There’s a strange and sour rot rising from the halls of power in Josephine County—one that’s been festering quietly, politely, under the soft, leathery belly of complacency. It smells like legal inaction. It smells like fear dressed up as professionalism. It smells like betrayal.
And it begs the question: What happens in a small town when the county’s legal counsel stops doing their job?
Well, I’ll tell you. Nothing good.
When the person entrusted to protect the people from the government becomes a passenger in the Commissioner Clown Car, the brakes go out. The guardrails vanish. And suddenly, you’re watching your community veer off a constitutional cliff. That’s where we’re headed, folks—and Wally Hicks is asleep at the wheel.
Let’s not sugarcoat this. Hicks has been the County Legal Counsel since 2014, and somewhere along the line, he either got too comfortable in the chair or too cozy with the power brokers pulling the strings. Maybe both. But here’s the real tragedy: while the commissioners run amok—trampling on public input, intimidating local businesses, and turning this town into a sideshow of strongmen and sycophants—our legal counsel has remained largely silent. Detached. Passive. Or worse: complicit.
You see, the county legal counsel is not the personal attorney of the commissioners. That’s not the gig. According to the legal framework that governs this role, Hicks is supposed to represent the county as a whole—which includes the residents of Grants Pass, the voters, the taxpayers, the very people who are suffering under the iron thumb of bad leadership and unchecked arrogance.
So why hasn’t he stepped in?
Why hasn’t he drawn a line in the sand and said, “Enough”?
Why is it that concerned citizens and small publishers must risk financial ruin and social backlash just to hold these power-drunk officials accountable, while our legal counsel sits mute, seemingly paralyzed by the very authority he’s supposed to restrain?
Who does Wally Hicks really work for?
Is it the people of this county? Or has he become just another cog in a crooked wheel?
These are questions we shouldn’t even have to ask in a functioning democracy—but here we are, in 2025, watching our civic institutions collapse under the weight of cowardice.
Perhaps Wally has forgotten that the office he holds is elected, not inherited. Perhaps it’s time for Josephine County to consider someone new—someone with a spine, a pulse, and a clear understanding of their duty to the public, not just to the political bullies who call themselves leaders.
Because if the people’s lawyer isn’t willing to stand up for the people, then he’s just another accessory to the crime.
Wake up, Wally. We’re watching.