Jann Manwell appointed Interim County Auditor

DAYTON-The Columbia County Commissioners (BOCC) appointed Jann Manwell as Interim County Auditor after an interview. Auditor candidate Jann Manwell has been working as Columbia County Deputy Auditor for the past year and is familiar with the various aspects of the job. She has previous experience in business operations and accounting. It was Amerein who moved to appoint Manwell as auditor. Commissioner Marty Hall voted no to defer to the election. Commissioner Ryan Rundell voted in favor because there is no other candidate.

In other business at the October 17 meeting, the BOCC heard financial reports from the County Treasurer and the juvenile justice's first departmental budget review for 2023; awarded the courthouse HVAC project to lowest bidder; joined the City of Dayton inviting local and state representatives to review flood hazard concerning the multi-agency obstacles for removing sediment in the Touchet River; and declared week three of October as Domestic Violence Action Month. Public comment was heard regarding elected personnel conduct; and Joint Metropolitan Park District funding clarification

Treasurer Carla Rowe presented the third quarter financial report. She said the County is at 58% collections for property tax. This is down from 68% collection in 2021 because last year Columbia Pulp was making payments. Property taxes will be paid by the buyer when the property sells. Rural sales tax is returning to normal from before the pandemic and is just over $65,000. She also reported on current expense interest income. "Our total for third quarter is $13,832 compared to $10,000 last year. Our interest on the taxes has gone down a little bit but our investment interest has gone up finally. Interest rates have gone up and so I have tried to take advantage of those. Our interest income gained some ground...Revenue without taxes is down just a little bit...Our total in cash reserve and investments at the end of September was a little over $3 million and the year-end transfers have been made... so that is up a little bit."

The first of many budget reviews for 2023 was held with Norrie Gregoire from Juvenile Justice in Walla Walla. The County contracts with them for services. Gregoire suggested there would be no budget change from last year. Detention costs are budgeted at $25,000. Also suggested was that for the time being, the budget for Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program would remain at $5000 but that they would monitor the demand for services with a possible adjustment the following year. Gregoire spoke of another $5000 to go to a public service fund for after-school programming and a $500 contingency fund for holding juveniles in detention. The juvenile probation officer work is budgeted for $26,000. The Commissioners had no objections and expressed appreciation for their services.

David Phinney from Public Works was given authorization to offer the courthouse HVAC contract to the lowest bid which was Mill Creek Mechanical.

The Commissioners discussed and approved joining with the City of Dayton to send a letter to invite representatives to come review the flood hazard situation in the Touchet River and to share about the obstacles they have been faced with getting permitted to remove the sediment for proper flood hazard mitigation.

October was officially declared as Domestic Violence Action Month by the BOCC.

Instead of ending with public comment, the Commissioners opened the October 17 meeting, hearing concerns on a variety of issues, mainly elected personnel conduct. Theresa Eier spoke about investigating her concerns through public records requests about unanswered complaints to the Sheriff's Department concerning misconduct regarding the chaplaincy program, as well as the harassing "homophobic" conduct of a couple of the deputies resulting in a lawsuit being filed against the County. She claimed to have knowledge that the County Risk Manager quit because of liability for the Sheriff's Department not staying up to date on their CPR and first-aid certifications. She pointed out that the Commission claims to work for fiscal responsibility, but these situations are liabilities. She requested that they shut down the chaplaincy program because of misconduct and lack of policy.

Jason Utt requested clarification about the proposed Joint Metropolitan Park District (JMPD). After attending the AAUW Candidate's Forum and hearing contradictory information, he suggested they make available authoritative informational leaflets to the community about how the district would be constituted with references to RCWs and other statutes to better inform the public. Amerein responded by referencing RCW 35.61 for information about the tax rates. Dave Schreck then suggested a particular group of "cherry-picking" RCWs spreading untruths stating that the levy would be voted on every year. Amerein then specified section 210 of the RCW which lays out the tax levy capability of a JMPD.

Diane McKinley addressed the board via telephone, commented about the distribution of a mailer opposing the creation of the JMPD sent out by the Columbia County Conservatives (CCC) which had the return address of Commissioner Charles Amerein who is a founding member of the group. She asked him whether he was representing those who voted for him as commissioner or the CCC. She alleged he was violating the authority of his position according to the Columbia County Personnel Policy Handbook. It reads, "An employee engaging in any of these activities...may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination." She specified number nine of Examples of Inappropriate Activities in the Disciplinary Action section which specifies the use of religious, political, or fraternal influence.

McKinley was adamant that the purpose of the JMPD is only for operations and maintenance of a pool and to state on the flyer that voters relinquish all power to the newly formed Metropolitan Park District is false and misleading because they vote in the District Commissioners and if they are not happy with the decisions the Commissioners make, they can choose not to re-elect them. She explained that the district would be County funded at level five as part of a $5.90/1000 assessed property value aggregated limited proration and each level is subtracted from a total. She said, "Even if they were to make a budget request, there is no guarantee that money is there because of everything that was subtracted on the way down...should there not be money in the aggregated amount, then that is when the metropolitan parks district can ask for a yearly special level, but again that is voted on by the public yearly. It is never a tax imposed without voter approval."

Amerein responded saying, "I represent the people of Columbia County who I think I represent. And fortunately, we do have an election coming up where people can make their choices known. I'm doing it as I see it needs to be done, and that's for the people to decide if I am doing it right or wrong. Unfortunately, you don't feel represented. I understand that. I don't feel represented a lot of the time in local and political government myself. But I will do as I see fit as I see the people of Columbia County want me to do and that's all I can do."