is Lee who has the vendetta.

“In a front-page article last Friday, Joe Gamm reported on the personal litmus test that Lee is exercising on appointments to the county planning commission. One prospective planning commissioner, former Warrenton Mayor Paul Rodriguez, was not interviewed by county officials or the county commission as a group, but by Lee personally,” the editor laments. What the reader isn’t told is that Paul Rodriguez already was sitting on one of the county commissions, one he wasn’t making it to regularly and the reason Lee stopped by to talk to Rodriguez was to ask about his attendance on the Commission on Children and Families. Auerbach, too, was already sitting on another one of the County committees, the Recreation Lands Planning Advisory Committee. At least a mention to the reader that these people’s services were being used is owed. The reader can ascertain whether or not it justified not being added to or let go from another committee. The fact is the Daily Astorian refuses to give the reader all of the facts on an issue, or even at the very least a balanced perspective on the most cogent issues from both sides.

Goldsmith Report

Had the Daily Astorian been on Lee’s side in this matter in would, no doubt, have ripped the Goldsmith interview apart, showing the glaring discrepancies between Bunch and Wingard’s recounting of how the incident at the counter with Lynda Lee came about. The Daily Astorian would have been the first to point out that Goldsmith seemed disappointed in the Lees’ for not taking her heart-to-heart discussion with them in October of 2007 more seriously,

Another interesting observation that radio newsman Tom Freel brings out is the fact that Jill Goldsmith seemed predisposed to write a report against Richard Lee. Freel questions whether it was a good idea to bring someone who has investigated Lee twice on the same charge to investigate allegations again. Many question how it is that Bunch came to the conclusion that her job was threatened in the exact same way that Scarborough felt his job was threatened. A telling point in Goldsmith’s report is this section:

“This was rejected by planning because the code required the height to be 7 feet,” she wrote. “Lee said that planning should have waived this minor problem and allowed the development of that building. Lee said that if a development is legal, there should be ways of doing it.”

Goldsmith said Lee’s example is appropriate, if only because his interpretation is wrong. “If a code requires a height of 7 feet, then it should be clear that 6.9 feet is insufficient,” she wrote. Goldsmith confused the height in inches instead of millimeters. “It was off the width of a piece of paper,” Richard Lee stated.

Lee believes that had Goldsmith looked at the evidence with a discerning eye instead of the preconceived idea that he was guilty the report may have turned out differently.

Daily Astorian Posts Correction

On March 3, 2007 a small four line correction was inserted into the Daily Astorian, apologizing for an “inaccurate detail” in its February 20th , story. The Daily Astorian stated: “A story in the Feb. 20 edition of The Daily Astorian about the Richard Lee recall campaign incorrectly quoted a lawyer’s investigation and made a statement that described a demand for the resignation of Clatsop County planner Jennifer Bunch. The newspaper would like to point out that the lawyer’s report did not state that Richard Lee called for Ms. Bunch’s resignation. The newspaper apologizes for its error.” The Daily Astorian, however, had misquoted the report numerous times (for instance, the very next day on February 21st, and the recall group had used it in its advertising and sound bites.

Next Installment: Was there or wasn’t there an Department of Justice investigation? If so who was the complainant? If not, who reported it to the Daily Astorian? What were the findings?

Related:

Part 1

Part II

Commissioner VS Newspaper: Part II

Carrie Bartoldus March 18, 2008

Part 2 of a four part series on the relationship between County Commissioner Richard Lee and The Daily Astorian’s editor/publisher and CEO of the corporation that owns the paper, Steve Forrester

Daily Astorian Asserts majority want stipend returned to right wrongs

Throughout the campaign the Daily Astorian repeatedly made a point that twenty people spoke against the stipend removal and that the Board of County Commissioners were thwarting the “will” of the majority of the people by removing the stipend of a duly elected state official, that the ballot measure would “right the wrong” and the damage that the commissioners had created and that the “action [of the Board] was an attempt to control the office of the DA.” What did they mean and when?; County takes new turn on DA salary; DA controversy hits boiling point; opens up salary wound, pours in salt; Eleventh-hour filing stalls petition; The wound is still raw over DA’s salary cut; Richard Lee welcomes Marquis’ latest action.

One critically important reporting event that was notably passed over by the Daily Astorian was contained in the story DA salary initiative OK to move forward wherein it was reported, “Charles Hinkle, the lawyer representing the Committee to Retain the Independence of the Office of District Attorney … apparently confident his argument would prevail and wanting to save time, had already drawn up an order implementing the judge’s decree. Revised slightly after Junkin disputed some of the wording, the order directs Williams “to process that initiative … for circulation to the voters and placement on the ballot, if it obtains the required number of signatures.” What the paper refused to tell their readers was the fact that the judge had removed almost three lines of Hinkle’s argument, specifically crossing a line through the text which Hinkle wanted the judge to include regarding the constitutionality of the ballot measure. Removed from the order implementing the judges decree was that the initiative petition proposing a charter amendment “meets the requirements of Article VI, section 10, of the Oregon constitution.”

When the ballot measure was defeated the Daily Astorian did not back down. Steve Forrester, in his editorial following the defeat, attacked the commissioners as a whole and Richard Lee in particular. Forrester coined the phrase, “old time boss” in this editorial and, at a time when encouraging an amicable partnership would heal the county Forrester’s November 20, 2007 editorial is full of rancor. “Commissioner Lee’s performance in the past 11 months embodies a rural version of the kind of big city boss that was once common in Chicago and New York…” Forrester writes, “Lee recommended the appointment of a commissioner who eventually became pivotal in rejecting the planning staff’s recommendation regarding Northern Star’s proposed LNG terminal…”

Lee emerges as ringleader

Although Richard Lee was not a member of the committee defending the charter from being changed, Forrester insisted on calling him the leader of the opposition and repeatedly took up the District Attorney’s side, putting forth that Lee had a vendetta against the District Attorney because Marquis’ wife had ran (and lost) against Lee the year before. Those that know Lee have said he does not carry grudges. The winner rarely is the one with the vendetta. Forrester also contended that Lee must be the leader of the opposition because Forrester’s reporter was able to find a tenuous link to a woman who contributed $4,000 to the committee opposing the ballot measure. Clatsop County has an old-time Boss; Close election begs for a solution
We’re in one of the darkest moments of 16 years of home rule government; A big lie and laundered money; Mailing suggests some ‘truths’ about the DA ballot measure that are not self-evident;

While editorials are merely an opinion most journalists agree that because they are in a news venue opinion should be clearly stated and not given as facts. In Forrester’s comments above the former is clearly an opinion, which anyone can discern on their own whether or not Lee’s behavior is similar to the behavior of historical figures but in the latter statement the reader must go entirely on Forrester’s say so because Forrester has refused to give the reader all of the information to form their own opinion. Forrester refused to publish the staff findings, the planning commission’s report and the county council’s memos to show how often the Board actually deferred to the staff over the commission, how often the Board blended both the staff and the commission’s recommendations together and how often the Board elected to follow the advice of county council. Forrester refused to publish the information that the Board worked hard to get the LNG company to the table to negotiate the proposed Bradwood Landing development and if the Board hadn’t been willing to work with Northern Star, the corporation was going directly to FERC. Out of all of the Daily Astorian articles the one that alludes to the extra work and effort, and the possibility that issues will go to the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) was the October 23, 2007 article, Astoria leader blasts LNG secrecy.

In most of Forrester’s editorials the claims he makes against Richard Lee and the rest of the county commissioners are not corroborated by empirical evidence. In 2007 many local government officials quietly quit speaking to the reporters of the Daily Astorian, or gave only brief interviews, well aware of the half truths the paper was publishing.

Bunch’s story bursts in the Daily Astorian

Just before the news of the Goldsmith Report broke in the Daily Astorian, its reporter, Joe Gamm ran an exclusive story starring the claimant in the investigation. Just the day before this exclusive interview County Manager, Scott Derickson, refused to answer questions regarding this same issue. With Derickson stating that because the county was conducting an independent investigation stemming from a complaint of an employee that includes a county commissioner and because the matters was currently being handled by the Clatsop County legal team and the county’s insurance provider, many people were perplexed when Jennifer Bunch spilled her story to the Daily Astorian the very next day.

Immediately after going to the Daily Astorian with her story the Goldsmith Report broke and Richard Lee filed a tort claim in response. The woman couldn’t be questioned by any other news venues. However, NCO reporting showed many ironies between the woman’s activities regarding the Lees and her activities in the planning office to help a co-worker complete his development.

The Daily Astorian reported that the woman, Jennifer Bunch, claimed that she was afraid for her job if she didn’t give Lee lenient treatment on his land use applications. The Daily Astorian emphasized that the county had hired an “independent” outside lawyer to investigate the allegations. The Daily Astorian failed to tell its readers that Jennifer Bunch’s mother had recently retired as the District Attorney’s trial assistant. The same paper which didn’t hesitate to inform their readers that Lee’s second wife’s daughter’s husband’s oldest brother’s renter had made a $4,000 contribution to the campaign to defeat the ballot measure the paper endorsed didn’t feel Bunch’s relationship to the District Attorney was relevant to the story.

What the Daily Astorian left out

The Daily Astorian didn’t inform their readers that the outside lawyer had investigated two other cases with the same charges against Lee. Goldsmith’s interviews with the other planners did not support Bunch’s story that the Lees acted hostile to Bunch, other planners witnessing the exchange failed to see malicious intent by Lynda Lee. The Goldsmith Report failed, as did the Daily Astorian, to report that the reason the Lees phoned Ed Wegner is because they were friends of the Wegners, they had dinner together and spent time going out together to events.

The Lees claim they never told Wegner to fire Bunch, Lynda Lee says she said something along the lines of, “You really have to do something about that woman, she was very rude to me!” The Daily Astorian failed to report on the people who came to the subsequent BOCC meetings to complain of their treatment from the same woman and how they had been misdirected on applications. The Daily Astorian failed to report Jim Neikes’ letter charging favoritism on the part of the planning department towards a fellow coworker developing his parents’ property.

Tom Freel, a radio newsman with KAST, brought out the point that given what the report said the other planners saw in the exchanges between the Lees and Jennifer Bunch the only way possible for Bunch to be under the impression that her job was in jeopardy was if Ed Wegner, for some reason, told her his version of the conversation between himself and Lynda Lee.

Next Installment:

Planner Jennifer Bunch claims Lees are the only developers to take advantage of Lee’s unique position as a commissioner, and because they were “running amok” she had to stop them. What story did the Daily Astorian miss and was it on purpose?

Previous:
The Rant of the Daily A

Eric Schmidt Comments On “Shenanigans” And Other County Business

Carrie Bartoldus March 17, 2008

In their Friday, March 14th, article the Daily Astorian used a derogatory word pertaining to the combined actions of Clatsop County’s commissioners, and more specifically Commissioner Richard Lee, while attributing it to a spokesperson for an Oregon association.

Joe Gamm, a reporter who has written extensively regarding Richard Lee’s development difficulties, wrote, “Meanwhile, the controversy in Clatsop County is gaining statewide attention. Eric Schmidt, communications manager for the Association of Oregon Counties, said he’s been keeping up with shenanigans in Clatsop County.”

“I will state, flat out, that I did not use the word “shenanigans” in my conversation with the reporter from the Daily Astorian,” says Eric Schmidt, Communications Manager for the Association of Oregon Counties. “I would not say there is a negative perception or impression of the Clatsop County Commissioners. Other county commissioners have gone through the same thing. It’s politics.” Schmidt clarified, “Of course we are watching this recall effort, as we would for any county.”

Schmidt said the Association of Oregon Counties values Clatsop County’s membership, “They play a critical role in the association.” Recently, Schmidt recounted, Commissioner Hazen was very vocal and spoke articulately regarding the lost revenue from federal timber in the thirty-three of the thirty-six counties in Oregon. “Even though Clatsop County is not one of the counties receiving federal funds, Commissioner Hazen was an integral part of helping us to get an extension on Federal Forest Payments (PL106-393),” Schmidt emphasized. The law, enacted in 2000, was to help the thirty-three counties impacted when logging of federally owned was curtailed. Federal funds were to be used for six years in place of the money the counties would have garnered from shared timber sales. In that interim the counties were expected to find a replacement for the lost economy.

“Commissioner Hazen was able to articulate to the federal government that what happens to a few counties impacts all of the counties, whether they are receiving federal funds or not,” Schmidt stated. “The theory was that in a six year period the counties would be able to find a something to make up for the missed timber revenue, such as tourism or another industry. It was too small of a window, and for many of these rural communities tourism is not a viable option.” Thirty-nine other states agree with the Oregon counties’ assessment of the situation and have asked congress to extend the time frame.

“Right now the thirty-three counties in Oregon are acting as if they will not be getting this funding in time for the next fiscal year,” said Schmidt in relating the concerns of commissioners across the state, “There are going to be deep cuts in many counties this coming year. Services that cannot be funded and staff that will have to be cut.”

One area that is also getting a lot of discussion is the stipend of District Attorneys. “By and large commissioners across the state agree they need a good District Attorney and to retain one takes money. Many counties subsidize the state pay with a stipend,” Schmidt added, “However, with so many of the counties impacted in losing their federal timber revenue the discussion has once again come up regarding the state taking on more of their share of what is, essentially, a state office.”

Schmidt said that while a decade ago the state was helping counties with the salaries of the assistant district attorneys by 2005 the amount had dwindled to zero. In 2007 it was raised to $800,000 but that amount is split between the all of the assistant district attorneys (ada) for thirty-six counties coming to approximately $4,000 per ada.

Schmidt said another topic of discussion that the counties are considering is performance based measures. With the Oregon Ways and Means encouraging its use as a matter of public policy more counties are considering how to implement or incorporate performance based measures into their budgeting process. The State of Oregon is now using it, as are most larger counties.

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Commissioner VS Newspaper: Lee and Forrester duke it out

Carrie Bartoldus March 17, 2008

Part 1 of a 4 part series on the relationship between County Commissioner Richard Lee and The Daily Astorian’s editor/publisher and CEO of the corporation that owns the paper, Steve Forrester


The Rant of the Daily Astorian

In a 54 day period (out of which only 38 papers were published – weekends off) The Daily Astorian contained 36 articles regarding Clatsop County Commissioner Richard Lee, often written unflatteringly. In topics ranging from an interim elections clerk being appointed, to volunteers needed for county commissions, the Daily Astorian inserted a call for or a mention of, recalling Richard Lee. In articles, advertisements, editorials or letters to the editor, rarely a day has gone by since January 23rd in which the Daily Astorian has not kept before the public eye the name of the commissioner who the CEO of the corporation that owns the paper refers to as, “a rural political boss”.


Since January 23, 2008, when the recall petition was announced The Daily Astorian has published slanted news stories that many have referred to as “yellow journalism,” a derogatory phrase making reference to a type of journalism that features scandal-mongering and sensationalism, practices which standard news media organizations and journalists find unethical or unprofessional. Many in the community argue that the Daily Astorian’s descent into yellow journalism began May 15, 2007, with the story, “Marquis’ Pay Cut: Its spitting in my face.” Before that time the paper was publishing stories regarding the commission in a temperate manner, with very little overt slanting of the stories and allowing the commissioners to have their say in the issues of concern.

When the budget committee recommended, in May 2007, that the Board of County Commissioners remove the District Attorney’s stipend for failure to comply with the proper budgeting process it appears that the paper took the District Attorney’s side. Based on the content of the editorials, and the subsequent articles, it began a campaign to help the District Attorney get the stipend back.


Before the Rancor Began


Headlines for May 4, 2007, Red ink looms for county budget, District Attorney’s staff may be on the chopping block, an article by Tom Bennett for the Daily Astorian, factually details the problems surrounding the up coming fiscal year’s budget. May 15, 2007 headline, Marquis pay cut: ‘It’s spitting in my face’ County budget battle gets personal as leaders cut stipend instead of two other positions, begins to draw the line on yellow journalism as the article’s headline shows.


In June 2007 the Daily Astorian began printing a series of articles and on each one the headline tells the context of the story and for who’s side it is slanted. Reporter Tom Bennett disappears and Cassandra Profita takes up the pen. Marquis charges county with ambush; Marquis receives voices of support; County: No stipend for Marquis. Then, perhaps Profita tires of the ad nauseum campaigning guised as quasi-journalism, and Sandra Swain picks up the pen writing the next series of slanted stories: Voter’s may reverse DA’s pay cut; District attorney salary initiative supporters win court battle; DA salary initiative OK to move forward; Wound is still raw over DA’s salary cut; Eleventh-hour filing stalls petition Committee supporting DA salary measure hits hurdles and has only three days to collect enough signatures; Judge rules for petitioners on DA salary measure; DA salary petitioners hit the streets and Sandra Swain’s sentence as Marquis’ personal reporter comes to an end.


Daily Astorian’s Paper changes hue to yellow


Throughout the spring and into the summer the Daily Astorian’s verbiage appears increasingly slanted. Although later it will print pages of a lawyer’s review on Richard Lee, the Daily Astorian refused to publish the District Attorney’s budget side by side with the performance based budget of another county department, allowing the public to discern for themselves whether or not there was a problem. The Daily Astorian had access to, but refused to publish, the minutes from the previous year wherein Marquis promised the Board to provide documentation on how the two additional staff members were used in the new courtroom with the additional judge.


Mid-summer NorthCoastOregon published the emails detailing Marquis’ interaction with Commissioner Patrick in which they plot out the details of the wording on the petition, the timing of when to start circulating the petitions and key people to sit on the committee to drive the petition. An additional email to a colleague stated a veiled threat of what would happen if the commissioners cut his stipend and the numerous emails to county staff filled with hostility. At one point Marquis threatened what happens “if you stab me in the back”. When these emails were brought to the Daily Astorian the paper refused to report on them. Several months later a committee formed to protect the charter and tried to buy advertising to show the public the emails and still the Daily Astorian refused to allow the public to see it. Editor Patrick Webb said the emails were inflammatory and biased and the Daily Astorian didn’t allow that kind of advertising.


During the same time the Daily Astorian was running advertising, that the District Attorney paid for, calling four commissioners liars, with no supporting documentation or explanation. The Daily Astorian ran three articles in which it included the opposition’s viewpoint to ballot measure 4-123. In the same time period the Daily Astorian ran 16 stories supporting the ballot measure. At that time those supporting the ballot measure felt a contribution made to the opposition was made illegally and filed a complaint with the State Elections office which determined the complaint had no foundation and that the complainant didn’t provide them with evidence as requested. The Daily Astorian ran several articles speculating on the character of the donor as well as making charges that all the commissioners were involved.


Mysterious Donor Prints Out Fliers


One month later the proponents of the ballot measure filed a statement with the state elections online system declaring costs for postage in the amount of $2600.54 and shortly thereafter people began receiving a two-page, double-sided flier that the proponents declared were hand made and sent to a few households throughout the community, estimating that it might have reached 6,000 homes. The fliers had a postage rate of twenty-one cents on them. Nothing else was received through the mail from the proponents of measure 4-123. According to simple mathematics the group mailed off 12,384 fliers totaling $2600.64, which would mean that 24,768 double-sided pages were printed out. The only facility having the capacity to absorb the costs of a printing like that, many allege, was the Daily Astorian. State law requires businesses to report in kind contributions for providing services in which they would normally receive compensation.


Rather than answer the allegations the Daily Astorian went on the attack, comparing the $3500 glossy note card sized fliers to the “homemade” version, saying the “slick” glossies were bought with “laundered” money. In numerous articles and editorials Forrester, or one of his reporters, referred to the donation as “laundered money” even though the investigation was ongoing. When the investigation was concluded that there was no credible evidence that illegal activity had taken place the Daily Astorian refused to retract their stories, instead stating that there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed, at this time, alluding to some time in the future more evidence may be gathered.

Some Facts Behind Developer's Accusation Of Clatsop Co Planning Division

by Staff

Carrie Bartoldus with Tryan Hartill
February 15, 2007

Wednesday, February 12th, at their morning work session the Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners discussed the over 100 approved Measure 37 claims that were invalidated with the passage of Measure 49. At the end of the work session a letter from Jim Neikes was given to the BOCC from Commissioner Lee. Neikes is one of Lee’s constituents.

Based on the accusations made in the letter the NCO staff researched the open records available, Planning Division documentation, and interviewed as many of those involved as chose to talk about the issue. The following was ascertained:

An employee in the Planning Division, Building Codes Department, Jeffery Heinzman, got a development permit based on what another coworker described as a “fib”. Heinzman filed paperwork for the development his family was working on, stating it had access to water via the Burnside Water District. According to Burnside Water District they did not have water for the development at the time that the development permit was granted. Without a proven water source a development permit cannot be applied for, nor granted.

A partition was recorded, on a Measure 37 approved waiver for the Heinzmans, by the county clerk on November 19, 2007. According to the tentative agreement signed by Community Development Director Ed Wegner, the partition was to be signed by him before being considered completed and a development permit obtained. A record of that sign off has currently not been found. The only sign-off on the partition found was that of the surveyor. Major Partitions do not normally have to go through the Planning Commission .

According to Jennifer Bunch she has never worked on any Measure 37 claims. According to her records the Heinzmans’ measure 37 claim waiver was approved by Clatsop County on March 8, 2006 and by the State of Oregon on April 12, 2007. The only other thing she had to do with the Heinzman development was approving a road name and giving the new partition an address, both done after the partition was registered with the clerk.

According to the minutes of the Planning Commission a request for subdivision of Heinzman’s Measure 37 claim has never come before it. Since the area is a RA-2 the partition of a piece under two acres would not be permissible unless the subdivision has been approved as a Measure 37 waiver claim. One of the partitioned lots is under two acres. All permits issued to Heinzman after his registration of the survey with the county clerk read RA-1. Mike Weston, with the Planning Division, says this was an office mistake as zoning cannot be changed in an area whether or not a Measure 37 waiver has been approved for the property. Other Measure 37 waiver plat approvals have gone through the Planning Commission accompanied by a staff report.

On April 11, 2007 the Heinzmans first applied for a permit to develop their property. November 21, 2007, County Planner John Kanlund approved a development permit to the Heinzman property. On Dec 11, 2007, Kanlund wrote a letter to Heinzman stating that because water was not available to the partition all development must stop and no further permits would be issued. This is called “red flagging” a development so that others will know the development has issues that must be resolved before further permits can be issued. The project’s permit was approved November 21, 2007, withdrawn Dec 11, 2007. That 20 day period was the only time site development should have taken place. Extensive site develop has occurred, something which Neikes contends would have been noted had the normal Measure 37 waiver approval for a plat been observed.

Stewart Scarborough issued two permits, one mechanical and one plumbing to Jeff Heinzman on the partition on Dec. 28, 2007, seventeen days after the project was “red flagged”. Scarborough said he did not wish to make any statements on this issue.

Although no approved placement permits exist for the property a manufactured home sits on it. The property is leveled for a manufactured home and has a driveway; earthwork has been done. Heinzman applied for a manufactured home placement November 20, 2007, but has not yet received a permit. Because it is on a zoned geo-hazard overlay there are more stringent guidelines that must be followed before a home can be built or placed there. According to the Planning Division the home should not be there. Because there is not currently a code compliance specialist and the director is on vacation nothing can be done about the matter. Jim Neikes has argued that the Planning Division has known at least since January 8, 2007, about the manufactured home and should have known earlier if site inspections had been done as the home was bought in April 2007 and moved in June 2007 from Vince Campbell’s site in Lewis and Clark. According to the county Assessment Department the Manufactured Home is listed as still being on the Campbell site.

On December 14, 2007, all approved Measure 37 waivers were invalidated when Measure 49 took effect. At this time Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners is determining how best to help individuals with previously approved waivers (see related story ). One way is by determining a “vested” interest in which the claimant proves that they have put so much time, effort and expense into a development it would not be fair to stop them from finishing.

According to Planner Mike Weston in the Planning Division, no further work should be occurring nor permits being issued on the Heinzman development. The Heinzmans were contacted for their side of this issue. While first agreeing to talk to a reporter for NCO, one and half hours after the interview they left a message retracting everything they had said. They replaced it with the announcement that they didn’t wish to make a public statement. Weston said that because of budgetary constraints Jeffery Heinzman’s position was terminated January 15, 2007, and that Heinzman no longer works for the county.

Feb 15, 06:29 am | Staff

District Attorney and Commissioners Trade Staff Accusations

by Carrie Bartoldus

February 7, 2008

New Staff Member’s Accusations Stir Up Memories of Old Staff Conflicts

Astoria, Ore – In an exchange of emails last spring between county manager Scott Derickson and District Attorney Josh Marquis words got heated with Derickson finally telling the commissioners that he could no longer continue communicating with Marquis via email because of the hostility of Marquis’ emails. Commissioner Hazen emailed Marquis a request to stop bullying county staff. Marquis fired back: “actions have consequences, and if you stab me in the back, do not expect me to meekly accept it. ... I am unaware of any ‘tyrannical attacks.’ My tone is sharp because I don’t get straight answers.” The emails were regarding the District Attorney’s ability to conform to the budgeting process, resulting in the recommendation by the budget committee that his stipend be cut for the budget year of 2007-08. (see related story )

Three days after the budget committee recommended to the Board of County Commissioners that his stipend be rescinded Josh Marquis sent an email to a colleague stating, “If they [the board of county commissioners] want to cut my stipend, they can live with the consequences.” In the months that followed a committee was formed to mandate that a salary for the district attorney be included in the county’s charter.

Based on email exchanges between County Commissioner Sam Patrick and District Attorney Josh Marquis it has been contended that the committee formed for the mandated salary was a collaborative effort between the two and that the initial wording for the petition which led to the ballot measure was written by Marquis at Patrick’s request. The emails show that the district attorney agreed to write the petition’s wording and some people discussed in the emails subsequently were core members of the petition committee. After campaigning for the ballot measure got underway Marquis denied being the “generating force” of the ballot measure and said that he had no affiliation with the committee which had written it. (see related story )

Barely one month after exchanging emails with Sam Patrick regarding the petition’s wording and forming a committee for the ballot measure, Marquis wrote State of Oregon Assistant Attorney General, Pete Shepherd. In this email dated July 11, 2007, Marquis states, “A citizens committee with whom I am not affiliated has proposed gathering signatures for the county home rule charter.” Marquis’ email goes on to say, “I will check but I am fairly certain that there are no emails, or correspondence, or memos of any kind, generated by me as District Attorney on this subject.”

In this same email Marquis informs the Assistant Attorney General, “I have a private email account which I use for non-county business. I do not believe I am under any obligation to turn over emails sent privately not using government emails to anyone who wants them. If I am wrong please inform me.” However, in the email exchange between District Attorney Marquis and Commissioner Patrick the email address of Marquis can be seen to read, jmarquis@co.clatsop.or.us and the bottom of the email reads, “prepared on resources owned by Clatsop County, Oregon.”

On the same day, in a later email, Marquis refers to his state held office, “Well, the DA approves the language so I’ll probably ask another DA’s office to handle that function because of a possible conflict.” The email was dated June 4, 2007. A notarized document dated August 2, 2007, after the petition had been to court twice and had been submitted to the Clatsop County Clerk’s office as finalized and ready for circulation, shows it wasn’t until then that District Attorney Marquis appointed Linn County District Attorney to act as the district attorney in the matter.

Flash Forward

Similarly, a new Clatsop County Planner Jennifer Bunch, whose mother, Peggy Tomlin, recently retired as the District Attorney’s trial assistant, has allegedly made accusations against Commissioner Richard Lee.

On March 10, 2006, a letter from Bunch appeared in a local paper in support of Josh Marquis’ wife, Cynthia Price. The letter was used on Price’s website as an endorsement during Price’s often heated campaign to unseat Commissioner Lee.

Jennifer Bunch was already working in another county department when she transferred to the Planning Division. Minutes of the October 9, 2007, Planning Commission introduce Bunch as a new planner.

Bunch’s accusations come through a letter of complaint which, according to the only paper having access to it, was filed with the county just before the end of the year. One of Bunch’s alleged accusations is of Lee making employees have concerns that their jobs are in jeopardy if they require a developer to adhere to the conditions of a permit. Lee wonders how this is possible since he has only met Bunch recently. “Until the land-use hearing the other day, I have never met Jennifer Bunch….Never spoken to her and couldn’t pick her out from a crowd.”

“I hired Butch Parker,” Lee said, talking about a consultant he hired at least a year ago to do his land-use work, “When it comes to filing and asking simple questions, my wife handles that.” Lee maintains he does not go in to the county office for the permits or applications himself. Lee also said that he has not seen the complaint himself, it hasn’t been released by county to his lawyer, yet.

When NorthCoastOregon.com contacted County Manager Scott Derickson in regards to talking to staff about this and other issues Derickson said, “When the [Lees’] lawsuit is filed we will know the scope and what we can and can’t talk about.”

Feb 7, 09:40 pm | Carrie Bartoldus

Building Permit Conflict Gives Lee Family Chills

by Carrie Bartoldus

Denial of Permit Breaks “ Camel’s Back”

Astoria, Ore – After traveling all day the Moore family returned from their Christmas trip to a freezing cold home, the furnace had broke. After a week of miserable weather and trying to repair the faulty oil heater, Mike Moore made the decision to convert to gas. He contacted NW Natural Gas company and they ran a gas line to the house.

Next, Moore contracted with a plumbing company to run the gas line into the house for his new gas furnace. When the plumbing company went to the Clatsop County Building Department they were in for a big surprise; permits could not be issued to that residence.

Mike’s wife, Jennifer Moore, then went to the building department and explained that she needed a permit for the plumbing company to install a gas line for a gas heater. The clerk started filling out the paperwork, but when Jennifer Moore gave her the address the clerk stopped writing. “She slammed the pen down and said, ‘That house belongs to Richard Lee! We will not issue a permit to Richard Lee or any of his properties.” stunned, Moore exclaimed, “ I couldn’t believe it.”

Jennifer Moore began sobbing in the building department office. “It was freezing cold,” Moore said, “I hadn’t had heat for over a week and two of my children were home with strep throat and this woman is telling me that she wouldn’t be giving me a permit because my home is owned by my step-father? What am I supposed to do? What’s my next step?” Moore said she appealed to the clerk and the response she received was, “That’s not my problem.”

Finally, after much discussion amongst themselves the staff went into another room leaving Moore in the outer office. They told her they would, “see” if they could do something. While she was waiting for their response another staff member arrived on the scene and saw Moore’s distress. After Moore explained to him what was happening, he joined the others in the back room and according to Moore could be overheard ordering them to give her the permit.

The clerk, who had originally refused Moore the permit, returned to the front desk and told her that if a representative for the plumbing company came back they would allow the plumbing company a permit. “They told me,” Moore said, “that they were standing by their decision not to issue Lee permits on any of his properties.”

When Lynda Lee heard what her daughter had gone through merely because of her relationship to Richard Lee she said, “that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back!” Lee added, “At no time ever have we been notified that permits were being suspended prior to this incident. We still have never been given a written notification that permits have been suspended.”

There has been no indication of any permit or land use violations taking place at the address that the Moore family live at. There appears to be no reason for the Building Code Department to recognize that address as a house belonging to the Lee family.

Clatsop County Commissioner Richard Lee and his wife Lynda filed a Tort Claim Notice with the County. The notice alleges an appearance of “unlawful and unwarranted” treatment against the Lees. (see related story )

NorthCoastOregon contacted Ed Wegner, director for Clatsop County Planning Division and Building Codes Department about this and other issues. “We’re not going to comment on these issues” said Wegner, adding that he had discussed the permit issues enough already.

Clatsop County Manager Scott Derickson was also contacted and asked whether County Staff can talk about specific Richard Lee development conflicts.

“We actually don’t know what issues are going to be brought up in the possible lawsuit.” Derickson said. “When the lawsuit is filed we will know the scope and what we can and can’t talk about.” He also added that they have an obligation to play it safe for the benefit of County tax payers.

Related Articles

District Attorney and Commissioners Trade Staff Accusations

Letter From Scott Derickson to Ed Wegner and TDS Staff

Feb 6, 11:13 pm | Carrie Bartoldus

Neighborhoods Important to Communication Projects' Future

by Carrie Bartoldus

Astoria, Or – At a special meeting with the Astoria city council on January 22nd, Sgt. Brad Johnston and Lt. Bob Johnson presented a plan to upgrade and consolidate the communications systems throughout the county. Basing it on a combination of a plan already in progress with the county, and using sites located in Astoria, Johnston and Johnson helped pull together the knowledge and resources of multi-jurisdictional agencies to present a plan which has the potential to consolidate 911 dispatch and help all communities throughout the county.

The thing that people found the most frightening throughout the storm was the inability to communicate. Neighborhood after neighborhood watched as lights went out and darkness spread. Reaching for phones to check on one another we found our lines were dead, our cell phones unable to send, and our radios were the only source of our information and connection to the outside world. All too soon everyone knew, on the coast we were isolated.

Neighbors relied heavily on one another for physical support as well as companionship and comfort in the chill and dampness that the next days would bring, and the devastating aftermath that followed. Often it was through the intervention of a neighbor that food came to a hungry one, heat supplied to any elderly person who had run out of wood, medication run to a needy diabetic or a group trip to the grocery store taken. Neighborhoods could be relied upon to pull together. Chain saws buzzing, cutting one another free from downed trees, clearing driveways, gutters, patching windows and rounding up stray animals. We did it together.

Now, once again, it will be our neighborhoods that we must rely on as they decide the fate of where, or if, our communication tower can be moved to a better and more accessible location.

New Tower Possible

Recognizing that the lack of communication was a issue they would have to resolve, the leaders of each jurisdiction decided that establishing a reliable system would be a top priority as soon as immediate concerns were addressed.

Currently all public safety radios for north county are on Coxcomb Hill. The problem with this site is that the tower has no more capacity for additional transmitters. During the December storm additional problems became apparent when no one could get to the tower to find out why it wasn’t transmitting. It was unknown whether it was a minor equipment failure (which it turned out to be) or a major problem. The biggest fear was that one of the large trees surrounding the tower had fallen on it, crushing the tower and all of the equipment.

Since the highest accessible point is located in Astoria, it became apparent that it would probably be Astoria where the main communication tower should be located. Sgt. Johnston says he can’t remember how he ended up standing next to Astoria City Manager Paul Benoit when the proposal was made that this be given top priority, but suddenly he found himself and Lt. Johnson working on the plan. Luckily for them, Johnston said, the county had already started on a plan.

Currently, the plan calls for going to a county wide 911 consolidation with Astoria and Seaside dispatch. The second part of the plan would be moving the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to a more central location, tentatively Camp Rilea is being considered as the top choice. Johnston said he felt it is feasible to foresee that a consolidated dispatch would be housed in the same structure as the EOC, making best use of mutually compatible resources.

As part of the county wide 911 consolidation, a transmitter tower in the line of sight is a necessity for public safety radios that agencies use throughout the county. One of the biggest hoops that must be jumped through is the fact that in dealing with so many different agencies, everyone is using different systems that are in different stages of usability.

Some of the systems are relatively new, many of them are abysmally old and a few have difficulties in being compatible. Each jurisdiction has different budgets with rural fire districts having the lowest budgets available to draw on, yet all of them need to be able to communicate with the new system in order for it to be of optimum benefit to the public that they serve.

Johnston said that what has been very beneficial to this project is that all of the agencies have not only been supportive but have been extremely cooperative. Each one has had to inventory the radios and systems that they currently are using, determining ownership of the units, give an overview of where they are at in upgrading the systems if it is needed and whether or not budgets can accommodate those upgrades.

Grant Could Help

Taking the plan that the county has already started, Johnston and Johnson were then able to requisition the help of Senators Wyden and Smith and Congressman Wu with an application for a congressional grant to appropriate funds which would help all of the public safety systems throughout the county. The application is due by mid-February. Johnston said it will be another six to eight months before they hear back as to whether or not their grant request for $324,000 has been approved.

Even though a grant is needed to complete the project, none of the agencies involved are sitting around waiting for that to happen. They are proceeding ahead with the incremental steps that many of them have already budgeted for and therefore are able to accomplish.

The Astoria Fire Department has already budgeted money for a radio tower and an antenna for Fire “Black” frequency. The Astoria Police Department has added a “voting receiver” to the radio system to increase coverage. They will be asking the city council for additional funds to add another or to move the existing voter to adjust coverage in the next budget year.

“Another thing we will be looking at,” Johnston said, “while we are waiting to see if the federal assistance comes through, is a back-up for the satellite phones. We could be looking at the satellite internet access. We would like to get away from commercially based operations, and relying on their ability to provide us service. We do need to look at all of our options and all of the companies that are providing those kinds of services at this time, based on our needs and budget.”

Locally, the only provider of satellite internet service is Wild Blue which has many customers in the Clatsop County area. Depending on their line of sight with the Wild Blue satellite system, customers have reported varying degrees of success using it, ranging from ideal in the Green Mountain area to dismal in the Walluski area. One customer reported having use throughout the storm while another reported not being able to use it during the slightest sprinkle of rain.

On top of the problems with the location of the current tower being surrounded by trees and becoming inaccessible in time of wind storms, is that there is no room for expansion projects. Additional frequencies have the problem of bleeding over and interfering. A new site is imperative. Sgt Johnston said that equally imperative is a neighborhood that is happy about the project being there.

Obviously the new site would have to have a line of site to Astoria Dispatch, Seaside Dispatch and Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office as well as the Emergency Operations Center. It would also be nice if the site had additional structure capacity, an all weather roadway and if it was a proven radio site. Sgt. Johnston said that at this time the West Irving/Skyline water tower site is being considered as the top choice, addressing all of the needs as well as the wants of a good site.

Also, because of the site’s elevation it would require a shorter tower, lower installation costs, and would fit in the Astoria Fire Department’s budget.

Johnston wanted to strongly emphasize that they would want the neighborhood of West Irving to be behind this project for it to proceed. Before the next steps are taken in the planning process they will be canvassing the area asking the neighbors for their input to mitigate concerns and address them before it got to the development stage.

Feb 1, 12:37 am | Carrie Bartoldus