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Gold Hill keeps imprisoned Gasso, but on unpaid leave GOLD HILL � Royal Gasso will remain Gold Hill�s public works director � without pay � while he remain in federal prison on a parole violation. Gold Hill took Gasso off the payroll last week and granted him an unpaid administrative leave, saying it could take the city just as long to find a replacement as it would to wait for the public works director�s release in a few months. "He offered to give his resignation, but the City Council didn�t want to take it," said Tony Paxton, city recorder. Gasso was arrested June 21 for violating the terms of his probation stemming from a 1984 heroin conviction. He remains at the federal prison in Sheridan awaiting a hearing before the U.S. Parole Commission later this month, when the charges will be made public. The Gold Hill City Council put Gasso on paid administrative leave earlier this summer while they investigated the charges, but changed the leave to unpaid last week. Gasso will also use a month�s vacation salary to help support his wife and children while he�s not working. Letters from the Gold Hill City Council praising Gasso�s work as a public works director may have helped shorten Gasso�s prison time to approximately three more months, Paxton said. Ordinarily when a public employee is charged with a crime, the city conducts its own investigation, Paxton said. But in Gasso�s case, the city has tried unsuccessfully to learn about the charges, he said. "We know it�s a technical violation of his parole, not a new charge," Paxton said. "It could have been something as simple as going out of state without advising his parole officer." Federal officials also have declined to provide the Mail Tribune with details surrounding Gasso�s arrest and imprisonment. The Parole Commission said it is too shorthanded to respond to the newspaper�s Freedom of Information Act request. Gasso has been Gold Hill�s public works chief since August 1997. He worked for the city of Brookings and was a sewer plant operator from June 1988 to February 1989 for Unified Sewer Agency, which serves Beaverton, Tigard and southwest Portland. 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