Commissioners address departmental issues

DAYTON–The Columbia County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) met with the department heads at the meeting on October 18, for to troubleshoot issues at hand.

Charles Eaton of Public Works reported the county is experiencing road and bridge restrictions which are being ignored, causing damage, especially to bridges.

"We're having a lot of problems with violations of our weight limits on our bridges," said Eaton. "It actually has caused damage, so we actually have three emergency situations. If we don't get these people under control when they're going across these bridges with fully loaded trucks, we're going to lose them." He went on to say the Baileysburg bridge will now have to be a one-way bridge. The South Patit bridge and King Grade bridge have also sustained damage, including some lost support beams.

Commissioner Ryan Rundell informed Sheriff Joe Helm of the situation and he agreed to talk to land owners to convey the seriousness of the situation. He specifically said he wanted to get an idea of when the construction of a bridge will be completed that would divert traffic of heavy loads on the Baileysburg bridge and will relay information back to the County.

Helm also reported that the department is shorthanded, but new deputy Riley Calahan is willing to cover by working overtime. Recent recruit David Walling is back at the academy and will graduate in January. He informed the Commissioners of a problematic inmate in the jail due to mental health issues. While the department coordinates how to resolve the situation, they have moved the other inmates to other jails.

Treasurer Carla Rowe reported property tax revenue collections are currently at 71% which is average for this time of year. She also told the Commissioners about some legislation that passed which ruled penalties can no longer be assessed for late property tax payments beginning in 2022. Penalties for this year are $40,000.

The Treasurer's Office would have to look at ways to recoup the income, said Rowe but she is not in favor of assessing fees for statements that would in essence penalize everyone. Rowe agreed when Commissioner Marty Hall asked, "Otherwise, what's the incentive to pay on time if there's no penalty?" She said that new legislation to revise this ruling is planned in the coming year.

Rowe also presented the finance committee report for the third quarter. In reference to the 2021 collected revenues of $3,283,011 for current expense that have been received to date, Rowe said, "Out of everything that we've collected, about 38% of that is property tax and about 12% is sales tax. Another 12% is Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) [money received each year from the Department of the Interior] and the city contract is just under 14%, the rest of it is either grants or services." She also requested a debt policy be adopted for the County as is required, and provided a revised draft to County Attorney Dale Slack for review and suggested they address it in January.

Slack provided information to the Commissioners about the recent appeal that "overturned the 2019 conviction of Benjamin Orozco for Murder in the Second Degree, Assault in the First Degree, and Unlawful Possession of a Firearm in the second degree" on a "potential biased juror challenge." Slack said Judge Burns will likely preside over the case and that "most of the work is already done. We've just got to track down our witnesses again." He said they have the original trial transcripts which will be helpful.

Norrie Gregoire, Director of the Juvenile Justice Center of Walla Walla that provides services for Columbia County reported that Bill 5122 almost passed in the last session that would bring 18–19-year-olds into the juvenile justice system categorizing them as "emerging adults." He said, "It's controversial. It's only been done in one other state." But he thought had it passed, it's likely the governor would have signed it into law. "Our juvenile court administrator's group is concerned about this; I'd say it's going to back in the next short session. It has a pretty good chance of passing in some shape or form. Probably more concerning in this bill is the desire by the proponents to raise the minimum age from 12 to 13 years of age, so if you're 12 and you commit any other crime other than murder 1 or murder 2 and you're 12 and under, you cannot be held accountable by the juvenile court if the law were to pass."

He later reported to the Commissioners the department is tightening their budget because of receiving less referrals for detention and probation which may lead to staff cuts if the trend continues. Gregoire explained the reason for this is due to a number of things that are happening statewide including a perception that detention "leads to negative outcomes later in life." He also said compared to several years ago, there have been less assaults which he attributes to kids being on their devices more than engaging in drama in person outside of school.

Funding for the courthouse HVAC project was discussed and there are questions about whether it can qualify as an allowed use of the (American Rescue Plan Act) ARPA funds. Maintenance Manager David Finney is inquiring about this and plans to update the Commissions at the next meeting. If it is not an allowed expense, an option would be to apply ARPA funds elsewhere and use those funds to help cover the project. Already determined as an allowed use for the funds is to cover revenue shortfalls directly related to COVID which is $74,000 according to County Auditor Anne Higgins. This frees up current expense money for the project. However, the project estimate as reported by Finney, is $500,000 which includes a contingency fund. The Finance Committee would have to meet to determine where the ARPA funds could be applied which would free up additional money for the project. According to Finney, HVAC replacement is long overdue and is costing the County money by putting it off when construction costs have been rising while paying for costly repairs on the current antiquated system.

Rundell discussed the challenge of filling the pending vacancy after November 4 of the Public Health Administrator Martha Lanman. After meeting with her, the biggest challenges appear to be grant writing to cover expenses and the demands of COVID which Rundell said according to Lanman takes up to 50% of her time. The Commissioners have approached County Emergency Manager Ashley Strickland because of his experience in grant writing and his connection to the hospital and experience with COVID guidelines that his current position has provided. The Commissioners also approved the request from Garfield County to terminate the public health contract for administrative services as of November 12. Instead, Lanman will be offering her services part time directly to Garfield County as a contracted employee.

At the evening public comment meeting several members of the community spoke out against the County contributing $100,000 towards the matching funds requirement for the grant for the Port of Columbia's broadband project claiming the use of public money for that purpose is not essential unlike other uses such as improving infrastructure. Other concerns were expressed about the vaccine mandates forcing volunteer firefighters to step down and requests were made for the commissioners to take a stand. Rundell replied, "We're a community and we should try to work together and find a solution together...that's the real crime of the whole thing is the divisions that it has caused."

Rundell also addressed the concern over the purchase of the truck for E911 department. He said the work vehicle was an incentive offered during the interview process to make the position attractive to current manager Ashley Strickland who was paid much more in his previous position. The truck has to accommodate the emergency radio equipment for the job. Commissioner Charles Amerein clarified it was not paid for with County money, but with grants.