Clark County community rallies around Ed Barnes
Retired union official
threatened with
lawsuit for speaking
his mind at public
meetings
VANCOUVER, Wash. — Commu-
nity members in Clark County deliv-
ered an outpouring of support for resi-
dent Ed Barnes after he was threatened
with a lawsuit by the county’s director
of environmental services, Don Benton.
Benton is a Republican state senator
from Vancouver.
Nearly 300 citizens attended a meet-
ing of the Board of Clark County Com-
missioners on Nov 19. Many wore but-
tons and held signs that read: “I am Ed
Barnes,” and “We Stand with Ed.” T-
shirts were made that read, “Ed Barnes
is Right.”
Barnes, 80, is a retired business man-
ager of IBEW Local 48 and a tireless
community volunteer. Last month he
received a letter from an attorney repre-
senting Benton that was headlined:
“cease and desist malicious and slan-
derous attacks.” The letter threatened
Barnes with legal action if he didn’t
stop saying at public meetings that Ben-
ton was unqualified to be director of the
county’s Department of Environmental
Services.
There was community outcry last
May when two members of the three-
member Board of Clark County Com-
missioners appointed Benton to the
$109,656-a-year job. The appointment
came just three months after they had
forced out the previous department di-
rector. They didn’t post the job opening
Several dozen people gathered before the Nov. 19 meeting of the Clark County
board of commissioners in a show of support for Vancouver, Washington,
resident Ed Barnes (center behind the Don Benton poster). The former union
official was threatened with a defamation lawsuit by Don Benton, who was
appointed last May to head the county’s Department of Environmental
Services. Barnes has been an outspoken critic of the controversial hiring.
or allow others to apply.
Taking that action were Commis-
sioners David Madore and Tom Mielke.
Both are Republicans and friends of
Benton. Madore is a private business
owner who took office on Jan. 2, 2013.
It is his first foray in elected politics in
Washington.
Commissioner Steve Stuart, a De-
mocrat, opposed the hiring, saying it
“smacks of political cronyism.”
The Columbian newspaper head-
lined the hiring a “County Shocker.”
Followup articles reported that Benton
didn’t meet the minimum requirements
for the job. A five-term senator, Benton
owns a consulting/advertising company
whose only employee is his wife. An
ensuing Columbian editorial noted that
Benton also is a Washington state co-di-
rector of the American Legislative Ex-
change Council. Environmental groups
assert that a major goal of ALEC is to
“protect corporate polluters from envi-
ronmental regulation.”
At the Nov. 19 commissioner’s
board meeting, Rekah Strong, a former
chief diversity and inclusion officer for
Clark County, said during the public
comment portion of the meeting that
Madore and Mielke “100 percent cir-
cumvented our process.”
Strong, whose primary responsibil-
ity at the county was to oversee the hir-
ing and recruitment process, explained
that previous direct appointments went
only to staffers within the agency who
were qualified for the job.
“The county has never direct-ap-
pointed someone from outside the or-
ganization,” she said.
Strong believes Madore and Mielke
violated the county’s own equal em-
ployment opportunity and diversity
strategic plan, thus exposing the county
to financial liability.
“Had you reviewed that plan you
would understand that what you did
went directly against the ethos of this
organization and the ethos of this com-
munity. Hence, the problem that we
have here today,” she said.
A lawsuit already has been filed
against the county by Anita Largent, the
interim director of the Department of
Environmental Services before Ben-
ton’s appointment. She alleges the
county violated state law against dis-
crimination and portions of the U.S.
Civil Rights Acts of 1964. She is seek-
ing damages of at least $300,000.
Barnes himself told the Board of
Commissioners that he has been in con-
tact with the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) and is considering su-
ing the county because the cease and
desist letter came from a county em-
ployee. He also has contacted the of-
fices of the Washington attorney general
to determine if there were any viola-
tions of the hiring process.
“This isn’t about Ed Barnes,” Barnes
said to commissioners. “This is about
freedom of speech in this community.”
Temple Lentz, a member of United
Food and Commercial Workers Local
555 who recently was elected a county
freeholder, told commissioners “if Ben-
ton sues Ed Barnes for saying Don Ben-
ton is unqualified for his job and was
hired without proper process, then Don
Benton is going to have to sue me, too.
And he’s going to have to sue pretty
much everybody in this room except for
five people.”
Lentz called Benton’s cease and de-
sist letter against Barnes “frivolous.”
“Your director of environmental
services is using the threat of a frivolous
lawsuit to bully and menace one of your
constituents into silence,” she said.
At the close of the two-hour public
hearing, Madore said, “In my eyes, it’s
my call, he’s (Benton) well qualified.
He’s been here since May and he’s de-
veloped a very good track record.”
Mielke said he was “troubled” by all
the comments that the county violated
its own hiring policy. “After a while,
people start to believe that,” he said.
“We have no less than two attorneys in
this room that represent the county that
might disagree with you.”
Mielke said it isn’t uncommon for
commissioners to direct-hire depart-
ment heads.
“It’s done at the state level, it’s done
at the federal level, it’s done in private
business, and we do have a hiring
process for everybody,” he said. “But
when it comes down to your directors,
those are key people that work directly
for the board. And you’ve got to make
sure you have someone that has the
same philosophy that you do and the di-
rection that you want to go when you
do that.”
Anti-anti-union initiatives filed
In answer to a proposed anti-union
ballot initiative, the union-backed coali-
tion Our Oregon filed two counter-ini-
tiatives Nov. 12.
Initiative Petition 9 — the anti-union
initiative — would remove any obliga-
tion for union-represented public em-
ployees to pay dues or their equivalent.
Labeled the Public Employee Choice
Act, it’s aimed at the November 2014
ballot, but the campaign isn’t actually
gathering signatures yet. Chief peti-
tioner Jill Odell didn’t like the ballot de-
scription the Oregon attorney general’s
office wrote, and appealed the wording
to the Oregon Supreme Court.
The Our Oregon counter-initiatives
would contradict IP 9. Under Oregon
law, if two ballot measures contradict
each other and both pass, the one that
gets the most votes prevails. The idea
behind the counter-initiatives is that
they might garner more votes than the
anti-union measure.
Initiative Petition 35, “Employee
Rights At Work,” names Oregon AF-
SCME political director Joe Baessler as
chief petitioner. Under IP 35, any initia-
tive that alters laws on minimum wage,
family leave, payroll deduction, or col-
lective bargaining would be required to
PAGE 2
describe current law and specify
whether the initiative enhances or re-
stricts employee rights, a determination
that would by made by the state labor
commissioner.
Initiative Petition 36, “Protect Work-
ers Right to Contribute” names SEIU
Local 503 political director Arthur Tow-
ers as chief petitioner. IP 36 says that
“no law shall restrict the ability of em-
ployers and their employees (either in-
dividually or through their bargaining
representative) to negotiate and agree
upon terms governing payroll deduc-
tions.”
Both initiatives are in the process of
getting official ballot titles, and thus
aren’t yet approved to circulate. Our
Oregon has filed 10 other prospective
measures aimed at the November 2014
ballot, all of which are different ver-
sions of proposals to raise taxes on big
corporations and the wealthy. None of
those has been approved to circulate yet
either.
Our Oregon spokesperson Scott
Moore said the group has not yet de-
cided which if any of the initiatives to
pursue. As for IP 35 and 36, Moore said
Our Oregon would pursue one or the
other, but not both.
When your workers’
compensation benefits
end, it’s time to think
about applying for
Social Security
Disability benefits.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
DECEMBER 6, 2013