146TH YEAR, NO. 10
ONE DOLLAR
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2018
Housing
authority’s
deputy under
investigation
Sims was placed on
paid leave in May
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Photos from Courtney Mattila
Other drivers helped rescue four men injured in a crash on U.S. Highway 26 in June.
After crash, a helping hand
Drivers stopped to save men on Highway 26
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
hen Kris Johnston noticed a car
veering toward him on U.S.
Highway 26 in June, he made a
common assumption.
“I thought, ‘Oh, he’ll stop.’ You’ve
just got to assume they’re going to,” he
said.
But the car didn’t stop.
The driver crossed the centerline on
a remote stretch of highway east of Elsie
and smashed into Johnston’s truck at
high speed. Four men were trapped in
the two vehicles with critical injuries as
flames erupted.
What could have been a tragedy,
though, was averted by more than a
dozen people who pulled over to help
and saved the men from danger.
“If they weren’t out in that split sec-
ond of time, they were dead,” said Gear-
hart Volunteer Fire Lt. Jason Kraushaar,
who was off duty and helped lead the
rescue. “In all the accidents I’ve seen, I
cannot believe there were not multiple
fatalities.”
W
A top administrator for the Northwest
Oregon Housing Authority is on paid leave
pending the results of an investigation.
Deputy Director Teresa Sims was put on
administrative leave in May after the agency
began looking into complaints from several
staff members, according to Todd Johnston,
the housing authority’s executive director.
Johnston would not provide details about
the complaints against Sims, but said she is
aware of the investigation, which began in
April.
Sims could not be reached for comment
Thursday.
She will remain on leave until the investi-
gation, which is being conducted by an out-
side firm, is completed. Johnston expected to
have a final report Tuesday, but said it has
been delayed by a few weeks.
“It is a cost,” Johnston said of the review,
“but we felt it was important because the
allegations were pretty serious.”
The housing authority provides rental
assistance and owns and manages low-in-
come housing in Clatsop, Tillamook and
Columbia counties.
Sims oversees human resources and the
day-to-day operations of the federal hous-
ing choice voucher program staff. Other staff
members have pitched in to take over Sims’
duties in the meantime.
“It’s definitely a challenge,” Johnston
said, adding, “We’re hoping that the inves-
tigation is resolved soon so we can move
forward.”
“The job’s getting done and staff morale
is positive,” said Scott Lee, the chairman
of the housing authority’s board, who also
serves as the chairman of the Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners. “I haven’t noticed
and the board has not noticed any lack of
service.”
He said he could not provide further
details until the investigation concludes.
“Things will come to light at that time,”
he said, “and then we’ll see what happens.”
Sims has been with the housing authority
for many years, predating Johnston’s tenure.
She was on staff in 2009 when leaders
admitted they had inadvertently given out
more rent assistance than the agency could
support, triggering a budget crisis that threat-
ened to put over 200 families at risk of evic-
tion. The housing authority received emer-
gency funds and dug into savings to cover
the rent subsidies. Carol Snell was executive
director of the agency at the time.
‘You feel helpless’
Johnston, 53, was driving westbound
in a white Ford F-150 with a trailer. His
son, Eric Allen Johnston, 33, was in the
passenger seat. They were heading home
to Seaside from Portland.
When Johnston saw the dark blue
Subaru Legacy crossing over into his
lane, his first instinct was to jerk the
steering wheel to the right toward the
Wreckage from the crash.
ditch. But the Subaru kept aiming left
until it reached the shoulder of the west-
bound lane.
“You feel helpless,” Johnston said.
“You just don’t know where to go.”
The driver of the Subaru — Howard
Kanelakos, 73, of Houston — did not
recall the moments before the crash, Ore-
gon State Police Sgt. DeAnn Rzewnicki
said. The accident report is not yet com-
plete, but police and others who were at
the scene believe Kanelakos fell asleep.
See RESCUE, Page 7A
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The deputy director of the Northwest
Oregon Housing Authority is on leave
pending an investigation.
BALLOT INITIATIVE
Reading, writing, rifles?
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Gun rights
advocates want sixth-graders at
Oregon public schools to take
a mandatory firearms safety
class.
Initiative Petition 6 was filed
Wednesday by Ston McDan-
iel of Prineville and Jerrad
Robison of Redmond for the
November 2020 ballot.
Schools would be required
to provide a gun safety class in
the sixth grade taught by a cer-
tified firearms instructor.
The curriculum would cover
how to respond to an unsecured
firearm and how to safely secure
a firearm if an adult is absent.
It would also teach safe muz-
zle direction, the importance
of never touching a trigger and
how semi-automatic weapons
function. No live ammunition
would be used in class.
The initiative would also
ban any material encouraging
or discouraging firearms pos-
session or purchase.
“A person does not have to
support firearms ownership to
recognize that there is always
the possibility that a child might
encounter a firearm in an unsu-
pervised setting,” Kevin Star-
rett, founder of the Oregon
Firearms Federation, said in an
email. “We want to make sure
that young people have every
tool to stay safe in such a situ-
ation. It seems obvious that a
child who has had the opportu-
nity to learn how to respond to
this kind of event will be safer.
“We believe denying young
people this knowledge is
irresponsible.”
See INITIATIVE, Page 7A
Pamplin Media Group
Gun rights advocates have filed an initiative petition to
make firearms safety instruction mandatory in the sixth
grade in Oregon public schools.