GOLDENDALE — The most startling news coming out of the Klickitat County Commission came after the regularly scheduled meeting Oct. 22.
Dan Christopher, Klickitat Co. Board of Commissioners
Two weeks ago, the county was served with notice of a tort claim from Mark Jobe, husband of County Auditor Heather Jobe, claiming Commissioner Dan Christopher violated his First Amendment rights and insinuating he might use what he thought was dirt on Jobe to curb Jobe’s criticism of Christopher. At a meeting on Oct. 15, Commissioners Jake Anderson and Lori Zoller voted that Christopher was not acting in his official capacity and thus should not be defended by the insurance pool to which the county belongs.
On the afternoon of the Oct. 22, the insurance pool formally notified the county that it disagreed with that assessment and stands ready to defend Christoper in this proposed lawsuit. The notification cites a portion of its agreement with the county that says if the county denies the request for defense and the pool disagrees with the county’s decision, the county could be liable to for costs in defending the lawsuit.
In a Tuesday evening email in response to a request for comment, Christopher noted that about 30% of Klickitat County ballots have been turned in and claimed “the county is on the hook for election interference from me if I lose the election and file suit against the county and Commissioners Zoller and Anderson ... I will be notifying the board clerk tonight of my request for the board to hold an emergency session so that they can reevaluate and potentially change their minds before even more votes are cast.”
The Goldendale Sentinel noted that Christopher maintained he was not, in fact, acting in his official commissioner capacity when he responded to the paper’s initial request for comment. Christopher was upset that multiple comment requests were emailed to his county email address, asserting, “This did not happen in my official commissioner capacity.”
Not a lot of news came out of the meeting on the 22nd. There was no jail update, and when the commissioners were asked if they had any additional information, all three responded that they got the same reports at the same time the public did—in the course of an open meeting.
Commissioners did agree to look into a situation where a resident bought a five-acre parcel in Box Canyon, and found a well at that location would have to be 900 feet deep at a cost of $85,000. His next move was to inquire about putting in a 2500-gallon cistern and haul water in. To do so, the county told him he needed to hire an engineer. The engineer said that the requirements were so stringent, that before a single dollar was spent on equipment, the engineering costs would run him $18,000. Commissioners agreed that this was excessive, with Christopher adding noting that there is no county requirement that someone hire an engineer.
“You can do the drawings yourself,” he said. “They need to be able to do a better job advising you on what is possible, what the minimum requirements are. I’m not saying it’s just public health. It’s planning, building, everybody.”
Commissioners did uncover the mystery of the missing sign at the viewpoint east of Glenwood. At an earlier meeting, a local resident noted that though a sign invited visitors to the viewpoint, the road to the viewpoint itself was in need of serious repair, creating a potential liability for the county. Since that time, the sign has vanished. Public Works Director Jeff Hunter said he’d looked into the situation and found that part of the road was owned by the Nature Trust, and the final part, including the viewpoint itself, was owned by the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Hunter said the tribe asked the county to remove the sign, as they did not have any immediate intention of upgrading the road.
In the public comment period, one person said they’d heard that the county was going to have to spend an additional $1.2 million to take over the operation of the jail, and that drew a response from Zoller.
“No true numbers that have ever been recorded anywhere in our budget process,” she said. “If you heard those on the street or somewhere else, it’s not valid ... That was an incredibly exaggerated number that’s not happening with the jail. The misconception that the sheriff is at odds with us. The sheriff has worked with us. He has worked with staff. He’s worked to help correct the situation. He’s been very helpful. So has his staff to help our staff moved forward to build the new DOC (Department of Corrections). And the misconception that this was all a vendetta between Mr. Anderson and myself is again a misconception, and should not be said in public. It’s not true.
“This was done because you know of legalities and things that happened at the sheriff department and at the jail that it threw it into legal ramifications that at that point, by law, the commissioners are required to step in and start assisting. And that’s exactly what we did — nothing else, nothing more. There’s never been a time that this board ever maligned the sheriff in public or behind the scenes that I’ve heard.”
And later in the meeting, Jenn Neil provided the figure of $189,000 in transition costs, which she said included “wages and benefits for the potential new hire as well as a potential RN (registered nurse) and a little bit of an increase for training, just in case.”
Under the consent agenda, commissioners approved a $5,660.41 contract to replace the floor covering in the first floor restroom floor at the Pioneer Center.
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