Cheers: To the punishments suggested for Vancouver City Councilor Jeanne Harris by a three-member subcommittee of her peers. The ad hoc ethics commission this week finished its report on Harris’ Sept. 13 outburst during a council meeting. The commissioners found that Harris failed three times during the meeting to abide by a rule that council members treat each other with dignity and respect, and recommended she receive a public letter of reprimand and be stripped of her duties on interagency boards and commissions.
Left unpunished was Harris’ inarguably rude and now infamous “gavel down!” efforts to quash citizen input. The commission found no city rules against such inappropriate conduct; the gap will be addressed when the council ethics policy is updated later this year. Meanwhile, Vancouver residents have ample reason to wonder about her viability and effectiveness as a councilor, as her influence and credibility rapidly fade.
Jeers: To the latest Department of Corrections plan to close Larch Corrections Center outside of Yacolt. Faced with additional budget reductions, the state has once again gone back to its tired plan to close the facility, despite the convincing arguments to keep it open. Inmates provide thousands of hours of useful labor, and are an important line of protection against wildfires. The Larch facility costs less to run than the McNeil Island Corrections Center, where all supplies have to be transported by boat.
It’s also important to note that the taxpayers aren’t demanding fewer prison beds; it’s more cost-efficient prison beds we seek. That could best be achieved by looking to improve controls on costs, such as unionized labor and its work rules.
Cheers: To the county’s expanding use of E-Verify, a database that allows employers to check prospective employees and their Social Security numbers to ensure they are legally entitled to work in the United States. Clark County has been a leader in the public sector, requiring since last September that its largest contractors use the system. So far 14 contracts worth $1 million or more have been vetted using E-Verify.
The most recent proposal would expand the requirement to the estimated 268 contracts annually worth $25,000 or more with the county. E-Verify’s database doesn’t yet include every worker at every company, but it is growing and will eventually help to ensure that anyone working for the county is legally entitled to do so.
Jeers: To TriMet’s efforts to first downplay, then bully their way out of a $137 million funding hole on its planned MAX light rail line from Portland to Milwaukie, Ore. According to The Oregonian, federal transit officials told TriMet 18 months ago they would pay for half of its $1.5 billion construction cost. But TriMet kept basing its projections on a 60 percent federal contribution.
Now that the gap has come to light, and the feds have said “go away,” the transit agency is trying to wrest the millions from its local partners such as Metro and the city of Portland. Would TriMet show such poor management skill when it comes time to extend light rail to Clark County?
Cheers: To putting the fruit back into Fruit Valley. The historic working-class neighborhood on Vancouver’s west side is a long way from supermarkets that carry much selection of fresh produce. A partnership including agencies, government and the neighborhood association put together a plan to grow and distribute more food in neighborhood gardens, and to provide regular produce deliveries from a Ridgefield farm.
