The Southern Oregon Government Watch Weekly
Before diving into this week’s Southern Oregon Government Watch, please be aware that this week’s article should be considered entirely an opinion piece and that the author is a defendant against a lawsuit filed against him by John West, the subject of this article. But like all the author’s articles over the last two years in the Grants Pass Tribune, the author stands by all statements which are presented as fact.
A large group of Josephine County citizens gathered in the summer of 2024, and I was among them. We could no longer tolerate the harm that we felt former Commissioner John West was doing to Josephine County, and we began meeting to draft and plan for exercising our state constitutional right to file a recall petition against John West. We knew John West was known for suing people that get in his way, and we were careful to draft a factual recall petition.
That didn’t stop John West from suing many of us individually in separate lawsuits, in what in our opinion is a series of frivolous lawsuits. John West first sued the owner of the Grants Pass Tribune and also sued the recall chief petitioner Lily Morgan in 2024 for what he claims were false and defamatory statements. Commissioner John West then sued the County Clerk for signature verification processes and lost at the lower court level. Recalled Commissioner John West then about 7 months after his recall was certified brought a $2 million defamation lawsuit against Jay Meredith and JJ Scofield in the summer of 2025. Then recalled Commissioner John West took JJ Scofield off this lawsuit and added additional charges for Jay Meredith. Then in January 2026 John West filed a brand new $2 million defamation lawsuit against JJ Scofield, simply for comments Mr. Scofield made on Facebook.
These are all directly related to when Commissioner John West was recalled from office by about 62% of Josephine County voters that voted in his special recall election in December 2024. Everyone John West has sued in the political arena over the last two years with the exception of the County Clerk was merely exercising their constitutional rights to free speech, to petition their local government for a redress of grievances, and using their state constitutional right to recall an elected official.
Lily Morgan, Jay Meredith, and JJ Scofield were simply involved in helping to lead the recall committee that successfully gathered enough signatures to bring a recall before voters. And ultimately 62% of those that chose to vote in the special recall election strongly agreed that John West should be recalled from office.
In each of these lawsuits brought by recalled commissioner John West, any of the cases that have been argued for their merits at the local court level have been favorable to these defendants. That is to say, as of today’s date any of these cases that has actually been argued in court based on merits and decided at the local level, John West has generally lost almost all components of his specific lawsuit claims. But John West has appealed all his recent lawsuit losses so far, and two of these cases haven’t even yet been decided at the local court level.
In John West’s case against Jay Meredith (the author of this article), a flurry of motions to dismiss are pending either a hearing or a decision by the Judge. In one of the more revealing statements made in Mr. Meredith’s case, the following statement was made by JJ Scofield in an official sworn declaration submitted to the court:
“13. While I was at the Grower’s Market last year spring or early summer, West approached me. He told me he intended to hurt me financially. He then said he was going to sue me for lying about him. I stated that I was not impressed by his threats and would get 15 people to all testify that I was telling the truth. He said it didn’t matter as I would spend so much on attorneys, I’d end up homeless. In my opinion West has followed up on that threat. He has sued anyone he blames for his recall ballot measure loss.”
John West’s entire campaign against his December 2024 recall special election was to say that the recall petition statements were not true. The many court cases he has filed during and since that time appear to be an extension of this political campaign. Except, in those cases at the local level where the merits were actually argued, John West hasn’t yet proven in court that any of the recall petition statements were actually false. On the contrary, defendants that John West sued have either proven or presented a significant amount of evidence that everything in the recall petition was either true or simply a matter of opinion.
Despite being recalled by a near landslide of Josephine County voters who chose to vote in the special recall election in December 2024, John West is now running in the election again this year to try and win back his old commissioner seat, Josephine County Commissioner Position #1. This upcoming May 2026 primary vote will be a good test of the memories of Josephine County voters, as the two commissioner candidates that get the most votes in each position race will advance to the November election.
For months now, John West has been occasionally attending the Weekly Business Session meetings of the County Commissioners. In my opinion, in early campaigning and recent appearances in County meetings West appears to be repeating much of the harmful behavior he exhibited during the two years he was commissioner. He’s still railing against the Josephine Community Library District, and recently he’s been on social media already bashing the new Commissioners despite the fact they have only been in the job for about three weeks at this point.
Candidate John West paid for a big full-page advertisement for his new campaign in the March 2026 monthly Grants Pass Sneak Preview newspaper. In my opinion, most of the statements made in this ad were either false or misleading. Some of the misleading statements in the ad mirror certain misleading statements John West also made in his recent lawsuits.
Here are the statements presented in the most recent John West full-page ad, with my OPINION of their accuracy:
1. John West “managed to get us over $2 million in reserves” and is promoting “strong law enforcement & jail services.”
Opinion: The increase in the General Fund balance was largely due to General Fund revenue allocations that were taken away from the Sheriff’s budget. This was shown clearly in the 2024 annual budget process with a chart that was presented by the Sheriff himself. The amount of annual general fund revenues that was effectively taken away from the Sheriff was close to $2 million in that 2024 budget process. John West also advocated in the 2024 budget process to hire significantly fewer new Sheriff deputies than the Sheriff requested that year and significantly fewer new Sheriff positions as compared to what was promised to voters while the Sheriff was campaigning for the new Law Enforcement Services District.
2. West is implying in this ad and has mentioned on the radio this year that he can lower property taxes.
Opinion: The inconvenient truth is that the County’s portion of property tax rates increased significantly during West’s first 2 years in office due to West and other commissioners putting the Law Enforcement District on the ballot and voters passing the measure. And then in what appeared to be a snub to voters, in the next budget season after voters passed the Law Enforcement District, General Fund money was effectively taken away from the Sheriff’s budget as compared to what was typically given to the Sheriff in the recent years.
3. West is claiming to be “an experienced fire management professional.”
Opinion: I’m not making a claim on his fire experience, but I’ve never seen experienced fire professionals advocate or vote for cutting the local Firewise grant program like John West did in 2024 (one of the recall claims), vote for lesser fire protection standards in the local building/planning code, and advocate against the creation of a new fire district that reportedly would have provided for more stable fire protection services in many of the unincorporated areas of Josephine County.
4. The ad advocates for greater transparency, being accountable to the people, and having an “open-door policy.”
Opinion: These are of course opinions in the eye of the beholder, but I can say for a fact I sent many emails to John West during the two years he was a commissioner. Sometimes these emails included a request to meet and discuss things in person. Never once did I receive an email response to any of the emails sent to former Commissioner John West while he was in office.
I could go on with challenges to other statements made in this John West ad. However, I’ll leave it here and strongly suggest that voters look at what candidates do, not what they say. This goes for all candidates at every level of government. Look at what they do, not what they say. And if they don’t have a verifiable history, maybe it’s not their time to represent us in government.
Every single one of us has a 1st Amendment right to express our opinions. Josephine County is not exempt from the 1st Amendment as recalled commissioner John West seems to think, in my opinion. Can you imagine wanting to testify in front of your local elected officials about any government issue and be afraid to express your opinion for fear of being sued? Many Josephine County residents can now clearly imagine this, thanks to recalled commissioner John West.