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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 20, 2014)
Barnes chosen to fill Clark County Commission seat VANCOUVER, Wash. — Ed Barnes, a retired business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 48, was sworn in June 10 to the Clark County Board of Commissioners. Barnes, 80, was selected by Com- missioners David Madore and Tom Mielke to fill the unexpired term of Steve Stuart, who resigned in April to take a job as city manager of Ridge- field. Barnes will serve the District 3 post until the end of the year. A new commissioner will be elected in November. Barnes is not running for the position next term. The installation of Barnes ends months of acrimony in this Southwest Washington county that includes the cities of Vancouver, Washougal, Ca- mas, Battle Ground, and Ridgefield. Under Washington law, the political party of the resigning county official must submit a list of three names to the sitting Board of Commissioners — in order of preference — to complete the term. The commissioners then have 60 days to select a replacement. If they don’t make an appointment in that time frame, the governor makes the choice. [Gov. Jay Inslee is a Democrat.] Stuart is a Democrat, so the Clark County Democrats Central Committee conducted an interview process, after which they chose Craig Pridemore, a former county commissioner and for- mer state senator, as their top choice. They picked Kelly Love Parker, presi- dent of the Greater Vancouver Cham- ber of Commerce and a former news reporter for KGW Channel 8 in Port- land, as their second choice, and Barnes as their third choice. Both Parker and Barnes support Pridemore, and Pridemore has filed to run for a full commission term. However, Madore and Mielke — the two sitting commissioners — are Republicans. And it just so happens that fellow Republican Jeanne Stewart, a former Vancouver city councilor, is challenging Pridemore for the District 3 county seat. Clark County residents have been skeptical from the outset, predicting that Madore and Mielke would never Ed Barnes (right) is sworn in June 10 as a Clark County commissioner by Vancouver Prosecuting Attorney Tony Golik. Standing to the left is Commissioner David Madore. appoint Pridemore because it might give him an advantage come Election Day. The two commissioners inter- viewed all the finalists, but after sev- eral weeks they declared that they couldn’t reach consensus. But with the 60-day deadline quickly approaching, on June 3 they announced Barnes the interim commissioner. Barnes attends commission meet- ings on a regular basis, where he often butts heads with Madore and Mielke. He’s even been threatened with a defamation lawsuit by Clark County Department of Environmental Services Director Don Benton. Madore and Mielke hired Benton, a Republican friend, without following traditional county hiring procedures. Barnes and other residents say Benton isn’t qualified for the job, and that the hiring was nothing more than “politi- cal cronyism.” Barnes’ repeated ques- tioning of the hiring led Benton to send him a “cease and desist” letter under threat of a lawsuit. After accepting the appointment, Barnes told the Labor Press: “I let Madore and Mielke know that I’m not going to let them put me down. I still have my opinion, and that’s not going to change. If I disagree with them on something, I will let them know.” Barnes said he hadn’t been on the job for a day when he received his first two hate emails. Barnes is a long-time member of IBEW Local 48 and a former president of the Columbia Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council. After re- tiring in 1995, he compiled a long list of achievements in labor, civic, pub- lic service and political activities, in- cluding serving 12 years on Washing- ton’s Transportation Commission. ...Contractor accused of violating labor law (From Page 1) threatened to fire workers if they at- tended a union meeting, fired one worker for wearing a union T-shirt, fired other union supporters on fabri- cated pretexts, attempted to quell the union campaign by giving raises of up to several dollars an hour, and even put a question about union affiliation on its employee application form to screen out potential union supporters. As the hearing on those charges be- gan, Edwards was unprepared, telling the judge he hadn’t read through the law he was accused of violating, nor documents the NLRB had submitted as evidence, nor even his own sworn affidavit. McCarrick, flown up from San Francisco to judge the case, pa- tiently explained rules of procedure to Edwards. But he had to intervene re- peatedly — like when Grant Edwards Low Prices! Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9:30-5:30, Sun 12-6 JUNE 20, 2014 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS interrupted to correct his dad’s testi- mony, or when Gene Edwards tried to rebut witness testimony during cross- examination, or when Oldham was on the witness stand and Gene Edwards, acting as his own lawyer, asked him to divulge which workers had been plan- ning to attend a union meeting. At one point, NLRB attorney Rachel Harvey asked Edwards what happened to the employee information form that asked (unlawfully) whether an applicant was a union member. Ed- wards said he put it in the shredder. “As soon as I did it I thought it was stupid, but I can’t undo it,” Edwards testified. Given the facts that tumbled out during the five-day trial, it’s hard to un- derstand how Edwards Painting gets as much business as it does. After operat- ing for 45 years, Edwards Painting has no office, but instead is run out of ed- wards’ private home in a residential area of Oregon City. Once a week, up to 20 employees come by to pick up paychecks left for them on a shelf out- side the house. The company main- tains little or no personnel files beyond handwritten pay sheets and IRS forms. When Harvey asked why the company hadn’t complied with the subpoena re- quest for I-9 forms, Edwards said he doesn’t have any, and doesn’t even know what an I-9 is. An I-9 is the form employers use to verify that an em- ployee is legally entitled to work in the United States. Up to half the com- pany’s employees are foreign-born. The company also has no real drug policy, written or otherwise. That fea- tured in one of the stranger incidents that came up in the trial. Pro-union worker Sean Carter had complained to Edwards that a co-worker was using drugs on the job. Edwards told the ac- cused co-worker, who then allegedly sent text messages to Carter threaten- ing to kill him and harm his family, and to sic a biker gang on him. Oldham helped Carter file a police report, and then Oldham and McMinn confronted Edwards about the situation. Edwards reply was that the accused worker could take a drug test up to three days later. If he failed the test, he’d be fired; if he passed, Carter would be fired. When Oldham and McMinn objected, Edwards told them to get a drug test too, though he didn’t follow through on that directive. In the trial, Gene Ed- wards denied he’d heard from Carter about drug use, contradicting what he’d said in the sworn affidavit with the NLRB agent. Carter, who was fired by the company in August 2013, failed to appear at the trial, ignoring a subpoena and attempts to contact him. The hearing went through May 9, and concluded on May 20 after five days of testimony. The two sides have until June 24 to submit final argu- ments. McCarrick could issue his de- cision by early August. PAGE 3
