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Case to pay $500 for ethics breaches Airport director used position improperly By Chris Bristol SALEM � Avoiding a drawn-out legal battle, Medford airport director Bern Case has agreed to pay a $500 fine for two ethics violations. The Oregon Government Standards and Practices Commission accepted the settlement Friday without comment. The deal was struck last month between Case and state ethics director Patrick Hearn. In July, the commission ruled that Case used his position for personal benefit at least twice, sending on-duty airport maintenance employees to fix a faulty pump at his home on one occasion and improperly promoting his wife�s aviation-related business on another. The commission could have fined Case up to $1,000 for each violation. Case could have demanded a contested hearing before an administrative law judge. Case, the 1999 Oregon airport manager of the year, was out of the office Friday and could not be reached for comment. Previously he hinted he wouldn�t appeal only because he wanted to get the case over with and avoid more bad publicity. Carl Worden, the Eagle Point financial consultant and Southern Oregon Militia spokesman whose complaint sparked the ethics probe, said he was "pleased as punch" with the settlement. "Paying the fine breaks down to an admission of guilt," Worden said. "All his claims of innocence were baloney." Worden also continued his attack on the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. The county owns the airport, and Worden�s complaint stemmed from a Mail Tribune story that detailed a negative internal audit of airport management. Case was reprimanded by the county administrator, but Worden blasted county officials for not fining Case or making him issue a public apology. "What the ethics commission did is a slap on the wrist, but at least the county wasn�t successful in covering it up this time," he said. The settlement Friday does not end the matter. A former airport secretary whose allegations of mismanagement triggered the audit has sued the county, claiming she was forced to quit after she blew the whistle. The airport audit criticized management for a "pattern of poor judgments" that included sloppy payroll and timekeeping, questionable use of staff for personal projects and misuse of public property. The ensuing ethics probe focused on two issues: whether Case sent on-the-clock maintenance employees to his home for repairs and whether he used his position to promote his wife�s company, Turbo Way, which makes a wheelchair-friendly hydraulic lift for passengers. Despite documentation that a two-man maintenance crew made at least four house calls, ethics investigators eventually concluded they could prove only one repair actually occurred on the clock. Investigators also questioned Case�s role in Turbo Way and allegations that Case used his wife as a front for the business and his position in aviation to promote ramp sales. Investigators said they could prove only one Turbo Way violation. They said Case was on county time when he and his wife towed one of the ramps to an airport convention in Nashville, Tenn., in 1998. The ramp was sold, which the commission ruled was an illegal benefit to the Cases. Two other airport supervisors also were caught up in the probe. One was cleared, while the other, operations chief Robert Russell, was given a minor reprimand for using an airport hangar to store a boat and other personal belongings. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA