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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2011)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, February 3, 2011 The INDEPENDENT Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410. Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net Mentor Noni Andersen Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes Opinion City gets good audit news For the past five years, the yearly required audit of Vernonia's finances has indicated problems with inter- nal controls (for example: too many people with possi- ble access to a stamp used to ‘sign’ checks). The 2008- 2009 audit indicated nine different “significant deficien- cies”, including not filing the audit timely with the state audit division, required loan reserve amounts not being maintained in separate accounts, and voided checks not being mutilated, just to name a few. This year, the audit of the fiscal year July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010, was done on time (also a prob- lem the past couple years). The only bad news in the audit was some runaway spending during that year, which resulted in our tighter budget for this fiscal year. That came as no surprise, as it was generally well known that prior City Administrator Bob Young was released from his contract early, partly because of that runaway spending. It is good news that the auditors found no problems with the internal controls, and that the loan reserves were all in place. It had reached the point where we cringed when it was audit time and it was with a huge sigh of relief that we reviewed this one and found such good results. Thanks to all who worked to clean up the problems in these areas. The citizens of Vernonia can breath easier on this count. Hiring a City Administrator? One topic at recent Vernonia council study sessions has been how to proceed with city administrator hiring and whether to consider the current interim, Bill Haack, as a potential candidate. Compared to Dick Kline, Aldie Howard and Bob Young, Haack stands far above those choices. With no prior city administrator experience, he’s stepped up and has gotten governmental funds for the city, has improved dialog with county, state and fed- eral officials…and with the citizens of Vernonia. We’ve heard far fewer complaints from citizens lately about in- teractions with City Hall. We have disagreed with all of the above administra- tors, including Haack. The difference is that Haack maintains professional courtesy, understanding that our work requires us to ask questions; the others at- tacked us, tried to hide records, even threatened legal action because we did our job. We think Haack de- serves consideration by council for the job. Ike Says… By Dale Webb, member Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League Who knows, maybe by this time next year we will be buying our hunting and fishing licenses from the Oregon Department of Natural Resources. Senate Bill 521, spon- sored by Senator Starr, would totally revamp all the natural resource de- partments in the State of Oregon. The list of de- partments is long, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, State Parks and Recreation, De- partment of State Lands, Department of Land Conservation and Development, Land Use Board of Appeals, State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, Water Resources De- partment, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, State Forestry Department and Oregon Forest Resources Institute. As far as sportspeople are concerned, the housing of ODF&W and the State Forestry de- partment under one roof would be interesting, at the least. Many a biologist has been frustrated by the goal to maintain wildlife populations while, at the same time, having no control at all over the habitat that many wildlife species need to survive. Maybe, and this is a big maybe, the bi- ologists might get a little more influence over what is done to wildlife habitat on state forestry lands in the future. The move of all these agen- agency having its own board of commissioners, the ODNR would have one board consisting of nine members and a requirement that each com- missioner be “well informed” on the laws pertain- ing to each of seven categories. These cate- gories would be wildlife law, commercial fishing law, outdoor recreation policy, state land admin- istration laws, geology/mines/minerals laws, wa- ter resource laws and policy and forestry laws. The nine commissioners would be composed of at least one person who fits each of these cate- gories and one more who represents the interest of people who grow and harvest timberlands. Frankly, while the system currently in place at ODF&W has not been very open to changes suggested by the people who pay most of the bills, I tend to think that a commission made up of people who have a wider range of interest and focus, would be even harder to persuade to change course over the objections of staff. Also this new commission would have far more deci- sions to make, since they would be in charge of all these former agencies and their ability to fo- cus on any one agency at a time may be com- promised. I also found it strange that timberland producers may actually be able to gain a three- person membership on this commission (forestry law, forest producer and the one position that is not spelled out in the proposal but could be two commissioners in one category). Noticeably absent from the makeup of the new commission is the agriculture and livestock community that has always been heavily repre- Please see page 18
