Columbia County Commissioners discuss cameras at Public Health

DAYTON—The Columbia County Commissioners met Monday, May 10, to discuss the WSU Columbia County Extension Agent position and the use of cameras in a county office.

The Commissioners heard from Dave McKinley and Jim Moyer, who are exploring options to fill the local extension agent position. The former extension agent, Paul Carter, retired in January after more than 15 years on the job.

McKinley, a local farmer, said that Columbia County has had an extension agent available for 100 years. He is worried that Washington State University will not replace Carter, taking a valuable agricultural resource away from the area’s farmers. Extension agents handle everything from 4-H program outreach and coordination to soil testing and other crop-increasing practices.

“We want to be looking to the future,” McKinley said. “We need individuals down in this area, or at least one individual, who has 21st Century cropping systems, precision agriculture skills, and who is a big enough person to handle the youth programs and coordination that needs to be done.”

Currently, there is no job listing through Washington State University for a replacement agent. McKinley and Moyer, and the Commissioners agreed that they would like to see a Columbia County extension agent. Still, they said having a backup, regional agent plan in place if the University does not fill the position on a single-county basis would be acceptable. Moyer agreed to stay involved as the commissioners move closer to presenting the issue to WSU.

Commissioner Chuck Amerein shared that he visited the Columbia County Public Health office late last week to discuss a person of concern. During that visit, he discovered that cameras placed in the new CCPH building were not on county-owned servers and that there was no visible signage related to the cameras. Commissioner Amerein said that he did not know about the cameras until that visit.

At the meeting, it was shared that the cameras were installed per Public Health Director Martha Lanman’s request so that she could monitor who was ‘coming and going.’ The commissioners were concerned that the cameras may violate the county’s retention policy because they are not on the county’s servers.

There are cameras in certain areas at the Columbia County Courthouse, including one installed for child-support monitoring services. A grant requires those cameras, and they have very specific guidelines that dictate who can access the recordings and when the video is available. It was unclear if any grant purposes required security cameras at the Public Health building.

The cameras at the Public Health building spurred on the conversation regarding Columbia County camera policies which control placement, recorded footage storage, access, and funding for purchase and maintenance.

The Commissioners and other county officials involved agreed that the private-server cameras need to be disconnected immediately. The cameras will remain offline until the commissioners and respective officials agree upon all policies, including installation and monitoring policies, retention policies, any prosecutorial aspects, and any law-enforcement-related involvement. If it is determined that the cameras are required by a grant, they will be replaced with approved cameras connected to and monitored by the county’s servers.

“I think this will make the system less full of surprises,” Amerein said.

The commissioners exited the meeting and went into an executive session to discuss flood-related issues.