North Coast Oregon

Articles listed under the tag: Bergin

Letter From, Hazen, Lee, Samuelson and Roberts

by Tryan Hartill

For a little clarification…

This letter is in response to Sam Patrick’s quote in yesterday’s Daily Astorian

Clatsop County Commissioner Sam Patrick has strong words for county leadership over its failure to put a disaster plan in place. “County management’s been asleep at the switch,” Patrick said Tuesday. He blasted county leadership for placing the burden of building a Disaster Mitigation Plan on Sheriff Tom Bergin and Emergency Operations Coordinator Gene Strong.

“The mitigation plan should be done in management’s office or County Planning,” Patrick said…........Patrick said the planning department has staff who are familiar with the mitigation issues, but the sheriff doesn’t. Patrick said Derickson needs to step up and own this problem.

Here is the Letter to the Community in response to the above article….

To the Editor and Community,

It’s a sad day when a community leader places blame (see The Daily Astorian’s January 16, 2008, article “Leaders ‘asleep at the switch’ on disaster plan”) rather than accepting responsibility. On October 22, 2006, Commissioner Sam Patrick made a motion to approve Sheriff Bergin’s request for an agreement to begin the Disaster Mitigation plan. There was no discussion about taking that oversight away from Sheriff Bergin at that time and the Sheriff’s request was approved unanimously. The grant issued for this work specifically identifies the Sheriff’s Office as the principal administrator of the Disaster Mitigation plan effort.

Commissioners then engaged in a series of discussions held between December 18, 2006, and June 13, 2007, to discuss who should be responsible for the Office of Emergency Management, including the development of the Disaster Mitigation Plan. These meetings concluded in June 2007 when the County Manager recommended that the Emergency Management Program remain under the supervision of Sheriff Bergin. A motion was made and seconded by Sam Patrick. Again, the motion passed unanimously.

The current effort to develop the Disaster Mitigation plan includes multiple County Departments, including the County Manager’s Office, Community Development, Public Works etc., all in cooperation with and under the direction of Sheriff Bergin. We have confidence in the Sheriff’s administration of this project and appreciate Tom Bergin’s leadership. To date, Sam Patrick has made no effort to address his concern with the Board of Commissioners and we see no need for the County Manager to intervene with Sheriff Bergin at this time. Nor has Sheriff Bergin requested this action.

Our County Manager has acted exactly as the Board of Commissioners directed and maintains our full support. Any assertion that Scott Derickson should have unilaterally inserted himself into the duties of our independently elected Sheriff, and against Board direction, is completely wrong. Scott Derickson has shown considerable professionalism, leadership, cooperation and strong character through some very difficult controversies.

Patricia Roberts, Chairperson

Jeff Hazen, County Commissioner

Richard Lee, County Commissioner

Ann Samuelson, County Commissioner

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