A clear majority is causing problems on CRW board

By warren mitchell

The Clackamas Review, Jun 4, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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Let me thank you for your excellent article on Clackamas River Water (Water district in disarray, May 21). Making these things public can only help the situation at CRW.

Now that the heat is on, the board of three wants to resign and take Pat Holloway and me down with them, but this CRW commissioner is not going to give up supporting the ratepayers who voted for him.

General manager

The public doesn’t get behind the scenes in the closed door executive sessions when the raw personal agendas come out and the worst personal attacks happen. The board of three, Mike Cardwell, Cyndi Lewis-Wolfram and Barbara Kemper voted not to have written records of those executive session meetings. I have to make an appointment and go to CRW and listen through long recordings to review a meeting.

The interim general manager interviews were held in executive session, and the board of three refused to make their evaluations of the two candidates in the public. Pat Holloway and I had serious issues with the way the process was handled and we read our evaluations into the public minutes because the ratepayers have a right to know how a new general manager was picked.

The first choice of the board of three walked out of the meeting after he heard our evaluations and Pat and I are still getting slammed by the board of three for going public. But, the real question is, why did he really leave since he still wanted the job after he saw Lewis-Wolfram make a vicious attack on Steve Lidston in the April 10 public meeting? Managing CRW is a tough job and it appears his issues may be a lot deeper than being evaluated in public.

Cardwell on the board

Cardwell has been on the board since 2001; there have been at least seven general managers in that time, and the board has been a revolving door of mid-term resignations.

Regarding my “Heel, Cyndi heel” remarks, the record shows that Lewis-Wolfram had been ramping up, meeting after meeting, in her attacks on Lidston because of the conservation position he created for a staff member she doesn’t like and organizational changes to control managers. I simply had enough. It was perfectly clear that the board of three supported these attacks, and Cardwell supported Lewis-Wolfram instead of protecting a staff member.

Cardwell’s claim that it is only the other four commissioners who are the only problem is just not so. In public he plays broker and peacemaker — behind closed doors he yells and berates us. Now he may be willing to throw in the towel, but I am not. I made promises to the ratepayers and I’m not going to be part of the revolving door.

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