You are viewing the archives of the old northcoastoregon.com. Please visit the new North Coast Oregon at: http://www.northcoastoregon.com/

District Attorney and Commissioners Trade Staff Accusations

by Carrie Bartoldus

New Staff Member’s Accusations Stir Up Memories of Old Staff Conflicts

Astoria, Ore – In an exchange of emails last spring between county manager Scott Derickson and District Attorney Josh Marquis words got heated with Derickson finally telling the commissioners that he could no longer continue communicating with Marquis via email because of the hostility of Marquis’ emails. Commissioner Hazen emailed Marquis a request to stop bullying county staff. Marquis fired back: “actions have consequences, and if you stab me in the back, do not expect me to meekly accept it. ... I am unaware of any ‘tyrannical attacks.’ My tone is sharp because I don’t get straight answers.” The emails were regarding the District Attorney’s ability to conform to the budgeting process, resulting in the recommendation by the budget committee that his stipend be cut for the budget year of 2007-08. (see related story )

Three days after the budget committee recommended to the Board of County Commissioners that his stipend be rescinded Josh Marquis sent an email to a colleague stating, “If they [the board of county commissioners] want to cut my stipend, they can live with the consequences.” In the months that followed a committee was formed to mandate that a salary for the district attorney be included in the county’s charter.

Based on email exchanges between County Commissioner Sam Patrick and District Attorney Josh Marquis it has been contended that the committee formed for the mandated salary was a collaborative effort between the two and that the initial wording for the petition which led to the ballot measure was written by Marquis at Patrick’s request. The emails show that the district attorney agreed to write the petition’s wording and some people discussed in the emails subsequently were core members of the petition committee. After campaigning for the ballot measure got underway Marquis denied being the “generating force” of the ballot measure and said that he had no affiliation with the committee which had written it. (see related story )

Barely one month after exchanging emails with Sam Patrick regarding the petition’s wording and forming a committee for the ballot measure, Marquis wrote State of Oregon Assistant Attorney General, Pete Shepherd. In this email dated July 11, 2007, Marquis states, “A citizens committee with whom I am not affiliated has proposed gathering signatures for the county home rule charter.” Marquis’ email goes on to say, “I will check but I am fairly certain that there are no emails, or correspondence, or memos of any kind, generated by me as District Attorney on this subject.”

In this same email Marquis informs the Assistant Attorney General, “I have a private email account which I use for non-county business. I do not believe I am under any obligation to turn over emails sent privately not using government emails to anyone who wants them. If I am wrong please inform me.” However, in the email exchange between District Attorney Marquis and Commissioner Patrick the email address of Marquis can be seen to read, jmarquis@co.clatsop.or.us and the bottom of the email reads, “prepared on resources owned by Clatsop County, Oregon.”

On the same day, in a later email, Marquis refers to his state held office, “Well, the DA approves the language so I’ll probably ask another DA’s office to handle that function because of a possible conflict.” The email was dated June 4, 2007. A notarized document dated August 2, 2007, after the petition had been to court twice and had been submitted to the Clatsop County Clerk’s office as finalized and ready for circulation, shows it wasn’t until then that District Attorney Marquis appointed Linn County District Attorney to act as the district attorney in the matter.

Flash Forward

Similarly, a new Clatsop County Planner Jennifer Bunch, whose mother, Peggy Tomlin, recently retired as the District Attorney’s trial assistant, has allegedly made accusations against Commissioner Richard Lee.

On March 10, 2006, a letter from Bunch appeared in a local paper in support of Josh Marquis’ wife, Cynthia Price. The letter was used on Price’s website as an endorsement during Price’s often heated campaign to unseat Commissioner Lee.

Jennifer Bunch was already working in another county department when she transferred to the Planning Division. Minutes of the October 9, 2007, Planning Commission introduce Bunch as a new planner.

Bunch’s accusations come through a letter of complaint which, according to the only paper having access to it, was filed with the county just before the end of the year. One of Bunch’s alleged accusations is of Lee making employees have concerns that their jobs are in jeopardy if they require a developer to adhere to the conditions of a permit. Lee wonders how this is possible since he has only met Bunch recently. “Until the land-use hearing the other day, I have never met Jennifer Bunch….Never spoken to her and couldn’t pick her out from a crowd.”

“I hired Butch Parker,” Lee said, talking about a consultant he hired at least a year ago to do his land-use work, “When it comes to filing and asking simple questions, my wife handles that.” Lee maintains he does not go in to the county office for the permits or applications himself. Lee also said that he has not seen the complaint himself, it hasn’t been released by county to his lawyer, yet.

When NorthCoastOregon.com contacted County Manager Scott Derickson in regards to talking to staff about this and other issues Derickson said, “When the [Lees’] lawsuit is filed we will know the scope and what we can and can’t talk about.”

Feb 7, 09:40 pm | Carrie Bartoldus
Tags: , , ,
Click stars to rate this article. Rated 5 out of five stars.
This article has been rated 6 times.

6 comments on this article (post your own)

1 On Feb 7, 11:41 pm, RTV wrote:

I just knew this woman had to have a connection to His Sliminess. Thanks for exposing it.

2 On Feb 8, 04:42 am, Jon Dana wrote:

EXTRA!! EXTRA !! New carpet for Stevie F. I do believe there is a lot more muttering and pacing back and forth going on now. The story behind the story. Good job NCO

3 On Feb 10, 08:06 pm, Abigail Beecher(your history teacher) wrote:

The D.A. and his minions covertly meddling in local politics unrelated to his office is repugnant. I suppose we have his dingbat wife who failed take Richard Lee’s BOCC seat to mostly thank for all the drama of late.

The DA’s job is to represent the state in court. Period. Not traipse around behind the scenes trying to influence or rearrange the local level political landscape. It’s time for Marquis to move along in his legal career. We dont care where he goes just as long as it isnt in the public arena of Clatsop County. It’s a “win-win two-fer-one” for the people of the county. With Marquis down the road we can expect Cindy Price to go with him and no one can say they’ll miss her.

4 On Feb 11, 09:04 pm, Patrick McGee wrote:

Good try Bartoldus.

Just won’t let it go will you?

5 On Feb 15, 02:59 pm, Sunny wrote:

Carrie, you rock!

6 On Feb 16, 12:50 am, why'd bunch really go to the press? wrote:

Interesting that Bunch is so worried about being caught up in this yet she’s the one that brought it to the media.

If it was just about making sure the county knew what Lee was doing, Bunch obviously knew there was an investigation, she didn’t need to bring it to the paper. Goldsmith interviewed everyone in her department. Bunch knew the lawyers were on her side. The ONLY reason to bring it to the papers BEFORE the county released to the press and told staff not to talk about it was so Bunch COULD talk to the press and raise public opinion against Lee. And we’re not supposed to see this as political? I wonder what Goldsmith would say now if she knew that the poor little girl who was sooo intimidated by the big bad commissioner went running to the press RIGHT before it was released? I think it would change her impression about whether it was politically motivated. I wonder what Goldsmith would say if someone had given her the string of threatening posts Reuter and his ilk left on KAST, Rust and DSM forum stating, “First we get the DA his money back, then take each of those commissioners down.” Would she still say it wasn’t politically motivated? The most “damning” evidence against Lee is Goldsmith’s report and it appears to be all Goldsmith’s impressions of her interviews. Any of those interviews taped? We know for sure what anyone said?

Post A Comment

(required)

(required but not displayed)



(No HTML, Textile only please. Live comment preview below.)

this is not Spam.

preview

:

Aug 21, 10:10 am


Previous Article:
« COMMISSIONERS, MANAGER LAUD PUBLIC WORKS CREW FOR STORM EFFORTS

Next Article:
Jennifer Bunch Letter Re: Richard Lee - Get it here First »

NCO Reader Comments


roorze (The Vote 2006!)
roorze (The Vote 2006!)
roorze (The Vote 2006!)
Kathy (Wanted: Place to Rent in Astoria)
shelly (Wanted: Place to Rent in Astoria)
John Rove (Websites...How to do links...Textpattern, HTML, Subscribe)
astorian (Are you a true Astorian?)
The Bob and The Jim (Predictions in 2008 for Clatsop County)
allison (Wanted: Place to Rent in Astoria)
Johnnie Cargo (From Hillsboro Argus: LNG Veteran Weighs In On LNG In Oregon)
tubny (Bad News For Bradwood and LNG on the Columbia)
Henry Dickhous (From Hillsboro Argus: LNG Veteran Weighs In On LNG In Oregon)
greta (Cary Johnson Announces - Clatsop County Commissioner District 4)
DumDumDotz (What is it with sports in other countries?)
Dee (North Coast AA Round Up Seaside April 4th 5th 6th 2008)
Jennifer (Astoria football makes a huge statement tonight)
Bahai212 (Step Right Up and place your bets)
Courtroomnews2222 (Step Right Up and place your bets)
TONI E. LYNCH (Race for 100mpg Car has $10 Million Dollar Prize)
Ella (From Hillsboro Argus: LNG Veteran Weighs In On LNG In Oregon)

Recent Articles

View All Articles...

Feeds



Home | Archives | Contribute | Back to Top
Take What You Want 2008 NorthCoastOregon.com unless otherwise indicated.
Please email us with any questions or comments.
Site created by Upspring Design.