Glaciers going Shrinkage, disappearance noted at Olympic National Park C1
Rain with snow showers C8
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
$1.25 Sunday
January 15, 2012
Cash-out tally over 9 years: $1.4 million Investigation prompts look at PA policy KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Construction equipment is put to work Friday at the site of a biomass cogeneration plant at the Nippon Paper Industries USA paper mill in Port Angeles.
PA has most generous on Peninsula BY TOM CALLIS
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series on the Port Angeles city’s cash-out policy.
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — Policies allowing employees to be paid for unused leave are common for public agencies in Washington state and the rest of the nation, but the senior staff members at Port Angeles City Hall seem to have it better than other agencies on the North Olympic Peninsula. While the benefit is extremely rare in the private sector, where use-itor-lose-it policies prevail, state and local government workers around the country can convert unused leave time into straight cash or retirement credits. Deanna Krell, human resources program manager for the Association of Washington Cities, called it a “historical practice.�
BY TOM CALLIS PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Biomass project challenge rejected Board backs calculations, Nippon work BY TOM CALLIS PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — The state Pollution Control Hearings Board has sided with Nippon Paper Industries USA in a challenge from several groups, including PT AirWatchers, to its $71 million biomass energy project. Environmental groups are fighting biomass expansion projects at the Nippon mill in Port Angeles and the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill. In June, seven of the groups appealed a construction permit for Nippon that was granted by the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, alleging it was based on faulty data. In a summary judgment, the board ruled Jan. 4 that the groups failed to prove that the emissions calculations used by the agency were incorrect. “This ruling substantiates the excellent work that Nippon did to make sure that the biomass boiler project had the best environmental controls available,� said Harold Norlund, mill manager, in a writ-
ten statement. Darlene Schanfald, a spokeswoman for the Olympic Environmental Council, one of the groups that joined the appeal, said the groups are considering their next option for appeal: Thurston County Superior Court. In addition to PT AirWatchers and the Olympic Environmental Council, groups who joined the appeal are Protect the Peninsula’s Future, No Biomass Burn, the North Olympic Group of the Sierra Club, World Temperate Rainforest Network and the Olympic Forest Coalition. The groups have until Feb. 3 to file an appeal, Schanfald said.
Port Townsend project
review by the Pollution Control Hearings Board that sided with the mill and its biomass project that could produce up to 25 megawatts of electricity. The company could then sell credits for the electrical power. A trial is set for March 23. The expansion of Nippon’s biomass boiler, expected to be finished in April 2013, would produce up to 20 megawatts of electricity by burning wood waste from logging sites and sawmills. Schanfald said the groups still feel they have the “merits of the case,� despite the loss of the appeal of the Nippon project. “We have a fabulous expert air witness,� she said, referring to Bill Powers, an engineer from San Diego who testified for them. “If the Pollution Control Hearings Board didn’t pay attention to what he provided them, we wonder if the board just doesn’t understand these cases and doesn’t want to handle them.�
Also in June, Port Townsend AirWatchers, No Biomass Burn, the Olympic Environmental Council, the Western Temperate Rainforest Network and the Olympic Forest Coalition filed an appeal of ________ Port Townsend Paper’s $55 million biomass project to Thurston Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at County Superior Court. 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsula That appeal challenges a dailynews.com.
PORT ANGELES — When Craig Knutson and Scott McLain left their jobs at the city of Port Angeles, they received more than just a handshake and expressions of goodwill. They both received checks for more than $50,000. The money came from sick and vacation time they never took, and they’re not alone. Over the past nine years, the city has spent $1.4 million compensating 205 employees for unused leave, a Peninsula Daily News investigation found, with the largest checks being cashed upon the end of employment, typically retirement. Knutson, a former city attorney, and McLain, a former power systems manager, received the largest payments since 2003. Both had been with the city for more than 25 years and received the benefits of a policy that allows leave, either sick or vacation time, to accrue year after year for managers with almost no limits. That policy is now the focus of a State Patrol investigation into potential misuse, more specifically, whether Finance Director Yvonne Ziomkowski broke state law by cashing out 69 days of her own vacation — worth $28,867 — above what city policy allows. She allegedly approved many of the cash-outs, from 2009 through 2011, herself. She has pledged to repay the money. Ziomkowski’s cash-outs, which totalled 896 hours, or 112 days during that time period, far exceeded the city’s policy, which allows between 80 and 120 hours
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of leave annually to be cashed or reserved for retirement.
Cash-outs policy Yet, as cash-outs to McLain and Knutson show, the largest payments at City Hall are not the result of alleged impropriety but a matter of policy. Although they can receive compensation for unused leave on an annual basis, city staff receive payment for any vacation and sick time on the books when their employment ends, even if they are fired. When McLain retired in 2008, he received $56,289 for 144 sick days and 118 vacation days. TURN
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Accused killer called friend, wanted to submit to police BY PAUL GOTTLIEB PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
CHRIS TUCKER/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Moises Ramirez Matias appears in court Thursday.
FORKS — Moises Ramirez Matias, who is charged in the Jan. 8 stabbing death of 18-year-old Laranda Konopaski, was taken into custody Wednesday after he told a friend he wanted to get a lawyer and turn himself in, a Forks Police Department spokesman said. Sgt. Ed Klahn said Ramirez Matias, 25, the target of a nationwide manhunt, was arrested three miles from the trailer where Kono-
paski was killed after Ramirez Matias had the friend call Forks police. Ramirez Matias has been charged with first-degree premeditated murder with a deadly weapon and is being held on $2 million cash bail in the maximum-security pod at the Clallam County jail. His arraignment will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday in Clallam County Superior Court. The hearing had been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. that day, but extra time is needed because
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Ramirez Matias, a Guatemalan citizen in the country illegally, needs an interpreter, said court Administrator Lindy Clevenger. On Wednesday, Forks police officers, along with personnel from several North Olympic Peninsula law enforcement agencies, were attending a crisis intervention stress-management class to help them deal with the death of Konopaski, whose trailer “contained large amounts of blood,� according to court records. TURN
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INSIDE TODAY’S PENINSULA DAILY NEWS 96th year, 13th issue — 5 sections, 42 pages
BUSINESS/POLITICS D1 E1 CLASSIFIED COMMENTARY/LETTERS A10 *PW COUPLES C4 DEAR ABBY C7 DEATHS C5 MOVIES A3 NATION/WORLD PENINSULA LOOKBACK A2 * PENINSULA WOMAN
PENINSULA POLL PUZZLES/GAMES SPORTS WEATHER
A2 E6 B1 C8