Brenda Finnegan placed on paid leave from town employment
Yacolt town clerk Brenda J. Finnegan, 45, has admitted stealing thousands of dollars from the North Clark Little League organization, according to a report from the Clark County sheriff’s office.
Little League president Kimberly Ann Russell notified Sheriff’s deputy Fred Neiman Jr. Nov. 29 that she thought Finnegan, the league treasurer for about six years, had taken money from the league account, according to the sheriff’s report.
Neiman said he contacted Finnegan who admitted altering checks after they were signed. Neiman said Finnegan admitted depositing check funds totaling about $20,000 into her personal bank account over the past 13 months.
During questioning and after being receiving a Miranda warning, Finnegan reportedly said she would discuss the allegations with deputies. She said she might have altered more than 10 checks worth a total of about $20,000. Four checks totaled about $17,000, she said.
According to Neiman’s report, Finnegan said she modified checks after they were written to show larger amounts. For example, she said she modified one check, originally written for $36 to pay a post office box rental fee, to an amount of $3036.00 before depositing it into her account.
Another check, written in the amount of $123 for postage was reportedly modified to $6,123.00 before Finnegan deposited it into her account.
Russell, league president since October, said she became suspicious when she learned the league had very few funds in its account. She said that Finnegan had received bank statements at her home instead of at the league post office box for the past several months. She said she began to notice that over the past year, Finnegan seemed to distance herself from league board members.
Neiman interviewed league vice president Dan Goodenough who reportedly said he was league president from May to October 2007. Goodenough reportedly said he relied heavily on Finnegan to manage league financial affairs, and would quickly sign checks without thoroughly looking them over.
Russell and Goodenough reportedly said finances were tight at the Finnegan home because Finnegan’s husband, Charlie, was not employed. Russell reportedly said Charlie was disabled. The Finnegans have two children at home. Goodenough said Finnegan’s mother died recently.
According to Neiman, Finnegan continued to say that “she did not remember” when she first modified a check. Finnegan reportedly denied taking any funds from the town of Yacolt account, reasoning that she would be less likely to get caught if she took Little League funds.
Finnegan reportedly told deputies that funds were used for mortgage payments, groceries and credit card debt.
Neiman said Finnegan turned league records over to Goodenough. She reportedly agreed to review carbon copies of all checks and give deputies a complete accounting of any other check alternations.
Finnegan, 207 W Wilson St., Yacolt, has been a volunteer with the North Clark Little League for six years.
Evidence collected, including copies of statements made by witnesses and Finnegan, were turned over to the Clark County prosecutor.
Mayor puts Finnegan on leave, calls auditors
Yacolt mayor Joe Warren said Finnegan had been placed on paid administrative leave Nov. 30 as soon as he was notified of the allegations against her.
Warren said the town was highly dependent on Finnegan’s knowledge and skills. “We can’t operate without her assistance,” said Warren.
Warren said he talked with the town attorney and decided that Finnegan could help train a replacement.
Finnegan is only allowed in city hall, said Warren, when accompanied by himself or another city employee.
Linda Lesbo will learn Finnegan’s duties, said Warren, calling on Finnegan for help when needed. Lesbo had replaced Finnegan in the past, said Warren.
Warren said he has asked the state auditor to examine the town’s records.
“I have been in contact with the state auditor,” said Warren. “There was to be a routine audit in June. I’ve asked them to do it as soon as possible.”
Warren said he expects the audit to be conducted in January.
“We don’t believe there has been any wrong-doing with town records,” said Warren, noting that the town keeps little cash on hand and that all checks require two signatures.
Warren said some spot checks will be done by the state auditor before a full audit is undertaken.
Warren said Finnegan has been employed with the city for over eight years. He was not certain of her salary but believed it to be between $35,000 and $40,000 per year.
“I really don’t believe anything inappropriate has been done in town business,” said Warren. “I’d be very surprised.”
The sheriff’s office said Finnegan has cooperated with the investigation and is not in custody.
Brandy Slagle
Staff reporter
Art Nelson sat among members of the Battle Ground City Council after taking his oath of office Dec. 3. Nelson replaces former council member and deputy mayor Sandra Hall.
Hall vacated her seat on the council in late October after deciding not to run for the position in this year’s general election. She cited reasons for stepping down from her position as a shift of focus from heavy participation in community service to her family and career.
She was present at the Dec. 3 meeting where Mayor John Idsinga publicly recognized her for over six years of service on the council. Idsinga said he was privileged to have worked with her on the council, and that Hall has continuously been involved in promoting causes for the welfare of Battle Ground citizens.
Hall told councilors that she felt fortunate to have spent so much time working with them and said it was one of the most rewarding experiences in her life.
“I have also been very privileged to work with the staff of this city,” she said. “They are all top rate.”
Hall said she felt that one of the greatest things about the council was that each member had a different background, opinion and approach to issues.
“We discussed items to death,” she said. “We always came to something that was best for the community. We left our original ideas behind, compromised and found what we thought was best for the city.”
Nelson took the oath of office immediately after Hall’s recognition. He later said that standing up in the room in front of the audience was somewhat unnerving.
“I had been up there before, at the podium, to address the council,” he said. “That can be intimidating. But when I was up there swearing in, it all began to really sink in that I was taking office.”
He said that end-of-the-year business details, such as the city budget, and upcoming changes to the council make it difficult to determine just how he fits in with the other members at this time. However, he said, he is excited for the coming year and felt that he was warmly accepted by council members with whom he has been acquainted for many years.
One thing he would like to focus on, he said, is making sure the city had strong public relations.
“I want to make sure people’s questions are being answered and their concerns are addressed,” he said. “People should feel like they are working with the city.”
In the official final Clark County election results, Nelson defeated Thomas Schultz with 937 votes to 890.
Paul Zandamela will be sworn into office in January Zandamela defeated 10-year incumbent John Idsinga. The council will then appoint a new mayor and deputy mayor for the city.
Services were held last week for former Battle Ground mayor and businessman Marvin Brothers who died Dec. 1 at the age of 92.
Brothers is remembered for his many interests and endeavors, including boxing, dancing, vegetable gardening, music, and small engine repair.
Marvin Edwin Brothers was born May 20, 1915, in a lumber mill near La Center to Theodore and Faye (Forbes) Brothers. The family eventually included four brothers and two sisters. The family lived at the mill which was owned by Brothers’ grandfather, Jim Brothers.
After his parents separated in about 1929, Brothers lived with his aunt and uncle, Mary (Brothers) and Reuben Mead in the Charter Oak area of Battle Ground. Reuben Mead operated a dairy, and Brothers got to high school by riding the milk truck from the farm to Battle Ground. He graduated from Battle Ground High School in about 1936.
After high school graduation, Brothers went to work in the woods. Family members believe Brothers continued to live with the Meads at this time.
Brothers met Mabel Welch at a dance, possibly at the Rock Creek Grange. He often told the story of going to the Welch home on his first date with Mabel, but did not know her name. At the door and faced with several young daughters, Brothers pointed Mabel out. They were married in January 1937 when Brothers was 22 and Mabel was 16 or 17. They remained married for 70 years. Brothers was proud of the longevity of his marriage.
In the late 1930s, Brothers worked as a farm hand at Anderson Dairy in the Daybreak area of La Center, living at the dairy property.
In the early 1940, Brothers began working as a mechanic and fuel truck driver for the Dairyman’s Coop in Battle Ground. Son Merle was born in 1938 and the family settled into a home on the east side of Battle Ground.
Brothers and his three brothers all got draft notices in the early part of World War II. Marvin did not pass his physical exam because of his eyes. His three brothers all served and survived the war.
Brothers was active in politics much of his life. He worked on the campaign of Gov. Langley. After Langley’s election, Brothers worked for the state Department of Labor and Industries as a safety inspector of logging operations, a job he held from 1948 until the mid-1950s when he became an assistant to surveyor Bill Ward.
Son Jim Brothers joined the family in 1947. He also sold insurance for Farmers Mutual of Enumclaw during this period. Also in 1947, Brothers constructed a home on N Cherry Ave. where he lived most of the rest of his life.
In the late 1950s, Brothers returned to working in the woods.
In about 1960, Brothers bought a service station in Battle Ground and operated with Champion and then Veltex gas. The station was located on the north side of E Main St. at Parkway Ave. He also started working in real estate, employed with George Hughes Real Estate in Vancouver. He sold the service station in 1965 and began working full time for Jim Waldal Real Estate in Battle Ground.
Brothers obtained a real estate broker’s license and opened his own real estate business. His first office was near the present-day Chevron station on E Main Street, followed by three other locations in Battle Ground’s old town district.
Brothers once ran for the state legislature. He was elected to the Battle Ground city council in 1989, and elected Battle Ground mayor in 1993, taking office in January 1994. Brothers’ term as mayor was cut short when the city went to a city manager form of government. He left office in March 1997.
Brothers worked on small engines as a backyard hobby. He occasionally worked at Red’s repair shop when needed.
Growing a vegetable garden was an important avocation. He grew berries, corn, tomatoes, beans, and several types of apples on his 3/4 acre city lot. He especially liked squash. Mabel canned tomatoes grown from the garden.
Marvin and Mabel Brothers could be seen walking around Battle Ground for years. At age 91, Brothers had surgery for skin cancer and relatives say he was never the same again.
Brothers suffered a back injury while working in the woods in the 1930s.
After high school, Brothers took up amateur boxing and fought as a feather weight. He was 5-ft, 2-in. tall and weighed 110-115 pounds. He fought in Portland and once got to the west coast finals but didn’t win.
While working for the Dairyman’s Coop, Brothers played semi-pro baseball. He played catcher and outfielder on a team managed by Roy Stahley. The home field was at Lewisville Park which had bleachers built into the hillside.
Brothers smoked cigarettes until the early 1950 when he tossed the pack out the back door and quit. He also quit drinking alcohol about the same time.
Brothers is remembered as a talker. He enjoyed talking sports and politics. His favorite baseball team was the Chicago Cubs. He obtained the first television set on his block in 1953. Not long after than, Mabel won a television set in a drawing at the Clark County Fair.
Brothers took up playing the drums in the 1980s as a hobby. He is remembered as a great dancer. He and Mabel went to many dances including dances at the Manor Grange and senior citizen centers.
Brothers had a 1929 Model A Ford in 1953 and a 1950 Plymouth Coupe about the same time. He had a 1951 Ford in 1960 and later a 1956 Ford and a 1966 Chevrolet. He brought a new 1972 Dodge Dart. He later drove a 1985 Toyota pickup and finally a 1985 Honda. He quit driving at about age 88.
Brothers collected old records and enjoyed listening to music, including the Beatles and old western music. He loved Lawrence Welk and watched reruns of the popular television program.
At one time Brothers was active in the Battle Ground Senior Citizens program and volunteered at the Seniors Citizens Center.
Brothers had wanted to attend law school but could not afford to do so. He had a collection of law books. He understood surveying and land descriptions, and was able to help people with property line problems.
His son Merle Brothers recalls some of his father’s “famous” statements, including “Tubeless tires will never last.”
Brothers was preceded in death by his brothers, Melvin “Pete” Brothers in 1989, Donald “Brown” Brothers in 1995, and Kenton “Cal” Brothers in 1999, and sister Mary Ilena Adams in 1990. Survivors include widow Mabel Brothers, sister Margaret Ham of Battle Ground, sons Merle Brothers of Yakima and Jim Brothers of Amboy, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Burial was at Lewisville Cemetery, Battle Ground, with Layne’s Funeral Home, Battle Ground, in charge of arrangements.
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
The Woodland Chamber of Commerce has asked the Colf family to provide a statement for the Chamber to consider in support of maintaining the family’s farmland in the Woodland Bottoms.
The Army Corps of Engineers has said it will buy 105 acres of farmland as well as Martin Island, both owned by the Colf family, to replace wetlands being lost in the deepening of the Columbia River Channel from Astoria to Portland. The family has said that it is not interested in selling and wants to continue farming.
The Corps also proposes to breach the Woodland Dike and build a larger dike to the southwest. Diking district officials are opposed to that plan.
About 75 percent of the land along the Columbia River that will be converted to wetlands lies in the Woodland area.
After a presentation Dec. 4 from Colf family spokesman Roy Hiekkala, Chamber president Bill Behrens asked if the loss of farmland would affect the city’s business community. The Chamber has gone on record as supporting dredging the river to 43 feet. The ports in Washington, including the Port of Woodland, are expected to receive tons of sand that can be sold to benefit port operations.
“I’m not sure deepening the channel will benefit the Woodland community,” Hiekkala said.
The Colf family has taken no position on deepening the channel.
Chamber member Darlene Johnson said that although the Chamber supports the deeper channel, “it doesn’t seem right that Woodland should provide all the mitigating land. I support investigating other mitigating sites.”
“If you don’t do something, you never know what the impact will be,” she said.
Heikkala said that along the Columbia River there are “nine sites that can be used” for wetlands creation.
Erin Thoeny, whose family also farms in the Woodland area, said the Corps has selected Woodland land because “this is the most visible of all the proposed sites.”
“They (the Corps) can pat themselves on the back,” she said.
Breaching the dike could change the Bottoms from a 500-year flood plain to a 100-year flood plain and “affect everything there,” including businesses and homes, Thoeny said.
During the presentation, Heikkala said the Colfs made offers to the Corps for fewer acres for mitigation, but the Corps rejected all offers. He said the Washington ports have not supported the Colfs’ proposals.
“The bottom line is that the ports and Corps have not worked with us,” Heikkala said. “They have not engaged us in any kind of talks to reach a common, acceptable solution other than to tell us what they will do. They have not responded to our proposals other than to say they will not work.”
Behrens said after the meeting that he hopes the Colf family will come back to the Chamber board with a proposal that can be voted on by the board and the membership.
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
Nobody’s really sure how many criminal cases would have been solved in Woodland without the police department’s sole detective, but Chief Rob Stephenson said more major crimes can be investigated by an officer who can devote time to research and interviews.
Having a detective is new for the Woodland Police Department. Brent Murray became the department’s first investigator last year.
A veteran with the department since 1997, Murray, a Woodland High School graduate, spent years as a patrol officer. Although he takes the lead on investigations, Murray credits his fellow officers with providing valuable assistance.
One of the most heinous crimes committed in Woodland occurred when Murray was working patrol. He and officer Terry Casey “worked on our days off “ to solve the crime.
“It was a forced home invasion and rape by a stranger,” Murray said. “The rapist changed his appearance and DNA proved him guilty.”
Interviews are crucial to a successful investigation, Murray said. A detective who does not need to answer radio calls will have the flexibility to spend the needed time talking to a suspect or a witness. If the detective is also a patrol officer, he or she must always answer a radio call even when doing an interview.
“You’ll be taking a statement and half way through you get a call,” Murray said. “It’s frustrating.”
To learn as much as possible about a reported crime, trust must be established between the detective and the person being interviewed. If the interview ends before the detective has received the information he needs, the trust may be compromised and “you have to start all over,” Murray said.
Taking the time to complete interviews can pay off in additional arrests, as in the case of a burglary. Police collected one fingerprint and one suspect from one business. During interviews, Murray found that the suspect had been involved in two additional Woodland burglaries and four Vancouver burglaries. That information led to two more suspects who led detectives to even more suspects and additional burglaries.
“If I’d been on patrol, I would not have had the ability to dig deeper,” Murray said. “I had some gut instinct that ‘you’re not telling me all of it.’”
The detective must also be available to travel out of town to interview suspects or witnesses.
When the department is short-staffed, Murray occasionally must return to patrol. Stephenson said one new officer is attending the academy, and after graduation, the police staff will be at full strength of 10 sworn officers.
“A couple of cases are still on the back burner,” Murray said.
A series of bank robberies occurred in towns up and down I-5. One person has been arrested.
“I know he’s not alone,” Murray said. “I know part of it but I can’t put it all together.”
A detective’s job is “very challenging and interesting,” he said. “I like working the day shift.”
The most difficult part of his job is “dealing with anything that has to do with little kids.” As the year ends, Murray is investigating four child abuse cases.
The job does require hours of training, and Murray said he tries to attend as many training sessions as he can. He’s been trained to work on child abuse and sex abuse cases, as well as classes on search warrants and crime scene investigations.
“We have to do training,” Stephenson said. “In this modern age, there’s no excuse for not knowing what you’re doing. We maximize the training dollars that we have.”
When he’s not on patrol or investigating a crime, Murray likes to spend time with his wife, Kathrine, and the couple’s five children who range in age from 15 to 4. The family lives on a farm where they raise animals and grow a garden.
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
A survey of 200 Woodland School District residents found 61 percent believe the schools are overcrowded.
Of those who believe the district needs a new high school, 71 percent said the school should accommodate as many as 1,200 students, while 22 percent said the school should hold only 900.
“People don’t want to see a brand new high school with portables,” said District Superintendent Michael Green.
The survey of randomly-selected residents was conducted by professional opinion research firm Moore Information of Portland.
“The purpose was to find out how resident thought about the bond,” Green said. “We have heard varying opinions about what needs to be done to accommodate kids.”
The school board was scheduled to decide on the amount of the bond needed to build the high school during a workshop held Dec. 10. The board is expected to finalize the bond amount on Dec. 17. No date has been set for the election.
Green has estimated that the cost of the bond would be $49 million, with another $13 million coming from the state. He said he has not yet calculated the rate each property owner would pay.
“It’s just mind-boggling, the cost of building,” Green said. “It’s going up in double digits.”
More than two years ago, district voters approved a bond to purchase land along Dike Access Road for a high school. Earlier this year, the board sponsored a series of community meetings to discuss the propose high school. Two seminars held in the early fall attracted about 119 people, Green said.
“We want to make sure we meet the interests of the community,” Green said.
A high majority of those surveyed, 94 percent, said that the district should expand technology facilities and high-tech classes. Nearly the same number, 90 percent, recommended that the district continue to offer traditional vocational programs such as wood shop and metal work.
When asked about the overall performance of the district, 54 percent graded with either an ‘A’ or a ‘B.’
Good teachers were cited as the primary strength of the district, Green said.
Enrollment has been steadily increasing in recent years at Woodland schools. This year’s November enrollment was 2,234, up from 2,173 a year ago.
Applications are now being accepted to fill a vacancy on the Woodland city council.
The term of office will begin upon appointment which is expected to be Jan. 7, 2008, and continue through the November 2008 election.
Applicants must be 18 years old, registered voters, and residents of the city of Woodland for the 12 months prior to appointment.
The vacancy was created by the resignation of Jim Tone whose job has been relocated to California. His resignation was effective Nov. 19, 2007. Tone plans to move to California.
Applications must reach city officials by Fri., Dec. 28, 9 a.m., with postmarks not accepted. Application information and forms are available at City of Woodland Annex, and in writing to Clerk-Treasurer, 230 Davidson Ave., P.O. Box 9, Woodland, WA 98674.
The council and mayor will interview applicants on Mon., Jan. 7. The chosen candidate will be sworn in that same evening.
Incoming elected officials will be given the oath of office at a council meeting on Mon., Dec. 17, following a 6:30 reception for both incoming and outgoing officials. The public is invited to attend that event.
More information is available by call Mari Ripp, Clerk-Treasurer, 225-8281, ext. 14.