Washington County is not open government

With the leadership of Washington County Commissioners, every Fair Board meeting feels like a dictator is in charge.

Items are brought up and voted on with no public discussion, and if someone does ask to speak, many on the board appear put out and roll their eyes, play with papers or talk to their neighbor. Very rude!

Andy Duyck, chairman of the county commission, seems to feel he needs his hand on every committee so they don't make a decision he doesn't like.

I usually attend the Fair Board meetings as I am writing a history book on the Washington County Fair. I am also a 4-H leader and volunteer, who wants the best for all the 4-H kids in Washington County.

Fair Board meetings are scheduled for the first Wednesday of every month. Until the present Fair Board was appointed by Andy Duyck, you could count on one hand the number of times the meeting was changed in several years. Lately, they change it on a whim and do not notify the public. I went there Wednesday, June 6. The door to the Cloverleaf building was unlocked, but no one was there. They didn't have a cancellation notice posted. Others, including Pat Willis, who gives the 4-H report every month, were not notified.

The public is to be notified of meeting changes, and those who normally attend should be notified.

Why do they think it is OK to not announce meeting changes? I had checked the Fair Complex website mid-afternoon of the meeting date, and it listed the meeting that night. However, when I got home after my evening meeting at 10 p.m., the website had changed the meeting time to June 13.

Inez Griffels

Hillsboro

Help stop state funding of abortions

Today, via the Oregon Health Plan, some one-third of all abortions performed in Oregon are funded by state taxpayers. In one recent year (2009), OHP paid for 3,375 of the state's 10,801 abortions - almost 10 every day of that year.

This is wrong. Whatever one's position on abortion, certainly it should be agreed: Taxpayers should not be forced to fund elective abortions.

And soon, perhaps, they won't be. The Oregon 2012 Petition Committee is collecting signatures to put Initiative 25 - a proposed amendment to the Oregon Constitution that would end state-government funding of abortions - onto November's statewide ballot.

To do so, the committee needs 116,284 signatures by July 2. It is well on its way to achieving that goal. Registered voters, who are morally or fiscally opposed to paying for abortions, should join the effort.

Today, visit oregon2012.org and print out a single-signature petition. Complete the petition and return it to the committee in today's or tomorrow's U.S. mail.

By doing so, you can help stop Oregon's state government from funding abortions with your tax dollars.

Richard LaMountain

Cedar Mill

Avoid signing estate tax petition

Kevin Mannix is at it again, posing as a tax savior and riding to the rescue of the richest Oregonians - just them and no one else. Mannix seeks to get enough signatures for a ballot measure to repeal the estate tax, and he's paying signature gatherers and spending several hundred thousand dollars to do it. But in Oregon, estates already are exempt up to $1 million, and farm and forest estates up to $7.5 million, which covers nearly 98 percent of the citizens. So who really benefits from Mannix's efforts? The richest 2.3 percent. And cutting the estate tax would chop $100 million annually from the already crimped budget. So when you're approached to sign the petition to repeal the estate tax, please say "no." You'll be doing yourself a favor. 

Bill Kroger

Beaverton