The City of McMinnville, McMinnville Police Department, and the McMinnville City Attorney won’t, or haven’t, said if a civilian was present with the police during the impoundment of McMinnville’s notorious wolfdogs on March 13th.

The impoundment came a full week after the deadly March 7th rampage by the wolfdogs that left three household pets dead. Multiple attempts were made to reach the McMinnville City Manager, the City of McMinnville Attorney, and the McMinnville Police Department via phone and email to get a comment or direct us to a person who could comment.

It’s not uncommon for a police officer to have a civilian with them out in public, and it is entirely legal so long as the civilian does not obstruct justice, among other things. This is what is commonly referred to as a ‘Ride-Along’. However, while trying to find out if a person was with the police during the wolfdog’s impoundment started as the issue, that isn’t exactly where we ended up with this article.

All parties have either not returned attempts to reach them by phone/email or have declined/refused to comment. When asked directly for comment, a representative for Mac Police Department’s Capt Fessler & Chief Wood also declined to comment.

While this ‘citizen’ question almost certainly amounts to what the boomers call a ‘nothing burger,’ almost is entirely the key here: attempting to ask questions to and not getting a response from the publicly funded, citizen-facing employees who are tasked with answering our questions is the takeaway.

While all parties no doubt are busy or have something more meaningful to do than reply to official requests for comment, that doesn’t mean they can ignore the public or be derelict in their sworn duties. Duties that include answering the annoying ol’ public’s questions.

To me, this is yet another example of local taxpayer-supported employees being unaccountable or out of reach.

Take Visit McMinnville, for example. Their budget is 100% made up of taxpayer-funded sources that pass through the City Of McMinnville, besides any grants they secured. Yet, Visit McMinnville employees are unaccountable to the City of McMinnville’s Code of Conduct, according to a response we got from the City Manager’s office this April. Meaning, they could technically do some henuous stuff, like, say, harass citizens of McMinnville and still get to keep their jobs.

Residents of McMinnville have been upset in online forums at the wolfdog’s owner. And rightfully so. But, seemingly, not at the fact that the City Of McMinnville does not have a dog control or at Yamhill County and their commissioners for disbanding Animal Control in 2016.

-Andrew Brunello