Mayor defends golf outings
La Center mayor James Irish insists that city-paid participation by himself and family members in golf outings and dinners were appropriate.
Council member Dale Smith, running against Irish for mayor in the November election, said he believes otherwise.
To “put the issue to rest,” Irish has paid the city back the $790 expense for this year’s golf and dinner event, conducted to benefit the Parks Foundation.
Irish said the City’s relationship with the Parks Foundation of Vancouver began years ago during Liz Cerveny’s term as mayor. He said the Parks Foundation, a non-profit organization linked to Vancouver-Clark Parks & Recreation, partnered with La Center to help develop Sternwheeler Park.
Cerveny said last week that during her seven-year term as mayor, Parks Foundation members helped La Center by running Community Connections events to create more interest in city park areas. She said they organized AmeriCorps volunteers to help with tree plantings and pull invasive weeds from park areas. Mary Ann Barrus, president of the Parks Foundation, said Foundation members have worked with La Center on various projects off and on since the start of Community Connections in 1991.
Irish said that in 2004, he, his son, son-in-law and and their spouses attended a Parks Foundation fundraising dinner. The event was charged to the City.
Irish said that in 2005, he, his son, son-in-law and council member Troy Van Dinter played in the annual Parks Foundation golf tournament. The city paid for the golf outing for the men, and for dinners after golf for the men and their spouses except the spouse of Van Dinter who did not attend.
Irish said, his son, son-in-law and a member of the School Foundation Committee attended a similar Parks Foundation fundraiser in 2006. Costs of the golf outing for the men, and a dinner for the men and their wives, were again paid by the City.
In 2007, the Irish men participated again in the Parks Foundation golf outing, this time with La Center school superintendent Mark Mansell. Irish said his son and son-in-law for the first time were now working for Countrywide Home Loans.
With 5-0 city council approval, the City paid $790 for the golf outing, along with dinner for them and their spouses. Irish said he won raffles for $179 and $150, and donated the winnings to the Parks Foundation.
Council members questioned the budgeted expenditure at a June 2007 council meeting.
A taped account of a June 13 council meeting reveals that Irish was questioned by Bob Smith and Van Dinter about the $790 charge and participants from Countrywide. When Irish replied to Van Dinter’s question about who played in the golf group, Irish said team members included himself, Mansell, and two representatives from Countrywide Mortgage who he identified as Mike Liane and James Buetler. He did not mention in his response that the men were relatives or that all four plus their spouses would have dinner at city expense.
Dale Smith in a recent interview said that he and other council members would not have approved the expenditure had they known Liane and Buetler and/or their wives were related to Irish.
When asked why he did not identify these persons as relatives, Irish said, “Everyone always knew who the team members were. They knew both my son and son-in-law by name.”
“I didn’t know,” said Smith at an Oct. 11 council meeting. “I didn’t know about his family’s involvement. He didn’t provide the information that the wive’s were going to the dinner.”
“Who is on the team has come up as a political issue,” said Irish at the council meeting. “There is not a person here that doesn’t know my family. They’ve all lived within five blocks of them.”
Irish said the expenditure was appropriate for the city because his family members are employed by Countrywide, which markets itself as the nation’s top mortgage lender. He said the tournament offered a chance for networking between himself, his team members, other participants and tournament officials.
Smith provided information at last week’s meeting that neither Countrywide nor Irish’s family members were actual vendors of the city. “There is no evidence of any working association, or work product, with these people,” said Smith. Irish did not respond to that statement.
Dale Smith said council members Van Dinter and Bob Smith filed complaints with the state Auditor’s office. The audit is to be completed by Oct. 19, but the findings may not be known for up to 10 business days after that date.
An anonymous person claiming to be an employee of the city recently delivered packets of information providing details of the city-paid outings, with a recording of the June 13 council meeting and a written transcript of the meeting to city council members. Copies were sent to the state Auditor and Attorney General and Clark County Prosecutors Office.
In a Sept. 27 letter to council members, Irish said he repaid the $790 for the 2007 outing. He said he repaid the City to make it whole, pending an evaluation by state auditors. Irish said city policies are not clear on attending such events, and he also wanted to put the matter to rest. He said he has a draft measure to tighten up the City’s policy regarding such matters.

Carson will leave county position
Rich Carson will retire Oct. 19 from director of the Clark County Community Development Department, ending nine years of service in the position.
Carson said he plans to work part-time and intermittently for Citygate and Associates, a consulting firm that helps governments become more efficient and customer friendly through management and performance reviews.
“I am turning 60 years old this month, and have decided to retire and follow some other pursuits,” said Carson. “I have worked in city, county, regional and state government in Oregon and Washington for more than 30 years, so it is time to do something different.”
In addition to working on a consulting basis with Citygate and Associates, Carson said he intends to do some writing, and continue work on a doctorate degree at Washington State University Vancouver. The doctorate will be in the field of environmental science and natural resources with an emphasis on sustainable development.
Carson, who lives in Hockinson with his wife and two of his five children, worked on studies of a proposed Pioneer Airport near Ridgefield in the 1970s.
In 1980, he was named planning manager with the Oregon Economic Development Department, a position he held for seven years. He then became director of planning for Metro, a regional planning agency based in Portland.
After five years with Metro, Carson served as community development director and acting city manager for the city of Oregon City, OR. Four years later, he assumed the community development position with Clark County.
“Rich has brought important innovations to Community Development during his tenure,” said county administrator Bill Barron. “I am very happy for him and wish him well.”
County budget director Glenn Olson has been named acting director of the Community Development Department. Barron said a search for a new director will begin immediately.
The Community Development Department has about 160 employees who deal with development and engineering services, building permits, code enforcement, animal control and the fire marshal’s office.
“Nine years is the longest I’ve worked for anybody,” said Carson of his Clark County employment. “For the most part, I’ve had a really good time doing it.”
Carson said he had been bothered at times by elected officials “micro-managing” his work. For example, he said, twice the county commissioners demoted employees who reported to him rather than setting policies and allowing him to work within those policies.
Carson ran for the Hockinson School Board four years ago and lost by 10 votes. “I’d be interested in politics,” said Carson, who said he would not rule out a run for the state legislature. Carson lives in the 18th legislative district.
Carson’s department was reviewed in 2000 by Citygate and Associates, resulting in 44 recommendations for improvement. Most of those recommendations were implemented, said Carson, resulting in improvements in permitting and working relationships.
The Citygate review included a customer survey that gave the department a C-minus, “below the IRES and OSHA,” said Carson. Subsequent surveys have boosted the department’s rating to a B-plus, he said, with many respondents praising individual staff members who handled their cases.
Carson said he was impressed by the Citygate company and began discussing employment with them about two years ago.
Planners deal with “sprawl,” said Carson, and “sustainability”--concepts which are ill-defined. “There is no such thing as sprawl,” he said. Carson said claims of global warming are “largely bogus.”
Carson and his wife have three grown children, two children ages 7 and 11 at home, and one grandson. The family intends to remain in the Hockinson area.

Residents call church sign neighborhood nuisance
Brandy Slagle
Staff reporter
When Kimberly Fallon moved into the Wolf Creek neighborhood off SR-503in Vancouver, she thought the quiet courtyard was an ideal place to raise her family.
The church on the corner was the crown jewel in what she envisioned as wholesome community living.
But, in five years of living next to the church, that vision has been altered.
When a sign reading “SEX” in 3-foot-tall letters was posted on roadside and parking lot banners outside the Living Hope Church, that vision was nearly shattered.
Smaller print underneath the word “SEX” says that “some things are still black and white.” The roadside billboard advertises a series of sermons being conducted as part of something Senior Pastor John Bishop calls a “purity revolution.”
But it seems like the black and white issue is getting some grey responses.
Kathy Bieman who has lived in Wolf Creek for two years, said it was somewhat ironic that the Living Hope Church posted “Love thy neighbor” on their Web site when she went to e-mail a complaint to the church office.
“Respect is a bigS part of love,” she said.
Keeping the sign up in spite of their concerns is not very respectful or neighborly, she said.
Both Fallon and Bieman said they are not offended by the content of the sermon and support what the church is doing. The issue, they said, is the way the subject is advertised to the community.
Fallon said small children who see the sign could ask questions parents are not ready to answer, and that it infringes upon the parent’s right to choose the time to address sex education in the home.
“I’m not trying to offend anyone at the church,” she said. “I am supportive of them. Many people who attend that church are my friends. I have let my children go to their youth night. I just wish that they would rethink the way they are advertising the church and be softer around small children.”
Bishop said the sign stays.
“I have to think about the greater good,” he said. “And that is doing God’s work.”
The Living Hope Church is the seventh fastest growing church in the nation, according to Outreach Magazine.com. Still, Bishop said, Sunday service attendance swelled the weekend after the signs were hung on the busy road.
About 500 people came to the church that weekend above the congregation’s average. The church has close to 10,000 members.
In two sermons, he said, about 200 teenagers pledged to abstain from sex until marriage.
Still, Bishop said he detests conflict and has spent several sleepless nights praying about the controversy the sign has caused with some of the Wolf Creek residents.
However, Bishop said, leading a purity revolution is big responsibility and to take down the signs would be failing God.
Bieman said the sign sends a negative and questionable message about the methods the church uses to recruit new parishioners.
“You don’t need all of those bells and whistles,” she said. “When people are ready to hear the word of God they will want to go. There is no need for sensational signs.”
Bieman said she wishes that the church was managed with a little more consideration of other people’s beliefs.
If the sermons are about morality, said Fallon, why wasn’t that printed in big letters on the side of the road.
“I wouldn’t want to live next to my church,” said Bishop. “But I can’t please everyone.”
With the amount of growth and number of services conducted to reach the parishioners, Bishop said that he understands how living near the traffic could be tiring.
Fallon said the church overflow parking often makes it complicated to maneuver through the streets, almost to the point that she questions if emergency vehicles could navigate through the roads.
About a dozen e-mails from the Living Hope Church came into The Reflector in support of way the church was promoting the series.
Barbara Backman said she has been a member at Living Hope for about one year. She said when the sign was hung she wasn’t sure what to think at first.
“But then, I realized, that it is the parents and the church who have a duty to discuss sex with our kids,” she said. “So if this is a discussion starter, I think it is very appropriate. We are bombarded with sex in the world and in the media. It is everywhere we look.”
Several of the e-mail’s focused on the content of the sermon and the importance of discussing sex and morality.
“We need to be talking about sex in church,” said church member Heidi Timm. “We need a new revolution for this generation and it needs to be about purity. We can’t just turn out back and pretend that sex is not inundating our society so we need to talk about it and talk about what God says about sex.”
If parents are not ready to answer their children’s questions on the issue, said Bishop, they can tell them “that sex is created by God, and leave it at that.”
Bishop said he does not think that a five year old child is looking for detailed descriptions.
The signs have been stolen and defaced several times since they were hung, something Bieman and Fallon both said was inappropriate. They might not like the sign, but they agree that defacing private property is not the solution.
“I understand that they are trying to bring God’s word to this culture in a way that they can understand,” said Fallon. “I just think they could show a little more love to their neighbors.”