Once again Columbia County has made the Portland paper/news, and once again it is because of the crooked and inept bureaucracy that rule this community. As I read the December 8, 2011 commentary in the Metro section of the Oregonian

I was disgusted but not surprised by the events that were being described in the article. Nor was I surprised that the city of St. Helens administrator Chad Olsen refused to return a phone call from the paper, Olsen was formerly the city administrator of Rainier who left the position on his own accord although rumor has it that he left before he was thrown out of town.

Olsen was partly responsible for the REDCO boondoggle that involved US Gypsum and has plagued the taxpayers of the REDCO district for many years. His friends include a certain county commissioner and several policy makers in the city government as well, there was no doubt there would be an immediate opening for Olsen to slither into and feel right at home.

The arrogance and ignorance that drives the bureaucracy is often openly displayed to other citizens through out the area as it has been against Mr. Topaz. Does the city care that Mr. Topaz is a graduate of Purdue with a degree in mechanical engineering and has worked on the development and construction of artificial hearts, fetal heart monitors and high-speed centrifuges. His knowledge and expertise far surpasses any engineer that works in this town/county. No wonder the city is singling him out, how dare Mr. Topaz voice his concerns and question the city and their plan of separating the city's sewer from the storm water and where the storm water would eventually drain.

The public works director Dale Goodwin threatened Mr. Topaz we will just condemn your property and make it a swimming pool. Condemnation threats have been used against other citizens in the county on numerous occasions if the citizen speaks out, or has found they are in some sort of land use violation because of mistakes or ineptness of county workers or simply if they refuse to fall in line as the bureaucracy deems.

Mr. Topaz's concerns proved correct, the storm water sump pumps out put went from 2,000 to 40,000 gallons, flooding into the lowest catch basin in 5 adjacent blocks his basement.

Mr. Topaz offered to alleviate the problem with some simple engineering by creating a new collection system other than his basement, and pump the water into the city's storm water system. By now the city of St. Helens is furious, an individual with vast superior engineering skills has shown simply how inept the city is, and how arrogant they are.
Mr. Topaz told them exactly what was going to happen and the city and its engineer proceeded bull headily and arrogantly ahead with the project with an unfavorable out come and a waste of stimulus dollars, now they will have to redo and correct the problem.

Mr. Topaz offered to fix the problem but the city and its wisdom would not allow Mr. Topaz to use the city's easement to solve the problem, which is perfectly understandable, why would the city want a simple solution to a problem that should not exist and only does, because the city would not take engineering advice from a man whose achievements, and credentials are outstanding in the science and engineering world and has saved countless lives with his expertise.

Now the State of Oregon wants to take steps to fine Mr. Topaz citing that he is representing himself as a professional engineer, all because he is not licensed in the State of Oregon. Big deal the city's engineers are licensed with the state of Oregon and look how they crafted inferior project plans. I would venture a guess here and going out on a limb by saying, looks like the state would license anyone and that Mr. Topaz's accomplishments far supercedes any criteria that Oregon requires. Their threat of a fine is foolish and was probably initiated by the City of St. Helens, administrator Chad Olsen, and the rest of the good ole boys bureaucracy in retaliation because of their mindless blunders. Maybe the "Boat House Crew has finally met their match on this one.

Mr. Topaz did make a couple simple mistakes; he thought he would be dealing with a bureaucracy that was run by logical individuals, and he thought a simple solution to basic engineering was a no brainier, well…. welcome to Columbia County and St. Helens, Oregon nothing is ever logical and most of the government is run by no brain'ers.

Note: Mr. Topaz filed a suit against the city in 2009 and the trial will take place June of 2012. Good Luck Mr. Topaz, many people hope you prevail against the crooked bureaucracy of Columbia County.