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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