By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
September 19, 2007

The Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facilities board of directors selected its new administrator during one of two confirmed illegal meetings in August.

According to the handwritten notes of NORCOR’s interim director, Darrell Hill, the board violated public meetings law twice on Aug. 23:

• A quorum of the elected body convened in a special meeting that was not advertised to the public.

• Then officials voted during an executive session to hire NORCOR Capt. Larry Lindhorst as the administrator.

He and three other applicants had been selected as finalists at an Aug. 14 meeting that was also not publicized.

“It (Aug. 14) wasn’t noticed because I completely forgot about it,” said Hill.

He said, “my issue again” when asked about not having the Aug. 23 meeting posted as required by law.

Hill declined to return a reporter’s phone call asking whether an Aug. 27 meeting of the board to further question Lindhorst was advertised. He also declined to provide a list of the board members that were present.

NORCOR Office Manager Debbie Bush said she was asked not to attend any of the three sessions in question. She said it was normally her duty to tape the meetings and take minutes.

Hill confirmed on Tuesday morning that none of the meetings had been recorded.

A copy of Hill’s brief notes for Aug. 14 and 23, obtained by the Hood River News, reflect that decisions were being made to winnow down the list of 10 applicants to a top choice.

Oregon Deputy Attorney General Pete Shepherd said, if the NORCOR board acted illegally, there are two remedies available to citizens.

He said “anyone affected by the decision” can challenge it legally in court. Complaints about executive sessions can also be filed with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. If the agency determines that wrongdoing took place, a penalty of up to $1,000 can be levied on each member of the governing body that participated in the illegal activity.

Hood River County Commission Chair Ron Rivers, who sits on the NORCOR board, was not present for any of the suspect meetings. He was unable to attend because of a conflict with pear harvest and had asked to have the interview process re-scheduled or postponed to a later date or an evening.

Rivers already planned to object to the hiring of Lindhorst at NORCOR’s regular board meeting on Thursday. He said having new knowledge about how that decision was made has raised his level of concern.

“If, in fact, there were illegalities in the process, this decision is invalid. It just reinforces my belief that we need to start over and take a look at all of the resumes that we received,” he said.

As reported in the Sept. 15 Hood River News, Rivers was handed a list of NORCOR employee complaints in January. Numerous allegations were made against management practices at the jail.

Lindhorst, who was overseeing operations, and Lt. Rick Graves were accused of “continually behaving in an unprofessional manner with their racial jokes, deliberate indifference to certain problems and obnoxious sexual jokes and innuendoes toward certain younger female employees.”