WALT WAGNER, CROOK COUNTY NOTES

35 INCONVENIENT TRUTHS

2009-10-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

Lord Christopher Monckton, former scientific advisor to Margaret Thatcher, has offered to debate Al Gore on the Global Warming issue. He tried to testify before the Senate in April and was barred by the democrats, who didn't want Al Gore humiliated. Check out the link to the right in Important Links for Monckton's arguments. We just watched him speak on TV; fascinating and very knowledgeable man. The link shows 35 errors in Gore's movie. Enjoy!

WHAT WOULD WE DO?

2009-04-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my wife, Rebecca, was presented with a question: "Here we are...at the end of George W's reign...the country's economy is in shambles - America's world image is in shambles...what would be YOUR advice?" I've asked her to write her response below, because I totally concur! Walt.

To begin with, I wouldn't blame Bush for the current economic shambles. It started with Jimmy Carter, or even further back in FDR's failed socialistic policies after the Great Depression. Ironically, it was the country's coming together in WWII that finally put paid to that era. Under Reagan, we had some good entrepreneurial growth; the rich got richer, but the poor didn't get poorer. To quote him, it was "morning in America." Under Clinton, banks were forced to make bad loans, and Barney Franks and his ilk flourished. Then Bush Two's 17 attempts to get more regulation were rejected by a democratic congress, and the foxes watching the henhouse, the SEC regulators who wanted the cushy multi-million dollar post-government advisory jobs awaiting them in the areas they were "regulating," failed miserably in the job they were assigned to do. I do give Obama credit for attempting to put a time lapse between government regulatory jobs and private sector employment in the same field.

You really want my advice? I'd adopt Ron Paul's agenda. More isolationism; pull back from the billions in foreign aid we can't afford; limit federal government spending to essential programs and promises only, i.e. national security, social security, medicare/medicaid. Leave MUCH more decision making to individual states. Curtail military operations except where our national security is compromised, but build up defensive capability, so that nobody can EVER detonate a nuclear bomb two miles over America's heartland where the electro-magnetic pulse would wipe out all communications, thus plunging this country into worse than 19th century conditions and total chaos. This could happen SO easily; we have no "star wars" defense against rockets coming in; (WHY didn't we listen to Reagan!) and the rogue nations are building their rocket capability very fast. They already have the nukes.

Economically, I'd make sure this country did NOT go down the road to socialism but remained a capitalistic country not dependent on foreign imports or oil. I'd stop the bleed out of the country looking for cheap labor. I'd develop the vast Bakken oil reserves in the Dakotas, supposedly greater than the Saudis'; AND I'd make electric cars the most affordable vehicle of the future. I'd research a way to permanently neutralize nuclear waste material so that nuclear power would FINALLY really be "clean energy."

In short, I'd work to make this country again the shining beacon that everybody wanted to enter, not just those fleeing poverty, suppression, and tyranny, but those seeking real opportunity and a place to bloom. Starry-eyed idealism? Probably. But it happened before, and it can and should happen again.

Rebecca Wagner

BEND RATED NUMBER FOUR IN THE NATION

2009-04-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

In the May, 2009, issue of Newsmax magazine is an article titled, "Uniquely American, the 25 Cities and Towns that Best Express Our National Values." We were pleased to see that Bend is ranked number four out of the 25, and for the benefit of those who don't subscribe to Newsmax, quoted below is the text from that article.

"Bend is a great example of a community that set a goal - to make the town a national tourist destination - and succeeded.

The city ranked third on the 2008 "Best Performing Cities" (small metro) list, according the Milken Institute, a California-based think tank that tracks this list annually based on wage and salary growth, job growth, and high-tech sector growth. Much of the credit goes to residents' efforts to grow from a regional destination to a national one in just five years.

A large chunk of its tourism revenue flows from the nearby Cascade Range, where features include the Mount Bachelor ski resort, Cascades Lake, and the Deschutes River.

From 2003 to 2007, room-tax collections in Bend grew more than 55 percent. Three million people a year visit Bend, and 61 percent of those participate in outdoor activities. The tourism industry pumps an estimated $300 million annually into the local economy and employs nearly 16 percent of the Deschutes County work force. Trade, transportation, and utilities beat it out only slightly.

Bend has the highest average number of sunny days in the state, so it's not surprising that it's also quickly becoming a prime retiree destination. Apart from is high desert climate, retirees, locals, and tourists alike gravitate to Bend for its cultural offerings, great dining and nightlife, excellent healthcare, and small-town feel."

On a 1 to 10 scale, 10 being the highest, Bend was rated as follows:

Hospitality 8

Wholesomeness 9

Family Friendliness 8

Devotion to Religion 6

Culture 8

Community Activities 7

Scenic Beauty 10

Education 6

It's gratifying to see the area where we chose to live appreciated in the national media.

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE LAST EIGHT YEARS

2009-02-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

I was asked today if I could name some things that are better today than eight years ago. Could you do it? With the current recession, this isn't an easy thing to remember, and I had to do a little research. It's all too common to bash or blame whoever is leaving office, or who was in charge when things went awry, although the seeds of the problems were often planted years ago and were either unknown or ignored at the time.

We personally don't embrace either the Republican or Democratic platforms any longer, so as registered Independents, we offer this account of some of the good things, often overlooked, that were accomplished by the administration that left office on January 20, 2009.

There were many ups and downs during the last Bush presidency, mainly ups until 2006, when there was a sea change in congress. Until the last couple of years, credit was easy, interest was low, real estate was booming, gas/oil was reasonably cheap. Unfortunately Bush will be judged, at least in the short term, solely by the downs, and that's really a shame, because there is a lot to commend him for in the last eight years.

Unlike his predecessors, who largely ignored attacks on Americans, Bush did something about those who attacked our nation. And in the wake of the murder of almost 3,000 Americans, he stood strong and for a time united this country as never before.

Bush got Libya to at least pretend it is giving up its WMD's, to allow international inspectors at its suspected missile sites, and to renounce terrorism. No one else did this; Bush did.

Bush kept India and Pakistan from nuking each other through peaceful diplomatic means.

Bush had a multi-cultural multi-racial cabinet. He appointed the first non-white attorney general (Alberto Gonzales), as well as both the first (Colin Powell) and second (Condoleeza Rice) non-white secretaries of state. His two transportation secretaries were an Asian American man (Norman Mineta) and a woman (Mary Peters). His education secretaries were an African American man (Rod Paige) and a woman (Margaret Spellings). His labor secretary, Elaine Chao, was the first Asian American woman in US history to be appointed to a Cabinet post.

Perhaps one of the most important things Bush did was to sign an executive order banning federal eminent domain seizures, making it really hard for any following president to rescind. This doesn't stop the states, counties, and cities from taking your property, but at least the federal government will not be taking it citing eminent domain, a good example for states to follow.

Bush protected our oceans by designating the largest marine reserves in history.

The No Child Left Behind act, first proposed by Clinton, implemented by Bush uncovered mass corruption in the U.S. School system. Supposedly, even some of the principals with their doctorate degrees couldn't pass the new high school tests.

Bush appointed two more conservative judges, Sam Alito and John Roberts, to the Supreme Court.

Bush sent humanitarian aid to Africa, saving hundreds of thousands of lives and doing good things there.

Bush increased military pay and benefits, and restored military spending as outlined in our constitution, unlike Clinton, who closed multiple bases and gutted the military so totally he made it necessary to utilize the National Guard in ways it was not intended. Our original troop deployment to Iraq was not sufficient to do the job, thus extending the war until the success of the surge. The U.S. military is now up-armored the way it was supposed to be 30 years ago, and the surge in Iraq, which was panned by almost everyone from left to right, was wildly successful and has ultimately led to the stable, yet still delicate, Iraqi democracy they have today. People voted in Iraq recently without incident. Let's hope it can survive without our continued presence.

We can thank Bush for his tax cuts; they were good while they lasted. Not only the tax cuts, but also for reducing taxes on capital gains as well as kicking Clinton's OSHA ergonomic rules out the door, saving hundreds of thousands of jobs and helping small businesses. Republicans argued that the rules were overly complex and would be too expensive for most U.S. businesses to implement. Many businesses, either voluntarily or in compliance with state laws, had already implemented ergonomic safety programs for their employees. Those businesses, along with businesses without ergonomic programs, would have been forced to comply with OSHA's final rule, if it had stood.

While Bush was certainly not what we would call "strong" on the immigration issue, he did manage to get the HB1 visas down from a high of 165,000 to 66,000 a year. Every little bit helps. The wall between Mexico and the U.S. is finally being built. Illegal immigration is on the decrease. And while it was a good thing that Bush finally commuted the unjust sentences of Ramos and Compean, the two border patrol agents prosecuted for doing their jobs, we think they should have been pardoned outright.

Bush tried to avert fiscal disaster in regard to GSE's (government sponsored enterprises) but he was ignored. Over and over through the years Bush and his administration tried to provide oversight on GSE's, and his warnings went unheeded. (Banks and Savings and Loans are to Democrats as oil is to Republicans. It was no accident that four out of the "Keating Five" senators were Democrats, and that three of them, all Democrats, were punished.) It was the Democratic leadership oversight that led to this bailout. McCain was one of several Republicans who tried in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. George Bush made 12 separate pleas to get this straightened out and the Democrats ignored him. At least now, after the disaster on Wall Street, there is more transparency between businesses and their stock holders.

On the health care front, Bush's Medicare prescription drug benefit, enacted in 2003, has spurred competition within the drug companies and is highly popular with most people. Also, Bush's stance against embryonic stem cells, which we personally don't agree with, did lead to a breakthrough discovery that stem cells can be made from cells other than embryonic cells. We do agree with Bush's banning the inhumane and vile partial birth abortion, something we hope will still stand under Obama.

Last and probably least, Bush signed into law the Do Not Call registry, giving us the option of peace at the dinner table.

Whatever you think of Bush, we think he is a man of integrity, honor, and honesty, sometimes to a fault. Although he has been criticized mightily for wanting to save the world, it was refreshing to have a man with principles and morals in a position of power; much was written at the beginning of Bush's term about the differences between the Bush White House and the Clinton occupancy.

I'll close with a favorite Bushism: "They misunderestimated me." Indeed they did.

Author: Rebecca Wagner

(with Walt's agreement and oversight.)

Post election, questions still remain

2008-11-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

Well, the elections are over. Whether people chose wisely is yet to be seen; certainly here in Crook County many questions still remain. Arlene Curths ran one of the best campaigns we've ever seen, yet she was roundly defeated by Fahlgren. And despite McCabe's self-serving vote on the question of changing the form of government, he also carried the day over Kim Kambak, one of the best educated people on the issues to run in a long time. Let's hope the victors serve the whole county well, not just a select few. And the state has lost a very capable servant in now former Senator Gordon Smith.

Nationally, nobody has answered the question, to our satisfaction, of the eligibility of President Elect Barack Obama in regard to his place of birth. Google this, and you'll find a whole lot of interesting information. There is/was a lawsuit about this, brought by a man named Philip J. Berg, a former deputy attorney general in Pennsylvania. A court ruled that the campaign must produce a "vault copy" of Obama's original birth certificate; this court order was ignored. Then a federal court dismissed the suit, but it is supposedly being appealed to the Supreme Court.

Go to http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageld=78931 to find details of the lawsuit.

Citizenship isn't the issue here. If, in fact, Obama was born in Kenya, he simply isn't "natural born" under current US law. Since Kenya isn't a US military base, this would disqualify him from being our president, unless congress acts to change the rules, as it did in the case of births for active military personnel.

You can find a copy of the birth certificate the Obama campaign has posted in an effort to quash rumors, but it raises at least two questions: one, why is his father's race listed as "African," not a valid racial designation as there are many races in Africa, and two, why is there no visible State of Hawaii seal in the empty space on the lower right?

One of the Googled arguments on this subject is quite compelling. The text, quoted below, was written by someone who has worked for the Social Security department:

"...When I needed a passport in 1999, I couldn't find my birth certificate. So I contacted the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Missouri for a copy. They sent me a "BIRTH CERTIFICATION." It shows my name at birth, date of birth, sex, city of birth, mother's maiden name, age and state of birth and father's name, age and state of birth. It also shows an original date filed and the actual date of issue, March 26, 1999. It has a note at the bottom that says, 'The reproduction of this document is prohibited by law. Any alteration or erasure voids this certification.' So, when I saw the copy of Obama's certificate, it looked OK. Then, I noticed the big blank space on the bottom right side. So, I got out the one I received and there are no voids. What seems to be missing on Obama's copy is the signature of the State Registrar of Vital Statistics and the raised state seal. Even if you can't see [that] the seal is raised in a photocopy, the state seal should be there. I was a claims rep at Social Security for seven years. The copy of Obama's certificate wouldn't be acceptable as proof of age or citizenship if he was filing a claim for benefits because of the missing signature and seal. No state office issues an official birth record or death record without signature and seal authenticating the document. So, where did this thing come from? In this age of technology, the document could easily be a computer creation. Again, without the registrar's signature and state seal, this is worth about as much as several pieces of toilet paper."

Interesting, isn't it? The Obama phenomenon has proven to be very real, and we must all hope that he will be able to fulfill his apparent potential. But we think that he should also put to rest for good the questions about his eligibility, even if this means urging congress to address a change in the Constitution. The "natural born" requirement was originally written to prevent a foreign takeover of our government. According to Philip Berg, there are witnesses to Obama's birth in Kenya on August 4, 1961.

Rebecca Wagner

Powell Butte, OR

CONCERNED ABOUT THE ECONOMIC CRISIS?

2008-10-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

Of course you are; we all are. Watch the video link at the right; it gives a concise, easy to understand history of how this all came about, and what we can all do to change it.

CHANGE IN WASHINGTON - IN WHAT DIRECTION?

2008-09-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, the Democratic and Republican party conventions are over; we have candidates ready to fight to the finish, a colorful cast of players that promises to provide very interesting debates and entertainment for all of us over the next two months.

On one side, we have a young attractive, intelligent, idealistic, charismatic, almost totally inexperienced product of the Chicago Political Machine whose real backing and agenda are worrisome to many of us, paired with a 30 year veteran of the US congress, a good man, Joe Biden.

On the other side, we have a very experienced, grizzled, maverick veteran of wars of all kinds, one who has suffered far more than any of us care to contemplate and has come out with his ideals crystalized into a love for his country and a genuine desire to serve it, paired with another young, attractive, charismatic, idealistic candidate, this one a feminist fighter, Sarah Palin, whose only flaw, as I see it, is her support of the aerial shooting of wolves and grizzlies. [Why? There isn't one documented case of a wolf killing a human in Alaska...some say it's to protect the caribou herds so that they will attract the tourist hunters and bolster the Alaskan economy.]

The stage is set; it's easy to see why some pundits say the election will be decided by personalities. The players are more interesting than any we have seen for many years, but the issues should still concern all of us..

Do we really want socialized medicine? That's a question that looms heavily before us in the two months ahead, and may influence how we vote in November.

I recently read a condensed lecture discussing whether Canada's economy was a model for America. Many people don't realize that Canada is a resource economy, whereas the US imports resources. Canada has the second largest oil reserves in the world, something that was news to me. As was the fact that in 1945, the Royal Canadian Navy had the world's third largest surface fleet, their air force was one of the world's most effective, and Canadian troops got the toughest beach on D-Day. But Canadian attitudes have changed over the years with the ever increasing emphasis on "secondary impulses," - government dependence and government regulation of everything.

My reference to Canada comes from a piece in a publication called "Imprimus," published by the Hillsdale College Press, abridged from a lecture delivered at the second annual Free Market Forum on campus not quite a year ago.

Socialized health care was pioneered in Canada. Apparently Canadian ideas are spreading all over the Western world. It's one of the "secondary impulses of society - welfare entitlements from cradle to grave..." so said Mark Steyn, a columnist for a variety of American newspapers, who wrote and delivered a lecture on this topic at Hillsdale in September, 2007.

Steyn goes on to say that one party in the United States, [Democrats] and most parties all over the Western world are now almost exclusively about those "secondary impulses - government health care, government day care, government this, government that. And if you have government health care, you not only annex a huge chunk of the economy, you also destroy a huge chunk of individual liberty. You fundamentally change the relationship between the citizen and the state into something closer to that of junkie and pusher, and you make it very difficult ever to change back..."

One very interesting point Steyn makes is this: "Public health care in Canada depends on private health care in the US." He cites a small news story about a Canadian woman who gave birth to that extremely rare phenomenon, identical quadruplets. The four girls had to be born in a US hospital because there was no space anywhere at any Canadian neonatal intensive care unit. The quads were born at Benefice Hospital in Great Falls, Montana, after their mother was "flown 300 miles in a bumpy twin prop plane over the Rockies."

With socialized health care, you wait and wait and wait... according to Steyn, a Canadian by birth, the wait list time for space in a Canadian maternity ward is ten months. Think about this. Six months for an MRI, he says, a year for a hip replacement, but TEN MONTHS for a bed to deliver a baby. How long is gestation? How predictable are pregnancies? Is this the height of absurdity? DO WE WANT THIS HERE?

The differences in the Canadian and US governments in some ways go back to their founding. American forefathers wrote of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Canadian founders wrote of "peace, order, and good government." Ronald Reagan said, "We are a nation that has a government, not the other way around."

This is a very important point to consider in the two months ahead. Both parties promise change in Washington, but the direction is not the same.

One would increase public dependence on the government, increase corporate taxes, curtail trade, pull in our defenses, and pull troops out on a short timetable. The other would help preserve individual liberties, make sure we don't lose a war, keep taxes down and stop giving away... billions of dollars to "people who don't like us very much," [McCain's words] putting that money to work in this country, boosting the private sector where real jobs are created. A good friend who owns a small business said it very well to me years ago, and I've never forgotten it: "What poor person ever gave anybody a job?"

Tax breaks to businesses make it possible for them to hire more people. Working people contribute to society, they don't drain its resources.. Jobs pull people out of poverty. Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day; teach him how to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime - an old saw, but one that illustrates a basic difference between our choices this November.

Rebecca Wagner

Powell Butte, OR

MeadowLakes Down

2008-07-20T17:38:00.000-07:00

Mention to anyone the recent trapping and killing of a family of beavers, at least four, at the MeadowLakes Public Golf Course, and the almost universal reaction is "Awwwww! No!"

The title above refers to Richard Adams' book, Watership Down, standard high school English fare, written from the rabbits' point of view. For everyone familiar with that book, the problem of the human animal as greatest predator and destroyer of habitat is magically, some say allegorically, illuminated.

I (Rebecca) wanted to write this from the the beavers' point of view, but not knowing exactly how they were killed, I can't quite get into their heads. Yet. Walt is still looking into it, because according to an authoritative web site on beavers, http://www.beaversww.org/beaver.html, "Snares hold the victim helpless against predators and can cause death by strangulation, or drowning due to entanglement. No kill trap that currently exists will reliably cause an instant death under field conditions, and drowning traps are especially inhumane for animals that can hold their breath for 10 to 15 minutes..." Not a pretty picture, is it!

Relocation traps like the Hancock or Bailey live traps are a humane method of trapping; the beavers could then be relocated as far away as necessary to keep them from returning.

City officials tried to keep the killing hush-hush, indicating that they knew people would not approve, would be upset. So why was this done? The busy beavers took down three trees. Less trees, less hazard for the golfers, right? What's the big deal?

Well, I suppose the beavers could have taken down more trees and flooded the waterways with their house/dams. And although there are many ways to co-exist with the beavers and their works, including running wide pipe through the dams to ensure continued water flow, fencing, tree protectors, repellents, or relocation, (Google "beavers" for a wealth of information!) city government chose to kill them instead.

The excuses were many, such as, "They'll come back if we try to relocate them." Really? Where did they come from, then?

The reality is that when they are two years old, young beavers strike out to find their own territory. Beavers can live up to 20 years, and reach a size of up to 65 pounds. They mate for life and start reproducing then they are three. If a mate is killed the survivor will mate again, but because they breed only once a year, beavers rarely overpopulate. They will even decrease their rate of reproduction when occupancy reaches a certain level.

In 1969, the Oregon State Legislature voted to make the beaver the Oregon State Animal. This was done after extensive transplanting efforts resulted in renewed healthy beaver populations over much of the state, the beaver having been nearly eliminated in the mid 1800's by fur trappers.

Oregon is now called The Beaver State. We're proud of our beavers, the animals and the sports teams named after them. And while "harvesting" is allowed under ODFW permits, to kill the state animal unnecessarily seems simply wrong. Certain people made some bad decisions here.

We welcome your comments. Walt and Rebecca Wagner

RESORTS OR NO RESORTS: THAT IS THE QUESTION

2008-06-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

The front page of the Tuesday, June 3, Bend Bulletin featured a very interesting article from the New York Times News Service. It provided an almost eerie look into the possible future of Crook County's Powell Butte area if resorts are allowed to proliferate beyond the area's ability to sustain them. The article described Murcia, Spain, and deserves a good look from our planning commission.

Murcia, Spain, is a desert area very similar in topography to our Central Oregon landscape, the photo on the bottom of the page showing a cone-shaped mountain and sparse vegetation. Good land farmed for generations has given way to a plethora of golf courses and elegant vacation homes, in a "resort-building boom." The result: Murcia is running out of water. The Spanish Environmental Ministry blames this on a combination of "global warming and poor land use." But it's more than just bad decisions: some local officials are now in prison for taking bribes that allowed construction on land with insufficient water.

The greener pastures of Central Oregon are turning from farm land into resorts and golf courses at an alarming rate. The old farming and ranching way of life is losing out to more and more five or ten acre plots as agriculture becomes increasingly more difficult to keep economically viable, and farmers and ranchers are tempted by the money that can be made from selling to developers.

It would behoove Crook County to take a lesson from our sister climate in Spain. Avion Water, which is supplying water to Brasada Ranch, and which will likely attempt to provide water for the two other approved resorts, is rumored to have already had seven dry wells. (It's also rumored that the record of these dry wells has somehow become lost.) Golf courses take a tremendous amount of water, and what Avion takes out of the ground can't help but deplete the area's aquifer. (It should be noted here that Prineville's excellent public Meadowlakes Golf Course is a wastewater treatment facility that has won Golf Digest's National Environmental Leaders award.)

Our previously approved resorts are nowhere near capacity; some are just in the planning stages with no impact yet on our water supply. I have to agree with the overwhelming majority of voters in Crook County, and say that we should approve more resorts only after we have seen the impact of our planned resorts at full or nearly full capacity.

Are the resorts we have already approved good for Crook County? Yes, because they are and will be a valuable asset to our economy, but new ones should be considered only after we have conducted real, unbiased planning and research into habitat, water, traffic, and any other area having an impact on our infrastructure. The voters have spoken loudly; these same voters will be watching the actions of our county court and planning commission. Government too often forgets that its purpose is to do the will of the people, not the other way around.

Keep visiting this blog for up to date information on issues in Crook County. A link is coming soon on the Central Oregonian's Calendar page. Walt and Rebecca Wagner

Juniper Canyon Emergency Exit: A Solution

2008-05-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to meet Mel Klaus, a 77 year resident of Crook County with a wealth of experience in logging, running cats, and building roads, both here and in Alaska, where he worked on the pipeline.

Many people in Crook County know Mel. Some years ago, he ran a rough road from Davis Loop to Hwy 27. Standing on Hwy 27 near Swartz Canyon, you can still see the opening where Mel cut the road through.

Mel's old road is a very short route out of that large cul-de-sac called Juniper Canyon, a potential fire trap now, with only one road out. Mel took a cat over the rim, cutting the opening I observed, proving the possibility.

The County Court should leave the office and take a short trip with Mel to look at this route; it could save the taxpayers - I should say, "voters" - a lot of money and create a safe exit out of Juniper Canyon, making 3000 residents happier and more secure. This route could also be extended to connect with the George Millican Hwy, something we desperately need.

Mel Klaus is passionate about his road. His wife is suffering from serious health problems, yet he took the time, and his own truck and gas, to take me around and show me his ideas - more than ideas: he has already cut much of this road once. He tells me nobody will listen to him; I listened to him, and I saw what he has done. I believe this is a very good solution to a difficult problem.

Heads up, Crook County Court; we have a citizen with experience who deserves your attention.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

2008-05-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

To all of you who took the time to research the truth and who voted for ethics and integrity in county government, I sincerely thank you. WALT WAGNER

WALT WAGNER, Real Leadership for Tough Times

2008-04-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

Do we really want "continuity in government?" THINK ABOUT THIS: Land use decisions by current county government have resulted in 22 law suits filed by taxpayers against the county. The county has won ONLY FOUR of them. What's wrong with this picture?

Scroll to the very bottom for interesting information on the February 20th court vote. What happened is as clear as the nose on your face.

____________________________________________________

MY EXPERIENCE:

Community involvement: When I was chairman of the Powell Butte Farmers Community Club in '05, I was a major fundraiser for the new Community Center. I petitioned a source that I was told was unresponsive, and I obtained funds to complete construction sufficient to open.

Administrative: Principal Executive Manager (State Government). Academy Commander, Monmouth, OR. Supervised Media Relations. Appointed Chairman of various volunteer organizations. Managed small businesses. See Profile.

_________________________________________________________

* The breach of ethics by my Primary opponent remains of great concern to me, and was one factor in my original decision to run. This was one of the most important votes in Crook County Court history: whether to change the form of government from the older, elected Judge system to a full commissioner system with a hired administrator. There was a lengthy debate prior to the vote, with no apparent agreement between the commissioners. Judge Cooper, at the last minute, proposed a compromise measure, delaying the change for another four years, or essentially doing nothing.

Prior to taking a vote, Judge Cooper, as standard procedure, polls the court asking for conflicts of interest, which have to be disclosed. This polling was NOT DONE before this very important vote. By voting to delay the change in government, my opponent, who had already filed for the Court Judge position, allowed the position to stand, potentially a great benefit to him if elected to fill this position. This obvious conflict of interest was not disclosed.

The issue here is not which form of government is best; Judge Cooper's comment during the meeting that this change is inevitable, that the decision is "not if, but when," indicates that this change would be most beneficial for Crook County. There is no place for a self-serving vote anywhere in government, especially on an issue of this magnitude.

Scroll down for a partial transcript and analysis of the critical February 20 meeting of the County Court showing the vote on whether to change government.

2008-04-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

Site modified regularly. Check down here for comments.