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Monday, August 29, 2011

2 of 4 verified Carson emails.

Subject:
Re: Thanks
Date:
Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:02:19 -0700
From:
Rich Carson <richcarson@q.com>
To:
CC:


I didn't leave on short notice. My agreement with the mayor was for 4 months
to the day. My letter explains this. My plan was always to take off some
vacation and to go back to school for my doctorate at WSU. I have no issues
with Kevin Benson's land use application. He applied for the permit he
needed and Hood River County is fine with it. I will be issuing a
organizational audit regarding the city later this week as I promised the
mayor. As a professional public servant, I have no issues. I would not be
happy if my departure became the latest conspiracy theory in Cascade Locks.

----- Original Message -----
From: "rOB bROSTOFF" EMAIL ADDRESS CENSORED To: <richcarson@Q.com>Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 12:34 PM
Subject: Thanks

> Hello Rich.......
>      I want to thank you for your patience in dealing with a difficult
> situation in Casade Locks.  It's been trying for everyone here.  Although
> I have some fundamental disagreements with the current council I think
> that for the most part they're sincere in what they do, I just disagree.
>       I am curious as to why you left on such sudden notice, normally
> professional people give at least 30-90 days notice, or until a
> replacement has been found.  I don't think this is the case and am would
> appreciate your sharing your reasoning, it's taken me by surprise.   Did
> it have anything to do with Kevin Benson and his KOA, or were there other
> issues.
> Thank you in advance,
> Rob Brostoff
> PHONE NUMBER CENSORED
> EMAIL ADDRESS CENSORED

_____________________________________________



A citizen of Cascade Locks told me I should watch the video of the City Council’s last meeting. I did so and was disturbed by what I heard. For this reason, I feel it is important to clarify recent events. I sent you a letter on July 7th stating that my contract as interim city administrator was completed. My understanding with the mayor was that I would work for four months and he stated so in the Hood River News and I met all terms of the agreement.
Upon completion of the contract I returned my keys to city hall and you paid me my final check in full. I acted as a professional, given the situation, and that would have been the best way to end it. However, some members of the City Council wish to make a bad situation worse once again.
I am required to provide the city 30 days notice for a voluntary resignation. My contention is that I did not resign, I merely completed my contract. The contract also states that I attend “all meetings of the City Council.” I did that faithfully. However, I was ordered by the mayor to be in city hall from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday “to keep an eye on the employees.” That is not in the contract. I put in evening meetings with the City Council and the Budget Committee. During some weeks that came to three night meetings a week. I told Mayor Fischer, Council President Pruitt and Councilor Haight in private meeting that I was not going to work 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday and do another 6-20 hours a week in evenings. This was on the morning of July 7th and at that point I felt that they had all violated our contract.
I also had come to the conclusion that working for the city was working in an extremely hostile work environment. Two employees had resigned. The mayor and some councilors were meeting without telling other councilors. I experienced this first hand. I was being asked by citizens why I was participating in these meetings. The truth is when it happened, I was not advised that councilors would be there unannounced. Every employee in city government would say that it was a hostile work environment in front of jury of their peers. And that is only test a city attorney would consider worthy of a future action.
As a seasoned and professional government manager, I would never consider suing the municipal corporation that I worked for. However, the recent actions of members of the City Council give me grave concerns. For that reason, I have asked the firm of Jordan Ramis if they would represent and defend me -- if needed. They said yes. Understand that I have not retained them at this time.
My advice, and assume the advice of your new city attorney, is to not make things legally worse. In other words, cease and desist saying or doing anything from now on that could cost the city legal fees. The last city budget had huge legal cost overuns because the Council took actions that wasted money.
I completed the contract as written. I was also directed to do things that I considered outside of the contract, human resource laws and legal ethics. But then I am not a lawyer. I consider this matter closed. I suggest you do the same.
I am also attaching the organizational audit report that I promised the Mayor I would provide at the end of my tour of duty. And it was a tour of duty.


Friday, August 26, 2011

August 22, 2011, Cascade Locks, Oregon, City Council Meeting.

August 22, 2011, Cascade Locks, City Council Meeting.





I will be posting a few emails from Carson over the next few days.
I need to find out if the addresses and phone numbers need to be censored first.
Cody

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Has Anything Changed.

MEAN TOWN


Cascade Locks is a mean town.  The same people have controlled it for years.  They will not accept change.  They do not want any newcomers upsetting their apple cart. These same people are crying because they lost the middle & high schools.  This town needs more children, but families have moved out of here.  Also, they are crying about wanting new business in town.  What a joke!  New businesses would mean new people.  Oh my, they might want to take over our town or join committees.  We better let them know that they are outsiders and should go back where they came from.  This town, when you leave the main roads, is a mess. Anyone wanting to start a business in this town would drive around checking it out & would not give it a second thought.  There is very little pride of ownership in this town.  There is no place for newcomers to join in and perhaps have some new ideas for the town.  Oh right, they don’t want anyone else to speak up or have an idea.
Now there is a satellite group. They wormed their way into the hierarchy, & are trying to overturn the present City Council with one lie after another.  A committee formed over 3 years ago to investigate the City Services is now being maligned. The committee has no power. It is merely an advisory and idea committee to help the Council. They want to take over both.  The question is why?  For one thing they are losing power. For another, they may not want their skullduggery to come to light.  It is their way or the highway and they wonder why there is no economic development.  Do they think people cannot read the paper?
Don’t allow this group to undermine our town any more.  Do not vote out a Council that has worked very hard trying to straighten out the wrongs.  They don’t get paid & have families, jobs, etc. to take care of, but are donating their time to help this town.  They have been maligned, insulted and called names by that precious few malcontents.
People outside this town think we are a joke.  We are the laughing stock of this County.  Wake up Cascade Locks & admit you are a mean town. Make some positive changes.
Think things have changed?  Check out this link:


River Lady



Monday, August 15, 2011

Who’s Incompetent?

Here is another lesson or two for the day.
When throwing around laws it is best to know what the law was founded on.
Take Ordinance 361 for example. As long as this is active legislation that has not been repealed since it was passed, that very legislation being an Ordinance holds more legal power than a Resolution.
But when the Ordinance also says that all Ordinances or Resolutions concerning the Cascade Locks Fire and Ambulance Department are repealed that means there is no Cascade Locks Fire and Ambulance Department from the date of passage.
Couple that with the provision “including but not limited to” meaning any and all legislation in existence at that time and any future legislation until this Ordinance is repealed, just repeals all legislation passed by the City the minute it was passed by a vote of the Council.
Read it and we will move on to another lesson for the day.

Now at the time the following resolution was passed, Ordinance 361 was passed 3 months before this and the internal governmental agreement with Hood River was still in effect and legally binding.
But the Council at the time wanted a fire chief so bad that they as always forgot about this or did not care and passed this legislation to get what they wanted.
Can you guess which Council members who did all of this today are filing for recalls against these council members, making fools of themselves at Council meetings or in the Hood River News leading the charge to recall.
You read all of this and tell me who was incompetent in what is happening today.
Then think about what I said about they only want your vote to keep the books closed!!!

Cody

Todays Complaint To Council.

From: "Cody Steelman" <codysteelman@embarqmail.com>
To: "George Fischer" <mayor@cascade-locks.or.us>
Cc: "Tom Cramblett" <tcramblett@cascade-locks.or.us>, "kevinbenson" <kevinbenson@cascade-locks.or.us>, "lmasters" <lmasters@cascade-locks.or.us>, "Tiffany Pruit" <tlpruit@cascade-locks.or.us>, "Don Haight" <dhaight@cascade-locks.or.us>, "Eve Zerfing" <ezerfing@cascade-locks.or.us>
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 11:13:08 AM
Subject: Association Complaint.



August 15, 2011

Michael “Cody” Steelman
P.O. Box 621
Cascade Locks, Oregon
                                97014
(541) 490-9273
codysteelman@embarqmail.com

Mayor George Fischer and Council.

                I am sorry that the Council is taking heat for me because of my complaint to the Volunteer Association.
                Understand that actions the Volunteers took in fact violated many laws which brought about that complaint.
                I sent the Council this complaint at the same time I sent it to the Volunteer Association.
                You have read it and out of those laws and in my opinion, when the Volunteers came to the Council meeting and threatened this City with the Statement, that they would not respond if the Chief was fired, this Council not pointing out at that exact time what my complaint covered and explaining it to the Volunteers let the situation spread to the point that they actually did stage a sit down strike in violation of the law.
                Now I read the paper and do some inquiring around town and I am sure you know the details but at this point those details should stay in executive session, but they are at it again.
                Now I have already been informed that you are fully aware of what led up to the Wednesday article in the Hood River News and the sudden change of leadership and if you do not know call me. But this does need to be addressed in executive session and should stay between Council and the Volunteer Association in executive session.
                I will leave it at this. I did not vote for this nor does the Charter grant the powers this Association thinks it has.
                When an Association for our City was not established by Ordinance or Resolution I have a Problem with that as you should.
                When an Association is not founded in accordance to State law. No articles of incorporation were filed with the State. No By-laws were filed with the State. No officers were filed with the State. No assumed business name for the Association was filed with the State; I have a problem with that as I am sure the State would.
                Then I assume this Association has a budget as they have dinners and award ceremonies require a budget and now they are taking donations and have t-shirts for sale and a portion is donated to the Association.
                If the City is budgeting for an unlawful Associations needs I would have a problem with that as you should.
                Anyway this would require this Association to have already filed and been granted an IRS 501 (c) tax code exemption and because this Association has not met this legal requirement I have a problem with that as I am sure the IRS would.
                Well if the City, the State and the Federal Government have not granted this Association the power to legally exist under the law can you tell me what power this Association really has?
                I’ll tell you what power I think they have and that is to get into a lot of legal troubles, with what could be some serious financial implications.
                Had they not ended their unlawful strike they could have been in some very serious legal problems and possibly faced criminal charges.
                Now it is on the record that this Association objected to who the Mayor appointed as Chief and turned around and voted for who they wanted to be Chief which is all three officers of the Association.
                As if it wasn’t bad enough for this Association to send the email to Council during their unlawful strike, an order forbidding this Council (who also happens to be their employer), to speak with any other employees without permission from the Association. Or the order that Council could only speak to the Association President or Vice President and now this latest action they now did this latest unlawful action. When is enough truly enough before this Council takes control of a department that fell for these very reasons?
                Now I did not vote for this and as I said our Charter and the laws protecting the Citizens from these types of abuses, the laws concerning employer rights, do not allow these types of abuses. As a matter of fact there is no law that allows these types of abuses of power to happen.
                The actions that this Association is taking must stop and it is the duty of this Council to put an end to this abuse of power from an Association that does not exist legally under the law or I as a citizen have a right to seek compliance with the law, through the proper authorities being the State Fire Marshall and the State Attorney General to begin with.
                Another abuse of power this Association is in violation of is the fire code oath of office and laws concerning Associations being; they are forbidden to be involved in political matters. These actions must stop.
               All these meetings between volunteers and Citizens I see hanging around the fire hall must stop. Not to mention the minute any Volunteer enters the Fire Station they become a liability risk for workman’s compensation. Should an incident occur and a volunteer or Citizen become injured there is the risk of liability to a suit of law against the City. These meetings must stop. The fire hall is not a club house but a place of business. If they want to have meetings they can have them in compliance with public meeting laws as government is required to do.
                I suggest that this Association be disbanded and dissolved.
                I would further suggest that if the volunteers still want; that a Committee could be established by Ordinance or Resolution. That the form of administration and the policies of this Committee be stated in this legislation. That the Committee complies with public meeting and records laws.        
                Now I am getting heat that has my right to serve on the City Services Committee in jeopardy.
                No actions I have taken against this Association were ever a representation of my being on the Committee, or was there ever an implication that my complaint was due to an action from the Committee. My complaint was from a Citizen after the Association voted to strike in violation of the law and there was no time to get this to the Committee to begin with, much less the time needed to go through the governmental red tape. So it was impossible to have been a Committee action or representation, not to mention the Committee had never had a meeting at that time.
                It was fully a citizen action.
                Now this latest situation I more than likely would have called an emergency meeting of the Committee to recommend an action to Council. But this Committee has been unlawfully held hostage. Much like this Council from those who support these types of unlawful actions as a normal part of our City government.
                So this email to you is not a Committee or member action, but a Complaint from a citizen.
                Now I understand the heat you are getting and this may just turn it up?
                But right now the Volunteer Association leaked the complaints I sent to them. Then they have someone who is not an Association member or a volunteer taking it out of context to use against me to make me look bad. So I apologize for any heat you may take for what I am doing and am going to do but it is time to go public on this matter. I have already released the email the Association sent to the Council and will be going public on the entire matter.
                These people are not going to take my seat away on a Committee I fought so hard to get established, waited as long as I have to get it off the ground and have it taken away from me for a right I had as a citizen. Not without a fight I won’t!
                In the next couple days you will be getting correspondence from me about why I should be on and remain a member of this Committee.
                But tonight you have a special meeting concerning the fire department and my concerns need to be addressed in my mind along with any discussions concerning the State of our Fire Department.

                Thank you again for your time.

                Michael “Cody” Steelman
                           Citizen

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Email To All Council Today.

This is a copy of a document which will be sent by email to the Mayor and all City Councilors after posting of this page.
The Attachments I will send to support my opinion will also be disclosed on this very page.
Cody
August 14, 2011
Michael “Cody” Steelman
P.O. Box 621
Cascade Locks, Oregon
                                97014

(541) 490-9273

Mayor George Fisher

                I have been amazed that a citizen has been allowed to stop the City Services Committee from meeting and holding the City hostage to a right founded by law, which grants you the Mayor the power rule on these complaints and rule on the law that this Committee will continue meeting in accordance to the law. Yet we are on hold.
                But that is not to say that I do not respect this citizen for the valiant attempt she has taken to try and stop this Committee.
                To be honest it is Citizens like this, which at least look at the laws and try to fight what they feel is a government injustice based on the law, which I hold with upmost respect.
                It is citizens like this that I would love to see on the City Services Committee to be honest with you.
                But right now I can see that this Citizen is new at this and I have been fighting these very fights long before this Citizen.
I am not implying that this Citizen has done anything wrong as I said it was a valiant attempt and did stop the Council in its tracks.
But as valiant of an attempt this Citizen has made I feel it is time for me to give you my opinion based on the law just like this Citizen has attempted to do.

This Citizen has used the Council rules on their own accord to State a legal claim that this Committee has never met therefore must be dissolved in accordance to the rules.
Now this Citizen could be intentionally using these rules and not referring to the Resolution as that is where it one could argue this specific provision either way but I will clear it all up for her now.
Now I could just argue with this Citizen that the chain of command is Federal law, State law, City Charter, City Ordinance, City Resolution and then Council rules but that would be far too much law to put us all through in this simple matter.
So I will go right straight to the intent of the law and what that means in the law, as a lesson to this Citizen so she does not make this mistake again.
The mistake this Citizen made was she did not go back to learn the intention of the council rule and research the validity of that provision of the Council Rules she was claiming was in fact a valid rule of law.

Attached is a memorandum dated May 10, 2010.
If you read the issue is a conflict between the newly adopted Committee section of the Council Rules and Resolution 847, the Resolution concerning Committee’s including this very Committee.
So instead of fixing the confliction in both the Resolution and the Council Rules, this Council only resolved the confliction in the Resolution and left the confliction in the Council Rules for a later Council to deal with. I am sorry that it fell on you Mayor Fischer.
It is my opinion the passage of R-051010-2 passed on May 10, 2010, to be numbered Resolution No. 1189, in effect repealed all provisions in the Council Rules concerning Committees.
As a matter of fact I know they did from the language specifically stated in this memo.
So at this point we go to the language of the resolution to rule on this citizen’s complaint as well as mine because council rules no longer apply in this discussion.
Attached is Resolution No. 1189 passed on May 10, 2010.

Now Section 7 of this Resolution does contain the language “Any Committee not meeting
Monthly, or having a quorum for three consecutive months shall be deemed non-functional and shall be disbanded”.
But following that statement it reads “It will then be at the discretion of the Mayor whether or not to appoint a new Committee”.
This very statement makes the mandatory dissolving of a Committee optional to a Mayor.
And the Mayor does have the power to take what may be a committee which could have been disbanded before and make it an active Committee in accordance to those and other powers.
At this point it is not a disbanded committee and can contimue on as an old or new Committee.

So in my opinion this City has not broken any laws concerning this Committee.
At the discretion of the Mayor you appointed this Committee and its members as reflected in the minutes.
Just because I was reappointed does not mean it is not a new Committee, because this Committee had never had its first meeting yet. In reality this is a new and old Committee all rolled into one.
This Committee has never had a meeting and has never been disbanded for failure to have a Committee meeting.
The only reason this Committee never had a meeting was because other Citizens would not apply. Therefore it was never disbanded through 3 administrations for not having a meeting for 3 months straight.
I would further argue that that provision to disband this Committee was never exercised because former Mayors wanted this Committee to become a functioning Committee or they would have disbanned it while in their terms, but they did not.
I would further argue that these former Mayors looked at that provision as reflected in Section 6 Attendance and was treating this as if the Committee were meeting and just stopped for three months straight, as that provision concerning disbanding does not specifically state Committees which are created and never meet. Therefore these former Mayors could or should have disbanded this Committee while in their terms but they did not.
Had previous administrations thought this Committee was not in the best public interest of the City they would have disbanded it under their terms as well, but they did not?
Instead this Committee stayed an active Committee over the years after creation and was not disbanded there for it is still an active Committee in my opinion which you have the right to treat as new or existing Committee, which did not violate any legislative provision.
It is not your fault Mayor Fischer that former administrations did not disolve this Committee yet kept carrying this Committee forward in legislation in my opinion. Nor is it your fault in my opinion that former administrations kept appointing me to the Committee and you had no concerns about my ability to serve on this Committee and appointed or reappointed me to this Committee.

It is my opinion that you Mayor Fischer exercised you legal rights under Resolution 1189 and in accordance to Section 7, which at your discretion you appointed the Committee members and made an Committee in name only up to this time into a fully operating Committee.
That in accordance to Section 2, the Mayor has the power to form this Committee.
That in accordance to Section 3, the members of the Committee shall serve at the discretion of the Mayor.
That in accordance to Section 10, Resolution 1189 is in effect until repealed by the Council.
And as I have pointed out Resolution 1189 is the legal authority in this matter unless there is an Ordinance or State/Federal law saying otherwise.

Now this Committee has minutes and reports to report to the Council.
So can we stop with this little game these people are playing and get on to getting some business done for the City?
Run this by the City Attorney as I am more than sure this will clear up any uncertainties they may have in this matter.

Thank you for your time in this matter.

Michael “Cody” Steelman
Citizen and legally appointed Committee Member over the years.


Saturday, August 13, 2011

I Did Not Vote For This Did You?

I never knew I voted to allow City employees to run the Emergency Services Department.
Is this what you voted for?
Cody  
Subject:  Communication with fire & EMS volunteers
Date:  Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:59:48 -0700
From:  Megan Webb <firefighterwebb@yahoo.com>
To:  mayor@cascade-locks.or.us <mayor@cascade-locks.or.us>, dhaight@cascade-locks.or.us <dhaight@cascade-locks.or.us>, tlpruit@cascade-locks.or.us <tlpruit@cascade-locks.or.us>, kevinbenson@cascade-locks.or.us <kevinbenson@cascade-locks.or.us>, lmasters@cascade-locks.or.us <lmasters@cascade-locks.or.us>, ezerfing@cascade-locks.or.us <ezerfing@cascade-locks.or.us>, tcramblett@cascade-locks.or.us <tcramblett@cascade-locks.or.us>

Good evening. I recently had a telephone conversation with a fellow volunteer, Jess Zerfing, regarding a meeting between 2 council members and "a few" of the volunteers. I would like to first and foremost establish with the mayor and council members who they should contact regarding any communications with the fire & EMS volunteers. I myself am the President of the volunteer emergency services association, and Zach Pardue is the Vice-President of the association. All communication should be through either myself or Zach. We were voted into the positions by our peer volunteers to represent the volunteers as a whole. I was informed that 2 of the council members would like to sit down with a few of the volunteers to discuss options to resolve the current situation of our department. We have invited you all as a whole on many occasions to come and speak with the volunteers and I must say we are astounded that it took this long and the circumstances had to get this d
rastic for the council to finally decide that you want to speak with us and ask us how we feel. If you want to ask questions, concerns or option ideas of the volunteers then you need to include all of us in the conversation, not just a few or a couple of us. And I would like to ask why are only 2 council members  going to be included in this meeting? What is that going to solve? Why can't we speak with the council as a whole group? So, if you really would like to sit down with all of the volunteers and discuss our opinions and ideas, then I would love to set up a date and time with you where we can all sit down and talk. And tonight it was brought to my attention that council will be having an emergency meeting regarding the current situation of the fire department. Why were we not made aware of this previous to the night before? Do you not think it might be a good idea to speak with the volunteers on this subject possibly before the meeting is held? In closing I would highly recommend that you contact either myself or Zach with any questions or concerns that you may have. We look forward to hearing from you about a meeting date and time for us to all sit down and discuss the matters at hand.

Thank you for you time
Sincerely
Megan Webb
President
CLVESA

Sent from my iPhone

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

There is an Attorney Opinion saying that a privilege tax is legal.
Really now?
I beg to differ with you former Mayor.
You imposed this tax under your term.
Maybe you should have argued your case before the Courts first?
Because all this so called opinion our former Mayor keeps throwing around tells me, is that under the law it is unlawful and it needs to go before the courts to make a ruling.
And it is clear that a privedge tax is not legal under the law.
But I guess you need to understand that a distribution fee and a privledge tax are the same thing.
The only thing this City can do is go before the courts to see if they can take from the surplus earnings and that is it.
But a privledge tax the City cannot impose on itself.

Cody


Monday, August 1, 2011

What am I to Think?

Now we have seen the auditor’s report and it is not pretty.
First off the E.M.S. fund has been has been employing one of the worst financial management practices any business could do. It is called carry forward negative balance calculation. Where the expenditures of this department where allowed to rise above the revenue being generated and it was just carried over from budget year to budget year.
But even carry forward negative balance calculation requires a minimum payment to be paid, followed by a payment plan to pay this debt back and that did not even happen.
Try getting away with this with your Bank or Credit Card Company and see how many fees you will have to pay, until that debt is paid back.
So my first question is, was management awake or a sleep at the wheel starting in 2007 when maybe this entire department only needed a little fine tuning?
Well if I go through the record I can see management was doing the exact opposite of what they should have been doing. Instead of cutting back on expenditures they kept stockpiling it on. Instead of measuring the performance of this department, they continued on with a management system which clearly was not working.
Well by not fixing it back then it broke and now we are living the effects of this past mismanagement fiasco.
But what takes the cake for me in this whole mismanaged mess is the fact that public records were being changed in this very City by our City Administrator and our very Fire Chief.
The thing about this is in 2008 when I should have seen expenditures in a protected fund; I see $345,075.00 that has somehow just vanished.
This automatically sends red flags up and I combine that missing money with the fact that records where being changed..
If they are changing records this easily and have the audacity to ask Council “did I do anything wrong”
To that I will say yes something wrong was done and both our former City Administrator and Fire Chief broke the law.
ORS 162.305 Tampering with public records. (1) A person commits the crime of tampering with public records if, without lawful authority, the person knowingly destroys, mutilates, conceals, removes, makes a false entry in or falsely alters any public record, including records relating to the Oregon State Lottery.
(2)(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection, tampering with public records is a Class A misdemeanor.
(b) Tampering with records relating to the Oregon State Lottery is a Class C felony. [1971 c.743 §205; 1991 c.962 §16]
This is only one of many criminal law violations that this could lead to.
So if you do not believe this happened read it for yourselves.

Cody