Letter: Reader supports recall

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, September 1, 2009

To the Editor:

Kudos, to the brave men and women who have undertaken the recall effort for Judge Mark Webb. I wholeheartedly support their efforts.

When I read about this proposed course of action my first thought was “well, no one raised a single voice when he dismantled the Public Health Department.” And no one raised a single voice when he summarily dismissed Bill Harrington as director of the Grant County Center for Human Development and contracted the services out to a nonprofit in Morrow County. My feeling was, “a loss of human services just doesn’t get the same kind of attention as bad roads and mad law enforcement officers.” But maybe that’s okay. The most vulnerable among us always take the brunt of the ax, it seems; they are probably used to it. But don’t mess with our roads or our Sheriff – those folks have the voice and the courage to speak truth to power. It is about time someone had the courage to stand up to this man.

Is it fact or is it fiction that Webb closed the satellite location for the County Road Department in Long Creek and requires those workers who lived and worked in that area to drive to John Day each day to clock in before taking a county vehicle back to the north end of the county to work? Is it fact or fiction that the Road Department equipment is now adding 80-150 additional miles daily of wear and tear by making the trip? The answer to the question is, “It’s fact.”

How much savings do we get putting fuel in those vehicles to cover that extra mileage when the equipment could remain in a heated building in Long Creek currently owned by the County? How realistic is it for employees working in that area and living in that area to make that round trip each day just to punch a time clock? Whatever happened to trust and confidence that good people will do the right thing? Why couldn’t they have a time clock in Long Creek – a punch is a punch – it is pretty difficult to doctor a punched time card. Not to mention the extra time it takes once they have punched in to drive back to the work site, and the time it takes to return to Canyon City at the end of the day, that could have been spent working on road projects.

How realistic is it that the Road Department was required to alter their early morning work schedule to start at 8 a.m. to coordinate with the schedule at the Courthouse? Who plows the snow off the roads when the school buses need to get out in time to pick up kids in far flung areas and get them to school on time and safely?

And while we’re at it why doesn’t someone check out Judge Webb’s voting record? I understand he publicly announced at a department head meeting that he had never voted until he ran for this office. That isn’t the kind of person I want leading the government in Grant County. He hasn’t been a participant in the democratic process in his entire adult life and he thinks that’s OK?

Arrogant doesn’t begin to describe Judge Webb and his attitude toward other people. He doesn’t just “rub people the wrong way,” as the counter-petitioners so eloquently suggest, he just thinks he’s smarter than the rest of us and any input we might have is irrelevant because he already knows everything.

But when it comes to human relations, take your fingers out of your ears, Judge Webb; you might be surprised what you’ll hear. I am proudly carrying a recall petition and if anyone in the Prairie City area would like to sign please call me at 541-820-4522.

Linda Harrington

Prairie City