Four Douglas County residents are calling on Oregon’s congressional delegation and the state attorney general to investigate how the county uses its federal timber money.
A recent Oregonian article outlines how Douglas County Commissioners paid thousands of dollars in federal Secure Rural Schools Title III funds to a non-profit to produce videos. The Title III funds are supposed to go to fire prevention programs.
Joseph Patrick Quinn with Umpqua Watersheds cosigned a letter requesting an investigation into the use of federal funds by the county.
Quinn: “We’d like to see a hard, definitive investigation. It’s only fair to the taxpayers.”
Quinn had raised objections in 2015 when the board authorized more than 300 thousand dollars of federal money to Communities for Healthy Forests for a documentary film. The group released a videoadvocating salvage logging in September.
Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenhauer has asked the U.S. Forest Service to conduct an investigation.
Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice sent this email to KLCC Monday:
Douglas County along with Lane County and several other Counties have granted money to CHF and we have always and will continue to spend SRS money according to the law. The expenditure of those funds have been audited by the Forest Service and the Government Accounting Office and there have been no findings of misspent funds.
