The Oregon Government Standards and Practices Commission has cleared Coos County Airport Board member Helen Brunell Mineau of having a conflict of interest in her dealings as a private travel agency owner.

“The evidence indicated that Ms. Mineau did not violate government standards and practices law and the complaint should be dismissed,” wrote acting interim executive director Don Crabtree in a GSPC staff report.

The recommendation was backed by a unanimous vote Friday by the seven-member commission, Crabtree said. In May, GSPC officials agreed with the chief complainant, Denise Alexander, that there was enough evidence to warrant an ethics investigation. But by the time the investigation was complete, Brunell Mineau's actions were deemed ethical.

“I was never guilty,” Brunell Mineau said Monday. “This is the reason that people don't run for public office. I have been targeted by those people because I did what I was supposed to do. I did my job.”

The investigation kicked off in March, when Alexander, the director of marketing for Ocean Air Aviation, a business at the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport that provides air ambulance, fueling and charter services, among others, filed a complaint with the state ethics panel. She contended that Brunell Mineau, who owns Globe Travel, should have declared a conflict of interest in official actions she took regarding Coos Aviation - a competitor of Ocean Air. As an elected official, Brunell Mineau had an established business relationship and friendship with the president of Coos Aviation, Dale Sause, GSPC documents indicated.

According to the report, between February 2004 and February 2006, Sause, who also is the president of Sause Bros. Ocean Towing, paid Globe Travel $1,150 each month for air travel services for Sause employees from the Coos Bay and Portland offices.

GSPC regulations say a conflict of interest occurs when public officials take official action that benefits them, their relatives or their businesses financially.

While Sause Bros. Ocean Towing has been an “important source of business for Globe Travel,” GSPC officials contend the “pivotal question” is whether Coos Aviation was. But in the report, GSPC answers that, saying Sause Bros. Towing - not Coos Aviation - had an agreement with Globe Travel.

“Since Coos Aviation is not a business with which Ms. Mineau or her business are associated, as a CCAD board member, Ms. Mineau would not be met with a conflict of interest that would require public disclosure under (Oregon law),” Crabtree wrote.

The news did not sit well with Alexander.

“What she is doing isn't right,” Alexander said. “We are not done with this. We'll take it to another court. We'll do whatever we have to do.”

Alexander filed the complaint with GSPC after Ocean Air succeeded in establishing a private airport service center at the airport in 2005 and after a Coos County judge dismissed a $500,000 defamation lawsuit that Ocean Air brought against Brunell Mineau.

Throughout 2004 and 2005, Coos Aviation and Ocean Air officials engaged in a bitter public fight as Ocean Air sought to establish itself at the airport as a second fixed base operator, or FBO. Up until then, Coos Aviation, was the only FBO. According to court documents, Brunell Mineau had several conversations with Sause regarding his opposition to Ocean Air. Ocean Air officials contended that Brunell Mineau spread derogatory information about the company with the intention of keeping it out of the FBO business.

The judge threw out the case, and now the state ethics commission has done the same, but not before offering a warning to Brunell Mineau.

“There is, however, a profound basis for the public perception that Ms. Mineau was met with a conflict of interest regarding FBO issues,” Crabtree wrote. “Ms. Mineau should consider addressing that perception in the future.”

He would not elaborate on what that meant.

“It is just an opinion expressed for her consideration,” Crabtree said.

When reached Monday, Brunell Mineau remained steadfast that she did nothing wrong, nor would Friday's outcome change the manner in which she conducts airport business in relation to Coos Aviation and Ocean Air.

“Absolutely not,” Brunell Mineau said. “I will vote the way my heart tells me to vote and based on the information presented. I'm going to do my job to grow the airport to make it successful. We have a mission laid out and that is what we are going to do. That is what I intend to do.”