A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
March 4, 2015
Wallowa County Chieftain
Oregon
needs more
auditing
capacity
W
hat are the biggest
EDITORIAL
differences between
Oregon and
The voice of the Chieftain
Washington? They pump their
own gas, and we don’t? They
have a sales tax and we don’t? They have NFL and Major League
franchises and we don’t? Yes, yes and yes.
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Kitzhaber. Washington has an independent auditor who carries out
aggressive, far-reaching investigations. He is much better funded
and staffed than Oregon’s.
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employee who does not know that state government’s computer
systems are largely antiquated. “Our computer systems can’t
talk to each other,” said state Rep. Dennis Richardson during his
campaign for governor.
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of state government’s cyber readiness or lack of readiness.
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huge computer blunders and what those disasters cost the
Treasury.
Every Oregon secretary of state tells us they will use
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government. But few audits over recent decades have moved
debate and discussion within Oregon. When Phil Keisling
was secretary of state, his Audits Division did conduct an
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A major recommendation of that audit was that the state
needed top expertise on its side, to ensure that software
vendors didn’t overcharge, and were held to the highest of
professional standards. If that recommendation had been
heeded, we would not have had the Cover Oregon disaster
with Oracle.
So there is a question of institutional memory within state
government as well as the state Legislature. An institution
that cannot remember things will make the same mistakes
over and over.
The other question is the capacity of Oregon’s Audits Division.
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auditor positions. Its ’13-15 biennial budget is $22.8 million. In
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15 budget of $35.2 million.
Washington state’s auditor delivers sharp probes of state,
county and local agencies. The auditor is an independent
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government entities comply with rigorous accounting standards,
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such oversight might have been enough to curb the types of
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investigates whistleblower cases and alleged fraud by government
employees. Its performance audits are aimed at intervening before
DJHQF\PLVWDNHVRULQHI¿FLHQFLHVJHWRXWRIKDQG,WZDVIRU
example, recently key to helping Ilwaco, Wash.’s, Ocean Beach
Hospital discover its mistakes and return to viability.
States and their many tiers of agencies and smaller
jurisdictions are, in effect, giant corporations paid by taxpayers.
Professional, independent and appropriately supported auditing is
indispensable.
Having an independently elected auditor, such as
Washington’s, removes the political tug and pull of statehouse
politics.
Oregon needs to increase its auditing capacity. There is
too much at stake for us not to learn from state and local
government’s mistakes.
USPS No. 665-100
P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
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Enterprise, Oregon
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R EPORTER
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O FFICE MANAGER
Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com
Rob Ruth, editor@wallowa.com
Stephen Tool, stool@wallowa.com
Rocky Wilson, rwilson@wallowa.com
Rich Rautenstrauch, rrautenstrauch@wallowa.com
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Contents copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction
without permission is prohibited.
America stubbornly unhealthy
By Rocky Wilson
There’s one of those biblical things
that says to count it all joy, yet that can
be a tough assignment under many con-
ditions.
Like most elements of this thing we
call life, we can suffer mightily and feel
sorry for ourselves when things get tough
or exercise free will and gain abject plea-
sure from the small things like sunshine,
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We truly have options.
Yet, whenever one’s overall health
wavers, the odds of being cheerful seem
to head south accordingly.
A wise man once said “ignorance is
bliss,” and too often it’s more convenient
to remain in ignorance than respond to
warning signs that hint that one’s health
might be suspect.
A perfect example is the society we
live in. That the United States leads the
world in obesity is an example of stick-
ing our heads under the sand and seeking
“pleasure” ahead of common sense in re-
gard to family health. You have to be of
preschool mentality to believe that being
overweight promotes quality health, yet
repeated warnings by doctors and nutri-
tionists to consume more fruits and veg-
etables and exercise more commonly go
on deaf ears.
It’s as if we, the general population,
agree we want to live healthier, longer,
with Wallowa County’s beef industry.
My wife and I are participating in
JABBERWOCK II
the second of three waves of the CHIP
SURJUDP QRZ DQG WKH EHQH¿WV DUH VXU-
prising. Personally, I’ve lost a total of 23
more productive lives but, by cracky, ar- pounds I didn’t need and, at my wife’s in-
en’t willing to give up anything of plea- sistence, am exercising more. My blood
pressure has dropped so far in a healthy
sure to attain such things.
If it truly is ignorance, there has to be a direction that my primary care provider
giant assist given to our stubborn unwill- has suggested I visit my cardiologist to
ingness to learn and apply what we don’t determine if a medication change should
want to know. It’s hard to even assume be made.
I’m far from a poster child as I’d
that mothers, who love their children
worldwide, conceivably cannot grasp the guess all participants are gaining in dif-
unhealthy link between their hefty kids IHUHQW ZD\V (YHQ WKH VFLHQWL¿F YLGHR
clips shown during the 18-class course
and grocery baskets full of soda.
Whether you know it or not, there’s FDQ EH OLIHFKDQJLQJ -XVW UHFHQWO\ WKH
a bit of an oxymoron currently ongoing amount of measurable “bad” a healthy
in regard to Wallowa County’s standard man ingested during one solid foray with
food fare and the Complete Health Im- ice cream was staggering.
But all things in moderation, right?
provement Program (CHIP) that Wal-
While attending the Hospital Foun-
lowa Memorial Hospital is midway in
bringing to a total of 150 county resi- dation’s biggest fundraiser of the year
recently, I sat next to a veteran Wallowa
dents.
Meat, preferably beef, and potatoes, County rancher who, along with his wife,
plus eggs have been gracing the plates was attending round No. 1 of the CHIP
of Wallowa County residents for as long program and singing its praises. Too, he
as anyone can remember. In contrast, Dr. — like me — blissfully was enjoying a
Hans Diehl’s 27-year-old CHIP lifestyle rare prime rib.
Taste cannot be overlooked, yet were
program that’s graduated and tracked
the success of more than 65,000 partic- mothers to toss in one or three fewer
ipants places health priorities on fruits, Snickers into the shopping cart might be
vegetables, legumes, and nuts. Exclusiv- a positive for their kids.
Jabberwock II columnist Rocky Wil-
ity away from all meat is not Dr. Diehl’s
WKLQJEXWWKHPHVVDJHGH¿QLWHO\FRQÀLFWV son is a reporter for the Chieftain.
Bah to shallow-rooted spruces
How about that windstorm, huh?
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the utility crews, who are probably still
sleeping after that marathon. I wasn’t
getting any shuteye once that freight
train wind started rolling through. I
went outside for a peek at 4 a.m. and
discovered my truck underneath a
spruce tree.
That was enough distraction to let
the dog I was supposed to be watching
for a friend slip outside and run off into
what looked and sounded a lot like the
Wizard of Oz tornado scene. So I set
out at a brisk jog at four in the morn-
ing, trying to keep this husky in sight
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player piano. “Sit” and “stay” just made
the dog run faster, so when she paused
to sniff some landscaping I went for a
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body’s rosebush. Neither the dog or I
got scratched, because my new down
jacket got all the thorns. This was all
before daybreak. Or coffee.
Walking home from that invigorating
start to the day, with one side of my ex-
pensive coat getting smaller and blowing
away in the breeze, I got a text from Paul
at Winding Waters River Expeditions in
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of the mural I painted just wasn’t there
anymore. It seemed like a good idea at
the time to paint it on panels and screw
those to the building. But that was before
I knew the wind was an art critic.
Still walking home, I took inventory
of the carnage. Street sign snapped off.
Fences blown over. Aspen grove at Ter-
es of pure thunder beneath the hood. And
now a tree on top.
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Engelmann spruce and wind. Better luck
Jon
next time. Actually, I don’t mean that.
Rombach
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bygones be bygones.
Six trees are now bygone on my place.
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enough light when my homestead start- One took the powerline with it. The root
ed coming into view that I could now wad of a tipped-over juniper pried my
see a hole in the sky where another big footbridge up and out of the creek when
spruce tree used to be. My main concern it went over. I mean, that’s just insult
was that my new metal roof had not run to injury is what that is. You pulled the
away with the mural. This is the roof I bridge out of the water? Really? Crikey.
Many thanks to the folks who found
had already ordered twice, after letting
WKH ¿UVW EDWFK VLW RXWVLGH WRR ORQJ DQG and returned the Winding Waters mural
get wet, which causes the paint to peel panels. One of them was in Vermont, I
RII%HFDXVHURR¿QJLVVWULFWO\IRULQGRRU think. I heard another turned up in a
use until you take it out of its packaging trawler net in the Atlantic. They’re a little
and expose it to outdoors. If I had turned scuffed up but we’ll just call that patina.
At least nobody got seriously hurt,
that corner and seen my second new roof
missing, I probably would have just kept that I know of. My pal Andy had a close
on walking and would now be living in a FDOO ZLWK DQ DLUERUQH VKHHW RI URR¿QJ
metal zinging by. And I heard that a con-
cave in Hells Canyon.
Luckily the roof was still on. Here’s tractor got blown off a roof while trying
some fun facts about Engelmann Spruce. to batten things down. I heard all sorts of
They’re notoriously shallow-rooted and things during and after that storm. Lots
apparently do not want me to own any of chainsaws. And lots of news updates,
vehicles. My Toyota pickup was under- mostly from strangers driving around on
neath one spruce, but this other tree re- the damage viewing circuit.
The only positive spin to the wind
ally outdid itself by scoring a two-for-
one, landing directly on my classic car damage I can think of is owning a con-
collection. True, the value of these two vertible Buick Electra once I cut the
rigs is mainly sentimental. But, c’mon. crumpled roof off. Then I’m going to
The 1966 Ford F100 Custom Cab pickup plant some new Engelmann Spruce trees
I got from my dad and learned to drive in the yard so I can drive over them with
LQVPRRVKHG1H[WWRWKH)RUGLV*UDQG- the Buick. See how they like it. Bullies.
Jon Rombach is a local columnist
ma Helen’s sweet 1967 Buick Electra.
It’s got everything you could want in a for the Chieftain. His hobbies include
car. Fins. Fender skirts. 8-track player. pounding out dents in old cars with a
Chrome Kleenex holder. 430 cubic inch- mallet made from Engelmann Spruce.
AND
FURTHERMORE
Reader disputes corruption column
To the Editor:
If Mr. Wandschneider really is eluded
by the link between the demand for faith
in the divine wisdom of Muhammed —
and demands for the blood of all who dare
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intelligence (collectively cursed as The
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is so confused by the incidence of cor-
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in question is the enforced shibboleth of
“honesty, truth, transparency, and justice
for all.” The role-reversal involved is not
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itself — whether to Islam, Mammon, or
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determines only details. The essential
outcome of mindlessness is the same in
ZLWKRXWDEDFN¿UHRIKXPRU6XFKLV0U all cases and under all banners, as Mr. W
W.’s zeal to absolve Islam of all charges, himself inadvertently drags to our atten-
that he drops all history and scholarship tion.
For his display of that much wisdom, I
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fundamentalism(!). If the Prophet isn’t don’t know whether to shake his hand —
mortally offended, perchance it is only or my head. I offer both gestures.
Tom Anderson
because he is safely dead.
Wallowa
But that to which the human mind is
LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR