PULSE: COVID-19 shows doctors they can ‘see’ patients by telemedicine— INSIDE
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
152nd Year • No. 26 • 16 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Residents demand more oversight at EOC
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Tempers flared during the June 17
Grant County Court Session as res-
idents
demanded
accountability
of
how county com-
missioners
spent
thousands of dollars
at the Emergency
Operations Center
and flouted Oregon
public meeting law Frances
while overspend- Preston
ing its budget by
$75,000 in less than four months.
Despite word the county will
receive $335,000 in Coronavirus Aid,
Relief and Economic Security Act dol-
lars to reimburse the county for 100%
of the money spent at the EOC, Grant
County citizen Frances Preston said
the county lacks a “mechanism of
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
From left, Grant County Commissioner Sam Palmer, the Emergency Operations Center Public Information Officer, Coun-
ty Judge Scott Myers and Commissioner Jim Hamsher, the liaison to the EOC, answer questions about the appearance of
a conflict of interest during a tense Grant County Court special meeting June 17.
oversight.”
“The group chose not to do, as
requested by the judge, to come back
to court in 45 days and ask for more
money,” she said. “There was money
spent that did not follow the process,
and we appear to be holding no one
accountable.”
Documents presented to the court in
May by former Incident Commander
Dave Dobler show the EOC spent
nearly $200,000, after being budgeted
$125,000.
County Commissioner and EOC
liaison Jim Hamsher told Preston
that she was not “even speaking the
truth,” and the court did approve the
purchases.
Hamsher said the reason the EOC’s
budget did not come back to the court
for public deliberation was that Gov.
Kate Brown’s COVID-19 shut-down
orders closed the courthouse and other
county offices, making it impossible
for the court to hold a public meeting.
Furthermore, the commissioner
said a year-old motion the court passed
allows the county judge to approve
purchases of budgeted items outside of
county court.
Brown’s executive orders, how-
ever, allow for in-person meetings with
appropriate social distancing guide-
lines, “authorizing state and local gov-
ernments to take necessary measures to
ensure continued operations and pub-
lic participation in decision-making
during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Jack Orchard, a lawyer from Ball
Janik LLP, said he does not believe
the governor has the authority to issue
orders on public meetings law.
“The legislature has not delegated
to the governor the right to disregard
these basic public meetings standards,”
he said.
See EOC, Page A16
PREPARING FOR A SPIKE
Grant County health
officials say county is
prepared in case of an
uptick in cases
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
s the number of confirmed
cases of COVID-19 in
Union County soared to 240
last week, Grant County
health
officials said the county is better sit-
uated than others to handle an uptick in
positive cases.
“We’re in a good position right
now,” Grant County Health Department
Administrator Kimberly
Lindsay said. “We have
the personal protective
equipment, the testing
and the contact tracing to
handle a spike in cases.”
Lindsay said, between
the hospital and the
Health Department, the Kimberly
county has 500 test kits. Lindsay
Blue Mountain Hos-
pital Emergency Medical
Services Director Rebekah Rand said the
hospital has been watching the situation
unfold in Union County, having discus-
sions about what the implications could
mean for Grant County.
Rand said the hospital met Friday
to “review and reaffirm” the hospital’s
“surge plan.”
The hospital, she said, has rapid test-
ing capability, which can provide a result
in roughly 15 minutes and ensures the
hospital can quickly identify, isolate and
treat positive cases.
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
See Spike, Page A16
Grant County Health Department staff unload personal protective equipment May 7 during the department’s curbside COVID-19 testing.
County health officials say the county can administer upwards of 500 tests to identify and isolate new cases of COVID-19.
A
Grant County set to receive $335,000 in COVID-19 reimbursement
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
As the Emergency Operations Cen-
ter faced scrutiny for its budget short-
fall and lack of transparency during
the June 17 Grant County Court ses-
sion, the court received news that the
county will receive $335,000 from the
state’s local government reimburse-
ment program from the Coronavirus
Relief Fund.
County Commissioner Sam Palmer,
EOC public information officer, moved
to appoint EOC liaison County Com-
missioner Jim Hamsher as the grant
administrator.
Hamsher said people do not real-
ize how much time it took for the EOC
staff to stay on top of the ever-chang-
ing guidelines and information com-
ing out of Salem as they worked to
put together the county’s phase one
reopening plan.
He said one of the biggest hurdles
to overcome was how the governor’s
office’s guidelines did not take into
account how vastly different rural life
is in comparison to urban life.
“There’s a disconnect between
urban Oregon and rural Oregon,” he
said.
For example, Hamsher said the state
requires rural fire chiefs in the county
to report burn rates on personal protec-
tive equipment, but unlike many urban
parts of the state, rural fire departments
in Grant County do not provide emer-
gency medical services. So the rural
fire departments end up submitting, for
the most part, the same report to Salem
each week, he said.
Hamsher said Gov. Kate Brown
wants to have an aide talk to a repre-
sentative from each county weekly
now for 30 minutes a week.
“I think that would be helpful,” he
said. “There’s a disconnect when they
don’t talk to county commissioners,
and we have to watch a briefing on the
news.”
He said he is not sure who that
county representative will be, but since
he has stayed informed, he would like
to represent the county.
He said he has put in the time and
effort, upwards of 1,000 hours through
the pandemic, while he has got paid for
just 13.3 hours per week.
“It’s a lot of work trying to keep
up with all of these recommendations
and changes,” he said. “You do tend to
learn some stuff when you devote over
1,000 hours.”
Oregon Department of Administra-
tive Services Communications Direc-
tor Liz Merah said the top priority with
the first round of reimbursements was
to replenish the money local govern-
ments put out for their direct public
health coronavirus response efforts.
“Under the first round of this pro-
gram, the DAS will reimburse local
governments for eligible costs incurred
between March 1 and May 15,” she
said.
She said local governments are
required to submit reimbursement
requests based on a list of allowable
expenses.
Allowable expenses include medi-
cal expenses for public hospitals, clin-
ics, and similar facilities. Public health
expenses include communication and
enforcement, for which the county
received roughly $15,000, protective
equipment, the cost to disinfect pub-
lic areas and facilities and public safety
measures.
The county received $17,000 for
medical and protective supplies and
roughly $55,0000 for technical assis-
tance and threat mitigation of the virus.
Payroll expenses for employees
dedicated to the COVID-19 response
efforts totaled $215,000.