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