Vernonia's voice., March 07, 2013, Image 1

march7 2013
VERNONIA’S
volume7    issue5
www.vernoniasvoice.com
reflecting the spirit of our community
City Wins Arbitration With Kay
A neutral arbitrator has found
that the City of Vernonia had just cause to
discharge police officer Michael Kay and
that his grievance against the city should be
denied.
The City of Vernonia recently
received the sixty-six page ruling from
arbitrator James A. Lundberg, which was
dated February 18, 2013.
“This closes the personnel matter
regarding Michael Kay,” stated Assistant
City Attorney, Ruben Cleaveland, in a memo
to the Vernonia City Council.
Kay was a police officer with the
Vernonia Police Department from 2004 until
his employment was terminated in 2011 for
dishonesty. Kay served as a Patrol Officer,
as Sergeant, as Captain and Interim Chief
during his tenure with the Vernonia police
Department. He was also the handler of a
K9 officer.
In his ruling, Lundberg stated,
“The evidence that Michael Kay engaged in
dishonest conduct was overwhelming. The
facts were established in some instances by
clear and convincing evidence and in other
instances by evidence beyond a reasonable
doubt. The City relied on evidence that
exceeds the necessary standard of proof.”
Lundberg presided over a thirteen
day evidentiary hearing to decide the
question of whether the City of Vernonia
had just cause to discharge Kay. The hearing
was conducted in Portland between August
27 and September 23 of 2012.
Kay was dismissed on July 5, 2011
after several investigations conducted by the
City of Vernonia, as well as investigations
by the Oregon Department of Public Safety
Standards and Training revealed numerous
incidents involving untruthfulness and
misconduct on the part of Kay.
Kay chose to file a grievance with
the Police Union following his termination.
When a settlement could not be reached
between the City of Vernonia and the police
union, Kay chose to force the arbitration
hearing and received legal representation
through the union.
According to financial records, the
City of Vernonia has spent a total of $227,900
in legal fees during the last three years for
the termination of Kay, including $99,500
for the recently concluded arbitration.
Prior to Kay’s dismissal, Vernonia
City Administrator Bill Haack was fired by
the Vernonia City Council for his handling
of the Kay case. Haack’s firing led to the
recall of three Vernonia City Councilors and
the subsequent rehire of Haack.
In the arbitration hearing process
the police union contended that the City of
Vernonia failed to meet the burden of proof
of wrong doing by Kay, that evidence
against Kay was corrupted, concealed and
disappeared and that the investigations into
Kay were neither fair nor even handed.
“The actions for which Michael
Kay was discharged were in each instance,
one over which Michael Kay alone had
control. The individuals who Michael Kay
claims had reasons to dislike him or harm
his reputation, did not cause Michael Kay’s
dishonest conduct nor is there support for the
position that evidence was corrupted or the
investigations were conducted unfairly,” said
Lundberg in his decision. “In most cases
of discharge a preponderance of credible
evidence is sufficient to support a finding
of just cause. In this case, the proof of each
element of misconduct met the much higher
standards of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ or
by ‘clear and convincing evidence.’”
inside
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city
administrator report
sportsman’s
banquet tickets
loggers take
6th at state
students to
work on wetlands
the
scuttlebutt
free
St. Patrick’s Day Parade!
Sunday,
March 17th
2:00 PM
Everyone welcome
Starts at Pat Knight’s House
Bridge Street & State Avenue
Plans Move Forward for
New Health Center and
Rose Avenue Project
The Vernonia Health Board
(VHB) is moving forward quick-
ly with plans to construct a new
Health Center facility as part of the
Rose Avenue Project in Vernonia.
Current plans call for the
Rose Avenue Project to include the
Vernonia Health Center, the Verno-
nia Senior Center, and the Verno-
nia Cares Food Bank. The project
would move all three facilities to a
large area owned by the City of Ver-
nonia between Rose and Weed Av-
enues at the south end of Vernonia.
The project also has space for some
other commercial development.
The Vernonia Health Board
is hoping to complete their project
within the next year in order to uti-
lize the federal funding that is avail-
able through FEMA for properties
that were damaged in the Vernonia
Flood of December 2007.
“Most of the mitigation
we’ve been doing [in Vernonia] has
been under federal disaster dec-
laration DR-1733,” explains Dan
Brown, who has been coordinating
the Columbia County Flood Re-
covery program. Brown says that
federal mitigation funds were made
continued on page 11
Meet Your Police: The New Guy, Matt Brady
At this point Matt Brady is
no longer really a new guy, since he
has been working in Vernonia for
over a year. In fact Officer Brady
seems to be fitting in rather well as
the newest member of the Vernonia
Police Department.
Matt Brady joined the VPD
in November of 2011. He attended
the Police Academy from January
through April of 2012. Previously
Brady worked as a reserve officer in
North Plains for over five years. He
says he was already familiar with
Vernonia having spent time help-
ing with the annual Jamboree and
knew several of the officers, so when
the opportunity to work in Vernonia
came available, Brady took it.
Brady says he really likes the
environment here in Vernonia. He
says he likes the small town atmo-
sphere and feel. He also says who he
works with is important. “The people
were really the biggest draw for me,”
says Brady. “I’d rather work in place
where I get along with my coworkers
more than anything else. It’s really
important to me to work in a good en-
vironment. Knowing Chief Connor
and some of the other officers was a
big draw for me.”
Brady has a family history in
law enforcement. He says that one of
his main influences in making law en-
forcement a career was an uncle
who lived in Phoenix, Arizona
and was a reserve officer with the
Arizona State Police. “I remem-
ber going down there to visit him
when I was little, and seeing the
uniforms and hearing all the in-
teresting stories about what he
did,” explains Brady. “He was
also sort of a local celebrity—he
did a lot of news reporting, host-
ed local television shows, was a
traffic reporter. He also did pub-
lic service announcements and
volunteer work to raise aware-
ness about certain issues for the
state. So he first sparked my
interest. He just a passed away a
few a years ago and they actually
flew the flag over the state capi-
tal building at half-mast in his honor.”
Brady also says his mother
worked as a Director in the Washing-
ton County probation department, so
he has spent a lot of time, “around the
environment,” of law enforcement.
Before being hired as a regu-
lar officer with Vernonia, Brady says
he worked for a wind energy com-
pany providing emergency manage-
ment and disaster recovery.
Brady says he grew up in a
family that traveled and moved a lot.
He says he is thankful for the oppor-
tunity he was provided to experience
different parts of the United States,
both east coast and west coast. He
says the family ended up in the pa-
cific northwest where his grandfather
and family were loggers.
Brady is a certified instruc-
tor and teaches motorcycle riding
with the Team Oregon program. He
says he has also volunteered for ten
years working with homeless youth
in downtown Portland, which he says
has been a big influence in his ability
to work with people in difficult situa-
tions.
continued on page 3