A revamp of state ethics laws has closed the door on lavish gifts and trips for lawmakers. However, it doesn’t prevent members of Crook County’s staff and planning commission from accepting bar drinks on a resort developer’s tab, local and state officials say.
Rumors had been swirling for months around the small community of Powell Butte about how the developer of Crossing Trails resort picked up two bar tabs for members of the planning commission during a period of time where the commission was weighing approval of the 500 home resort and golf course. In late August the chair of the planning commission, Bill Gowen, went on the record to state the several members of the commission had eaten and drank on a tab that was ultimately picked up by Crossing Trails developer Gene Gramzow.
Two of those commissioners ultimately recused themselves from the final decision on the resort, which passed by a 4-1 margin earlier this month.
But the episode has caused some to question the relationship between developers and local officials, who critics say have taken an overly accommodating approach to resorts that they say are chewing up farmland and changing the character of the rural community of Powell Butte near Prineville.
“Our first reaction was our jaws dropped,” said Mollie Eder, a neighbor of the proposed resort who also authored a measure forcing the county to withdraw its underlying authority to establish resorts.
Under Oregon’s new law, public officials can take up to $50 in gifts, including food and drinks, over the course of a calendar year without disclosing it publicly, said Ronald Bersin, executive director of Oregon’s ethics commission.
Crook County officials, some of whom were at the restaurant at the time of the incidents, say that neither of the tabs would have approached the $50 limit, which applies to individual commissioners as opposed to the entire group.
But at least one commissioner said the county hasn’t done enough to investigate the incident or head off future problems.
Arlene Curths said planning commissioners have not received any training on state ethics rules, nor has the county followed up on the recent incidents both of which were disclosed to them several months ago.
A planning commissioner with more than five years experience, Curths said she was troubled by the incidents, which occurred at a restaurant outside of Prineville where commissioners often go after meeting to unwind with a drink.
Curths, who was present on both occasions, said Crook County officials were sitting in a separate area of the restaurant and were not aware that Mr. Gramzow had picked up the tab for the group until they were ready to leave. At that point Gramzow and his party were already gone, Curths said. Unsure of her obligation, Curths said she went to the county attorney, Dave Gordon, who agreed to look into the matter. Curths said Gordon never got back to her. Curths said she followed up with Gordon before the committee’s next meeting on Aug. 13, at which point Gordon looked up the law and advised her that she was under the $50 limit and not obligated to disclose the bar tab.
After the next meeting several planning commissioners, including Curths, Kim Kambak, Rick Wells, and Jerry Crafton (Editor’s note: The original story placed Susan McDermott here as well, according to Curths. The Source left a message for McDermott last week which went unreturned. We have since spoken with her and learned that she was not present. We regret the error.)were back at the restaurant with planning director Bill Zelenka when the developer and his team came in and again picked up the tab without the group’s knowledge.
Gramzow’s attorney, Peter Livingston, acknowledged that he was at the restaurant at the time of the incidents, but said he was completely unaware that his client had paid the bill for planning commissioners until late August when he got a call from Zelenka informing him that planning commissioners would discuss the matter at their meeting that night.
Asked whether he talked to his client about the incident since then, Livingston said he didn’t want to comment further.
After the second incident, Curths said she got a copy of the tab, which came out to $47, from the wait staff. Frustrated that the developer had again picked up the check without their knowledge, Curths went again to see the county attorney Gordon.
Curths said Gordon told her that she needed to stop Mr. Gramzow from picking up any more bar tabs for the county commission, but that there has been no more follow-up from the county.
“The incident is not the essential issue, it’s the process. The correct process has been violated and people knew about it and they did nothing,” Curths said.
Resort opponent Eder agrees.
“Just because it meets the standard of being ethical doesn’t make it right. They could have, even after finding out who paid for their drinks, publicly written a check,” Eder said.
But Judge Scott Cooper, the county’s top elected official, said he believes the system worked as it should have with councilors who had conflicts recusing themselves before the decision.
He called the move by Gramzow to surreptitiously pick up the tabs “slimy,” but added that it’s part of politics.
“We all understand that’s how social grease works in our society. I think (the commissioners) were caught in a situation not of their own making.”
Cooper said the county has followed up with several memos clarifying the county’s position on gifts. He said the county also has semi-annual ethics training for staff scheduled for this week, which it is opening up to anyone who serves on a county board, including the planning commissioners. He dismissed Curth’s criticism that the county hadn’t done enough to train her or other staff members about possible conflicts. After the legislature passed new tighter ethics laws last fall, Crook County held a seminar at the fairgrounds to go over the new rules. He said Curths and other commissioners were invited, but not required, to attend.
Curths said there is no way that $10 in drinks would have affected her decision, or the decision of anyone else on the planning commission, with regard to Crossing Trails. However, the bar tab incidents may have had an unintended outcome: commissioner Kambak, who is running for Cooper’s seat on the county court (the equivalent of the Deschutes County’s Commission) recused herself publicly before the decision because of what she said was a bias against the applicant over the bar tabs. Kambak said at the time that she saw the bar bills as an attempt to influence the planning commission’s decision.
Curths also recused herself after she said Cooper and planning director Zelenka told her she was obligated to publicly disclose a donation from a prominent resort critic to her own campaign for a seat on the county court. Curths said that she was told that she should have disclosed the $500 donation as soon as possible as a potential conflict. Curths said she wasn’t aware of the law until Cooper and Zelenka mentioned it as a conflict.
“I’m absolutely committed to open and transparent government and if there is anything that smells of not being open, I don’t want any part of it,” Curths said.
Sensing a challenge to her impartiality, Curths said she chose to bow out of the Crossing Trails discussion after months of homework.
She won’t say whether she would have voted against the resort, but acknowledges that she had serious questions about how it would meet the requirements of state and local law for such developments.
“I would have wanted the discussion with the whole group. Maybe they would have talked me out of those things; my mind was still open at that point.”
Meanwhile, Curths said that while she hasn’t yet done it, she plans to repay her portion of the tab to Gramzow.
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2008.
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There is only one commissioner on the board who lives in Powell Butte. He voted “no” to the Crossing Trails Resort plan. The rest of the commissioners live in Prineville and seem to not care, or are influenced by $ (or a drink) to allow the resort to take place in Powell Butte. I see most of these commissioners as outsiders making decisions for Powell Butte. They have no right to do so if they do not live in Powell Butte. It’s like Tacoma making decisions for Seattle. If a drink is persuasive to some committee members to vote a certain way, then they must leave the post and let someone else with ethical standards and more sensitivity to Powell Butte’s interests be in the voting committeel Powell Butte wants to remain, for as long as possible, a decent place to live without more congestion and people who just don’t care about the ranchers and farmers, and long time residents of Powell Butte.
“Curths also recused herself after she said Cooper and planning director Zelenka told her she was obligated to publicly disclose a donation from a prominent resort critic to her own campaign for a seat on the county court. Curths said that she was told that she should have disclosed the $500 donation as soon as possible as a potential conflict. Curths said she wasnâ ™t aware of the law until Cooper and Zelenka mentioned it as a conflict.”
What law is this? Were Cooper and Zelenka just pressuring her? Or is she really required to do this? (Even if she is, why the hell is Zelenka wading into this? He’s the planning director. And isn’t there some sort of ethics complaint against the guy? Enquiring minds want to know.)
Arleen is a very ethical person and I know she would never do anything unethical. She is a person of very high standards. She and Kim got the shaft..
The whole process with Crossing Trails has been a joke. The application was incomplete during the public testimony phase. It appears that Zelenka bent the rules to ensure this DR would pass. Crossing Trails is NOT a DR. It’s a housing tract in violation of the 2000 Powell Butte Agreement signed by the Court to restrict development on the north side of Hy#126.
An Applicant has 90 days after filing to submit a “complete” plan. This application was submitted, then withdrawn after a year, then renamed, re-submitted before the Ballot Measure was voted on, and it was still incomplete during public testimony. The Planning Commission has tarnished it’s reputation with this one. This article only highlights the hanky panky. Shame, shame on Crook County. This decision needs to be appealed. The County Court needs to deal with the Ballot Measure. The people voted NO NEW DR’s. Since the Crossing Trails application was incomplete, it should of been rejected months ago. One gets the impression that the Planning Commission is in the back pockets of big $$ developers.
Great job Source Weekly. This kind of article would never be printed in Prineville paper.
If there was a quorum of the planning commission present and they had any discussion of county business, wouldn’t that have been a violation of the state open meetings law?
Anyone running for public office should inform themself about the law. Perhaps they should blame their campaign managers. Curths and Kambak are anything but transparent. If the planning commission is in the developers pocket then Curths is sleeping with t
Don’t you people smell a setup here. Why would the Lawyer for the Applicant buy drinks in secret. It’s all a setup dude. Arlene and Kim needed to be eliminated from the discussions. This way Zelenka could be the pied piper and the rest of the Planning Commission would follow. I hope Powell Butte residents move forward with an appeal. I’ve had a positive image of Brasada, Remmington, and the DR in the planning stages near Alfafa, but this latest Crossing Eyeballs is an ugly duck. It looks like a trailer court version of a tacky so called resort. I believe the citizens argument that this DR incompatible with the community looks quite valid. I understand ODOT claims the update to roads would cost $10m. The Planning Commission let this applicant off the hook for less than $1m. Where’s the rest of the money coming from? I sure hope to hell it isn’t us tax payers. Just to be safe, the voters of Crook County should vote against all incumbents to the County Court. It’s time to break the good-ole-boy club is Prineville. Maybe we need some pit-bulls with lipstick on the Court.
First, thanks for the comments and the interest in the story. I’d like address, a couple of the questions/observations raised here and maybe add a thing or two. There is a question about whether or not Arlene would be required to disclose a $500 contribution. My understanding is that officials must disclose contributions when someone has a pending piece of business. In this case it was an opponent, I don’t think that qualifies. But I failed to follow up with the ethics commission about this particular question. It was an oversight during some last minute reporting on the piece. One reason that I sidestepped this is that it brings into question the planning director’s role in this controversy. He’s out of town for a week and could not be reached for comment. I didn’t think it was fair to sling mud at him without giving him a chance to respond, so I tip toed around it. On the same topic, Interested Observer raises the question of an ethics complaint against Mr. Zelenka, I did check with the ethics commission about that. They have no complaint or investigation at this time.
As far as the commissioners, I called chair Gowen, Susan McDermott, Jerry Crafton and Lawrence Weberg. None of them returned my calls. When I asked the planning staff for a list of contacts for these officials, I was told that they don’t give that information out. (A violation of state records laws) As a result, I couldn’t reach Mr. Wells as he is unlisted. I did speak briefly with Kim Kambak, who called me at Arlene’s request. However, because of circumstances I won’t go into here, we were unable to conduct an interview with her. Finally, Bruce asked whether the commissioners meeting after their meeting in a quorum isn’t a violation of state open meeting laws.
My feeling is that it is, even though they say they don’t discuss business. I asked Judge Cooper about this and he told me that he is aware that some of them go out for drinks, but that they are told to avoid meeting in a quorum. Pretty flimsy. I wanted to include this in the story, but it seemed a bit tangential. Again thanks for your interest. — Eric
I just spoke with Susan McDermott from the Planning Commission who informed me that she was not at either of the “drinks” meetings. Whle she was originally placed, by Arlene, at the second after hours meeting at the restaurant bar, Susan says that is not the case and I have no reason not to believe her. While I did leave a message at her home last week, she said she doesn’t use that line and never picked it up. While I stand by the reporting process, I’m going to correct this line in the story. Thanks, Eric.
Before you start spouting off the state records law check out the exemptions in ORS 192.502(3) somehow I doubt you filed a request for this information??????
and they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
arlene is always talking to this group of no more resort people. The eders are builders in portland not real farmers. why do you think she got money from dale , mr millpower tompkins????? This is a move to give her a halo when she needs horns . give me a break
a small group of people not getting what they want and resulting to dirty tactics to try and get their way grow up
Whoa – looks like some of the planning commissioners are a bit fired up over this. Wonder why? Guess they don’t like a bunch of “outsiders” mucking around in their business and telling them how to run their county. Social grease and all…
About that – is Cooper serious? Pretty gutsy(?) to suggest that we should all just accept the social grease perspective here. Not appropriate for a public official – elected or appointed – to say something like that. Calls their integrity into question. Big time.
I’ve known Arlene Curths for 27 years. We enjoyed a business relationship for many years that segued into a personal friendship. If Arlene is anything it is honest; honorable, values driven, scrupulously honest would be the words I would use to describe her. If she erred in placing a fellow commissioner at the after-meeting gathering I am sure it was unintentional and she would be quick to apologize for her mistake. If the people of Crook County want transparency in government and they want honesty in their political leaders they could not do better than to elect Arlene Curths to the County Court. When she chose to run for this position the only advice I gave her was this: “You are probably too honest and direct to be in politics. Are you sure you’re up for this? Because it will get ugly and they will hit you where it will hurt the worst.” For Arlene there is no such thing as “gray area.” There is “right” and there is “wrong”; there is “truth” and there are “lies”. Shades of gray just aren’t in her color palette. She calls it as she sees it and she carefully researches her positions before making up her mind. She takes her work on the Planning Commission very seriously and always tries to act in what she truely feels is the best interest of the community she represents so far as it is within the law. Oh, and by the way, she has lived in Powell Butte for over 13 years now.
“a small group of people not getting what they want and resulting to dirty tactics to try and get their way”
What dirty tactics exactly? Having the press print a story where both sides were contacted and given an opportunity to tell their side of the story? ‘Cause it seems like that’s what happened here. Are you referring to the initiative (which passed 2-1 countywide) that the Eders (builders, farmers, who cares… HARD WORKING CITIZENS, NOT DEEP POCKETED DEVELOPERS) worked so hard on? Are you referring to campaign contributions for which developers lead everyone else by LEAPS AND BOUNDS (C’MON IT’S NOT EVEN CLOSE HERE.)
Seems you’re perhaps upset that this story was reported on AT ALL or that Arlene spoke up AT ALL or that the citizens fought for their interests AT ALL. I don’t know Arlene Curths, but I don’t see anything dirty on her part. Or anyone else in Powell Butte. They’re not the ones advocating for social grease, they’re the ones fighting it.
I made a mistake of memory in saying that Susan McDermott was in the group the night that the bar bill was paid by the applicant. I checked with another person who was there and that person confirmed that Susan was not with us that evening.
I apologize for the error.
I made a mistake by saying that social grease is okay. It’s not, and I thoroughly denounce it. But political grease sure is!!!
Arlene had to check with another person to be sure Susan McDermott was not with the group at the bar that night?
Was she so inebriated that she didn’t know who was there? Doesn’t sound like she is too oberservant as well.
More important, after being on the planning commission for 5 years Curths should know what a quorum is and leave the group. Oops, maybe she likes to drink more than worry about planning commission business