Rohne got it right (Editorial)

Corporate special pleaders should come through the front door
Dirk Rohne     got it right.

Jeff Hazen, Patricia Roberts, John Raichl and Robert Mushen got it wrong.

The question was whether Clatsop County commissioners should meet privately with representatives of Palomar Gas Transmission, the backers of a pipeline project that is related to proposals for liquefied natural gas terminals. Palomar executives sought private conversation with commissioners, so they could skirt Oregon's public meetings law.

Explaining his refusal to meet privately, Rohne cited the confusion and lack of public discussion prior to the Port of Astoria's signing a lease with the Calpine Corp., which aims to put an LNG terminal on public land on the Skipanon River. After then-Port Executive Director Peter Gearin flew to California to meet with Calpine officials, Port commissioners had private conversations with Calpine. The travesty of the Calpine lease is that Gearin and Port commissioners made a decision of enormous public consequence without a semblance of a full public discussion.

Palomar officials say they sought private meetings with county commissioners, because they weren't seeking approval. Perhaps not then. But eventually Palomar will want something from the commissioners. Anyone who doesn't get that is a bit naive.

The four commissioners who met with Palomar misunderstand their role. No doubt, their egos were flattered by having a private audience with Palomar Project Manager Henry Morse. But the commissioners don't work for Morse; they work for the public. Over the past three years, county commissioners have mistakenly acted as though they work for Northern Star LLC, developer of the Bradwood LNG terminal, not for the public. That is a common malady among politicians. You see it in Washington, D.C., where the banking lobby and the insurance lobby dictate the limits of congressional action.

The Bradwood LNG project carries significant implications for salmon in the Columbia River. Rohne is the only commissioner who seems to understand that.

The basic premise that voters should insist upon is that corporate interests should come through the courthouse front door, not the back door.

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