Five-year contract with City approved by Commissioners

DAYTON–The five-year contract with the City of Dayton for County Services was voted on and approved by the Columbia County Commissioners at its December 21 meeting.

The contract amount of $612,500 will be allocated between Emergency Management, the Sheriff's Department, the County Attorney's Office and the courts. The contract was signed by the Commissioners and later by Slack. Commissioner Chuck Amerein abstained.

At a ceremony in the court room, District Court Judge Scott Marinella administered the oath of office to District No. 2 Commissioner elect Marty Hall, second-term Commissioner Ryan Rundell and new Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Cindy Horowitz.

Rundell and Hall was sworn in as acting County Commissioners by Judge Marinella. Hall will take the District No. 2 County Commissioner position in the new year, replacing four-term Commissioner Mike Talbott. Rundell will move into the Chairman position and Commissioner Amerein will take on different duties for the coming year.

County Prosecutor C. Dale Slack recently hired an additional Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Cindy Horowitz, to begin January 1, 2021. Horowitz has experience since 2017 as Assistant District Attorney in Domestic Violence and Appeals in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office in New York. Previously, she served as an attorney overseeing security regulations and complaints against the NYPD for the City of New York Civilian Complaint Review Board.

In-office attorneys are currently Slack and Deputy Prosecutor April King. Slack previously expressed need for additional help to help meet the various needs of the County. "Our civil work has simply exploded in the wake of COVID, the floods, and changes in leadership throughout the County," said Slack. "Cindy will take over prosecution of misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors in District Court, and bring her appellate knowledge to the office, making it possible for April to take over criminal prosecutions in felony cases. For me, to focus on civil work, as well as administration and public outreach...that will keep us moving in the direction I wanted to take this office when I ran."

County Auditor Anne Higgins presented the final 2021 budget and it was approved by the Commissioners with a congratulatory response from current Commission Chair, Chuck Amerein. The $24 million budget includes a current expense budget of $5.2 million and various budgets of $18.7 million.

County maintenance head David Finney reported intentions to replace the HVAC system in the Courthouse beginning in January to be completed by June to use the grant money given for this project in time. This system cools the emergency dispatch system equipment. Recently there was a deficiency causing failure and damage. Some changes have been made to the set-up to prevent another occurrence of these kinds of damages.

Higgins said the HVAC was taken out of the 2021 Capital Budget by County Roads Director, Chuck Eaton. Higgins said that though there is grant money still available towards the HVAC, the almost half million that was designated for the project was reallocated towards flood damages in 2020. Eaton explained that for 2021 the HVAC "is still within the budget this year but only partial, but we phased it in two phases, you can't keep it all in the budget this year, part of it is in this year, part of it is in next year."

Attorneys Rachel Cortez and Angela Garratt, both of Walla Walla, were awarded the Indigent Defense Contract for 2021. They will share half of the cases in each of the District and Superior Courts.

The Commissioner approved the re-appointment of Jason Towery for Planning Commissioner Seat 2. They also approved Peter Paolino for Seat 4.

Martha Lanman of Public Health reported current COVID cases totaling 18 as of that day. By December 23, they had dropped to 13 with no tests pending, which is the last recorded during the holiday week. Lanman sought the Commissioners' approval for extending the Emergency Housing contract with the Department of Commerce through March of 2021. Amerein had some hesitation about extending the approval of the contract claiming they didn't know where exactly the funds were going and wondering why it is not disclosed particularly in regards to public disclosure. Lanman assured him that any concern could be handled by the Department of Commerce, the contract holder.