7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2017
County: Charter establishes commissioner seats as volunteer positions
Continued from Page 1A
“It is made for us to rub-
ber stamp,” Thompson said.
“I have a great concern about
this. This is why I’m making
noise.”
Other
commissioners
have a completely opposite
viewpoint.
“That just doesn’t make
sense to me. It never has,” Lee
said. “Why are we trying to fix
something that’s not broken?”
Oversight
The charter was adopted
in 1989 in a home-rule style,
meaning residents decide how
the county’s government is set
up and operates. It establishes
commissioner seats as vol-
unteer positions that hire and
oversee the county manager,
who supervises a full-time
staff of roughly 200 people.
The board is required to
meet twice each month. Staff
and the county manager keep a
three-month calendar of items
they want to have decided on
at upcoming board meetings.
The meeting agenda, which
also can be amended at the
start of each meeting, is then
passed along to the board
chairman for approval.
What items are placed on
the agenda often varies with
each new batch of commis-
sioners, said County Manager
Cameron Moore, who took
over the position last year.
“When I got here in April
(2016), it was a pretty experi-
enced group,” Moore said. “A
lot more items were placed on
the consent calendar. Routine
issues for government are not
necessarily routine things for
citizens.”
A meeting agenda in April,
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Clatsop County Commissioners Sarah Nebeker, left, and Scott Lee, right, preside over a
recent board meeting held Wednesday. More photos online at DailyAstorian.com
for example, contained nine
items on the consent calendar,
which is approved by commis-
sioners all at once. No items
were scheduled to be deliber-
ated or decided on individu-
ally in what is known as the
business agenda.
At the start of each meet-
ing, commissioners can vote
to add or recategorize agenda
items. At the April meeting,
four of the nine items were
moved from the consent cal-
endar to the business agenda.
“It’s so easy to put some-
thing on the agenda,” Lee said.
“This is a nonissue to me.”
But some commissioners
spoke with the Moore about
what types of items should
be placed on the agenda. As a
rule of thumb, any item with
a fiscal impact of more than
$50,000 is included, Moore
said.
Lee said commissioners,
especially those without pre-
vious government experience,
such as Sullivan, often have
difficulty adjusting to what
items should or should not be
decided by the board. He dis-
tinguished between political
activism and being part of a
government.
“The system works great,”
Lee said. “There’s nothing
wrong with the way we do
things. It comes down to peo-
ple knowing how the system
works.”
Sullivan said she is still
learning how the process
works and understands the
charter does dictate certain
things. But she also would
like to see changes to how the
board makes decisions.
“If I believe in government
and that citizens should have
an input in government, then
I should walk the walk,” she
said. “I don’t think that is a
good way to govern.”
Micromanage
County
commissioners
searched for executive stabil-
ity when they hired Moore, a
veteran government adminis-
trator, after going through nine
county managers in 16 years.
County staff includes those
hired specifically to carry out
the business of departments
such as public health and pub-
lic works, as well as those who
work in the county manager’s
office. Since commissioners
are elected volunteers, many
of whom have full-time jobs
outside of their public roles,
they should not microman-
age skilled, specialized county
staffers, Clement said.
“We are not involved in
daily operations at all,” Clem-
ent said. “We hire the county
manager to put good peo-
ple in place. We could tech-
nically spend time deliber-
ating about whether or not
to allow staff to buy a Xerox
copy machine, but that would
not be effective.”
As representatives of
county residents, commis-
sioner business should, when-
ever possible, be conducted
during open meetings instead
of behind the scenes with
staff, Nebeker said.
“We have to abide by cer-
tain guidelines,” she said. “We
deliberate in public in open
meetings to avoid any appear-
ance of lack of transparency.
We’re committed to that.”
Thompson, on the other
hand, does not view the volun-
teer title as relevant in terms
of how much weight should
be given to staff input versus
commissioner
deliberation
and research.
“This is the governing
body of Clatsop County,” she
said. “Staff gives us solutions,
but we don’t discuss them.
They’re in charge of us. It’s
antithetical to change influ-
enced by anyone else. It’s
about control. ”
‘Rushed’
Thompson recently drew
criticism for the amount
of travel expenses she has
claimed since her election
in 2014. She said at a recent
meeting that expenses are an
essential part of carrying out
board business and that other
commissioners did not seem
to have an appetite to act upon
long-term goals.
“We’re accountable to the
people of Clatsop County
the same way as if we were
paid $1 million a year,” she
said. “It wasn’t intended
that we be irrelevant. We
have such a thin, rushed time
frame.”
Thompson and Lee have
been particularly at odds with
each other over how the board
should function, with Thomp-
son saying the chairman hands
too much power to the county
manager when he approves
the agenda.
“No matter what, Scott
backs the county manager,”
she said.
At the same time, Lee
argues he only operates within
the confines of the charter.
“She has spoken disparag-
ingly of the charter since she
came to office,” Lee said. “It
makes commissioners closer
to the citizens. I don’t know
why Commissioner Thomp-
son has such disrespect for the
home-rule style.”
Goal-setting sessions
One recent solution has
been to schedule special
goal-setting sessions between
commissioners, staff and the
county manager, although
the sessions have had mixed
reviews, as well. While com-
missioners such as Nebeker
have found them to be pro-
ductive, Thompson lamented
the lack of concrete goals
produced.
In the future, commission-
ers could benefit from clearly
articulating their ideas in a
productive manner, Nebeker
said.
“I have full confidence
that every commissioner has
the best intentions,” she said.
“Whether that is well-commu-
nicated is what we need to be
mindful of.”
Kucera: Also served as the city’s emergency manager
Continued from Page 1A
in my mind, an aggressive
agenda that needs to be pur-
sued when it comes to afford-
able housing, how we’re going
to use our room tax money in
the future and implementing
the water and sewer master
plans,” he said.
Kucera’s last day in Can-
non Beach will be June 30. He
starts in Sisters July 5, replac-
ing Rick Allen, who has served
as interim city manager since
April 2016. Final approval is
contingent upon the ratifica-
tion of an employment agree-
ment between Kucera and the
city.
In Cannon Beach, Kucera
succeeded interim City Man-
ager Jennie Messmer.
The previous city man-
ager, Rich Mays, held the posi-
tion for more than eight years
before retiring.
Nationwide
recruitment
A University of Idaho grad-
uate with a master’s degree
in public administration from
Northern Michigan University,
Kucera was chosen over three
other candidates from a pool of
47 applicants. The nationwide
recruitment effort was led by
the League of Oregon Cities.
Over the past 13 years,
Kucera has worked in munic-
ipal governments in Pennsyl-
vania, Michigan and Idaho. He
had previously managed Penn-
sylvania’s Borough of Kennett
Square before coming to the
Oregon Coast.
At a 2014 meet-and-greet
at the Surfsand Resort with
community members and local
officials, Kucera said that he
envisioned himself settling
down on the Oregon Coast for
quite some time.
During his time in Cannon
Beach, Kucera helped the city
adopt its first strategic plan,
which he called “the founda-
tion we’re going to need to
move forward as a commu-
nity.” The plan was devel-
oped from a citizen survey that
received a 40 percent response
rate from the city’s 1,700
residents.
He worked to prioritize and
address housing, infrastructure
and emergency services needs,
Kucera also served as
the city’s emergency manager.
“I had heard he was
in the running, but I had
not heard anything about
any decision being made,”
City Councilor George Vet-
ter said. “It’s too bad, but I’m
sure we’ll get a good
replacement.”
Salmon: Only 14,700 pounds
have been landed in April, May
Continued from Page 1A
‘Bad one’
The entire southern half of
the Oregon Coast and a portion
of Northern California is closed
to commercial ocean salmon
fishing to protect a record low
run of salmon returning to the
Klamath River. Farther north
in Oregon, fishing is restricted
and poor weather condi-
tions have limited fishermen’s
chances to get out on the water.
Commercial ocean salmon
fishermen in Oregon have
landed only 14,700 pounds
in April and May. Last
year, with the entire coast open,
they landed 75,000 pounds in
April and 86,000 pounds in
May.
Every year, fishery manag-
ers have to juggle a combina-
tion of forecasts and factors to
set seasons on the ocean, said
Chris Kern, a deputy adminis-
trator with the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife’s fish
division.
Some years are worse, some
years are better.
“This is a particularly bad
one,” he said.
Kern serves as a department
designee on the Pacific Fish-
ery Management Council, the
body that, among other things,
manages salmon species off the
Washington state, Oregon and
California coasts. This year,
they had to choose between
short, infrequent fishing peri-
ods coastwide or slightly more
fishing, but with closures in the
south.
‘What do we do?’
Nancy Fitzpatrick, exec-
utive director of the Oregon
Salmon Commission, says she
is fielding phone calls from
cies put together an indus-
try disaster assistance package
that included cash payments,
temporary jobs at state agen-
cies, contracts with vessels for
research work, human services
counseling and other types of
assistance.
The Oregon Salmon Com-
mission that year landed a grant
that made it possible for them
to contract with specialists who
worked directly with fisher-
men, connecting them with
AP Photo/Don Ryan
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown resources and information.
speaks during her State of Fitzpatrick recently forwarded
the State address in Portland the 2007 report on these activi-
in 2015. Brown has joined ties and the state’s involvement
California Gov. Jerry Brown at the time to Kate Brown’s
in asking for a federal disas- office.
She doesn’t know if a
ter declaration over salmon.
reminder of how the state
fishermen asking, “What do we stepped in to help fisheries 11
years ago will produce any
do?”
Unfortunately, says Fitzpat- results.
“From what I’ve heard
rick, this is familiar ground.
In 2006, salmon fisheries numbers are pretty tight right
were also in the middle of a now (at the state),” she said.
“I know there are people
disaster declaration. The fleet
faced the possibility of com- out there who are saying, ‘Fish
plete closure in some areas and for other fisheries,’” she added.
“Fish harder.”
reduced fishing and
Fitzpatrick bristles
trip limits in others.
at these kinds of state-
Fishermen
had
ments. Often the com-
landed 2.6 million
mercial ocean salmon
pounds in 2005, but in
fishermen are already
2006 they only landed
participating in other
485,500. This repre-
fisheries. There is
sented an 81.5 per-
Nancy
crab that typically
cent drop in landings
Fitzpatrick
runs from Decem-
for troll-gear fisheries,
ber through March,
while the overall har-
vest revenue was the lowest salmon that starts up in April
fishermen had seen since 2000, and tuna that runs through the
according to a 2007 study by summer.
“You can do all three of
the Oregon Coastal Zone Man-
those and it takes you through
agement Association.
Declarations of fishery the year,” Fitzpatrick said.
emergencies, failures and “You take away salmon …
disasters followed at the state well, you’re already fishing
and federal level. Oregon Gov. harder. You can’t just make it
Ted Kulongoski and state agen- up in the other fisheries.”
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