Lane petitions council, adopt rules of sanction for sitting law breakers

Linda Kinch and Mattie Lane, two city residents, would like to see consequences for local elected officials that may have broken the law. After conducting their own research, they have filed separate complaints with the state against both Mayor Orville Nelson and former City Council member Harlon Green for allegedly breaking Oregon laws while in office.

They followed up the complaints with a presentation at the October Lakeside Council meeting, where they indicated there should be “consequences to elected officials that fail to follow the process.” Lodging the complaints, Lane said: “puts all our officials on notice that this isn’t acceptable.

In September they filed two complaints against Mayor Nelson and one against former councilor and local contractor Harlon Green with the Oregon Ethics Division.

After extensive research they found that Mayor Nelson, since attaining office, has “awarded work to preferred companies without any bids, any contracts or even a specification of work.”

But they also want to see the city adopt its own sanctions that will allow for censure or removal from office of its officials, depending on the severity of the crime.

They made another point during the presentation, urging the city to make its expenditures available online and posted for all in Lakeside to see where the money goes. That was one of a number of reforms that both Nelson and Green ran for office on in 2006–part of a signed promise to Lakeside citizens–that was subsequently rejected by the two.

Lane made it clear that she did not believe Nelson had done it to line his own pockets, but that he had broken the public trust by giving contracts without following the open bidding law.

Mattie Lane, gave a full explanation, which included this handout packet containing meeting minutes, invoices, etc.

The violations by Nelson go against Oregon law, as well as Lakesides’ Charter. Both have requirements that any prospective contract over $5,000 must go out to bid.

Mayor Nelson defends actions

On the first complaint, Mayor Nelson, took quite a bit of time explaining the necessity that the work be done on the sewer line coming from the prison. He did not produce the bids for the work estimate, but instead said that it would be given to the city attorney. (Ed. note: We will follow up to see what, if anything is produced by Nelson).

He held an envelope in his hand waving it a bit implying he had them in hand. Councilor Elaine Armstrong asked to see the bids, but Nelson then said the documents are not bids (referring to the envelope he was waving). “These are the ethics complaints I received from the state. I just made notes on the envelope,” he said.

Lane did not dispute the need for the work to be done, but was disputing that bids were obtained for the work that was contracted for.

Complaint two:

Nelson stated that bids were received for the inspection of the STEP/STEG systems, but he offered no proof that bids were ever requested and received for repair and pumping of the systems. The work was done by Roto-Rooter after the company completed the inspections.

The work for which the inspections found were necessary came to a total of over $18,000. The need for the work to be done was not disputed by the complainants. It was that the requirements of law to allow all qualified business’s to bid on the work which was apparently not followed.

Harlon Green complaint

It was alleged that Harlon Green–while a sitting former Councilor–billed the city for and was subsequently paid $20, 297. Green often seconded the motion, and always voted to pay the bills. State ethics rules prohibit a sitting elected official from personally financially gaining from the position held.

Green addressed the council and the crowd maintaining that he got a letter from the state saying there had been, “absolutely no complain-able offense.” He went on to threaten that he would never again lend his equipment to the city for spills, “don’t call me I won’t be there.”

Green got applause from some in the audience when he said that it managed to get on Lakesideinfo.com. “I think that was the only reason behind it.”

Lane stood and spoke again in response to Greens’ statement. She said that she really had not intended to bring up the complaint against former councilor Green, but since he had, she would. She said, “The letter I got from the State Ethics Commission was simply asking for more information. I don’t believe there is a question that they are going to except that complaint.”

Roto-Rooter 2009 inspections

One audience member, Kathy Gould, who is sponsoring the recall against Nelson’s five council member nemisis’s, questioned why the wastewater STEP/STEG systems have not been inspected this year. She referenced a letter she had gotten from the city stating that would be the case.

Roto-Rooter was to commence inspections of the sewer systems around July 20th for this, a second year of inspections, but that was stopped by the city recorder and some council members because there were no competitive bids as had been the case for the previous year in question.

The new wastewater superintendent is sending her two employees to training that will allow Lakeside city employees  to do the next inspections. It is believed this could save the city thousands of dollars. Last year Roto-Rooter charged $12,690 for the inspections.

Mattie Lane and Linda Kinch intend to follow-up on the complaints with answers to the questions from the Secretary of State’s office concerning Harlon Green.