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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 28, 2019)
GILBERT & SULLIVAN’S H.M.S. PINAFORE • COAST WEEKEND DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2019 146TH YEAR, NO. 193 ONE DOLLAR Parliamentarian gets a mixed reaction among commissioners Some fear move will constrict debate By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian A cargo ship is loaded with logs at the Port of Astoria in 2018. The facility could prove vital for moving emergency resources into the area after an earthquake. Feds to assess Port’s earthquake readiness Team will visit in April By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian A team including U.S. Depart- ment of Homeland Security risk advise rs is coming to the Port of Astoria in April to assess how ready the agency is to help the region recover after a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. Patrick Massey, regional direc- tor of Homeland Security’s Cyber & Infrastructure Security Agency, said the visit is part of an effort requested by Gov. Kate Brown’s offi ce to look at how seaports, airports and some railroads on the Oregon Coast will perform after a large earthquake. “The government needs to be able to bring in a lot of resources,” Massey said. “What are going to be the best means to move those disas- ter relief supplies? The general work- ing assumption is that air and sea will play a bigger role than ground transport.” The team will also include The Daily Astorian The Port of Astoria’s Pier 1 could be useful in the aftermath of a large earthquake. researchers with the science and engi- neering-focused Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, as well as rep- resentatives from the state Offi ce of Emergency Management and the U.S. Department of Defense’s See Earthquake, Page A7 ‘IN TALKING TO BUSINESS OREGON, THEIR SENSE IS THAT PIER 1 IS PROBABLY THE STRONGEST OF THE PIERS.’ Mary McArthur, executive director of the Columbia-Pacifi c Economic Development District For the past few Clatsop County Board of Commissioners meetings, there’s been a new feature. Sometimes, Larry Taylor can be found at a small table near the board clerk . Other times , he sits in the audience at the Judge Guy Boy- ington Building. Wherever he’s placed, Tay- lor quietly takes notes. He’s documenting each time a county commissioner skirts Rob- ert’s Rules of Order, a set of widely used pro- cedural guidelines for public meetings . He is the commission’s fi rst parliamen- tarian — an expert on rules and procedure . His role is to help advise Sarah Nebeker, the commission’s chairwoman, on how to run a meeting , a move that some have marked as necessary for order and others ‘I THINK have reacted to with confusion . COMMUNI- On Wednesday, CATION IS Taylor gave his fi rst lesson to the com- THE MOST mission on how to conduct meetings IMPORTANT by the book. ATTRIBUTE Inviting a par- liamentarian was OF AN prompted by Nebeker, who after ORGANIZA- many years felt the TION.’ decorum in meet- ings had “gotten too Commissioner loose,” and that dis- Lianne Thompson cussions were get- ting dominated by a few commission- ers. As chairwoman , she discovered in board rules that a parliamentarian could be her solution. Her goal is to limit tangential debate and shave time off what have regularly become three-hour meetings. “What has happened is that there is so much debate that goes on ... and some com- missioners continue debate more than oth- ers,” Nebeker said. “Robert’s Rules allows free speech for everyone on the board.” Taylor, a longtime Democratic Party activist, hopes to teach commissioners to limit the scope of their debate to motions on board action . “It’s important to me that all the com- missioners get treated equally and have an opportunity to vote and participate in the meetings to the best of their ability,” he said. But some on the commission are uncom- fortable with Nebeker’s decision. Commissioner Mark Kujala said while he fi nds the training on parliamentary pro- cedure to be of value, he doesn’t agree with the need to have Taylor at every meeting to guide procedure. Kujala and Commissioner Lianne Thompson were on the losing side of a 3-2 vote to approve Taylor’s contract . “We have a county counsel,” Kujala said. “That’s what her job is.” Thompson takes issue with how Tay- lor was introduced, feeling that the board should have had a chance to collaboratively decide what needed to be fi xed in meetings. “I would have preferred if the chair would have come to us and said, ‘Col- leagues, I see this issue, what do you think? See County, Page A7 Port operations director resigns McGrath leaving at the end of April By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian Matt McGrath, the director of opera- tions and de facto second-in-command at the Port of Astoria since 2014, is leaving the agency at the end of April. Jim Knight, the Port’s execu- tive director , said McGrath’s resigna- tion letter did not identify a reason for leaving. McGrath was unavailable for comment. Knight is interviewing candidates internally to fi ll McGrath’s position. “We’ll end up with an interim direc- tor, and we’ll work at the staff level of determining our best internal resources fi rst to divide up the work,” he said. “I’m trying to do it from within our organization.” As essentially the second-in-com- mand at the Port, McGrath’s duties span the breadth of the agency’s oper- ations. He has overseen several efforts to improve the Port , from pursuing the owners of abandoned boats and stan- dardizing the agency’s leases to creat- ing a new online mapping and property system Knight said will form the basis of a maintenance program. “He’s going to be missed,” Knight said . “It’s big shoes to fi ll.” The Daily Astorian See Director, Page A7 Matt McGrath, director of operations at the Port of Astoria, is leaving the agency at the end of April.
