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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 2018)
A8 OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian Tuesday, December 18, 2018 Donations: Christmas Express delivers hundreds of meals, presents Continued from Page A1 She checked off a list of 350 families and individu- als in need, who were rec- ommended by the schools, Department of Human Ser- vices, Head Start and local churches. As families filed in, the children gravitated toward the pile of stuffed animals in the corner, while the parents perused the tables of hats, gloves and stocking stuffers. Each family also got to take home a jar of oatmeal cookie mix, and wrapped presents for each of their children. After collecting toys and gift boxes inside, visitors drove to the back of the Agape House building, where vol- unteers Doug Alvarez and John Carraher loaded boxes of food into cars. Jan Maitland, an Agape House employee, said if someone was not on the list, but came looking for food or gifts for their children, they were asked to come back on Wednesday. “We want everyone to have something,” she said. Volunteer LaVera San- chez said one of her favorite memories was from last year, when a woman came in after being recommended for the program. “She didn’t know how her name got on the list,” San- chez said. “But she couldn’t say ‘thank you’ enough. She was crying, she was very appreciative of everything.” Two women who stopped by on Monday said the pro- gram has helped their fami- Staff photo by E.J. Harris Volunteer Ginger Haley sorts presents for 6- to 8-year-old girls for the Christmas Express on Monday at Agape House in Hermiston. lies during some rough times. “I just moved down from Alaska,” said Cheyenne Blazka, who found out about the program through her child’s school. “It’s really heartwarming to move and start fresh, and see that peo- ple still care.” She said her kids were excited about the presents, but she was most grateful for the food donations. “Food stamps don’t Watchdogs: Many ignoring mandate of internal auditing Continued from Page A1 minutia of an agency’s pro- cesses and programs. Earlier this year, for instance, internal audi- tors employed by the Ore- gon Department of Correc- tions, found the agency had no practice to alert Verizon when an employee left the department. When auditors looked back five years, they found the state spent $41,466 on phone bills for people no longer employed with cor- rections. Often times, the phone was no longer in use, but Verizon continued to bill because it wasn’t told of the separation. An in-house watch dog can provide advice beyond catching such problems. “We’re here, we are available,” said Mar- lene Hartinger, chief audi- tor for the Oregon Depart- ment of Transportation. “If there is a non-audit activity, that is a smaller portion of what we do. We can’t take action, but we may review draft policies.” When Brown released her budget in November, she proposed 14 new inter- nal auditors to safeguard against noncompliance, fraud, wasteful spending and mismanagement. Under state rules, agen- cies with at least $100 mil- lion in biennial expendi- tures, $10 million in annual cash on hand, or at least 400 full-time employees need to have a state inter- nal auditor. Thirteen agen- cies who fit those standards don’t comply. Among them are the departments of veterans affairs, justice, agricul- ture, environmental qual- ity, business development, state lands, military, water resources. Other state agen- cies that by rule should have the internal watch- dogs are Oregon Liquor Control Commission, Ore- gon Housing and Commu- nity Services, the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, the Public Utility Commission of Ore- gon and the Oregon Water- shed Enhancement Board. Racquel Rancier, senior policy coordinator for the Water Resources Depart- ment, said the depart- ment only recently met the requirements for an auditor. She said it hit the bench- mark in 2016 and a year later was given a waiver. The agency is now propos- ing such a position in its 2019-2021 budget. Donald Oliveira, spokes- man for the Department of Environmental Qual- ity, said the agency lacked funding and the Legisla- ture didn’t authorize such a position in the first place. He said Director Rich- ard Whitman supports add- ing one, though, and thinks it would help the agency meet its core functions. In 2007, the state had 53 auditors, but today there 32, according to the state audit. The Secretary of State’s review earlier this year concluded such a decrease creates the per- ception Oregon didn’t care about the internal audit function and hurt the abil- ity to hire auditors. Under Brown’s pro- posal, all 13 agencies would get the internal watchdogs and one more would go to the Department of Admin- istrative Services to over- see the program. That’s important because in Wednesday’s hearing, legislators and Secretary of State audi- tors said the Department of Administrative Services often failed in its oversight role — something Director Katy Coba didn’t take pro- test. Coba is also the state’s chief operating officer. “Audits haven’t been a priority in Oregon,” Coba said. “DAS hasn’t effec- tively monitored, coordi- nated, or reported on inter- nal audit function impacts, challenges and resource needs to state legislators.” Coba said there is a lot of work to do, but she’s up to the task. Committee Co-chair Sen. Betsy John- son, also co-chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, said it wasn’t Coba’s fault. “DAS has been a mess for two decades, so I am not blaming you,” Johnson said, adding Coba is capa- ble enough to right the ship. However, Johnson said if the necessary fixes aren’t implemented, she doesn’t want the blame to fall on a council or agency. She wants to be able to “yard” in one person that the Leg- islature can grill. “Madam co-chair, that would be me,” Coba assured her. The Department of Transportation has 10 inter- nal auditors. Seven look into the department while three scrutinize contrac- tors. It currently has two vacancies. Hartinger said to be effective, auditors must be independent and objective. “We have to be separate from the programs we are auditing,” she said. In a recent audit, Hartinger found the Trans- portation Department could do better paying its con- tractors on time by prop- erly filling out payment reports and establishing a way to catch and address past-due invoices. The agency told its own auditors that it would implement two new elec- tronic programs to track payments. Hartinger said agency auditors now are busy looking into new proj- ects brought about by the massive 2017 transporta- tion package. Auditors are reviewing the bidding pro- cess, doing risk assess- ments and tracking late payments to contractors. When improvements are suggested, auditors then hold agencies account- able for implementing the change, she said. But Sen. President Peter Courtney wants more accountability. Spe- cifically, he wants agen- cies to be accountable to the Legislature. After Kip Memmott, the Secretary of State’s audits director, finished his presentation on the review of the inter- nal audit system, Courtney started thinking aloud. always cover everything,” she said. “It really helps.” Stephanie Bates got dona- tions from the program last year. “We’ve been so down,” she said. “It’s awesome we could get gifts for the kids.” “It helps keep Santa alive,” Blazka said. In its 49th year, Christmas Express gathers donations from community groups and individuals, packages them up, and sends them to the Agape House. In addi- tion to the items collected for Christmas donations, the program yielded about 8 large crates worth of food that Agape House will be able to distribute throughout the year. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston said the pro- gram received about $6,500 in cash donations as of Mon- day, and that the donations from school food drives were the largest he’d seen in the 15 years he’s been doing Christmas Express. He said in the past few years, employees from other city departments have joined the police department. They gather at the Hermiston Community Center, every- one boxes food or wraps gifts, and then shares a meal afterward. About 90 people showed up at the community center last Tuesday, and it took them an hour and a half to package everything. Sanchez said it takes at least six people per day, working from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., to get donations out to the community. Slow: Cabbage Hill poses challenges for big rigs in winter Continued from Page A1 Bud Stephens, of the Tri-Cities, echoed that sentiment. He provides third-party testing to truck drivers in Oregon and Washington. Cross- winds more than 40 mph can topple a 53-foot-long trailer, and if that trailer it empty, it’s “just a big sail boat going down the road.” In that kind of wind, he said, he tells drivers to stop and wait it out. Like Borger, he also said, slowing down is the key for drivers to keep control and stay safer when coming down Cab- bage Hill. Stephens said drivers should use engine brak- ing rather than mashing down on the brake peddle. That means shifting into a lower and thus slower gear as you start down the mountain. “You don’t shift going down the hill,” he said. “Stay in one gear.” Then as the vehicle accelerates, ease down on the brake peddle to slow 5 mph at a time. Don’t keep your foot on the brake for a long time, he said, and don’t press it to the floor. In semis, this keeps the brakes from heating up to the point they stop working. “Those are the two things a driver must do on a long, steep downgrade,” he said. The method also applies to cars, pickups and minivans with auto- matic transmissions as much as the big rigs. 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