Lawyer says Lee abused his position as Clatsop County Board Chairman
County staff bent over backwards to be fair attorney says; in return, one may have been called a ‘witch’ or a ‘bitch’
By JOE GAMM
The Daily Astorian 2/08/2008
Clatsop County Commissioner Richard Lee's wife, Lynda, demanded staff be terminated for upholding county and state law.
That's a no-no.
So said Jill Goldsmith, a Portland attorney, in her report of an investigation into Commissioner Richard Lee's dealings with the county's own planning department released Friday.
Details of Goldsmith's report were released after the county commissioners held a meeting in executive session Friday morning. Details of what happened in the executive session are not allowed to be reported. Lee was not present at the meeting because he was asked not to attend.
This latest development is the county's fourth investigation into impropriety concerning Richard Lee, who is likely to be the subject of a recall election next month.
During the past year, allegations against Lee have mounted up.
They include:
• abusing his position as chairman of the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners to obtain favorable treatment in his business dealings;
• interfering with the selection of members of the Clatsop County Planning Commission to ensure land-use votes and related decisions reflect his own opinions, including the vote on the controversial liquefied natural gas proposal;
• failing to complete the necessary paperwork for land-use issues and permit applications concerning his business, then harassing staff members who tried to enforce the rules;
• leading a campaign to cut District Attorney Josh Marquis' county stipend last year as revenge because Marquis' wife ran against him for election.
All this led a group of citizens to seek Lee's recall; county elections department staff are expected to verify signatures next week.
This latest investigation concerns a complaint filed by Clatsop County Planner Jennifer Bunch in December, saying a problem exists when employees are concerned for their jobs if they require developers to hold to the letter of the law.
County Manager Scott Derickson received a tort claim from Lee - a document which prepares the way for a lawsuit - against the county Jan. 28. The claim, written by Lee's Portland attorney, said the county had given Lee "special treatment by attempting to put additional restrictions" on his developments.
Ironically, Bunch's complaint said he was getting special treatment of another kind: she believed he wasn't being held up to the same standards as other developers.
The day after receiving the tort claim letter, Derickson issued a memo to staff saying the county would support staff "doing the right thing" of upholding the standards of the county.
In her report released Friday, Goldsmith, concluded that Lee had "unprecedented access to the county management that no other developer enjoyed - and that staff reasonably viewed him as using his political position to challenge every planning decision he disagreed with."
In a four-page explanation of the conclusions she reached, Goldsmith wrote that it appeared to her that neither Lee, nor his wife Lynda, understood the necessity "for tact and discretion in dealing with staff because of his position."
Goldsmith's report said staff had done "their utmost to (1) achieve a balance between its mission as a planning and land-use agency charged with implementing land-use laws and (2) behaving respectfully to an elected official who does not seem to understand that his behavior (or that of his agent) has an impact on staff when he is on the County Board of Commissioners."
The balance staff was trying to achieve "(did) not appear to have been successful."
Within the report, Goldsmith reported that although both Lees deny it happened, Lynda Lee had had a conversation with Ed Wegner, Clatsop County director of community development, in which she either called Bunch a "witch" or a "bitch," and demanded she be fired.
Goldsmith said she could find no reason for Wegner to fabricate whether Lynda Lee made the statement.
The Lees submitted confusing and contradictory documents to the Planning Department, showing a structure as either part of the RV park or the golf course, but giving different uses for it.
When Bunch pointed out the inconsistencies, Lynda Lee became angry. When Bunch said the verbal description of the structure didn't match the written one, Lynda Lee crossed out the written one on the permit.
When Goldsmith asked Richard Lee about statements Lynda Lee made, he became defensive and made accusations that Bunch made the complaint because of a political conspiracy between Bunch and District Attorney Marquis.
The pattern of the Lees' conduct was the reason for Bunch's complaint, not a political conspiracy, Goldsmith concluded.
In trying to help the Lees out, in spite of the Lee property being "red flagged" - a condition in which no permits are to be issued - Clatsop County Community Development Supervisor Patrick Wingard issued a mechanical permit for Lee's stepdaughter to install a gas stove, so she'd have heat in her building.
Goldsmith said that Lee's statement to her that his stepdaughter was denied a permit was misleading, because it was not what happened.
Lee said that if there were truly a complaint against him, the Planning Department's compliance officer would make it, the report said.
Goldsmith said Wingard and Wegner reported that there wouldn't have been a compliance officer involved because the Planning Department was continuing to work with the Lees.
"I find that the county's compliance officer has not been directed to investigate violations by Lee because the department staff is still trying to persuade Lee to comply voluntarily with the law.
Lee complained to her that staff substituted their own personal philosophies for state and county codes. She said he gave an example that his engineers drew plans for a building height of 6.9 feet to be above the flood plain.
"This was rejected by planning because the code required the height to be 7 feet," she wrote. "Lee said that planning should have waived this minor problem and allowed the development of that building. Lee said that if a development is legal, there should be ways of doing it."
Goldsmith said Lee's example is appropriate. If only because his interpretation is wrong.
"If a code requires a height of 7 feet, then it should be clear that 6.9 feet is insufficient," she wrote.
• To contact reporter Joe Gamm, e-mail him at jgamm@dailyastorian.com or call (503) 325-3211 ext. 212
County staff bent over backwards to be fair attorney says; in return, one may have been called a ‘witch’ or a ‘bitch’
By JOE GAMM
The Daily Astorian 2/08/2008
Clatsop County Commissioner Richard Lee's wife, Lynda, demanded staff be terminated for upholding county and state law.
That's a no-no.
So said Jill Goldsmith, a Portland attorney, in her report of an investigation into Commissioner Richard Lee's dealings with the county's own planning department released Friday.
Details of Goldsmith's report were released after the county commissioners held a meeting in executive session Friday morning. Details of what happened in the executive session are not allowed to be reported. Lee was not present at the meeting because he was asked not to attend.
This latest development is the county's fourth investigation into impropriety concerning Richard Lee, who is likely to be the subject of a recall election next month.
During the past year, allegations against Lee have mounted up.
They include:
• abusing his position as chairman of the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners to obtain favorable treatment in his business dealings;
• interfering with the selection of members of the Clatsop County Planning Commission to ensure land-use votes and related decisions reflect his own opinions, including the vote on the controversial liquefied natural gas proposal;
• failing to complete the necessary paperwork for land-use issues and permit applications concerning his business, then harassing staff members who tried to enforce the rules;
• leading a campaign to cut District Attorney Josh Marquis' county stipend last year as revenge because Marquis' wife ran against him for election.
All this led a group of citizens to seek Lee's recall; county elections department staff are expected to verify signatures next week.
This latest investigation concerns a complaint filed by Clatsop County Planner Jennifer Bunch in December, saying a problem exists when employees are concerned for their jobs if they require developers to hold to the letter of the law.
County Manager Scott Derickson received a tort claim from Lee - a document which prepares the way for a lawsuit - against the county Jan. 28. The claim, written by Lee's Portland attorney, said the county had given Lee "special treatment by attempting to put additional restrictions" on his developments.
Ironically, Bunch's complaint said he was getting special treatment of another kind: she believed he wasn't being held up to the same standards as other developers.
The day after receiving the tort claim letter, Derickson issued a memo to staff saying the county would support staff "doing the right thing" of upholding the standards of the county.
In her report released Friday, Goldsmith, concluded that Lee had "unprecedented access to the county management that no other developer enjoyed - and that staff reasonably viewed him as using his political position to challenge every planning decision he disagreed with."
In a four-page explanation of the conclusions she reached, Goldsmith wrote that it appeared to her that neither Lee, nor his wife Lynda, understood the necessity "for tact and discretion in dealing with staff because of his position."
Goldsmith's report said staff had done "their utmost to (1) achieve a balance between its mission as a planning and land-use agency charged with implementing land-use laws and (2) behaving respectfully to an elected official who does not seem to understand that his behavior (or that of his agent) has an impact on staff when he is on the County Board of Commissioners."
The balance staff was trying to achieve "(did) not appear to have been successful."
Within the report, Goldsmith reported that although both Lees deny it happened, Lynda Lee had had a conversation with Ed Wegner, Clatsop County director of community development, in which she either called Bunch a "witch" or a "bitch," and demanded she be fired.
Goldsmith said she could find no reason for Wegner to fabricate whether Lynda Lee made the statement.
The Lees submitted confusing and contradictory documents to the Planning Department, showing a structure as either part of the RV park or the golf course, but giving different uses for it.
When Bunch pointed out the inconsistencies, Lynda Lee became angry. When Bunch said the verbal description of the structure didn't match the written one, Lynda Lee crossed out the written one on the permit.
When Goldsmith asked Richard Lee about statements Lynda Lee made, he became defensive and made accusations that Bunch made the complaint because of a political conspiracy between Bunch and District Attorney Marquis.
The pattern of the Lees' conduct was the reason for Bunch's complaint, not a political conspiracy, Goldsmith concluded.
In trying to help the Lees out, in spite of the Lee property being "red flagged" - a condition in which no permits are to be issued - Clatsop County Community Development Supervisor Patrick Wingard issued a mechanical permit for Lee's stepdaughter to install a gas stove, so she'd have heat in her building.
Goldsmith said that Lee's statement to her that his stepdaughter was denied a permit was misleading, because it was not what happened.
Lee said that if there were truly a complaint against him, the Planning Department's compliance officer would make it, the report said.
Goldsmith said Wingard and Wegner reported that there wouldn't have been a compliance officer involved because the Planning Department was continuing to work with the Lees.
"I find that the county's compliance officer has not been directed to investigate violations by Lee because the department staff is still trying to persuade Lee to comply voluntarily with the law.
Lee complained to her that staff substituted their own personal philosophies for state and county codes. She said he gave an example that his engineers drew plans for a building height of 6.9 feet to be above the flood plain.
"This was rejected by planning because the code required the height to be 7 feet," she wrote. "Lee said that planning should have waived this minor problem and allowed the development of that building. Lee said that if a development is legal, there should be ways of doing it."
Goldsmith said Lee's example is appropriate. If only because his interpretation is wrong.
"If a code requires a height of 7 feet, then it should be clear that 6.9 feet is insufficient," she wrote.
• To contact reporter Joe Gamm, e-mail him at jgamm@dailyastorian.com or call (503) 325-3211 ext. 212