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NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
McKinley
administration,” McKinley said.
McKinley said the most significant
problem the county faces criminally
is methamphetamine. He said people
addicted to meth drive the criminal factors.
“Your thefts, your burglaries, break-ins
can be routed back to someone who needs
money, and they commit the crime to get
the money,” he said.
Asked if he thinks law enforcement
could do more to address the issue, McKin-
ley said he did not want to judge that side
of it.
“Do I think we could do more? Yes. Do
McKinley said he wants the sheriff’s
office to work together more effectively
Continued from Page A1
with other law enforcement agencies in
getting meth off the streets.
county’s citizens. However, he also under-
He said “portions” of the staff work
stands there will be people who disagree
well with other agencies and that coordi-
nating with other agencies will never be
with him no matter what he does or says.
“I have no illusion that I need to do
perfect.
something to win them over,” he said. “But
“Anytime you get different entities
what I am going to do is do the job, the best
working together, they still have their way
I see fit and try to bring some pride back to
they have to do it policy-wise, and they
this county.”
don’t mix, so it has to get a little creative
He said a McKinley sheriff’s office will
to make it work,” he said. “But I think
be strive to be transparent.
it could be better. There could be a bet-
ter flow of communication,
“I saw too much swept
under the rug, too much stuff “I SAW TOO MUCH SWEPT UNDER THE park some egos and get a job
hidden,” he said. “I don’t want
done.”
RUG, TOO MUCH STUFF HIDDEN. I
to see that. It isn’t like it’s their
McKinley said search and
own club. It’s a public office,
DON’T WANT TO SEE THAT. IT ISN’T rescue, which he headed up
and I want to see it get back to
before leaving the sheriff’s
LIKE IT’S THEIR OWN CLUB. IT’S A
that.”
office, is “dear to his heart,”
As policing faces heavy PUBLIC OFFICE, AND I WANT TO SEE IT and he wants to see it at the
scrutiny on both the local and
forefront.
national level, McKinley said
“I don’t think people real-
GET BACK TO THAT.”
ize
in this county how many
some of it, as in the case with
—Todd McKinley, candidate for Grant County Sheriff
search and rescues occur
Palmer’s office, is warranted.
in a given month,” he said.
He said both sides cannot
I think our focus could be in different areas “They’ve saved many lives, and there is
expect perfection, though.
“I don’t expect anybody to be perfect,” like actually going out and dealing with a bunch of them, and I’ve been on many
he said. “Don’t expect me to be perfect the criminal aspects instead of just wanting over the years, and it’s something that is
either.”
to be political about everything? I want to highly needed. It’s highly technical. It
McKinley said, if he prevails next see myself, if I get in that office, deal with requires good support.”
month, he will expect his staff to conduct the criminal issues that are going on in the
Another improvement McKinley said
themselves with “integrity and honor the county and not worry so much about what he would bring to the sheriff’s office is get-
office.”
everybody thinks of my political stance,” ting the jail to make more money for the
“I feel that that has not been occurring, he said. “I want to be truly a bipartisan county.
to an extent,” McKinley said. “Trust me, sheriff that’s serving the people. That’s
He said the county designed the current
there are some good employees in that what it’s there for and not to be pushing 45-bed facility so it could rent out beds to
facility. I feel sorry that they’ve been put in some agenda.”
other entities. McKinley said the county
a position where they have, and I am proud
He said his agenda would be: “Don’t used to rent to the many federal agencies
of them for bearing it out. I was there. I feel come here to commit a crime, and clean up and made a lot of money that way, but the
for them. I know what it was like.”
the act because we’re going to be coming county lost those contracts over the years.
McKinley began his policing career for you.”
“It’s a business, and it needs to be run
as a reserve in the Grant County Sher-
Asked if he thinks the county is doing as a business and get back to where it helps
iff’s Office under Palmer’s predecessor, enough to help people get clean and sober, fiscally support the sheriff’s office,” he
Fred Reusser, in 1998 and got hired on as he said he gets frustrated that people get said.
a full-time deputy in 2001, working along- bogged down in the system. He said there
McKinley said he wants the commu-
side Palmer until 2015, and also serving as are several entities involved when some- nity to know that he has a “heart for the
one goes through the criminal justice county.”
undersheriff for a time.
Over the years, the relationship soured, system.
“My roots are here. My family’s here.
and McKinley took the helm at the proba-
“From my aspect (in the probation We enjoy this county. I want to see this
tion department in 2015.
office), most of us work together with my county be able to hold its head up,” he said.
“I departed because I didn’t like see- office reasonably well, and when we reach “I want to be able to be a part of bringing
ing where (the sheriff’s office) was going, out, we get answers if we see a problem,” that back, bringing some pride back to this
and I could not consciously be a part of his he said.
county.”
Cancer
Continued from Page A1
crying in the back, I watch as
a patient is concerned for the
health of others because he has
a common cold, and I expe-
rience the most wonderful,
beautiful bald lady as she
jokes with everyone, bring-
ing such a light into that small
room.
I would determine that this
was indeed not an ordinary
doctor’s waiting room! I then
spent 6 1/2 weeks traveling
back and forth to Bend, feel-
ing blessed to have a son to
live with during the week and
a job that worked around my
treatments.
To sum up that six-month
period, I would say that it
was a time filled with so
much faith, love and kind-
ness that, while I never want
to do all that again, I feel
blessed beyond measure for
that dance with cancer for
those very reasons.
Fast forward 10 years —
one in 39 women die of breast
cancer! I love that I am not a
part of that statistic and that I
will be celebrating 10 years of
survivorship this year. Surviv-
ing and thriving are great in
my world!
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
County
Continued from Page A1
work we did while there.”
Cook said she had not
seen the original nor the
updated versions of the cost
summary but said it was
a mistake. She said Grant
County Treasurer Julie Elli-
son provided the county court
payroll information the EOC
used to submit the reimburse-
ment request.
Ellison said the only thing
she provided was monthly
payroll figures so the EOC’s
finance team could use it to
calculate a dollar amount to
submit for reimbursement.
She told the Eagle last week
the figures submitted for
county court reimbursement
didn’t make sense.
“You’ve probably tried
to add it up, and it doesn’t,”
she said. “If we get audited,
then somehow they’re going
to have to substantiate that
$35,000.”
On Tuesday, Ellison said
she determined that three
months of the two county
commissioners and the
county judge’s gross wages
would equal the $35,268
requested for reimbursement.
While Hamsher and
County Commissioner Sam
Palmer, each regularly paid
for 13.3 hours per week, said
they spent all of their coun-
ty-paid hours on COVID-19
and volunteered extra time,
County Judge Scott Myers
said he tracked his COVID-
19 time by the hour and only
accrued 46.5 hours over the
11-week period.
“If I were sitting in on
conference calls with the
health department or some-
body like that, I would add
that to my daily log,” Myers
said. “I would just mark
‘COVID-19, two hours’ or
‘COVID-19, an hour and
a half,’ or whatever. When
they asked me for that, I
went back and looked, and
I totaled them all up on
a handwritten sheet with
each day written on a single
page.”
Another change between
the original and updated
“Summary of Costs” is a
line item under materials and
equipment, which changed
from “Grant County EOC
PPE” to “Grant County
Sheriff’s Office.” The total
changed from $5,076 to
$4,926.
Hamsher said he has
reached out to Witt O’Brien’s
for more information.
Palmer, the EOC pub-
lic information officer, said
he would need to go to the
courthouse and look at Witt
O’Brien’s financial sum-
mary with Ellison.
“I haven’t dealt with any
of the financial side of this
stuff,” Palmer told the Eagle
on Friday. “I pretty much
stayed in the health side of
it and turned my hours in
when they asked me to turn
my hours in.”
Ellison said the county
received the entire $335,199
requested for reimbursement
in June, but she has only dis-
tributed funds from that reim-
bursement to expenditures
with documentation. She
said she has copies of every
invoice for the funds she has
distributed.
Ellison said she could
not independently send the
money back to the state
unless the county court
directs her to do so.
Myers said he does not
know what the county is
going to do.
“We don’t know if all of
a sudden the CARES Act is
going to contact us and say,
‘We have some inconsis-
tency. Please return such and
such,’ and then we take that
as it comes,” he said. “We
deal with that, give them
everything that we possibly
can. If we still fall short, we
fall short.”
He said there is a
“large sum” of the original
$335,000 reimbursement that
the county has not dispersed.
Myers said the county
would “balance it all
out somehow.” He said
the county court is “ulti-
mately accountable” for the
discrepancy.
“The county court passed
those documents, approved
those documents and I
signed those documents,” he
said.
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