Columbia Gorge Defenders

“The form 990 is submitted electronically to all board members prior to filing. Board members are given an opportunity to review the 990 and can submit questions to either the board as a whole, the executive director or the treasurer. If necessary, any board member board can request a board meeting to resolve any issues prior to submission of the 990. If any issues remain unresolved, the board can direct the executive director to contact the firms cpa for guidance and clarification.”

“Each director and key employee is required to complete and submit a annual conflict of interest disclosure form. Those forms are provided to and reviewed by the board of directors, the executive director and the office manager on an annual basis. This process ensures that no single key employee or director is responsible for monitoring and compliance. The executive director, the office manager, and the secretary are responsible for making sure that the conflict forms are updated on an annual basis. If a party required to submit a conflict of interest form has failed to submit the form, the executive director and the president of the board of directors will remind the tardy party and ensure that the form is received by the firm in a timely fashion. If the party refuses to provide an annual conflict of interest form, an investigation by the board will be initiated to determine the reason for the refusal, continuing refusal to provide an annual conflict of interest form would result in the dismissal of that employee or director.”

“The salary for the executive director was set by the board of directors. The board of directors reviewed prior irs form 990s for several comparable non-profit public defense law offices. The board used this form 990 data from the other regional non-profits as comparability data. The review of the comparability data was recorded by the board secretary and the president and a contemporaneous substantiation of the deliberation and decision was kept by the board. The board then used the executive director salaries disclosed within the collected forms to establish a salary range for the executive director position.”

“The documents are available on demand in both of our physical offices. Copies are available at no cost and can be picked up in person, sent electronically, or mailed via the united states postal service.”