On Monday January 6th, just a few hours after being sworn in, the two new Josephine County Commissioners Ron Smith and Chris Barnett made no less than two illegal votes (in my opinion) at the request of outgoing Commissioner John West. West arranged votes on two items which appear to be illegal. The first was cancelling the library’s $1 per year lease on the Grants Pass library branch which is in opposition of the County Charter. And the second was a vote on suspending property management fees on County timber properties which wasn’t even on the meeting agenda and likely illegal.
West, in his final two days in office after being recalled by more than 62% of voters, sure went out with a bang in his final public meeting of the Board of Commissioners. And adding in two other Board-led actions led by West in the last two weeks and West may have made as many as four illegal actions just in his last 3 weeks as County Commissioner.
What is the best way to avoid the many costly mistakes made by Commissioner West which led to his recall from office by almost 2 to 1 by County voters? Don’t appoint one of West’s political buddies to fill the commissioner seat that will be vacated on Wednesday, January 8th. Unfortunately, rumor is the two new commissioners are about to do just that.
But let’s start with the first illegal vote made by the new Commissioners on Monday, January 6th. At West’s request, there was an item on the agenda to discuss the $1 per year lease the Josephine Community Library District has on the Grants Pass library branch, a building right next to the County Courthouse and owned by Josephine County. Commissioners, led by West, voted to give a 30-day lease cancellation notice to the library so they can renegotiate the lease rates to something closer to “market” value. The reason cited was the maintenance costs the County is incurring on maintaining this building. This would be illegal, in my opinion, according to the following language found in the County Charter:
Section 14.5. LIBRARY SUPPORT.
The Board shall provide for the support and maintenance of the main library and library branches. [Amended November, 1992]
This action, should the new Josephine County Board follow through on this lease cancellation vote, goes directly against the County Charter, especially considering maintenance costs were cited as the main reason to “increase the rent.” And what many may not remember is that back in the 1990’s the property tax rate for the County Library was absorbed into the County’s permanent property tax rate (this was after that Charter language was approved by voters). Had the library kept the property tax rate that was in place for the library back in the 1990s, Josephine County would have had millions per year of lower property tax revenues for other County services today.
Now they are arguing about building maintenance costs that they say average approximately $25,000 per year. Commissioners tried to wiggle out of their legal obligations by saying that the library district does not serve all of Josephine County. While technically the library district does not include all of Josephine County, the library’s website states: “Households that are not in the library district can get a card for $60 per year or $15 for three months. The cost is approximately equal to the amount that each in-district household pays through taxes.” Sorry commissioners, this weak excuse to once again attack the library district won’t likely pass legal muster.
The second vote made on Monday January 6th that is likely an illegal vote was a discussion and vote on an item that wasn’t even on the County’s agenda for the meeting. The basic rule is that local governments cannot discuss and vote on policy changes or other official non-emergency type decisions without giving at least 24 hours’ notice of that agenda item. At the end of Monday’s meeting, outgoing Commissioner John West made a motion to suspend property management fees on all timber properties recently sold. This was approved unanimously by all three commissioners. As you can see on the attached agenda, this item was nowhere to be found on the meeting agenda and so proper notice was not given to the public before discussing and voting on this item.
There are at least two other actions made by West in the last few weeks that are arguably illegal or at a minimum in opposition of the spirit of public meeting law and the Josephine County Charter. According to public local media reports and comments made by West himself when being interviewed by local media, Commissioner West arranged the whole process of appointing his replacement after voters recalled him from office. He arranged the whole commissioner appointment process including the days the Board would take applications from individuals applying to fill the commissioner vacancy, how many finalists would be selected for interviews, when interviews would happen, and even went as far as to schedule a swearing in ceremony for the newly appointed commissioner. This was all done without discussing any of this major decision-making process in a public meeting.
And as of the day that the County Board of Commissioners began taking commissioner applications to fill the vacancy (according to West’s comments to local media), the Board had not met the Charter provision that requires the Board to advertise this vacancy in local newspapers. The County Charter states as follows:
Section 24. FILLING OF VACANCIES.
- “The Board shall publish notice of a vacancy to be filled by appointment in newspapers of general circulation in the County. This notice shall request qualified individuals to apply to serve until the person elected at the next general election takes office by filing an application with the Board of Commissioners.”
As of Monday, this week when the County began taking applications, a notice of vacancy had not been published in any newspapers of general circulation in the County as of today.
The best way to help avoid the costly and corrupt behavior exhibited by two of the three Commissioners over the last two years is to avoid appointing a political buddy of Commissioner John West to fill the vacant commissioner seat. Given that the leadership individuals of the Josephine County Republican Party were indistinguishable from Commissioner John West himself during the recall campaign, the two new Commissioners should avoid appointing the following political buddies of West: former Commissioner Herman Baertschiger, former Commissioner Simon Hare, anyone with an official title with the Josephine County Republican Party, and just about anyone with the last name Robinson. While there are others, these are the primary “pollical allies” of now former Commissioner John West.
Unfortunately, the loudest of the local rumor mill has former Commissioner Simon Hare as the frontrunner to be appointed to the vacant commissioner seat, followed by former Commissioner Herman Baertschiger who just ended his four-year term and announced his desire to “retire” from elected office. Perhaps not coincidentally, before vacating office Commissioner West mandated that there will be two finalists interviewed next week, one of which is to be appointed shortly after interviews are completed. West already had the County Clerk schedule the swearing in ceremony. Either one of these choices would be a slap in the face to Josephine County voters who just spoke loud and clear that they don’t want a repeat of West’s performance as commissioner.
Many locals may not realize that former Commissioner Simon Hare is good buddies with former Commissioner John West. In my last discussion with Simon Hare, which was just a few months ago, Simon confirmed that he was in touch with Commissioner West somewhat regularly during West’s short term of office. But this is no secret as public records requests and local media reports from both the Grants Pass Tribune and Grants Pass Daily Courier confirmed that Commissioner West put Simon Hare on a $20,000 County consulting contract in early 2024 and had the County start paying him before the Board even approved and signed the contract. Later in 2024 West attempted to use his influence to get Simon another publicly funded contract job.
Simon Hare’s own terms of office were marked by numerous controversial personal and professional decisions. In Simon’s first few years in office as County Commissioner, Simon acted illegally (in my opinion) in regard to a couple of mineral exploration permits just like West did during his first two years in office. Simon’s first term was also marked with having to lay off close to half of the professionals that used to work in the County Sheriff’s office and County Justice programs. Not surprisingly, Simon campaigned on cost cutting and ways to fund law enforcement without increasing tax rates and quickly found out after getting into office that these campaign promises were not realistic. And finally, both former commissioners Simon Hare and John West are facing a multi-million lawsuit dated December 5, 2024, from the owner of the Grants Pass Tribune for Defamation of Character, Libel, and Tortious Interference. Now is not the time to appoint Simon Hare back to a commissioner seat should you desire to avoid a repeat of West’s chaotic and costly two years in office.
Most individuals that I observed were strongly in favor of the recall of Josephine County Commissioner John West also felt like former Commissioner Herman Baertschiger was West’s partner in crime, figuratively speaking. And rightly so as every point on the 200-word legal petition for the recall of Commissioner West could also be applied to former Commissioner Herman Baertschiger with the exception of violation of campaign finance laws. Had Commissioner Baertschiger not announced his retirement from office at the end of 2024, he would have also been the subject of a recall effort with almost the exact same language that appeared on the recall petition for Commissioner West.
In my own observation, Commissioner Baertschiger seemed tired during his four years as County Commissioner. His four-year term followed eight years serving as a State Senator, representing the party that has long been in the minority in the State Legislature. While I’m sure those eight years were exhausting, the duties of a County Commissioner vary greatly from the duties of a State Senator, and those differences were highlighted regularly during his four years as commissioner. Even towards the end of 2024 Commissioner Baertschiger erred in applying conflict of interest rules followed by the Senate to how Commissioners should act when they have an actual or potential conflict of interest with a pending decision at the County level.
I even have several personal and business reasons why former Commissioner Herman Baertschiger should not be reappointed to the vacant commissioner seat. But here’s just one. Last fall when I was running for a seat on the Grants Pass City Council I mentioned my long history of advocacy for Police, Fire, Law Enforcement and drug treatment services. After the republican-organized public forum at the Anne Basker Auditorium when I mentioned my involvement with the local nonprofit that recruited the Grants Pass Treatment Center to open a location in Grants Pass (previously they only had one or two other locations in other parts of Oregon), Baertschiger stormed up to me and demanded a retraction. Baertschiger stated something along the lines of, “YOU NEED TO PUT OUT A RETRACTION…. I AM THE REASON the GP Treatment Center was built. I got the state money to make that happen.”
I was confused by that comment because I didn’t think any state money was involved. But I just said, oh…how much money was that? “Millions,” he said. I didn’t want to pick a fight, so I just said thank you for doing that and walked away. Former Commissioner Andreas Blech and Richard Emmons of the Oregon Eagle witnessed this interaction. I later confirmed with one of the main owners of the Grants Pass Treatment Center that no state or public funds were used to open the Grants Pass Treatment Center.
Making matters worse, Herman Baertschiger then passed this fake news to his political buddies at the local republican office. Bill Kronert, Communications Webpage Assistant and Communications Research Committee Chair of the Josephine County republican party then posted this fake news on a local popular conservative Facebook page and accused me of lying at the public forum.
I later realized that Herman Baertschiger probably thought I was speaking about the Grants Pass Sobering Center, which is a great service that supports local public safety and local police officers when they encounter an individual under the influence. The sobering center did use state funds in its development and Baertschiger was likely involved in getting some of those state funds. But other than expressing vocal support for the sobering center, I was not involved in the development of the sobering center.
The next appointed Commissioner can’t be a John West or Herman Baertschiger political buddy. The last two years has been dominated with shooting from the hip, making rash uninformed decisions, attacking anyone that doesn’t share a certain special interest political agenda, and ignoring the will of the people.
We lost millions of potential County revenues that could have been partially used for law enforcement, the relationship between County staff members and the Commissioners’ office seems to be at an all-time low, and the loss of trust between the County and its citizens is a priceless loss. Let’s get on the road to recovery and appoint a commissioner with a fresh set of eyes and a passion for serving Josephine County.
