At a June 28 policy session the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners
(BCC) officially scuttled the Mt. Hood Villages Board – the last vestige of
political influence for Mountain residents.

The county had options after having first “dissolved” the Villages, then not
liking that word, changed it to putting the Villages on “hiatus.”

One of the alternatives was the decision reached in a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) by county mediator Amy Herman, Villages’ Chair
George Wilson and Villages Director Carol Burk which reinstated the board
with instructions to move forward toward an election of board members.

But the BCC didn’t like that solution, instead opting for the hiatus.

The county had hired a consulting firm, EnviroIssues, to conduct a survey,
feeling out the sentiments of the Mountain community.

The survey, plus meeting with PGA staff to create a draft, management of
survey distribution and website, outreach (including staff at community
locations with printed surveys), along with stakeholder interviews and the
final report, cost the county nearly $11,000, according to the county’s
strategic communication manager Amy Kyle.

Despite the county’s admitting it was not a “scientific survey,” the results
appeared to be split with an equal amount of local residents showing distrust
of the Villages and the county alike.

In the policy session, Commissioner Jim Bernard took from this the position
that “If we have all these concerns about trust, getting the (Villages) Board
back together would be a big mistake.”

Commissioner Paul Savas, the lone dissenting vote in the decision, thought
the BCC was making a mistake.

“We get an agreement (MOU), now we go against it,” Savas said during the
session. He added that he didn’t think a delay was good policy without a
cause.

Commissioner Tootie Smith was quick to respond.

“Oh, there’s cause here,” Smith said. “We don’t need to comment on why
we’re doing this.”

Villages Chair Wilson took the decision personally.

“I’m frustrated,” Wilson said. “The BCC has a vendetta. They’re waiting for me
to go away. Do I want to waste my life chasing this? I know they won’t make
it easy for me. But I take a great deal of pride in my community. So I’ll wait
to see what they do next.”

Mountain resident Brigette Romeo stood in opposition to the county’s decision.
“As a past (Villages) board member and county taxpayer, I disagree with what
the county has done,” Romeo told The Mountain Times. “They should be held
accountable for the defamation of these board members. I give kudos to
George (Wilson) on his attempts to reunite the Villages board ... Now we have
no representation at all with the county. Maybe the commissioners should be
on hiatus until they can find elected members that are for the people, not
themselves.”

Former Villages Board Chair Doug Saldivar added a slightly different slant.
“I don’t think the current BCC cares much or thought much about the Villages
program,” Saldivar wrote in an email to The Mountain Times. “I believe their
view of the board was that it was an irritation.”

Saldivar added that, even though the BCC is not operating in the best
interests of the Mountain community, the real problem is that the Mountain
community is not operating in its own best interest.

“The community has never accepted the (Villages) board as its representative
to the BCC,” Saldivar wrote. “I think most of the people who have ever been
involved with the board (including myself) need to accept some responsibility
for this. When the board stopped meeting with the BCC and began to run all
its recommendations through (county) staff, it lost the chance to show the
community that it was a voice that would be heard by the BCC.”

Saldivar also noted there was a feeling that Wilson placed his agenda above
committee work and recommendations.

Commissioner Bernard will attend a Chamber meeting at 8 a.m., Tuesday,
Aug. 2, at the Mt. Hood RV Village to discuss the plight of the Villages board,
according to Kyle. Kyle added that, “In the coming weeks we will be working
on an outreach plan with the Villages community.”