Polk County News
2A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • October 21, 2015
Dallas SD to clarify
gun policy for staff
Current policy not clear on whether
staff are allowed to carry in schools
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer
Polk County Administrator Greg Hansen began his career with the county more than three decades ago as a graduate
student intern. He’s held a number of positions and worked with many elected officials since his first assignment.
County administrator marks 30 years
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
POLK COUNTY — Thirty
years ago, Greg Hansen had
what could be the shortest
job interview of any current
Polk County employee.
Now the county adminis-
trator, Hansen was seeking a
graduate intern position in
the general services depart-
ment.
His interview consisted of
three questions, going
something like this:
Interviewer: Do you like
working with numbers?
Hansen: Yes.
Interviewer: Would you
like to work here?
Hansen: Yes.
Interviewer: Can you start
tomorrow?
Hansen: Yes.
“I said ‘yes’ three times
and then I was hired,”
Hansen recalled last week
after being presented a 30
years of service award at the
Polk County Board of Com-
missioners meeting Oct. 14.
Hansen worked his first
day with Polk County on
Oct. 1, 1985, and has been
there since — and yes, he
still likes working with num-
bers.
In fact, he can count the
number of elected officials
he’s worked for and with
since becoming county ad-
ministrator in 1997: two
county clerks, two assessors,
two sheriffs, three treasur-
ers, 10 elected commission-
ers, and one appointed
commissioner who served
on the board twice.
The department where
Hansen started his career,
general services, was appro-
priately named. At the time,
it worked with all depart-
ments supervising facilities
maintenance, county vehi-
cles, central purchases and
making sure office equip-
ment functioned properly.
He’s held a number of po-
sitions on a temporary basis
while with the county, in-
cluding tax collector, Grand
Ronde Sanitary District
manager, and West Valley
Housing Authority director.
In 1997, he used that vari-
ety of experience as back-
ground for his most recent
career move — “recent”
being a relative term since
it’s been nearly 20 years —
becoming the county’s ad-
ministrator.
“I was doing a lot of the
job anyway. I felt I was the
right person for the job,” he
explained when asked why
he decided to apply for the
post. “I knew enough about
every department that it
made sense.”
He hasn’t regretted that
decision, adding he’s never
seriously considered moving
to a larger county.
“I truly believe Polk Coun-
ty is pretty special. Not only
in its location, but we aren’t
too small that there isn’t
anything going on, but not
too big where we are a bu-
reaucratic, cluttered mess,”
he said.
“I go to administrator
meetings and a lot of those
meetings include (other ad-
ministrators) whining about
their elected officials and
how dysfunctional they are,”
he continued. “We don’t
have those problems.”
Hansen has often said
Polk’s elected officials are
among the best in the state.
He extends that praise to his
administrative team.
“I had a sports back-
ground growing up, and the
better team you surround
yourself with, the better the
results,” he said.
The smallish size of the
county has another benefit
in that he has the time to
leave his office and visit de-
partments and employees
often.
“I don’t have to sit at my
desk and administer,” he
said. “I get to go out in the
field with public works or go
down and talk to the sheriff.
That ability to always have
something different at my
disposal — I think I proba-
bly just get bored doing one
thing — that allows me to
stay on top of things.”
Hansen plans to “stay on
top of things” for a while
longer.
“I will retire sometime.
When that time will be, I
don’t know,” he said. “As
long as I’m happy, I will
probably continue to work. I
will probably want to ensure
I will leave it in as good a
place as I can.”
DALLAS — The Dallas
School District is clarifying
its policy on staff members
possessing firearms at work
after questions arose in the
wake of the Umpqua Com-
munity College shooting
earlier this month.
“The recent incident at
Umpqua Community Col-
lege, that’s generated some
additional questions
around arming staff,” Su-
perintendent Michelle
Johnstone said.
When district staff looked
up the policy to answer
those questions, Johnstone
said the policy was unclear
if staff and members of the
public could possess
firearms at schools.
“I would say it’s gray,”
she said.
The district’s policy is
clear that students cannot
carry guns or other
weapons at school, but it
has been practice to allow
adults, including staff, with
concealed carry permits to
possess firearms in Dallas
schools.
The concern is that the
district policy doesn’t clear-
ly say that. In light of recent
concerns, the board would
like to eliminate confusion,
which stems from the inter-
change between separate
policies and state and fed-
eral law.
Dallas’ “public conduct
on school property” policy
states: “No person on dis-
trict property will bring,
possess, conceal or use a
weapon as prohibited by
board policy JFCJ —
‘Weapons in the Schools
and State and Federal Law.’”
That policy only mentions
students, not employees or
members of the public.
“I read it and I thought it
meant that nobody could
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have a gun on school prop-
erty,” Board Chairwoman
Lu Ann Meyer said. “I per-
sonally think it’s totally
confusing.”
According the Oregon
School Boards Association,
under Oregon law local
boards have the discretion
to allow or prohibit guns on
school property.
Federal law through the
“Guns Free School Zone
Act” prohibits the posses-
sion of a gun on school
property or within 1,000
feet of school grounds.
Another federal law,
“Guns Free School Act” re-
quires schools to adopt a
“zero tolerance policy” and
expel students who possess
firearms at school.
However, Oregon law
trumps federal law in this
instance, allowing guns on
school property if the
owner has a concealed
weapons permit. Districts
can decide if employees are
afforded similar rights.
State law also prohibits
students from possessing
firearms at school.
Board members indicat-
ed they wouldn’t want to
change current practice.
“We shouldn’t treat our
staff any different than a
member of the public,”
board member Mike Blan-
chard said.
Meyer said if it is the po-
sition of the board to allow
properly permitted em-
ployees to carry firearms,
that the policy should say
that without ambiguity. She
suggested policy revisions
should be presented to the
board for approval.
“Am I hearing the board
say that we don’t want to
require, but we want to
allow, any district staff that
has met the requirements
for carrying concealed to
be allowed to do that?” she
asked. “Now, how do we get
our policy to match that?
BOC to name
interim sheriff
Itemizer-Observer staf report
POLK COUNTY — The
Polk County Board of Com-
missioners will name an in-
terim sheriff at its regular
meeting at 9 a.m. on Oct. 28
in the conference room at
the Polk County Courthouse,
850 Main St.
Polk Detective Sgt. Mark
Gar ton, of Dallas, and
Yamhill County Patrol Sgt.
Todd Whitlow, of Sheridan,
applied for the temporary
post and were interviewed
last week. Both have filed to
be elected sheriff in the May
2016 primary.
The candidate the board
selects will take over the job
on Dec. 1 after retiring Sheriff
Bob Wolfe takes his leave of
the office on Nov. 31. The in-
terim sheriff will serve until
January 2017, when the newly
elected sheriff takes over.
OSP investigating
fatal accident
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WILLAMINA — Oregon
State Police troopers re-
sponded to a report of a
motor vehicle crash at the
Highway 18B off ramp on
Oct. 11.
Senior Trooper Chad Drew
said Bradley Jones, 47, of
Portland, was driving a 1999
Chevy Suburban eastbound
on Highway 18 when he took
the 18B exit at a high rate of
speed. Jones drove off the
roadway, but came back onto
the ramp near Yamhill Road.
The vehicle then traveled
east off the roadway and
struck a utility pole and large
tree before coming to rest
down a steep embankment.
Jones was pronounced de-
ceased at the scene. He was
not wearing a safety belt. Al-
cohol may have been a con-
tributing factor. OSP is inves-
tigating the crash and was
assisted by the West Valley
Fire Department, Yamhill
County Sheriff’s Department,
O re g o n De p a r t m e n t o f
Transportation and Portland
Gas and Electric.