It’s extremely unusual for a government entity to miss filing audited financial statements three years in a row.
BY NIGEL JAQUISS
Oregon Journalism Project
The Port of Arlington plays an important economic development role in Gilliam County, the state’s third smallest by population.
But in June, Secretary of State Tobias Read’s office presented the port with some shocking news: Because it had failed for three consecutive years to file audited financial statements with the state as Oregon law requires, Gilliam County would have to begin the process of dissolving the port, which is located off Interstate 84’s Exit 137.
It’s extremely unusual for a government entity to miss filing three years in a row, according to Read’s office, and the notice of potential dissolution came as a “total surprise” to Gilliam County’s top elected official, Judge Cris Patnode.
Emails show the port and its auditing firm, Pauly Rogers, failed to submit the required documents to the state but has now agreed on a corrective action plan to file financials for 2022, 2023 and 2024. The first of these is due Oct. 31.
In the meantime, state law requires Gilliam County to proceed as if the port will be dissolved.
Patnode says nobody wants that outcome, and she’s confident it won’t happen.
“The Port of Arlington is very important, active and vital,” she says.
A secretary of state’s audit earlier this year noted a pandemic-caused spike in governments failing to file their financials on time. The secretary reported that in 2024, 109 of the nearly 1,200 government entities required to file audited financials with the state failed to comply—that’s up from 19 in 2017, increasing the risk that governments are hiding bad news from their constituents.