Heppner gazette-times., December 21, 2022, Page 10, Image 10

TEN - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, December 21 , 2022
State ethics investigation
-Continued from PAGE ONE
utes that we were able to
review, it appears that he
disclosed the conflicts, but
further investigation is needed
to obtain and review minutes,
and as with Mr. Padberg, we
would also review the minutes
and recording of executive
sessions to determine wheth-
er Jerry Healy was met with
conflicts of interest in those
executive sessions,” said My-
ers concerning Healy’s Port
involvement, but added, “It
does appear that the CREZ
board discussed negotiations
with Amazon’s new data cen-
ters. Because those negotia-
tions could result in financial
impact on Windwave, Jerry
Healy was met with a potential
conflict of interest. The CREZ
meeting minutes do not indi-
cate that he made any conflict
of interest disclosures.”
“I’m always taking my
services to the community se-
riously with the best interests
of the community and county
first,” Healy said in response.
“I’ve made every effort to
follow the ethical path, and
I’ve never knowingly violated
standards of ethical behavior.
In my public service expe-
rience, I have never had any
issues with conflicts of interest
before.
“When it comes to these
issues with Amazon, my part-
ners and I did our best and,
I believe, complied with the
demands of the law,” he added
Gary Neal, formerly of
Boardman, was the Port of
Morrow general manager
from 1989 until December
of 2018. He also served on
the CREZ and CDA boards.
Myers said his case differed
from the others in that the
ethics commission’s jurisdic-
tional period over his term
was relatively short; OGEC’s
jurisdictional period began
on Sept. 18, 2018, and Neal
retired from the port on Dec.
21, 2018. Neal moved from
Boardman to his hometown
in Eastern Washington after
his retirement.
“Again, the question in
this case is, did he participate
as the Port’s general manager
in matters concerning the
Amazon data centers, which
could, potentially, have a
financial impact on Wind-
wave?” said Myers. “Then,
as a member of the CREZ
board, which was negotiat-
ing contracts for these data
centers, did he participate in
matters that would benefit
Windwave?”
A response to the inquiry
asserts that Neal recused him-
self from taking any official
actions relating to Amazon
in his role at the Port in Sept.
2018, but the commission in-
vestigation had not been able
to confirm that recusal in the
meeting minutes.
“It does appear from the
CREZ board minutes that
Gary Neal may have contin-
ued to participate in board
meetings at least into Oct. of
2018,” Myers said when she
asked for further investigation
to review minutes and con-
duct interviews to determine
whether Neal participated in
any decisions, recommen-
dations or actions that could
have a financial impact on
Windwave.
“I have taken my career
and the role I played very
seriously, and I’m proud of
the accomplishments that I
was part of during my career,”
Neal responded. “I always
did my best to try to comply
with my ethical obligations
serving in a public capacity.
I do not believe I violated my
ethical obligations related to
this complaint or at any other
time during my 30-year career.
I take this ethics complaint
seriously and look forward to
having this issue resolved.”
Because several of the
men involved had mentioned
contacting the OGEC help
line, OGEC Commissioner
Daniel Mason asked if the
ethics commission kept a re-
cord of such general calls for
advice. OGEC Chair David
Fiskum responded that there
were sometimes emailed re-
sponses or conversations, but
no call log was kept. Myers
put in that she recalled two
or three occasions when she
spoke with Russell and possi-
bly Healy, and that the minutes
indicated that Russell spoke
with former investigator a
number of times.
OGEC Vice Chair Amber
Hollister said she was im-
pressed by any public official
who would take the time to
call the ethics commission
for guidance, but that she was
struggling to review the com-
plex facts of the cases.
“It seems in some in-
stances Amazon may have
just come up generally, and in
some cases Windwave may
have been specifically men-
tioned in application or clearly
linked to that business, and
so I just wanted to note that
underlying question I have,”
said Hollister. “I do think this
is a situation where the facts
are so complex that we would
benefit from an investigation,
although I don’t feel like I’ve
made any kind of determina-
tion. Honestly, it’s difficult to
do so given the complexity.”
Commissioner Mason
said he agreed.
“When you have an issue
that is this complex and is
getting public attention, it is
best to go through the investi-
gative process for everybody’s
benefit,” he said. “I think
that this investigative process
should go forward and needs
to go forward for everybody’s
clarification on the issue, and
that would be the main reason
why I would support a motion
to move forward with the in-
vestigation.”
Hollister moved that there
was substantial objective ba-
sis that the men may have
committed the ethics viola-
tions and that investigation
should move forward, and the
eight-member board voted to
pursue investigations in each
case.
After the vote, Chair Fis-
kum said he approved the use
of the word may in the vice
chair’s motions.
“Under Oregon law,
by deciding to move from a
preliminary review to a full
investigation, we have not
decided that there has been an
ethics violation or violations.
Rather, we have decided that
we need to conduct a further
investigation to determine
whether a violation or viola-
tions occurred,” he told those
present. “This is an important
distinction, one that is not
always well understood, my
belief is, by those affected
or by those who follow our
actions, so it’s important for
all of us to understand that
distinction.”
Lexington city council wraps up year
-Continued from PAGE SIX
the maintenance and fire
department computers will
not meet the requirements.
“I’d like to take a look
at the specs on all the com-
puters and see if we need
to buy something else,”
she said.
Veronica Hess said
she thought the town al-
ready does daily backup
of QuickBooks and would
like to check into that be-
fore spending money on a
backup server, but agreed
the town recorder’s PC
needed cleanup. She added
that the Amazon technology
enhancement funding was
about to be unlocked and
wasn’t set for a particular
project, and that the IT sit-
uation would probably fall
under acceptable use of the
money. The council agreed
to have Gordon move for-
ward with a contract for the
council to review.
In other business, the
council:
-Updated the list of
paid holidays for town em-
ployees to align with state
and federal guidelines;
-Discussed setting up
an administrator for the
town’s business account at
Bank of Eastern Oregon.
The administrator can’t be
the town recorder or mayor,
but the administrator can
assign other administra-
tors and sub-users. Gordon
signed as administrator
with Imes to be added as
co-administrator.
-Heard from Veronica
Hess and Imes about the
mayor sending a letter of
support to the League of
Oregon Cities Homeless-
ness Task Force. “It’s not
going to take a whole lot of
time to say, ‘This is an idea
we have, and we support
your initiative,’” said Imes.
“And then they roll with it
and take it to legislation.”
-Heard a progress re-
port from Imes regarding
the housing improvement
plan update being led by
the Morrow County Plan-
ning Department. “They
hired a consultant to come
in and look at the three
Willow Creek Valley cities
and really just dig in to see
why is it that Ione, Lex-
ington, Heppner, our pop-
ulations are slowly going
away,” Imes said, adding
that the planning director
should be in Lexington in
the next couple of months
for an update. “The excit-
ing thing about that work
is that it will help us in our
infrastructure improvement
projects,” she added.
-Heard from Imes about
the Morrow County GOAL
9 work plan and inclusive
outreach plan, which is sim-
ilar to the housing plan, but
focuses more on the econo-
my and brining business to
south county. Consultants
will be reaching out to the
council to come do outreach
in the community.
-Voted to repeat last
year’s Christmas bonus to
town employees at $250 for
each employee. The vote
was unanimous, but Imes
added that she thought it
was important for bonuses
to be included as a line
item in the budget going
forward.
Boardman among communities to
receive affordable housing funds
Washington, D.C.—
U.S. Senators Ron Wyden
and Jeff Merkley announced
last week that Communi-
ty and Shelter Assistance
(CASA) in Oregon will
receive $200,000 from the
U.S. Department of Agri-
culture (USDA) to provide
ongoing management of
long-term affordable hous-
ing in communities all over
the state.
Boardman is one of
several communities slated
to receive funding to de-
velop long-term, affordable
housing options.
“As we enter the cold-
est months of the year,
I’m gratified to see federal
dollars go to keeping roofs
overhead for Oregonians
in communities throughout
the state,” Wyden said.
“While building more long-
term affordable housing
remains an ongoing chal-
lenge, CASA is providing
crucial services to main-
tain and expand the long-
term affordable housing
we already have. I will
continue to fight so that in
the wealthiest, strongest
nation on earth, all Oregon
families have a warm, safe,
affordable and stable place
to call home.”
“Everyone should be
able to afford a safe place
to call home, and as we are
faced with a housing afford-
ability crisis, it is crucial
that we support efforts ex-
panding access to housing
options,” added Merkley.
“This funding, going to
CASA of Oregon to support
housing cooperatives across
the state, will ensure Orego-
nians have greater access
to affordable and reliable
housing options.”
CASA, located in
Sherwood, provides ongo-
ing technical assistance to
housing cooperatives to en-
sure long term viability as
affordable housing options.
CASA will use the Rural
Development grant dollars
from USDA along with
$96,500 it raised to provide
assistance to communities
in Gold Beach, Leaburg,
Boardman, McMinnville,
Idleyld, Dexter, Cottage
Grove, Redmond, Warren-
ton, Clatskanie, Winston,
Estacada, Rainier, Madras,
Welches, and Newport.
“We are grateful for
these much-needed resourc-
es that will allow us to
find long-term solutions to
the housing crisis that too
many Oregonians—espe-
cially those living in rural
areas—face,” said Rose
Ojeda, Director of CASA’s
Manufactured Housing and
Cooperative Development
Center. “We look forward
to working with our lo-
cal partners to develop
programs tailored to their
unique needs that create
more sustainable, healthy
and just communities.”
Local families find Christmas scavenger hunt a success
Print & Mailing
Services
Cold weather and illness made for lower attendance than expected at the second annual Searching for Christ
in Christmas scavenger hunt in Heppner last Sunday, but event coordinator JoAnna Lamb said it was still a
good evening for those present. Several churches and individuals combined their resources to create stations
around town where families could go to warm up, have a treat and learn about the true meaning behind
Christmas. “Next year, we will be looking to add more congregations and some patio heaters!” said Lamb.
The Chick family of Heppner was the winner of the special gift basket containing books, a DVD of The Chosen
and the special surprise of tickets for 16 people total to the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, OR. -Contributed photo
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