Applegater Spring 2021
OPINION
EDITOR'S NOTES
Time for a change in
fire district leadership
BY GARY DESIMONE
I have been serving the Applegate
Valley Fire District for more than nine
years: five years as a volunteer firefighter,
more than seven years as chairman of the
safety committee, and, since 2019, as an
elected board director. I serve on the board
with four other elected directors.
Here are some facts you might not
have known:
• An anonymous survey given to staff
and volunteers in late 2019 shows that
23 percent of the staff and volunteers rate
morale at the district as “poor,” and 50
percent rate morale as “poor or average.”
This survey, conducted by Emergency
Services Consulting International as
part of a study commissioned by the fire
district, also found that 46 percent of
staff and volunteers thought that overall
employee morale was lower than the
year before.
• During the April 15, 2020, board
meeting, I was the only board director
to advocate for meeting with staff and
volunteers to obtain objective data for
Chief Michael McLaughlin’s annual
performance evaluation and contract
negotiations. The other four board
directors voted for using input solely from
the chief himself for determining how well
he manages staff.
• Our policy states that the standards,
criteria, and policy directives to be used in
evaluating the chief must first be adopted
by the board in meetings open to the
public in which there is an opportunity
for public comment.
• Last year I filed a complaint with the
Oregon Government Ethics Commission
(OGEC) against the district board
regarding the way the board handled
the disposition of an alleged claim of a
hostile work environment against Chief
McLaughlin during an executive session
(see note). After an investigation, the
commission found that the board did
violate the executive session provisions of
19
Thanks to you,
we've met our (News) Match!
BY BERT ETLING
Oregon Public Meetings law. (Note: I have
not and am not making any statements
and/or judgments about the alleged claims.
The findings from the OGEC were about
Oregon Public Meeting laws regarding
executive session in the handling of the
alleged claims and not about the alleged
claims by the employee.)
• As per district policy, any resident
may request that matters be placed on
the board’s agenda up to two days prior
to the board meeting. The Fire Board
shall provide in the agenda of its regular
meeting a specific time to hear the
comments, concerns, and suggestions from
its citizens or from visitors with interests
in the district.
• A week before the January 20, 2021,
board meeting, I asked Board President
Michael Parker to put on the agenda the
following item: Motion to seek legal advice
from neutral third party to investigate
cause of executive session meeting
violations in 2020 (Oregon Government
Ethics Commission Findings). He did not
put it on the agenda, even though several
changes and additions to the agenda
were made up to two days before our
board meeting.
My goal as director is to serve the
taxpayers and constituents of the district
with courage, honor, integrity, and
transparency. I feel there is a need for a
change in district leadership. This spring
there are two board director positions open
for election. If you want to find out more
about what is happening in the district from
one board member’s perspective, please
attend our monthly board meetings or
email me at gdesimone@applegtefd.com.
You can also visit the district’s website,
applegatefd.com/board.html, to read
board meeting minutes, see agendas
for upcoming meetings, and get the
information you need to “virtually attend”
any upcoming board meetings.
Gary DeSimone • garyd24@yahoo.com
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Wow!
The last year has been a heck of a ride
for all of us. But thanks to all of you in
the Applegater family, we ended it on a
high note.
As in most of the rest of the world, the
ground seemingly dropped out beneath
our feet last March with the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic and closure of the
world as we knew it. Our habitual ways of
doing things necessarily fell away.
The Applegater was in danger of falling
away, too. Your community newspaper has
traditionally been supported by something
of a three-legged stool of advertising,
donations, and fundraisers.
With the fundraising leg kicked away
due to the danger of holding large in-
person gatherings, we were in danger of
falling over. Treasurer’s reports were laden
with ominous wording, like “enough
funds for one or two editions” and “saving
something for winding down operations.”
But then you, our readers, our
contributors, our neighbors, responded
to keep the Gater upright—first with a
burst of donations in the summer, then,
spurred by the promise of doubling your
donations after the Gater qualified for
the NewsMatch fundraising campaign,
a veritable tsunami of contributions in
November and, mostly, December.
Our treasurer now offers up more
encouraging phrases, like “astonishing
success” and “the highest balance in years.”
We not only met but exceeded the $12,500
match cap of the NewsMatch campaign,
meaning that up to $12,500 that you, our
local donors, gave out of your pockets will
be matched by national donors supporting
nonprofit journalism!
We know that’s not about us—that’s
about you, our Applegater family. With
that wind under our wings, confident we
have more runway ahead of us, more track
before our train, we want to know how we
can best serve you, our readers, donors,
advertisers, neighbors, and contributors.
I’ve worked in community journalism
for decades, for a variety of enterprises,
from sole proprietorships to public
corporations. I’ve always been somewhat
torn at having to serve two masters:
readers and owners. Their goals are not
always the same.
That’s not the case here, at the Applegater,
a nonprofit organization whose purpose is
publication of a communications vehicle
that, as we say in the “Fine Print” on page
five of every edition, “reflects the heart and
soul of our community.” That’s the sole
goal of the Applegater.
After all you’ve given, I’m going to
ask just a bit more. In coming weeks,
as COVID-19 permits, your Applegater
Board of Directors will have a retreat—a
meeting where we take some time to reflect
on our broader goals, instead of the day-
to-day business of getting out a newspaper.
Here’s the ask: Let me know what you
want the Applegater to be, to do. You’ve
kept us going; now let us know where you
want us to go. Email your suggestions to
me at the address below, and I’ll share them
with the board. Together, we can make the
years ahead better than the year we just
went through.
Thank you, again!
Bert Etling, Editor in Chief
Applegater Newsmagazine
541-631-1313
bert@applegater.org
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Love in the time of COVID
BY SANDY OLKEN
Regardless of political affiliation, the
COVID pandemic has most likely had
an influence on your readers in some, if
not many, ways. We are all dealing with
the challenges and changes as best we can,
each in our own way.
If you are among the relatives, friends,
or colleagues reading this who have
lost someone during this last year,
my most sincere condolences go out
to you. The experience of missing a
loved one is universal. It hurts, and the
emptiness left by that absence knows
no borders.
The economic repercussions have
many of us spending less on nonessentials.
Many, like myself, are discovering what
it’s like to live more simply. Our former
pleasures of going out to eat, dance,
and gather in all the previous ways have
mostly vanished.
What remains for me is more time and
space for a deeper gratitude for where I
live and a more acute knowledge of how
lucky I am to be residing in a home replete
with nature, including the forests that
support our waters. Our forests, rivers,
and mountains offer their sanctuary for
our renewal.
This moment’s breath of something
other than a mad dash to shop, consume,
and fill up space actually leaves enough
space for us to feel, to find, and to cultivate
within ourselves and our community new
avenues for a life more aligned with love
than hate, with help than harm, and with
creation instead of destruction.
Meeting critical needs of the community,
including the forests, waterways, flora,
and fauna, could become our priority
during this time of transition. Helping
each other to fill the gaps left by a changing
economy could become the new economy:
an economy based on the protection of
life, our elders, our children, our neighbors.
Sustainability is not only a viable economy,
but an imperative one. According to the
Harvard Business Review, “Companies
that value and integrate biodiversity
and ecosystem services into their
strategic plans are best positioned for
the future.”
Because of our gratitude and for
the protection of our water, Williams
Community Forest Project (WCFP)
continues to work toward saving the
Pipe Fork Creek area from clear-cutting.
WCFP invites you to join us in using
this time of new knowledge, of renewed
perception, and of this new year to herald
the coming of a more balanced existence
on our planet.
Sandy Olken
Williams, OR