Between the anti-code enforcement people and the recall people, Commissioners found themselves in a pickle. During Wednesday’s short meeting Commissioner Dan DeYoung and Board Chair Herman Baertschiger used their comment periods at the end of the meeting to lament, defend, argue and express a bit of self-righteous indignation. Meanwhile, Commissioner Darin Fowler, who is up for election this year and not on the recall list, took on Sen. Art Robinson and President Joe Biden.

DeYoung: I think the ad in the Sneak Preview pretty much sums it up as to what…there’s a group of citizens seems like is very unhappy with the whole way the board of county commissioners Is functioning and wants to just flush the toilet and start all over again. I urge you to really take a look at everything that is uh, that is being…I read in the Sneak Preview yesterday and I read Bill, is what’s his name? Bill Smith? Baertschiger interrupts…Ken Smith I think it is. DeYoung:…and I read his long description of what he thinks went wrong with COVID, and um, I agree with some of it but I also agree if you take a look today, uh, I think it was yesterday Dr. Rand Paul said this thing now that it’d got into the Omicron thing, and so many different politicians have had a shot, a bite of the apple, it’s still here, it’s still deadly, don’t blame the politician, maybe we oughta start circling the wagons rather than throwing rocks at each other. And I gotta agree with that I think Mr Paul, Senator Paul, is spot on with that. We’re spending way too much time trying to figure out what we did and didn’t do when actually all the way from the president all the way down to the city councils all the way through I don’t think this thing…I don’t know if we could have handled it better or worse or whatever. We can throw rocks. I’m not going to do that. I just think folks need to understand and maybe if you take a look at what else the Board of County Commissioners have done in the last year, uhh yeah, Commissioner Baertschiger’s (DeYoung calls him Bear Trigger) been here for one year, Commissioner Fowler’s been here for two and I’ve been here for five and maybe you should take a look at some of the things we have done in support of the county rather than using COVID as a battle ax and through the publications to basically unseat us and throw us by the wayside and um, I urge you to look at it very. very carefully. There’s an awful lot of misstatements that I think we’re gonna have to clarify in the next couple of weeks. Read…and I think right now and another thing is that the 002, 2021 002, the code enforcement issue, is going to come up on the May ballot. Congratulations to Holli Morton, she was the petitioner on that, and she was backed up by Sen. Robinson and ah, quite a few people across the street. But you know you got all those signatures, that’s great. I read the deal that was passed out. I just got it yesterday and I have an issue with most of it but I’ll take that up later. But, I also want to uhm, this is going to be put on the ballot? But before it goes to the ballot I urge you all to get the actual ordinance and read it. See how it is encroaching on your civil liberties, your rights as a citizen and I urge you also get out the Constitution and read Article Four in its entirety and Article…is it Bill of Rights?…Wally Hicks interrupts, “Amendment,” DeYoung…the Fourth Amendment and the Fifth Amendment and I want you to read in their entirety because there are guarantees in there to stop what they say is going to happen. There are guarantees if you continue to read the rest of the sentence you will find out the framers of the Constitution and we’re quoted in here that Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and a quote from them and its already in there that those very intelligent gentlemen in our history at a turning point, actually the creation of our history as a free country, as a Republic, that they put that in there. Way back then they knew that this thing could be abused and so they have those checkpoints. They already have it written in, it’s just that the sentence stopped at what you were looking at rather than reading the whole thing which I urge you cause I’ve had some pretty key people in my life said they were collecting signatures until they read the ordinance than said whoa, whoa, stop, that isn’t what I was told so I can’t do this. I think it’s something we all need to look at and that will come up on the ballot. On May 17 congratulations. It’s a heavy lift going out and getting those signatures in the winter time. Standing out in the rain and snow doing that you know my hat comes off to ya….it takes energized people to get things done in this Democracy, we’re a Democratic Republic and you certainly used the system and we’ll see how the voters turn out on May 17. I think is the election, umm, the County Clerk is now verifying all the signatures, they had 41…41, 41 hundred signatures they only needed 1600 and change so they did a good job good job of putting that back to the voters. By the way it says here we were not listening to the people. Commissioner Fowler and I both wanted to put that on the November ballot. We promised to do that. That wasn’t quick enough for the good senator and Holli Morton so this will go on the May ballot. I also want to…it’s quoted here that Commissioner Baertschiger is against that proposal and I don’t think he voted against it. He did vote in opposition of adopting it but I don’t think he was in opposition to the actual text message, the actual message or the ordinance itself. I think he was in opposition to the fact that it didn’t get to go to the public. So, when you quote him saying he was against it and use that as a feather in your cap I think you might want to talk to the Commissioner about that first. And I hope the Commissioner, Chairman Baertschiger, would clarify that at every opportunity that he can.

Fowler: Sen. Art Robinson seems to paint with a pretty broad brush and talks in half-sentences. I wish he’d finish the Fourth Amendment when he quotes it. He calls me a socialist. I’d like you to find somebody else in Josephine County that thinks I’m a socialist. Anybody who knows me knows that I’m a thinking Republican. I’m not an extremist, I’m a thinker and I want consensus, not um, adversarial relationships. And so, I’m disappointed in Art Robinson’s whole approach to this. The fearmongering, the broad brush, saying ‘hey they’re gonna come take your house, steal your property. How many times do we have to say that’s never our intention, it’s not gonna happen in Josephine County. We know it’s not going to happen. And we need this tool to combat the illegal cannabis crescendo of activity. We got great folks in our county like Duane Stark who is just over the border but started out here in Josephine County. He’s ready to pack up and go to Texas. When we got good folks leaving, that’s when I think we’ve got to raise the flag and raise the battle, try and meet the problem and I think our sheriff is trying as best to meet that illegal cannabis problem right in the teeth, um I think this kind of political maneuvering on Art Robinson’s part is not very pretty.

After complaining how Robinson is fearmongering and painting with a broad brush Fowler does a bit of that himself. “I am embarrassed nationwide that the most successful country on the entire world doesn’t have enough test kits for COVID. I have a test kit at my house I was thinking of putting it on eBay. I might get a pretty penny for it. And we’re the most developed nation in the world. The most successful in the world and you don’t have test kits that starts right at the top at the Brandon Administration. They should have had this all set up and they don’t. I can’t believe the smartest country in the world is still fighting the pandemic the same way we did on day 1. Stay home. Don’t come to the hospital if you’re sick. Stay home.  if you get really sick finally you can come to the hospital. We got no therapeutics, not treatment we got no suggested path out, we have no light at the end of the tunnel wearing masks now. So I’m a little embarrassed by our country’s reaction and especially Oregon’s reaction, always slow. Always whatever CA and WA is doing we’re followers not leaders. It’s embarrassing.

Baertschiger: I want to touch on the recall. There’s so much misinformation as far as I’m concerned. The article in the Sneak Preview…. he (talking about Ken Smith) blames DeYoung…. vaccines, the fire district, the ordinance and disrespect. Vaccines. We’ve done everything the Health Department’s wanted but we ask tough questions that’s what leaders do. Our critics don’t want us to ask questions but we’ve been steadfast that is to consult your medical provider to see what’s best for you. People want us to tie our citizens down give them vaccinations. We’re not gonna do that. Best advice is contact your medical provider. You have to remember, there is another side of this. (Herman reads an email saying “concerning the 7^th street vaccine banner and clinic…you should be ashamed of yourselves why allow the f…to allow take place. You idiots, the vaccine is nothing more than Russian roulette.”) So, there’s another side. There’s not just one side so sorry we won’t come out and tell people you need to go get vaccinated.  We won’t do that. We always defer and I think that’s smart. Some can’t have vaccinations because of autoimmune disease. if we dispense medical advice to them they could be harmed. As for fire district. give me a break. We put it on the ballot and it was shot down.  This happened before and if you don’t enter in conversations with ability compromise it never gets anywhere. You have to compromise. That’s lacking in the State of Oregon. When I first went to the senate we always moved forward. That’s no longer valued in the Oregon legislature. Without compromise.…and the ordinance. Commissioner DeYoung and I helped write it and gave as many protections as we could. When issues are very controversial they should go on the ballot.

Ah, the other thing is, we disrespect our other elected officials. Well…..you know, go to the Josephine County Democrat uh, page, I think at Josephinedemocrat dot com…Go to their page. You know what? They got cartoon characters of all three of us commissioners. They refer to us as the three stooges and they do nothing but blast me and distort the truth and take little snippets out of what we say and put em together to make it sound like we are the three stooges. Talk about disrespect. That is the hypocrisy of the Democrat Party and they’re the ones behind trying to recall us, with mistruth. It’s all political. And people say that Josephine County commissioners’ office is non-partisan? Well, guess what, (109:35) the Democrats just made it partisan. (Note: The “cartoons” are stylized drawings, there is no reference to three stooges and no snippets, only notes from board meetings).

In other business Wednesday Commissioners approved an addendum to ambulance standards that allows flexibility in a crisis, made some appointments to committees, approved Order No. 2022-003 declaring Josephine County a Second Amendment Sanctuary, and approved an agreement with the Grants Pass Irrigation District over who uses whose ditches that is supposed to smooth relations between the county and the district according to Rob Brandes in Public Works. The county uses irrigation ditches for water runoff during storms.

These were discussed during the Legal Update meeting Tuesday where DeYoung again wondered if their ordinance prevents a home raid that might find enough ammunition to declare someone a terrorist. He admitted he didn’t know what was in the gun safety legislation passed last year and only heard this from “campfire talk.” Baertschiger asked what the definition of “arsenal” is. Legal Counsel Wally Hicks said he didn’t know. There was an agenda for a Thursday Administrative Workshop but it wasn’t put up as a recording.

During Public Comments Wednesday, Guenter Ambron from Cave Junction called about his Health Freedom group that will be playing a recording of Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas cardiologist discredited by the scientific community who says COVID vaccines are unsafe and treatment options like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin have been suppressed. He also claims 16,000 Americans died after taking the vaccine, which has been debunked by the CDC. Texas A&M College of Medicine, Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine have all cut ties with McCullough for spreading misinformation. Doctor fired for spreading COVID misinformation finds support in Bartlesville (examiner-enterprise.com) Ambron said his group is putting together “therapy” packets containing therapeutics such as ivermectin so they can start taking it during early COVID symptoms.

John Maupin, who said he’s a resident of the “unprotected” area of the county, called in to refute some of the claims Baertschiger made last week. “Herman is concerned Rogue Valley Fire Chiefs mutual aid standard is not signed by an elected official. Apparently this concern is not shared by the state fire marshal since that office touts the agreement as a model of for delivery of auto aid and mutual aid. This agreement is in effect for four fire districts in the county and Grants Pass Fire as well as 15 departments in the Rogue Valley. Furthermore, nationwide standards for fire service are not developed, maintained or signed off by elected officials. For example, the National Fire Protection Association standards for firefighting NWCG standards for wildland firefighting and ISO standards for rating fire departments are not signed off by elected officials. The NFDA and ISO are actually private companies. The commissioner said standards affect private land and only serve a small area. Actually, the Rogue Valley fire standard is the document that allows every citizen in this county to receive critical life safety, fire service through auto aid and mutual aid. Auto aid permits immediate turnout by dispatch of predetermined resources within a minute of received call by 911 call center. Mutual aid allows fire resources throughout the Rogue Valley to be rapidly dispatched to major incidents in a pre-planned manner. Finally, the Commissioner mentioned there would be costs associated with the standard. He is correct and I’m assuming he is referring to costs for county fire since Rural Metro has been operating under the standard for several years. These costs are the costs of doing business for a private company. There will be costs to meet the standard, additional costs to engage, but without standards county fire will continue to deliver an uncertain level of service to an undefined area while receiving auto aid and mutual aid from Rural Metro and Grants Pass Fire with no reciprocity. In other words, the private company is being subsidized by a competing company and Grants Pass taxpayers.

After public comments, which limit speakers to three minutes each, Commissioners respond to those comments with no time limits.

DeYoung, responding to Ambron, said he “always appreciates Guenter keeping up on this” and said Commissioners are being criticized about their reactions to COVID “and yet there’s another side and I appreciate you (Ambron) bringing it forward when you do come under attack by all kinds of people.” DeYoung also wanted those critical of Commissioners to know they got kicked off YouTube, not for what they said but for allowing people with “different” opinions to comment. “Different opinions are better than none,” he said. As for the fire standards Maupin brought up, he said he’s looking forward to having a discussion about them, cautioned that even though a fire district had been tried it failed but maybe in the future different people will step up who didn’t before to get it passed.

Fowler also praised Ambron as a community activist then said the board should start the fire standards conversation in the first quarter of the year.

Baertschiger also praised Ambron, and said he looks forward to him and “the folks he meets with.” On fire standards Baertschiger said he isn’t opposed to them. “On fire standards we keep comparing apples and oranges, not opposed needs to be vetted to people. Remember when a govt agency imposes standards on another govt agency is one thing but when govt agency imposes standards on private companies is another ball of wax. I know that the private fire protection vs public fire protection conversation is all over the board and its complicated but I have to remind everybody you know people point the finger at me like I’m trying to quash this. I’ve been working on a fire district since 1994.

DeYoung interrupts….in some form or another Commissioner you have….

Herman: Yeah, and I even went so far when I was a senator to try to get a million and a half dollars to start one. So, when people point their fingers at me and say I’m anti anti I don’t git it! I’m not. I just understand the politics. I understand how complicated the discussion is and you have to move within those sideboards. That’s just how you have to do it. There’s a lot of people that want us just to say this is how it’s gonna be. It’s gonna be an order. Well, that’s not gonna go over very well. That’ll go over like a lead balloon. So, it has to be a discussion. There is going to have to be a dialogue. And um you’re just going to have to come to something that…you’re going to have to reconcile your differences and come to an area we can generally agree on. That’s the only way you’re going to get it done. We just saw that the commissioners gave an order to create an ordinance and the people took it to the ballot. Well, I have a funny feeling, if we create fire standards without having a broad discussion amongst everyone we will have that same process again. So that’s how our Democracy and how our Republic is founded and unfortunately its usually a slow-moving ball but that’s just the world we live in good bad or indifferent. I think it’s a good process. I know it’s very frustrating and you have to have patience.

DeYoung asked what happened to the $1.5 million the state set aside for the fire district. Baertschiger said it’s still out there and that the $50,000 spent on the study came out of that funding. DeYoung then asked if they have to apply for it again. Baertschiger said no, it’s still there, but the state legislature can “sweep it away” anytime. DeYoung then asked, “who do we make aware that we’re still interested?” Baertschiger said until they go down “certain sideboards” fire standards or another attempt at a district “just won’t happen.”

Week of January 3, 2022

Keeping the community safe costs money but as Commissioner Darin Fowler said during Thursday’s budget discussion, “I do want to remind everyone our community decided 10 or 12 years ago that they don’t want to be a fully funded county and we’re not. They never supported the sheriff’s patrol, they only did it when we did the jail and juvenile justice levy and although I think you’ve done a great job, Sheriff, of bringing patrol to the maximum point that you can, that’s still not what the people asked for.”

However, apparently some in Josephine County believe keeping safe means dodging the Oregon State Legislature’s gun safety rules put in place last session and arming themselves. The Commissioners’ work week began during Legal Counsel Jan. 4 with a “Second Amendment Sanctuary Ordinance” based on one passed last spring by Yamhill County Commissioners that says the sheriff and district attorney can’t enforce state gun laws passed after February of 2021. The meeting began with a new Chairman, Herman Baertschiger and Vice Chairman Darin Fowler.

“I think we need to take a stand on this. We don’t want to be caught without something like this. We do need to take a stand on the Second Amendment because, you know how nobody wants to read the Constitution anymore,” Commissioner Dan DeYoung said, after admitting he didn’t get a chance to actually read the Yamhill ordinance. “I think what we need to do is really, um, declare what we feel the Constitution says.”

Last summer the Oregon State Legislature passed a bill that mandates the safe storage of guns, bans them from the Capitol and the airport and allows school districts, community colleges and universities to set their own policy on guns allowed on the premises. In response, Yamhill Commissioners declared that state law violates their Second Amendment rights and passed the ordinance on a vote of 2 to 1. Last fall Oregon’s attorney general filed lawsuits against Yamhill, as well as Harney County, which passed a similar ordinance.  Yamhill County Counsel Christian Boenisch warned Commissioners county laws can’t pre-empt state laws.

https://pamplinmedia.com/nbg/142-news/503671-403241-commission-adopts-second-amendment-sanctuary-ordinance-pwoff#:~:text=Less%20than%20a%20week%20later%2C%20the%20Yamhill%20County,this%20year%2C%20including%20SB%20554%20and%20HB%202510.

Josephine County Counsel Wally Hicks didn’t mention this during the meeting Tuesday. Fowler referred to the county’s controversial Right to Bear Arms section that says “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed,” then goes on to say no laws can be passed by the county that could be taken as an infringement to bearing arms. Fowler said the ordinance is needed to back that provision up, which is currently under review by the Charter Committee. Baertschiger says while the ordinance is probably more “pomp” than “circumstance” it is needed to remind people in Josephine County that “we have something in our charter.” Commissioners debated whether or not to include a line for Sheriff Dave Daniels to sign on to the ordinance. They instructed Hicks to find out and get back to them Wednesday with a final draft.

Also on Tuesday the board discussed new regulations for ambulance services during a COVID spike that allows ambulance companies to put three emergency vehicles on the road during an emergency with the staff normally required to run two. DeYoung asked if this addressed hospital backups as well. He was told by Public Health Director Michael Weber it only pertained to ambulance services and hospitals have their own plans. The county contracts with American Medical Response for ambulance services. Weber endorsed the plan and said he hoped it would eventually apply more generally to emergencies and not just COVID.

Just before the meeting officially started DeYoung and Baertschiger bantered about hospital overcrowding with DeYoung saying he heard Asante lost “hundreds” of employees.

“I heard 600,” he said.

Herman said he thought it was 850. November 2 it was reported in the Grants Pass Daily Courier that out of 6,000 employees Asante had about 163 vaccine mandate holdouts who quit. DeYoung also grumbled about the county doing too much testing and both Baertschiger and Fowler, on Zoom from their homes, had coughs and running noses but wouldn’t admit they sought tests to find out if they had COVID.

Wednesday, when the Weekly Business Session is held, is when Commissioners take action on items they have discussed with Hicks on Tuesday. Their first order of business was to hear a report on the sale of property confiscated by the sheriff because of taxes owed or illegal activity. Information about that is on the county’s website under Property Management. They usually vote on these matters at the end of the meeting.

After that short discussion about the properties, three people called in during the Comments from the Public period on the agenda. Guenter Ambron from Illinois Valley announced he is starting a vaccine recover group and went through a list of various ailments people have attributed to COVID vaccines. Judy Hinkle, once again, condemned mask-wearing, social distancing and vaccines, then invited people to her We The People meetings held at a café in Cave Junction, presumably a gathering of unvaxxed people without masks sitting close together.

John Maupin called in support of fire standards he said have been sitting on the Commissioners’ desks for several months. He said the standards were developed by the Fire District Committee at the request of the Commissioners but have been ignored.

During Commissioners’ response to the comments, DeYoung said the fire standards will be coming up on the agenda “in a short time” while Baertschiger said fire standards may get pushback because of the potential of increasing homeowners’ costs. Fowler just repeated complaints about the governor’s mask mandates and accused Oregon government of having “no idea what they’re doing.”

Commissioners approved the new ambulance regulations, the property sales report and other “housekeeping” for the week.

Fowler’s comments on Thursday about voters deciding against a fully funded county set the stage for a dismal discussion during Commissioners’ Administrative Discussion meeting January 6. The Sheriff’s budget is “falling off a cliff” according to Finance Director Sandy Novak. The sheriff needs $4.3 million to maintain its current level of service. Earlier, the Commission skimmed $1.7 million from it’s share of American Rescue Plan Act COVID rescue funds in “administrative” fees and designated that for the Sheriff’s Department. Another million dollars can be scraped up by going back in time; that is, cutting back to the Sheriff’s 2018 budget, Novak said. Staffing shortages across county departments can contribute a couple of hundred thousand, since only about 10 or 11 of the 30 or so unfilled positions are paid from the General Fund. Then there are the SRS funds sent to the county from the federal government to make up for lost timber receipts, Novak said, but it is hard to get a clear estimation of what those will be in the coming fiscal year.

Sheriff Dave Daniels laid out the problem. Basically, because his budget is precarious his staff is abandoning a sinking ship. There are a lot of jobs out there in law enforcement right now, he said, so he is down to a staffing crisis in the jail. He’s lost six employees in corrections with two more indicating they will leave soon, and under the terms of the recently renewed levy he is obligated to keep full staffing in the jail. He also said he lost a patrolman to the City of Grants Pass Police Department and because the county has instigated a hiring freeze until it figures out where money to fund his department will come from, he can’t fill out his illegal cannabis fighting team. He says it takes a year of vetting, testing and training a new officer so he’s afraid he won’t be ready for the next growing season.  He said if the budget ultimately cuts his patrol force, officers on duty now would be reassigned to the jail, but he predicted most would leave before taking a jail assignment.

DeYoung asked how staff shortages are affecting the jail population. Daniels said capacity is about 185 but because of COVID regulations he’s down to 150 inmates. He didn’t speculate on what the future may hold.

Fowler said he appreciated the Sheriff identifying the problems and that’s when he reminded everyone at Thursday’s meeting Josephine County residents don’t like a fully-funded county. That started a round of ideas from Commissioners and the Sheriff, who didn’t elaborate on his. DeYoung thought it might be a good idea to start asking millionaires in the county for donations, buy lottery tickets and give half to the sheriff and that all those who voted for higher taxes in the past should just pay anyway, even if the tax didn’t pass. Herman has been “testing” an idea around the county about a sheriff’s levy that would establish a board to oversee how the money is spent. He will be holding forums on that soon. Baertschiger also suggested borrowing from the road fund. While they all seemed to know about the Second Amendment defense in the county’s charter, they seemed to forget it also says (Section 14.7) that the “County shall not create any debt or liabilities which shall singly or in the aggregate, with previous debts or liabilities, exceed the sum of $5,000” with the exception of bonded indebtedness.

After listening to Novak spell out the impending budget disaster she challenged some of the ideas put out by commissioners, especially Baertschiger’s suggestion the county borrow enough money from the Road Department to float the sheriff at his current levels for a year. Baertschiger said this would give them time to come up with a more permanent solution.

When Novak asked how the debt would be paid back DeYoung flew into a rage.

“You keep asking ‘how you gonna pay for this, how you gonna pay for this (in a mocking tone). How are YOU going to pay for this. We’re trying to figure out a way but don’t want to destroy what the sheriff build up. How to sustain that one more year. You gotta give one more year not just say ‘how you gonna pay for it.’ We can’t impose that on the taxpayer. We have to go to the taxpayer. If I’d won the lotter last week I would’ve given half to the sheriff. I commend Commissioner Baertschiger (who DeYoung calls Bear Trigger) for trying to find a way to sustain us, to give us time to find that and you’ve gotta give us time to find that. That’s your….what he’s asking you to do is say yes, this can be done. Not say ‘well, I need to know how you’re going to pay for it!’ That’s not the issue right now. We’re looking at many ways to pay for it. We don’t know how to pay for it because you know what? We can’t impose that on the taxpayer. We have to go to the taxpayer for their approval to pay for it. I’m not gonna keep buying lottery tickets till I win. That isn’t sustainable Sandy. Quit asking us how we’re gonna pay for it. We know we gotta pay for it!” said DeYoung.

Novak started to explain but was interrupted twice. Baertschiger broke in to say “we also have six million dollars, a remaining balance of six million dollars which I hate to tap into but if we have to tap into and bring the general fund balance down to five million to get us through this next year than that’s what we have to do. I mean, you know, desperate times takes desperate actions and these are desperate actions.”

When Novak started to speak again DeYoung horned in. “….Almost everybody else in this organization is self-funded. Parks, Airports, you name it. Roads. All really work their buns off to be self-sustainable but law enforcement is not that way. It’s up to the taxpayer. I’ll tell you one way you can make a contribution. Write a check to the sheriff. If you’ve got a million dollars laying around, write a check to the sheriff, then he’s home free. We keep talking about…when, uhh, when we ask for a tax increase and nobody pays it and they all say ‘yeah’ I voted for it. Well, if the half of you who voted for it went ahead and paid it anyway, cause you already had it outta your budget, we’d be halfway there. But nope. THEY (people who voted against a tax) don’t pay so I don’t have to pay. And to be honest with you we can’t let the Sheriff go backward Sandy. And askin’ us how we’re gonna pay for it, we’re gonna give you the same answer we gave you yesterday and probably the same answer we’ll give you tomorrow. We need time to come up with a way to pay for that.”

When DeYoung ran out of breath and sat back, Novak took the opportunity to fire back in her quiet way.

“Well, the decision to use the fund balance, the decision to use debt, is 100 percent with the Commissioners. That’s not mine. My JOB is to say hey, how are you going to pay for that? Or what’s going to happen if we don’t have a fund balance. What’s gonna happen if we keep increasing FTE levels, knowing there’s not going to be funding next year for it. That’s my job. To ask those questions so that you can make a good decision. But the decision is yours,” she said.

Fowler came into the fray by saying “the smoke is still boiling out of my ears. This is a tough conversation.” He said he saw Novak’s point, that we’re just talking about digging a bigger hole “and so the solution is tough for a commissioner to come up with.” He predicted the board will probably have to come up with something to “put on the ballot.”

Baertschiger, finally realizing he’s Chairman, directed Novak to work on three things: one – see how much money can be gleaned from vacant general fund positions, two – find out about borrowing from the road department and how long they could take to pay it back and three – find out what would happen if we lowered the general fund balance. He said he didn’t like any of those options, that they were all kicking the can down the road and blamed the gradual reduction in timber receipts on the fix the county is in now.

“We get no help from our federal partners. None. Zero. Both our senators are on vacation when it comes to providing money for Josephine County that has 70 percent federal ownership and the don’t pay anything (property tax). There’s nothing I can do about that OK? As long as the voters keep voting these people in that’s what we’re stuck with. We can’t change that. So don’t concentrate on changing something that you cannot change. So, we’ve got to…and Dave, when we finally find you some funding you need to take the log truck off your patch. OK? Cause that log truck is no longer paying for your funding. I’m sorry. That’s just how it is. So those are the things I want you to work on, general fund positions, eliminating those and shifting those dollars over to the sheriff’s department and reducing the balance of the general fund,” said Baertschiger.

Daniels said he hasn’t been sitting idle during this crisis. He told Commissioners he has a plan he’s currently vetting to the public at meetings around the county while also educating them about his department’s fiscal crisis. “ I’m probably going to ask the County Board of Commissioners to put something on the ballot in November of this year. And, so that being said, I need time.”

He again told the board that he really needs fiscal stability this year and a lifting of the hiring freeze because it takes so much time between when a new deputy or jail guard is hired and when he or she can start work. He said he will always have applicants because he is essentially giving them a skill they will be able to use if his department eventually loses positions.

Baertschiger ended the discussion by saying “the bottom line is, when we dial 911 we expect someone to come running. When you need help we should all come running too.”

Also Thursday, the board went over the gun sanctuary ordinance Hicks put together “almost word for word from the Yamhill ordinance.”

DeYoung talked about a lot of things this will prevent, even though the gun safety legislation passed in the Oregon State legislature didn’t have any of those provisions.

“If somebody told me if you came to my house to do a search and found more than 200 rounds of ammunition you’d have an arsenal or more than three guns you’d have an arsenal, does this ordinance stop that?” he asked.

Baertschiger said the ordinance’s purpose was to let the citizens of Josephine County know the Board of Commissioners wants to make sure your rights are protected. The ordinance will be presented at next Wednesday’s Business Session for action.

In a matter they could act upon, Commissioners Thursday gave the nod to Weber to waive late fees on restaurant permits, extending the grace period to March 1.

Herman Baertschiger on KMED with the Bill Meyer Show Jan. 4

Baertschiger mentioned the recall, saying he’s being recalled for asking questions and now the CDC contradictions are making his questions valid. He didn’t mention that his questions often involved supporting misinformation. He and Meyer talked about COVID rules people would tolerate as opposed to following, accused the Oregon legislature of wanting to keep the statehouse closed during their Feb/March session and questioned the legitimacy of a government that doesn’t let the people in to participate.

Baertschiger said he would like to have in-person Commissioners’ meetings but if they did the newspaper and some people would complain about people not wearing masks. Meyer suggested they meet at Taprock or Elmer’s and pretend to be eating so they wouldn’t have to wear masks. He said if things got tough they could even order a drink.

Meyer and Baertschiger mocked Dr. Fauci and others and said the relaxing of COVID rules even with Omicron causing a spike is proof they were right about the disease all along…that it isn’t as serious as people in government made it out to be and said the issue is “losing traction.”

They discussed crime and how the homeless lead to a rising level of disorder in the community and there was a reason for vagrancy laws in the past. Then they lamented the Oregon court system that has expanded homeless rights and said they hope some of these issues reach the Supreme Court. On warming shelters, while saying they don’t want people freezing to death, they said it’s always controversial to start one because people want to know who pays for it and they don’t want it in their backyards.

They discussed fire since Baertschiger seems to be Meyer’s resident expert. He asked Baertschiger if something like what happened in Colorado happen here? Baertschiger said because of our topography we don’t get the high winds like other places do but that we do have to be careful. He worried about adding more people to places like Dollar Mountain because it just increases the “incendiary” opportunities.

December 21 Administrative Discussion meeting

Josephine County Commissioners had one meeting last week with one issue: a mining exploration permit extension request they concluded couldn’t be extended but it can be renewed. American Mineral Research spokesman Jay Meredith gave a presentation during their Dec. 21 Administrative Discussion meeting, reviewing his operation and touting the potential of Tellurium, a rare mineral used in the production of solar panels and being looked at by researchers trying to build longer-lasting batteries for electric cars. Meredith has appeared before the board many times over the years with his contention a Tellurium strike could bring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the county to pay for law enforcement the way timber used to during its heyday.

In addition to asking for a permit extension, Meredith said with the passing of HB 3684, the Infrastructure bill, there will be grants for critical mineral exploration his company can apply for and asked the county to be a partner in the process.

While the Commission has been supportive of Meredith’s work and haven’t questioned his claims, Chair Dan DeYoung put the brakes on any kind of public/private partnership, apparently thinking this involved the investment of taxpayer’s money.

Meredith said that was not what he meant; he only wants support from the county when submitting applications for grants that could total as much as $50 million. While Commissioner Darin Fowler was all for this kind of partnership, even going so far as suggesting they use timber receipts to help pay expenses related to the exploration, DeYoung was wary. He said when the exploration permit AMR has now comes up for renewal in 18 months, they may be in a better position to see what AMR has found and if it warrants further exploration. DeYoung also reminded Fowler that timber receipts are already committed to law enforcement and this is no time to be talking about using that money for speculation when the sheriff’s budget is so tight.

Although Meredith has often proclaimed how Josephine County law enforcement could benefit from mining revenue, he reminded Commissioners Tellurium mining is a long-term process.  He said his company has already lost half its permitted exploration time because of COVID and a dispute with neighboring claim-holders that dragged out the public hearing process and ultimately cost the county money. He said delays were caused because a primary investor in shut-down Australia couldn’t get here for first-hand observation and because a shadowy group was trying to discourage AMR’s exploration by putting boulders in the road leading out to their site as well as ominous “Trespassers Will Be Shot” signs all along the access road. Meredith said it was a “very bazaar” situation and told Commissioners public mining records show those folks may be doing things out there without proper permits.

DeYoung refused to get into any discussion about possible backwoods shenanigans but asked County Forester Dave Streeter to tell the board why the permit process cost the county money. Streeter said the county paid $13,000 for a mining consultant during AMR’s dispute with the neighboring claim “for the county’s protection.” He told Commissioners the county’s permit ordinance does not allow for an extension, but AMR can apply for a renewal 90 days before it expires. At that time, AMR will have the opportunity to show some progress on their exploration and that a condition of permit renewal will be responsibility for consultant fees, Streeter said. Although Meredith said the county generates money from the permit, Streeter said it wasn’t nearly enough to pay the consultant’s bill.

During his presentation Meredith reviewed what his company does, saying education is the key to getting the public to understand how mining has changed and how little impact it has now on the environment.

“You know, we’ve tried to make a presentation to several groups that seemed to have an interest in the management of our public lands in Josephine County and we’ve made several requests to give a presentation to the Josephine County Democrats and they, so far, have not wanted to hear our science based approach on how we can develop mineral resources in an environmentally friendly way. We tried to reach out to the Courier because they have not been exactly factual in their reporting on what we have here in Josephine County, in the potential, but Commissioners you wouldn’t know anything about that so I’ll just move on from that topic,” Meredith said.

Meredith said AMR does very small scale environmentally friendly developments and they don’t operate near waterways but are concerned about land lockups proposed by the federal government. He claimed his company has discovered high grade natural Tellurium on an old claim on land the county owns. Tellurium is a mineral often found with gold but wasn’t considered important years ago so it wasn’t taken out along with the gold. The property concerning the permit is the site of the old St. Peter Mine on about 75 acres of county-owned land in the Wolf Creek area. Meredith cautioned Commissioners not to even think about selling that piece off as it may have the richest Tellurium site in the county and not to consider selling other land until mining potential has been explored. He said the county has already sold off some good sites without considering the mineral values they might have had. Meredith was a bit concerned that the county is auctioning off timber around the site AMR wants to explore when, during the permit process, he was assured there would be no timber harvesting in the area. Streeter said that could be worked out for minimal disturbance for either party.

AMR has numerous projects going on around the county and DeYoung wanted to know how many and on who’s land. Meredith said they have 36 claims over about 700 acres in different parts of Josephine County, on BLM land and private property, of which AMR owns one. He said that covers about 11 historic gold mines.

“What’s lode mining,” DeYoung asked.

Meredith said that’s the old fashioned extraction from a hole in the ground but machines do it now instead of a crew of miners.

“What’s Tellurium worth?” DeYoung asked.

“It’s measured by the kilo and is about $75 per kilo. That’s not much but given how rare it is and how it’s used in green energy I think over time it will go up,” Meredith said.

After several more questions and answers, with Commissioner Herman Baertschiger just listening without comment, Commissioners thanked Meredith for the presentation and told him to come back when his permit needed renewal in May of 2023. As far as the Infrastructure grants, DeYoung told him the Commission may be able to write a letter of support to Congressman Cliff Bentz and ask him to help Meredith but wouldn’t commit to any further “partnership.” No one mentioned that Bentz did not vote for the Infrastructure bill.

DeYoung also thanked Meredith for his help with the presentation he gave to Congress a few weeks ago.

“In this recall they say I misled Congress but I didn’t,” he added.

Right-wing radio this week

Herman didn’t call in this week. The Bill Meyer Show featured some panicky woman named Nicole Neilly, president of Parents Defending Education, which is a national right-wing group trying to overthrow school boards and install people they think will grow in stature to eventually take over blue states. Topics of conversation ranged from endless complaints about the tyranny of wearing masks, unfounded rumors about the blue dye in masks being poisonous, about defunding the Oregon Health Authority which they say has caused “evil divisiveness” and of course people calling in saying Biden is a tyrant who got in office because of an unfair election. Meyer has taken on the Tucker Carlson crusade against the marginalization of white people and Neilly is carrying that notion into education, complaining that schools are aggrandizing people of color at the expense of white kids. She argued against diversity in schools and of course any curriculum that attempts to tell kids people of color played an important part in our history. Meyer wrapped up his show by reading letters from people who moved to Idaho from Oregon saying they don’t want Oregon annexed to Idaho because too many liberals would be included in the deal.

Commissioners Week of Dec 13, 2021

Josephine Commissioners had a sobering look at their PERS (Public Employees Retirement) obligations and, as Commissioner Herman Baertschiger said, it had Commission Chair Dan DeYoung pulling his hair out, “all three of em.” And that was without any discussion of the recent court ruling that said Josephine and Jackson counties owe PERS $4.7 million because of a job training program that closed, leaving a retirement debt (see Grants Pass Daily Courier Dec. 17). DeYoung took that discussion off the table, saying it was a legal matter that was discussed during their executive session Tuesday.

During their Administrative Workshop Dec. 16 Finance Director Sandy Novak gave a Power Point presentation to the board at the request of DeYoung.

“Walk us through this. I think I brought this up…PERS is kind of a dark horse out there and everybody goes “PERS” (saying this in a high voice) then they just put it away like ‘don’t ask about it. It’s being handled’ and I need to know different,” DeYoung said while thumbing through paperwork.

Novak….” Exactly. First of all the job council piece of it in 1975….the job council was formed by Jackson and Josephine counties in a joint public venture. Its purpose was to provide job related training and assistance to job seekers…”

DeYoung…” Now can I can I stop you…because I think we’re talking about PERS in general and not necessarily the job council issue because we had a conversation about the job council issue under yesterday’s executive session.”

Novak…” Well, the job council is part of our unfunded liability.”

DeYoung.. ”OK, well I don’t wanna single out the job council as part of it. I’m looking at PERS as a whole obligation. This is a court case. I really don’t think we should be talking about that element of our PERS and however that’s decided that’ll change the numbers. But I’m looking at PERS in general as how it works with our funded liability, unfunded liability and so on and so forth. People have no idea what they’re talkin’ about and it just gets swept under the rug for another period and then it comes up and then public employees are constantly being needled by PERS…you get PERS and I don’t know what PERS is then I get some staggering numbers of PERS retirement for the rest of their life and I don’t know where that program is designed to withstand something like that and therefore is our PERS liability. So, let’s go forward. Let’s skip page number one. Let’s not talk about the workforce, Rogue Valley or any of those. Let’s just talk about the generalities OK?”

Novak…” Ok, ummm, so some of the unfunded liabilities I could’ve added a couple of slides (to PowerPoint) but in general the current PERS rate, general service for PERS…these are folks who have been around for a while…that rate is 25.64 percent of total wages. Most of our folks are in….”

DeYoung…” OK, now stop right there…25 percent of total wages. So the PERS…tell me, if I got a thousand dollars what goes into my PERS…I’m assuming that I am on the PERS program.”

Novak…” Yep.”

DeYoung…” And if I got paid a thousand dollars how much of that do I contribute to PERS and then how much of it is the taxpayer’s obligation to contribute to PERS.”

Novak…” OK, so we as a county, for current wages, are paying general service for PERS folks…. that’s general service that’s 22.4 percent and so most of our employees we’re paying about 22.42 percent.”

DeYoung interrupts…” We are paying, the taxpayers paying that to that person above and beyond what they get paid?”

Novak…” Yes.”

DeYoung…” Above and beyond the taxpayers contributing another 22 percent for that group.”

Novak….” So, in 2001 we had the unfunded liability that was not job council but just in general what they said was our unfunded liability. We went out and got a bond to cover that and we’ve been paying on that. It was refunded in 2012 with lower interest rates, We are going to finish paying that off in 2024. We’ve got three more payments to make on it plus about $400 thousand in interest on that.”

DeYoung interrupting again…” And then we will be even with the board. Then it will be hand to mouth paycheck to paycheck.”

Novak…” No, no….wouldn’t that be lovely, cause we have this whole new unfunded liability that they keep recalculating so as of 2001, in order to be fully funded, we went out and borrowed money to pay it and then the unfunded piece has still continued to grow, if that makes sense…”

Baertschiger…” Sandy let me jump in here. Mr. Chair what has happened is the PERs program is upside down because the tier one people actually tier one tier two we didn’t collect enough money to make their retirement so now we’re playing catchup and that’s why the rates on the current people are higher to catch up for the people already in the other tiers, does that make sense?”

DeYoung…” No, you said we didn’t collect enough money and I’m being told the employee, nothing comes out of his thousand, his or her thousand dollars…we aren’t collecting money from anybody…”

Baertschiger interrupting…” No no no no. Collecting money from the government entities for the PERS program. Not collecting money from the employees. We did not collect enough money from the government entities so the retirements are costing more….and that’s a long story of why…then what we anticipated so we’re backfilling with the current rate. I think that’s a better way…Sandy is that a good way of sayin’ it?”

Novak…” Yes , so what we do is we charge each of the departments, based on their wages, for those particular employees and that is going into the pers pool and then you also have the IAP (Individual Account Program) which is the 6 percent whether its paid by the employee or employer, that’s also going to the PERS pool.”

DeYoung…” Ok so the employee pays 6 percent?”

Herman shaking his head…” No…Not in Josephine County!”

Novak…” Some employees pay their own 6 percent and in Josephine County non unions and some unions the employer, us, pays the six percent. But that goes into their PERS Iap account which is identified to that employee vs this rate that we’re talking about here which is the 22 percent goes into the pool.”

Baertschiger…” So that was out of union negotiations we agreed to do what we call ..the terminology is “pickup.” We decided as part of our union contract instead of them contributing the 6 percent the county would pick up six percent.”

DeYoung…” OK”

Novak….” OK…and then so that’s at the 22 percent the a so we are about to pay off that bond. We are charging the department per employee 5 percent towards that bond each year and that’s now going to ramp down as we get close to paying that off.”

DeYoung…” Now when you say that and we get done paying the bond, like we paid off the jail bond, we no longer tapped the taxpayer for that bond and now you’re saying that doesn’t stop that. We won’t realize any savings at that point because we have in the meantime for the bond we have accumulated way more debt than what the bond was for. Is that what you’re saying?”

Novak…” Well, that bond is going to be paid off. How we’re paying for that bond is we charge 5 percent to the departments and that has been going into that bond debt service fund and once that is completely paid off its going to be up to you as Commissioners how you are going to move forward with it. It’s that 5 percent….”

DeYoung interrupts…” I’m going to use the sheriff for example and I don’t mean to pick on the sheriff but can he plan on whatever he paid into that PERS bond pool, can he be using that if that comes out a number of $400 thousand dollars per year whatever it is for his employee base and he doesn’t have to make that bond payment that mortgage payment again, can he use that money for patrol? Will that go into his fund or is there something else that’s going to come along saying not so fast cause you can’t count on that money because now we need to have that $400 thousand dollars for something else.”

Novak…”And that’s one of the things in the budget workshop we’re going to be talking about and making that decision. Does the 5 percent just completely go away or are we going to ramp it down make sure we’ve paid off the bond”

DeYoung interrupting…”Does it go back to the department that you’re tapping for that for the 5 percent does it go away does it go back into their budget because each department is having to budget for this PERS obligation for the bond service, debt service, right?”

Novak…” Exactly, they are. So each employee has that designation of what their rate is so we’re paying that plus the PERS bond and the IAP. Every payroll cycle we report to PERS. That gets sent up to them, ah, and then they withdraw it and we’re watching that and reconciling that into the payroll. And that’s kind of the process of how we do that. So how much do we pay to PERS is the other question I got so the total budget for PERS is $6.3 million dollars, plus the $1.2 million for the bond, plus another $500 thousand the county contributes toward IAPs for the unions that do have that so our total non-bond PERS per year is $6.8 million which is about 4 percent of our total appropriation.”

Baertschiger…” Well…that whole PERS program’s upside down it’s going to be upside down for as long as we’re all working here at the county.”

Novak…” Yes it is…and I’m looking at our deferred outflow of resources for pensions we’re looking at about $12.7 million and another 1.8 million of deferred inflow of resources which is all the actuarial so our net pension liability is about $31 million. That’s unfunded liability. So we got a bond to pay it off so that we would be even so now we’re looking at a $31 million net pension liability that we put on our financial statement. That’s an actuarial based number given to us by the state.”

Baertschiger…” That’s our share of what I call “the pickup” for all the bad years PERS had. So Sandy just for our viewers to try to simplify this for every thousand dollars one of our employee makes we got 22 and a half percent for the PERS and 5 percent for the bond so that’s 27 and a half percent so for every thousand dollars we pay the employee we got to pay an additional 270 dollars into something associated with PERS. Did I get that right?”

Novak nodding,,,” Yes….exactly right.”

DeYoung…” Of our total workforce, and how many?”

Novak…”480”

DeYoung… “How many people of the 480 are enrolled in the PERS program.”

JJ Scofield…” All of them.”

DeYoung.. “NO.”

Scofield…” Except for a handful of elected officials who have the option of opting out.”

Novak…” And then there’s a few that are fill ins and what not or super part time.”

DeYoung… “OK. What is the requirement to be eligible for PERS.”

Scofield,,, “You have to work 600 hours a year.”

DeYoung… “Now it was said at election time that you want to get reelected because you have to have five years’ service before you’re eligible for PERS. False?”

Scofield…” For you its false. It depends on your age. PERS is the second most complicated retirement in the country second only to the city of Chicago but in general that statement is false because it is determinate on your age and whether you qualify.”

DeYoung…” So there’s a bunch of factors that go into that.”

Fowler…” So, if we have 480 employees, is that what I heard? How many are tier one and when will they age out so to speak?”

Baertschiger…” They never age out. Right now, their contributors. When they retire they’re no longer contributors.”

DeYoung… “It doesn’t sound like they were contributors in the first place.”

At this point the discussion touches on why the county’s employees don’t contribute to their retirement. Baertschiger said it was an enticement to get people to work for the government in lieu of higher wages in the public sector. They argued about how many of the county’s workforce are in tier one and Baertschiger claimed the legislature has attempted to fix PERS but the courts shot it down.

“Are the judges on PERS?” asks DeYoung.

During their Weekly Business Session Dec. 15 Commissioners held a public hearing to adjust user fees for the Animal Shelter, Community Corrections, Parks Department, Sheriff’s Department, Public Works, Forestry, and County Surveyor. The Animal Shelter wanted to reduce adoption fees for senior animals and add a microchipping service, Forestry added permit fees for the taking of posts, poles, rocks and mushrooms. Wood cutting permits will stay the same at $30 for commercial and $15 for personal use cutting. The Parks Department increased camping fees because of increases in the cost of personnel, contractors, utilities and supplies. Parks is also increasing fines to $100 plus three times the cost of clean-up to discourage vandalism. Public Works raised fees on site plans, the Sheriff’s Department increased fees on gun licenses and renewals and fingerprint checking. The Surveyor’s office got a new copier so they increased fees for copying. A public hearing was held to find out if anyone had any objections to the increases but no one appeared so the fee increases were all approved.

During Comments from Citizens time Judy Hinkle came on Zoom talking about the dangers of wireless radiation from cell phones and how they stress the body to make it more susceptible to COVID. The only other comment came from Mark Jones, a retired fireman with 28 years of service.

“Mark Jones…Here today to remind the three of you your role as fire chief is important. Since there’s not a fire district the three of you have jurisdiction therefore you are fully responsible for the delivery of fire and life safety services within 350 square miles of jo co. there are currently four fire districts and one municipal department serving the citizens of Illinois Valley, Williams, Applegate, Wolf Creek and the city of grants pass. All those depts have fire chiefs. Those fire chiefs and fire board members of those districts create standards and draft ordinances that directs service delivery to the citizens. The 350 square miles the three of you are responsible for are lacking standards and ordinances. It would appear there’s more requirements for someone to cut my hair then there are for someone to sell me a subscription for fire protection. There is nothing for this area saying a business selling fire service has to meet any requirements. Nothing saying the employees have to be trained to certain levels. DPSST is an accreditation agency that uses NFPA standards to issue certificates for various levels of training needed be a firefighter. However, nothing in the 350 square miles of Josephine County says you have to hold verification to provide fire protection. Currently any untrained person can form a fire department and charge citizens money for fire protection. All they have to do is talk the talk and make promises they can’t keep. They can basically commit fraud by taking money for service they can’t deliver. Your job as fire chiefs is to protect the citizens in your service area. In order to protect citizens, you have to have something in place that controls the level of fire and life safety that they receive. Something that says those delivering fire services in the area meet minimum requirements. This assures the safety of not only the citizens but the safety of the neighboring firefighters who may come to help. During a large incident, untrained, inadequate departments become a hindrance and a safety concern of other agencies who respond to the incident. Since you are the fire chiefs I ask you, do you want your fire department to be that hinderance? Do you want to be responsible for causing more harm than good? I don’t think you do. I think you want what’s best for the citizens. So that being said, I ask that you set standards for fire service delivery in the area that you are fully responsible for. It’s time to do what’s right chiefs. I also want you to know that there’s a dedicated group of citizens available to help you with this matter. Please reach out to us if you have any questions.

During the Board Review of Comments Commissioner Darin Fowler said the board should take up fire standards at the beginning of the next calendar year “and decide what we want in the undistricted area in the county.”

Baertschiger said he didn’t have any problem with having that conversation but objected to a few things Jones said.

“Mark had some very good points. He was incorrect on a few other things. There are some standards they have to meet through DPSST but they’re obviously not as high as other companies. We don’t have fire departments in the unprotected area. These are private fire companies. They aren’t departments. A department is a subdivision of other entities so they’re private fire companies. And we do have ordinance. We got a lot a ordinances on fire protection, on how you can develop your homesite and setbacks and stuff, so to say that there’s no ordinances ‘cause there are ordinances that addresses the fire issues in unprotected areas…but I’m willing to get everybody in the room and have this conversation. I always have been. I’m kinda amazed that people deem that the Commissioners’ office doesn’t want to have these conversations. It’s a little awkward coming out of the fire district not passing and then the Commissioners coming around wagging their fingers so, you know, it’s a complicated political issue but a I’m willing to have the conversation Mr. Chair.”

DeYoung agreed the board needs to take up the matter of fire standards but said first Commissioners need to get together and get all their issues down before engaging in a conversation. “You’ve got some issues, I’ve got some issues, Commissioner Fowler has issues. Let’s get all our concerns on one list so we’re not bantering back and forth.” He then reiterated his claim that it wasn’t his role to campaign for the fire district, which failed to pass last May,

Baertschiger let the board know what his issues were: “I just want to clarify something. I heard a lot of people say Commissioners are held liable and I consulted with our legal team and by statute that is incorrect. We do not have any liability. Just because there’s not a fire department the Commissioners don’t have any liability and also its interesting to note that most of the private land in Oregon really isn’t covered by any fire district or fire company or fire department It’s a perception people think it is but it isn’t and I’ll give you an example. The big fires up in northeast Oregon that burnt up all the wheat fields. That was one of the problems with that, there was no agency to call to put that out. It was not ODF protected lands, it wasn’t BLM protected land, it wasn’t Forest Service protected land. They were private lands without any fire department or district or anything. Only the towns, the little towns, they all had volunteer fire departments but they do not expand out into the county. And Sen Hansell (Bill Hansell, R-District 29) and myself went and had multiple meetings, even after it burnt up 100s of thousands of acres, we had multiple meetings with those farmers in those areas. It’s a huge area in that Pendleton area and after all those meetings they were still reluctant to create any type of fire district or fire protection. And so this is nothing new to the state of Oregon and its done by locality but when I hear people say you are responsible, well no we’re not responsible.”

DeYoung added that “We get saddled with being responsible for a lot regardless…”

In Other Matters from the Board Baertschiger complained that the money the state legislature recently allocated for combatting illegal marijuana grows is eligible to every county so Josephine will likely see very little of it. Fowler also commented on what happened in the emergency session recently.

Fowler…” They had to strike a deal get landlord renter protection so this is deal struck. I’m not so sure it’s a good deal and not sure how money is allocated. I think that Oregon’s war on landlords is relentless. There’s still some money to be applied for those who don’t wanna or cannot pay their rent, and this is turning into a long-term condition and not a temporary fix because our government needs to buy as many votes as they can for people to vote one way and not the other because they’re handed free money or free rent. And it’s embarrassing for Oregon, it’s embarrassing nationwide, that our governor is the least approved of any governor in the United States right now. She’s embarrassed us long enough. I wish she would fade into the sunset and shut her mouth but here we are stuck with a lame duck and they’re gonna tie everything around her neck on the way out the door and there’ll just be more ugliness and more one-sided no compromise. The congress here in Oregon has gone back on their word many times to work in a bi-partisan fashion, on redistricting…that got thrown out and now to work on this one it was putting your feet to the fire…we’ll give you a little tiny bit of money back. Like Herman was saying even though we’re taken twice as much…it’s just the stupidity of Oregonians astounds me.”

DeYoung launched into a disjointed speech about probably not getting the $10 million they put in for to fight illegal grows and how that money is a one-time hit but what the sheriff really needs is a permanent source of funding that will pay for additional personnel. One time funding, he said, helps for equipment and supplies but it’s hard to hire people who meet the department’s qualifications only to let them go when the money runs out. He said Baertschiger is putting together a forum for gathering ideas about funding the sheriff’s department adequately but he didn’t say when that will be held.

In other matters this week Commissioners: approved a request from a man who bought a piece of property from the county who now wants to build an auto shop, office building and pave a section for a used car lot on Rogue River Highway across from KAJO. The property owner needed the Commission’s approval before going to the City of Grants Pass with the request.

Commissioners also approved the purchase of a new chip sealer for the Public Works Department, approved allowing Shawn Martinez, Juvenile Justice Prevention Treatment Service Manager to sign for $3 million in annual grant funding, approved a map for the Siskiyou Pines subdivision even though none of the Commissioners knew what it was and approved a raise in the cleaning services contract for the Transit program. Transit Director Scott Chancey said COVID requirements are costing the service $1300 a day in cleaning and disinfecting of all the busses. He has $2.3 million from the CARES Act for public transportation systems. He said he’s had to use some of that to buy an “air scrubber,” install driver barriers, and buy PPE. He said he’d like to buy a bus washer, which would save a lot in cleaning expenses, especially since cleaning contractors are hard to find.

The Commission also approved letting Public Health Director Mike Weber use some ARPA funds for employee recognition. Weber said they usually hold a holiday potluck and pass the hat among administrators for a little money for this, but since they can’t hold a potluck because of COVID, he’d like to give each employee a gift basket. Money from the county can’t be used for employee recognition, Novak said, but ARPA funds do allow this with Commissioner approval as encouragement to keep essential employees on the job. Baertschiger said he was uncomfortable bypassing county policy but voted with his fellow Commissioners to approve it as long as this is a one-time event.

At the end of Thursday’s meeting Commissioners again complained about the $25 million recently approved by the state legislature for combatting illegal cannabis grows. They are worried they’ll end up with only about $2 million once the money is spread around to other counties and requirements such as providing for workers displaced by raids. They said legislators don’t seem to understand that a sheriff can’t spend that kind of money on what he really needs: more personnel. The rest of the state and country has no idea, DeYoung said, about how serious an issue illegal cannabis is in Southern Oregon.

Baertschiger on the Radio                     

Apparently Josephine County Commissioners have been hearing from constituents who believe the sheriff has plenty of money because Commissioner Herman Baertschiger spent quite a bit of his 15 minutes on the Bill Meyer Show trying to explain the difference between the recently passed levy which funds only the jail and juvenile corrections, the cannabis relief funds from the state legislature, which can only be used to fight illegal grows and the sheriff’s general budget, which is in the red. He says the Oregon Legislature comes up with money he calls “free ice cream” but can’t be relied on for long term programs. He called the $25 million released last week by the legislature for helping renters, drought relief, affordable housing and refugee settlement “free ice cream” with strings attached to politics. Baertschiger and Meyer complained about the money set aside for dealing with illegal cannabis grows because it doesn’t all go to Josephine and Jackson counties where the problem is but allows every Oregon county to apply for it, and it provides money to deal with workers displaced by sheriff’s raids. Baertschiger said he didn’t understand what would become of the workers since “we’re not allowed to call ICE. I don’t know where they’ll go.”

Baertschiger, while explaining why Josephine County is so poor, said the sheriff’s department used to be funded through timber receipts, then SRS (Secure Rural School) payments in lieu of those taxes “which have decreased dramatically because of Wyden and Merkley. (Note: While Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley support timber restrictions for environmental reasons, they are not against the timber industry and work to provide money to make up for losses in timber tax revenue.)

According to a Merkley 2021 press release “U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley along with U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio, Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici and Kurt Schrader said today that 31 Oregon counties will receive about $39.3 million in Secure Rural Schools (SRS) payments for schools, roads, law enforcement and other essential services.”

When Meyer, who called Zoom meetings “fakes” asked Baertschiger when the board will resume meeting in person, Baertschiger said not until the mask mandate is lifted.

“When we have a public meeting we have no control and the public will come in not wearing masks and the Courier will take pictures and say we’re not enforcing mask mandates so to have no fights we’ll just do Zoom,” he said.