Boardman resident and Farmer’s Cup owner Jonathan Tallman said he sees conflicts of interest as a point of contention within the Port of Morrow Board of Commissioners, and he hopes to help fix this by running for the board himself.
The former Boardman City Council (2022) and mayoral candidate (2020) filed for the board’s Position 5 seat in March, according to Morrow County records. He is looking to oust incumbent Commissioner John Murray, who’s running for reelection, and vies with contenders Wes Killion, chief operating officer of the Boardman-based Beef Northwest Feeders, and David Boor, a health teacher at Riverside Jr./Sr. High School.
Tallman has been arguing port commissioners vote on projects that financially benefit them.
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission in December 2022 voted to conduct full investigations of Morrow County Commissioner Don Russell, port Commissioners Marv Padberg and Jerry Healy and of Gary Neal, who in 2018 retired as the port’s general manager, because they may have used their positions to benefit themselves as owners of the fiber optics company Windwave, which provides fiber-optic services to Amazon data centers in Morrow County.
“So, if I get elected, then I’m able to vote with no conflict of interest,” Tallman said.
“And, if I do have a conflict of interest, I would be the hugest hypocrite to vote on stuff.”
When it comes to potential conflicts of interest, Tallman said people just need to be aware of their positions.
“If you don’t admit you have a problem, you’ll never overcome your problem,” he said.
Murray and his wife, Ann, own and operate Murray’s Drug in Heppner, and he is vice-chair at Port of Morrow. He said 40% of the port commissioners are Windwave owners, and during the last five months, 60% of votes and discussion topics have involved the company.
“How are we supposed to operate as a commission, when 40% of our commission is declaring that number of conflicts of interest?” he said.
Healy and Padberg at a meeting in February declared a conflict of interest and recused themselves from voting in regards to redistricting the Columbia River Enterprise Zone III. The port board tabled the topic for another meeting due to a lack of quorum. But the next month, Healy and Padberg voted on the topic.
“The two abstaining commissioners talked to the Oregon Ethics Commission. They have some documentation saying that it’s only a potential conflict of interest, so they could vote. And they did,” Murray said.
Murray also said if he wins reelection, he plans on following through on the port’s commitments about wastewater and secondary treatments.
“I made a statement apologizing for the port knowing there was a leak on the port property and not fixing it as soon as we knew we had it,” he said. “It was in bad faith, in my opinion, to not fix the leak we had, to where it had to be turned in by the public.”
Boor, who has previously held director positions at Boardman Fire District and Boardman Parks and Recreation District, said his focus is on growth and economics.
“We need to continue to bring economic prosperity to the county, and not just the county, but the region,” he said. “We need to create jobs, good-paying jobs.”
Regarding the Port of Morrow’s nitrate and wastewater treatment systems, Boor said it’s important to understand the port isn’t a major contributor to contaminated groundwater.
“Nitrate’s been an issue for nearly 50 years,” he said.
Killion said this is his first time in the world of politics, and his message focuses on that.
“The thing I’ve been running on is really just my expertise and background as a COO for a company,” he said. “And I think that a lot of the struggles and things that the port is dealing with today fall within my strengths. And that’s what I’m trying to run on, and really look forward, not just what do we need to do in this next year, but what do 20 years look like? And how do we do that in collaboration with the community?”
Killion said there needs to be more transparency between the port and the communities relying on it.
“Plans around the issue with nitrates, I don’t think that that is very clear to the community,” he said. “Periodic town hall meetings would probably be good, or newsletters. Even a little more openness in the Port of Morrow monthly meetings. I know they have a lot of executive sessions, and I’m sure there are things that are really sensitive, but I feel there are a lot of things happening that the community isn’t aware of.”
