Locals hear from O'Neill in unique stump speech

Whitman County Commissioner Pat O’Neill briefed some two dozen constituents on the future of road funding, sexual harassment allegations and the county’s finances in a unique meeting at Pullman Tuesday night.

O’Neill invited residents to the meeting at the South Fork Public House in Pullman’s Wheatland Shopping Center to tell them his views on county government.

“I’m not campaigning, this is not political,” he said. “I wanted to get more information out to the people I serve.”

He said the meeting, which included appetizers for attendees, was paid out of his own pocket, not by the county or his campaign funds.

Don Orlich of Pullman asked about the fate of Assessor Joe Reynolds, who faces a civil suit on charges he sexually harassed a female employee. The county is also listed as a defendant in the suit.

“It’s up to the voters,” said O’Neill. “He was elected last November, and that’s a four-year term.”

Chief among discussion topics were the difficulties facing the county’s budget.

Declining revenues and increasing expenses are challenging leaders throughout the county, he said. Helping save that is the implementation of the New World accounting software.

O’Neill said when he first took office, he was told by nearly every employee of the county that the software, purchased in 2005, would not be put into operation “in my lifetime.”

That software was turned on April 4. O’Neill said it is already making budgeting easier for department leaders, and it has given the county solid information with which to budget.

“We’re light years ahead of where we were the last couple of years,” said O’Neill.

He noted the county’s bank accounts are fully reconciled for the first time since 2003. That was achieved after the county wrote off $274,000 it had booked as investments but could not find on bank statements.

“Did I like it? No. I did not like it. I was furious,” he said. “But you’ve got to play the cards you’re dealt. We had to come up with something.”

Though the county has a better picture of its finances, O’Neill saw a dire future for funding of county services. He noted declining gas tax revenues have limited funding for the road department.

Roads were a much discussed topic at the meeting.

“I don’t see the other stuff, but I see the roads,” said Barb Schmidtlein of rural Pullman.

With a touch of hyperbole, O’Neill went so far as to say if the legislature does not address that problem, asphalt roads may be torn up and replaced with gravel.

He would not, though, endorse efforts to repeal tax exemptions on fuel used by farmers in tractors, trucks and combines.

“Should we get some tax off that? I don’t know,” said O’Neill. “I would not vote in favor of that because this is a farming region.”

He did see bright spots in the county’s revenue stream, as retail trade has increased since Wal-Mart opened its Pullman store last October.

“Wal-Mart has been the best thing since sliced bread for this community and this city,” he said.

Rick Kiesz of Thornton asked if construction of the proposed Palouse Wind farm would benefit the county’s coffers. Kiesz has been an outspoken critic of the proposal, citing concerns over aesthetics, deleterious health effects and increased power rates.

O’Neill stressed the county will not “count its chickens before they hatch,” and has no plans to budget revenues from the wind farm until it is constructed.

He did say he was proud to have helped pass the county’s industrial wind farm zoning ordinance.

“We probably have the best wind ordinance in the state,” O’Neill declared.