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From Nancy Witney and Tammy Maygra 2/1/12
We have recently come into possession of emails and correspondence definitely not intended for the general public. Guess what? We are going to share them with you. There appears to be a lot of missing data but we are still looking.

As you are most likely aware, the old CHD board, consisting of Jay Tappan, Gary Heidi, Diane Husten, Lisa Galovich and Laura Tomanka have joined with County Commissioners Tony Hyde, Earl Fisher and Henry Heimuller to bamboozle you out of millions of dollars of tax money which should have been refunded to the special district taxpayers after the passage of measure 5-209 and, if not under that measure, than under the dissolution measure.

Please make a note of this email address: nohospitaltax.info. Everything we are about to tell you can be proven if you log on to this website. The site should contain all this information by February 1.

First, back in 2009, Jana Fussell of the Certificate of Need department in Salem cautioned the board and their attorneys that it would not be prudent to develop the Millard Road property until a Certificate of Need (CoN) was obtained from the state.  They were denied permits by the county land use department for site preparation. They were also cautioned by one of their consultant firms that this development would not be advisable. They did so anyway - to the tune of over 1.5 million dollars. They were encouraged to proceed with the land development by one of their attorneys, Peter Soloff, who thus far has collected over $350,000 in attorney fees from your taxes.  His advise to the board was that Ms. Fussell's suggestion was just a "matter of semantics".

Second, although the commissioners denied meeting behind closed doors with the CHD in order to vanquish all the money and property before the newly elected CHD took office in July 2011, reference is continually made to meetings with the commissioners and their county counsel, Sarah Hanson Tyson. Contrary to what we were told by the commissioners of their not having made up their minds about transferring public health to the county, they were working to do so way back in March 2011.

Now over $500,000 of your tax dollars have been transferred to a private foundation which is overseen by the same group of people who took your money in the first place. They have a new leader in Dan Garrison who has also been hired by the county to do accounting for them. This just does not look good no matter what kind of spin they try to put on it.

The balance of the money remaining from the nearly one million dollars, which was still in place after measure 5-209, has been transferred to the county commissioners' jurisdiction. Now they are using those funds to pay for an attorney to fight the two lawsuits filed on your behalf by the current CHD board, the new trustees and a representative taxpayer. It is our understanding the county has two full time attorneys and a part time attorney. Why are we paying them if more attorneys must be hired every time someone disagrees with the irresponsible manner in which the commissioners are handling our tax dollars?

The commissioners are also attempting to give the Millard Road property, free of cost, to the City of St. Helens. How does that make the rest of you taxpayers who do not live in St. Helens feel? We would not appreciate paying for a new park in Scappoose or in Warren or in Goble.  We 're sure you feel the same. You paid as much in taxes as we did in St. Helens.

Thirdly, we are highly offended, as should you be, that your vote electing a new CHD board by a 90 percent margin has been totally ignored. The new board was cut off at the knees: no money, no records and not even an office until a minute space was finally provided in the old courthouse. Now your CHD board has attorneys and they are doing everything in their power to hold the old CHD board and the commissioners accountable for their misdeeds.

Let us share some of the "secret" messages sent amongst the CHD and the commissioners. Oh, and by the way, it appears the City of St. Helens was also in on this back room maneuver.

3/17/11 from Karen Ladd (public health administrator) using public health computer to Jay Tappan "I spoke with Akin (one of their five attorneys) this morning. He said that the mayor, city admin, commissioner, you and Aki and I should meet to discuss the transfer of assets ..."

3/24/11 from Jay Tappan using the public owned computer at the fire department " Hi, Pam - Just a note...I left a message on Randy's (Peterson, St. Helens mayor) cell phone to call me about the CHD move to the PNP (private foundation) status."

4/4/11 from Karen Ladd to Jay Tappan " Us sending a letter to say we are "outta here" by the health district is not a mutual dissolution..."  "This is a one sided statement and really violates the terms of the IGA.(Intergovernmental Agreement)" "Would you be willing to talk to Earl (Commissioner Fisher) and