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Ethics panel finds former official guilty By Dani Dodge The state Government Standards and Practices Commission found a former Jackson County building official guilty of five violations of state ethics law. The commission determined that associate building official Pat DeBenedetti used the county�s phone and pager for his private inspection business while on county time. That conflicts with a law that says public officials cannot use their position for private financial gain. The commission�s vote was unanimous, said commission director Pat Hearn. Hearn said he will now work on negotiating a settlement. DeBenedetti faces fines of up to $5,000 for the violations, and more for the money the county lost when he used county equipment for his own purposes. DeBenedetti did not attend the commission�s meeting, nor return phone calls to the Mail Tribune. The commission also is investigating former building official Dale Bohannan. The investigators� report on Bohannan should go to the commission next month. The complaints against the building officials were filed by Carl Worden, the liaison officer for the Southern Oregon Militia. Worden said correcting violations in the building department and ethics violations at the county airport last year are making a slight difference. He said lax ethics have exposed the county to lawsuits that will have to be paid eventually by taxpayers. "Jackson County seems to be tightening up," he said. "But until (County Administrator) Sue Slack and the commissioners start disciplining these people, you won�t see any real changes." DeBenedetti worked for Jackson County from 1990 through 2000, when he left to go into private inspections with Bohannan. Both ended up working for Clair Company, with which the county now contracts to do some of its inspections. While DeBenedetti worked for Jackson County, he also did inspection work for the cities of Phoenix and Rogue River. In the complaint, Worden alleged that DeBenedetti and Bohannan both did private inspection work while on county time. Because of inadequate documentation of hours worked and comp time taken, investigators couldn�t determine conclusively whether DeBenedetti was getting paid by the county when he was actually doing private jobs, Hearn said. But investigators did discover that DeBenedetti allowed contractors and officials from Phoenix and Rogue River to contact him on his county pager. Then he would call them back on his county phone. The calls to Rogue River were long distance calls. He also made numerous private long-distance calls. The county�s cost on the phone calls appears to have been at least $55.85, according to the investigator�s report. The county has worked to correct the problems, said Deputy County Administrator Dave Kanner. "The county has taken firm steps to ensure that the building department, like all our departments, operates in the most ethical manner possible," Kanner said. "This is unfortunate for Pat personally, but we feel we have adequate controls in place to ensure that nothing that even gives the appearance of something unethical happens again." Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.