A8
LOCAL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Joseph council tries to
resolve employee dispute
Supper time
No discipline;
remands actions
to administrator
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Amber Compher/Contributed Photo
A young whitetail deer still in spots nurses while Mom keeps watch Thursday, July 22, 2021,
along Green Valley Road south of Enterprise.
Gas prices lingering around $4,
but not quite at all-time highs
Chieftain staff
ENTERPRISE — Gas
prices in Wallowa County
have moved near $4 per
gallon — a mark that, if hit,
would be reached for the
fi rst time in about a decade.
But prices have backed
off briefl y — at least the
county average has — as
all-time records are in sight.
An update from AAA
last week listed Oregon’s
average price for a gallon
of unleaded fuel at $3.754,
which was 56 cents above
the national average of
$3.19 on Thursday, Aug. 5.
Oregon, in fact, has
among the highest prices
in the nation. Three states,
California, Nevada and
Hawaii, are above $4 per
gallon, and Washington,
Idaho and Utah are the only
other states with higher
prices than the Beaver
State.
Fourteen states, almost
all of them in the Southeast,
had an average price below
$3 per gallon at the time.
Mississippi, at $2.792, is
the lowest.
Oregon’s price has
increased 21 cents per gal-
lon in the past month, and
is up more than $1 per gal-
lon since this time last year.
Wallowa County briefl y
had the highest rate on aver-
age in Oregon, reaching
$3.966 in mid July. That was
more than six cents higher
than Lake County, which
was second at the time.
Wallowa County’s price
has since dropped slightly
to $3.864, putting it tied
with Harney County as the
10th-highest in Oregon.
Marion County, at $3.569,
has the state’s cheapest fuel
as of late last week.
According to Chief-
tain archives, the last time
prices were above $4 in
Wallowa County was in
2011. It also broke through
that threshold in 2008.
According to OPIS
research, the record reached
in the county was $4.409 on
July 15, 2008.
Prices
for
regular
unleaded reached $3.999
in Enterprise in July, but
have held there since, not
yet inching past $4. They
are $3.799 in both Joseph
and Wallowa.
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JOSEPH — The Joseph
City Council concluded
months of disputes between
employees and council
members Thursday, Aug.
5, by delegating actions
in complaints between
two employees to Pro-
Tem Administrator Brock
Eckstein.
On May 27, Parks
Department Lead Den-
nis Welch made complaints
against Public Works Lead
Levi Tickner in an executive
session, which precluded
those complaints from
being made public. Proce-
dure required that Tickner
be given a chance to respond
either in executive session
or open session, at his dis-
cretion. Tickner chose open
session, which after delays,
occurred last week.
After hearing Tickner’s
response to Welch’s com-
plaints and each given 5
minutes to rebut, the coun-
cil recessed to executive
session to deliberate. Upon
returning to open session,
the council heard a motion
read by Council Stephen
Bartlow that was approved
unanimously.
Motion approved
“I make a motion that the
council recognizes the value
of both Mr. Tickner and Mr.
Welch to the city. The coun-
cil takes their charges and
counter-charges seriously,
especially those regarding
the safety of our employees
and citizens and recognizes
that some of these issues
have been made worse by
the lack of proper supervi-
sion by the former admin-
istrator/HR for the city. The
council further recognizes
that because their respec-
tive departments have been
separated that some of the
issues have been alleviated,”
Barlow read. “The council
rules that the remaining con-
fl icts must be resolved on
a professional basis by the
city administrator, whose
decisions will be respected
and implemented in a
timely manner. The coun-
cil approves the city admin-
istrator to provide further
counseling and training to
increase the effi ciency and
eff ectiveness of the respec-
tive departments. And
fi nally, the council remands
these complaints and all fur-
ther issues to the city admin-
istrator for fi nal resolution.”
During his response to
Welch’s complaints, Tickner
cited what he believed to be
the most serious issue, that
of Welch’s “insubordina-
tion” when changing chlo-
rine bottles used to disin-
fect in the water and sewer
plants.
Chlorine danger
Tickner said that when
he fi rst came to work for
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Witnesses
Additional complaints
by both Welch and Tickner
often came back to a lack of
supervision and action by
Braden.
In his response, Tick-
ner also invited several peo-
ple to speak on his behalf.
Speaking highly of his pro-
fessionalism and effi ciency
were Brad Baird, of Ander-
son Perry Engineers — the
city’s engineering fi rm —
and former city employee
Jake Thompson, now of the
Wallowa Lake County Ser-
vice District. One other per-
son who spoke on Tickner’s
behalf, former city employee
Corey Roberts read a num-
ber of comments by Welch
after his return from sick
leave in May. But much of
what she read didn’t directly
address complaints against
Tickner and Mayor Belinda
Buswell directed her to
restrict her comments to
those complaints.
Welch had no witnesses
speak on his behalf, though
he reiterated some of his
complaints from May, such
as “gaslighting,” alleged vio-
lations of employee privacy,
harassment, fi nding things
in his offi ce having been dis-
rupted and saying that many
of these actions were wit-
nessed by city employees,
although he didn’t say who.
He said he took his com-
plaints to Braden, such as
Tickner’s complaint about
wearing a mask.
“Everything I did I dis-
cussed with the administra-
tor,” Welch said of Braden,
but the latter appeared to not
be concerned.
He did recall that
Buswell, when she worked
as city recorder and safety
offi cer, had issued a direc-
tion in the matter.
“Belinda
saying
I
couldn’t change chlorine,
that never happened,” Welch
said.
Buswell corrected Welch.
“I don’t believe that was
the statement; it was without
a respirator,” she said.
After the meeting, both
Tickner and Welch declined
to comment on the council’s
decision.
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the city, Welch — who
now works for the separate
Parks Department — also
worked for Public Works.
Tickner said he had Welch
show him how to change
the chlorine bottles.
“Gas chlorine’s the most-
deadly and the most-dan-
gerous aspect of this job,”
Tickner told the council. “A
breath of this gas could eas-
ily kill a person. When the
fi rst chance to change out a
bottle came up, I asked Mr.
Dennis Welch to show me
how we properly did this.
We went to the wastewa-
ter plant where there was
an empty bottle to change.
He got a paper mask from
his truck, strapped it over
his beard. He proceeded
then to shutting off the
cylinder and refastening
the regulator. He did not
shut off the regulator and
started coughing as the gas
fed from the other bottle
back. This proves that the
paper mask he was wear-
ing was not sealed prop-
erly. A paper mask will not
comply with OSHA stan-
dards for gaseous chlorine.
I held my breath, turned off
the regulator and pulled Mr.
Welch out of the room for
fresh air. Per OSHA stan-
dards, a full-face respi-
rator is required anytime
there is a possibility of a
leak and a second person
must be present in case of
emergency. Full-face res-
pirators were ordered that
day. I spoke to Mr. Dennis
Welch about not changing
a bottle without a second
person and wearing a full-
face respirator. In order for
a respirator to seal around
his face, he must shave his
beard. Mr. Welch replied
to me, ‘I will quit before
I shave.’ Insubordination:
You cannot safely do your
job when you refuse to. At
this, I advised him to no
longer change bottles.”
That appeared to spark
hostility between the two.
At one point since that
incident, parks and pub-
lic works employees were
separated in a unilateral
move by former Adminis-
trator/Recorder Larry Bra-
den. The council noted
that the move was not
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Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Levi Tickner, left, public works lead for the city of Joseph,
responds Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, to complaints made against
him earlier by Parks Lead Dennis Welch, center, during a City
Council meeting. The council decided to not discipline either
employee and deferred the issues to Pro-Tem Administrator
Brock Eckstein.
Cabinet & Countertop Specialist
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