June 26, 2020
T he C olumbia P ress
Senior
7
Mayor’s Message
Moments
by Henry Balensifer III
with Emma Edwards
We need computer buttons for life
Accountability is a two-way street
The “start” button on my
computer gives me too many
choices: Switch user, log off,
lock, restart, sleep and hiber-
nate.
What if we humans (espe-
cially us seniors) had such
buttons to handle living our
own lives? We do, to some
extent, but don’t usually re-
alize it.
One day recently, I be-
gan my day with the restart
button. I couldn’t find the
remote, which is the size of
a credit card, for my Bose
Radio. I had looked every-
where.
Many seniors have what
I call a junk drawer and, of-
ten, it holds such treasurers.
And yes, it was there. Time to
do the annual sorting of that
drawer.
I perused my choices for
that restart and decided I
needed to hit the switch user
button.
Remotes come in all sizes.
So now I’ve switched to two
drawers with one containing
nothing but remotes. Howev-
er, I still haven’t found the re-
mote for my large oscillating
fan. I had already found the
small remote to my bedroom
TV, which had been lost for
a few months. No, it was not
in the junk drawer, but in the
sewing drawer.
It’s been said you can’t
teach an old dog new tricks.
Maybe that’s true for dogs,
but I think we seniors can
learn new tricks.
Choices, options and ener-
gy slide into the options for
learning as we age in place
or perhaps become RVers, as
my hubby and I did on our
second retirement.
We had many restarts in
A number of factors have
combined to create stress and
strain on the mental health of
many.
Nerves are frayed from
months on lockdown, there’s
a changed landscape for
businesses and doing busi-
ness, plus unemployment,
the continued failure of un-
employment insurance as-
sistance, the harassment of
people wearing masks or not
wearing masks in stores, and
the sudden awareness of how
different life experiences af-
fect minority Americans and
what to do about it.
We also had a local incident
of an off-duty officer alleged-
ly engaged in racist behavior.
We are investigating this as
quickly as possible while en-
suring thoroughness via an
independent
investigator.
This way, the public can take
confidence, regardless of the
result, that the investiga-
tion was impartial and done
by someone with no attach-
ments to our city or its police
department.
It’s also important to note
that the city cannot legally
fire people over allegations,
nor should it. That’s also not a
defense of the accused. While
allegations may be sufficient
to destroy a person’s career
or life in public, it is not a le-
gal basis for summary judg-
our lives. We were never
ready to hibernate. Sleep? I
could and still do sleep easily,
even at naptime. However, I
think hubby was in the lock
position and seemed able to
manifest calmness in most
any situation.
In the “olden days,” cats
were inside most of the day
and outside all night. It
seems once we got in bed I
would say, “did you put the
cat out?” and he would ei-
ther get up and do the deed
or say “yes dear, did you set
the alarm?”
In this era, neither applies
as we can set an alarm weeks
in advance or at the moment.
And we would never allow a
cat to be out all night.
So comes the question: Can
you teach an old dog new
tricks?
Ben Franklin once said,
“We are all born stupid, but
one must work hard to re-
main ignorant.”
Life, no matter the age, is
about learning. As a widow
who spends time with several
other widows, I learned early
in widowhood that “You nev-
er know how strong you are
until being strong is the only
choice you have.”
Hibernation is tempting
sometimes, but not a solu-
tion. There’s so much to
learn, but it’s time to log off!
Special columns in The Columbia Press
Every week: Senior Moments with Emma Edwards
Week 1: History in the Making
Week 2: Financial Focus with Adam Miller
Week 3: Off the Shelf by Kelly Knudsen
Final week: Mayor’s Message by Henry Balensifer
ment or termination. There
must be proof, there must be
evidence, there must be due
process.
The city manager initiated
the investigation based on re-
ports of a social media post.
In the meantime, the officer
is on administrative leave,
thus removing the person in
question from enforcement
duty until their innocence or
guilt can be determined.
Additionally, it’s worth not-
ing that the city charter bars
elected officials from inter-
fering with the operations/
personnel matters of the city.
This isn’t New York, Minne-
apolis, or Portland, where
the Mayor can issue decrees
regarding employees. All
elected officials in the city
are volunteers with day jobs
or are retired. This is why the
city entrusts by charter law
employment decisions to a
professional manager.
Here in Warrenton, we’re
starting to see and discuss
more of the issues needing
improvement in our city. In
doing so, we will have to re-
view things that many make
us uncomfortable. Account-
ability is a two-way street,
and we must be committed
to not being afraid of it -- but
as an opportunity to become
better. Should we always just
keep doing what we’re doing
because “it’s always been that
way” or should we strive to
see if there’s a better way to
do it?
The city manager, myself
and the City Commission are
not afraid to talk about doing
things differently. Some of
our greatest critics (you may
have read their letters to the
editor in this paper) have of-
fered some good ideas once
you dig into the real crux of
the letters, and in some cas-
es we’ve implemented those
ideas.
In short, I love and believe
in Warrenton and its people.
We’re family.
Are we perfect? No. Are we
doing OK overall? I’d say yes.
Can we do better? Absolute-
ly, and we will.
County adopts ethics policy
County commissioners ad-
opted a new policy Wednes-
day night on appropriate gov-
ernmental conduct.
The order applies to all
county employees, contract
employees, applicants, con-
tractors and authorized vol-
unteers.
The policy is meant to re-
inforce an organizational cul-
ture that provides the oppor-
tunity for all to report their
concerns and complaints with
assurance they’ll be investi-
gated in a fair and timely fash-
ion without retaliation.
It covers the abuse, improp-
er use or destruction of coun-
ty resources; corruption such
as using one’s influence in a
business transaction; dishon-
esty and a reckless disregard
for truth; fraud; and misman-
agement or misappropriation
of assets, including needless
waste.
The county has partnered
with the company EthicsPoint
to provide a public hotline in
which the public, employees
or contractors can file a com-
plaint by phone or email and
remain confidential.