This week’s Southern Oregon Government Watch contains both facts and opinions. In full disclosure the author is a defendant against a lawsuit filed against him by John West, one of a few subjects 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. John West, recalled by 62% of voters that cast a ballot in December 2024, has brought a lawsuit against four different individuals that supported his recall campaign. In our opinion, these are frivolous lawsuits that are trying to take away our constitutional rights to free speech. As of today’s publication date, no court of law has ever reviewed a claim made against a writer or article in the Grants Pass Tribune based on the merit of the claim and judged any such writing was false or defamatory.
Because we’ve been paying very close attention to the activities of Josephine County government for many years, it’s easy to spot candidates for Josephine County elected positions that make statements during their campaigns that are false, misleading, or just make little sense given the realities faced by County government. Not surprisingly, given the public recalled him from his commissioner seat only 18 months ago, candidate for commissioner position #1 John West tops the list for candidates in the May 2026 primary election that has by far made the most false and outlandish statements.
John West has done some videos during his recent campaign, the latest being released by the Josephine County Republican Party’s media pages on May 3rd. This latest video repeats many of the “whoppers” West has told throughout his recent campaign but introduced many new statements that in our opinion are false or misleading.
John West statement #1: “One of the main jobs the County Commissioners have is to cut waste, abuse, and fraud…and we have all three…this County wastes a ton of money.” Many would agree that commissioners should be on the watch for these things, but the job of commissioner in JoCo’s form of government is to oversee the County from an administrative, budget, and legislative perspective. In many ways, the three commissioners are co-CEOs with each other. But the biggest problem with this statement are the examples that West provided right after making this statement.
John West statement #2 – West tried to make the case that County employees get four months of leave time per year. The problem is he included in his “calculation” any and all state and federal leave opportunities such as leave programs that only apply if you have a very sick family member or have a new baby in the family. This leave isn’t available to most employees most years and is generally only available for serious medical conditions. And County Commissioners can’t change these state and federal employment laws.
John West statement #3 – Mr. West estimated that the total cost of all County staff is close to $70 million per year and stated the average county employee cost the County around $140k to $150k per year including all benefit costs. False – according to the current fiscal year budget book if the County was fully staffed for the whole year, the total cost would be approximately $53.1 million per year and the average employee cost including all payroll taxes and benefits is $120,975. Generally speaking, PERS, health insurance, payroll taxes and all other benefits add another 40-50% on top of a County employee’s gross wages. Benefits and salary rates are not easily changed as most County employees are part of a union and often Josephine County’s salary rates are slightly less than our peer counties.
John West statement #4 – He said people ask him why he didn’t implement his self-proclaimed needed cost cutting when he was previously commissioner. He said I was getting ready to implement many of these things before I left office and now I’m trying to come back to do this. Funny, this is in direct opposition to statements made on his Facebook campaign page and various advertisements about “saving taxpayers over $2 million” when he was last in office (this is incorrect in my opinion as explained in detail here in the April 22, 2026 edition of the S.O. Government Watch titled John West and Josephine County’s $2 million problem).
John West statement #5 – In providing supposed examples of abuse and waste, West stated that the last time the County changed its logo several years ago it cost Josephine County $1 million. According to a staff member who was working with the County at the time, the logo design cost closer to $20k and the cost of swapping out the logo on all the County vehicles would have been about $40k if they did them all at the same time (which they didn’t, they phased them in over time). And surely changes made to County stationary didn’t cost that much…so it would appear the total cost was likely well under $100k in total, far from the $1 million figure quoted by West.
John West statement #6 – West tried to make the case that the County has a bunch of underutilized vehicles and that employees should not be allowed to take vehicles home or use county vehicles for personal trips. Misleading – the County’s personnel policy and administrative policies already prevent employees from taking County vehicles home and using them for personal use with the exception of getting special approval when an employee has responsibilities to respond to certain emergencies. And the current policies already require justification for any vehicle not getting at least a certain amount of mileage per year.
John West statement #7 – West says he wants to create policy that Commissioners only get two weeks paid vacation per year because after getting elected a commissioner could “get paid for 4 years and never show up to work” and there’s nothing you could do about that unless the commissioner gets recalled from office. It’s a great talking point that makes sense. Except the County Charter is the originating authority for salary terms for County Commissioners. It’s very likely that that Commissioners can’t change this policy, because only voters can change the Charter not the County Commissioners. For John West to have served two years as a County Commissioner before being recalled from office by voters and not know this, this should be a huge red flag as West seeks a second term in office.
John West statement #8 – John West has also been blasting Colene Martin, who he clearly sees as his main competition for Commissioner position #1. West, on his Facebook campaign page last weekend, blasted the current Board of Commissioners for “proposing a budget of over $180 million, loaded with unnecessary spending and government expansion.” And yet, the recommended budget for next year has not even been released as of today and the Budget Committee hasn’t even had its first meeting of the budget season. The last budget John West himself approved before being recalled by voters was approximately $179 million in total for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
John West statement #9 – On FacebookJohn West also blasted the current commissioners for “asking for higher property taxes-for the animal shelter, 4-H, and an upcoming jail levy.” Based on public discussions of the animal shelter and animal control levy, the 5-cent rate increase is a critical need and only represents a total tax increase of about 2% to total county rates and around $1 per month increase for the average single family house owner. Current commissioners have made no specific public tax proposals this year related to either 4-H or the jail levy, so this comment by West is a bit bizarre. And last but not least, while West is throwing stones in a glass house it should be noted that West conveniently doesn’t discuss is that County property tax rates for all County areas outside the City of Grants Pass increased by about 56% during the two years West was in office before being recalled due to a tax increase West voted to put on the ballot in November 2023.
Tracy Thompson – Candidate for Josephine County Commissioner position #1, Tracy has made one of the most unique statements or proposals during recent campaigning. Tracy Thompson has proposed a “net energy production plan” which he claims would use biomass and solar out at the old Rough & Ready site out in Cave Junction. Thompson claims this operation would provide net revenue to Josephine County of $10-$15 million per year and create many jobs in the process. Thompson’s website didn’t have any details about the plan, leaving this investigator with a too good to be true type feeling. Josephine County and other timber counties in Oregon have been feeling the financial pressure for decades due to environmental regulations that nearly wiped out the timber industry. Biomass energy generation has been proposed many times over the years, but very little has been accomplished in this arena. Also, it sounds like this plan would be best carried out in the private sector, with potential economic development subsidies by state and local governments. If the plan is as promising as Thompson says, we hope that this will be pursued regardless of what happens in elections this year.
Simon Hare (running for Josephine County Treasurer) and Chad Hansen (running for Josephine County Commissioner position #2) both made candidate presentations at a conservative group early last month. The entire presentations were captured on video and some of the following statements came from this group meeting.
Simon Hare spent much of his presentation time seemingly bragging about the 8 years he was commissioner, as well as trying to make the case the Treasurer’s office is not transparent just because he knows very little of what goes in in the Treasurer’s office. Most may not recall that Simon Hare came into office for the first time about 15 years ago saying that the County didn’t need a new levy to be able to take care of the County’s law enforcement needs. Then he changed his mind and supported a levy effort but by then it was too late and the County had to lay off close to half of the employees that work in the Sheriff’s office and certain justice programs in 2012. It took approximately 12 years to recover most of the law enforcement and justice service levels that were lost in 2012 during Hare’s first term as County Commissioner.
Simon Hare also did another interview recently saying the County should invest some of its cash reserves in precious metals. This is illegal under state law, and a treasurer candidate should know this.
Josephine County also appears poised to bring a lawsuit against Simon Hare for not fulfilling his contract to be Budget Officer in 2025. From what was stated in a recent meeting of the commissioners, Simon Hare has refused to reimburse the County for payments made to him for the unfulfilled contract and he might owe as much as $25,000 to the County. Commissioners are also considering barring Simon Hare from doing any sort of contract service for the County for a period of time. This is awkward for a candidate trying to get elected to County Treasurer.
Chad Hansen said at the beginning of his presentation last month that he has become good friends with Simon Hare over the last few years. At the end of 2025, Chad Hansen applied for a $125,000 economic development grant with Josephine County under the relatively newly formed entity Patriot Solutions LLC. Commissioners made a temporary award decision of a $62,500 grant for a six-month trial period. This award was cancelled fairly quickly after the decision, when at least one commissioner discovered that the two owners of Patriot Solutions were Chad Hansen and Simon Hare.
Why was it not disclosed that Simon Hare was an owner of Patriot Solutions during the grant application process? Perhaps because Simon Hare owes money to Josephine County for an unfulfilled contract? As the economic development program of the county has recently been revamped, Patriot Solutions was contacted by the County to see if they wanted to participate in the next round of grant applications. According to a recent commissioner meeting about the economic development grant program, Patriot Solutions was unresponsive when given the opportunity to apply again.
Chad Hansen also made a few claims during recent presentations that are significant red flags due to their accuracy. In recent years, Chad Hansen has been the most well-known for his role in a nonprofit org he created a few years ago called Home Bridging GP. Home Bridging GP has built quite a few “workforce” homes in Grants Pass and Cave Junction in recent years.
Chad Hansen statement #1 – The one claim from Chad’s recent presentations that caught my attention is Mr. Hansen’s claim that no government grants have been used to build any of the Home Bridging homes. And yet, Home Bridging GP has literally been the recipient of millions of dollars of government grants in recent years between grants/subsidies for the subdivision developments and for the housing rehab grant programs that have been overseen by Home Bridging. And the subdivision land in Cave Junction that is being developed by Home Bridging was provided to the organization by Josephine County at a price far under fair market value for the property which is effectively another government grant or government subsidy. In Grants Pass, Home Bridging was the recipient of a significant amount of federal grant awards passed through by the City of Grants Pass. Mr. Hansen claims the federal grants are for infrastructure to serve new subdivisions on the outskirts of Grants Pass and not for building the homes themselves and claimed that the homes are entirely funded by private funds. However, infrastructure to serve homes is normally viewed as part of the cost of building a home so this claim is misleading at best.
Chad Hansen statement #2 – Mr. Hansen also seems to go out of his way to say all of his service leading Home Bridging GP has been with zero pay or compensation to himself as the president of the nonprofit org. While this is likely true, and confirmed in recent nonprofit tax returns, it should be noted that Chad Hansen’s son Austin Hansen works for Home Bridging and doing/overseeing the house developments and home projects. Also Chad claims that for all three subdivisions they have built or are in process of building (one in Cave Junction and two in Grants Pass) they have been given the property to build on without having to pay for the bare land itself. For one subdivision in Grants Pass that has been mostly built out, the land appears to have been given to Home Bridging by Grants Pass Area Habitat for Humanity. After Home Bridging subdivided and built homes on this property, one of the homes was purchased by Austin Hansen (2685 Estates Lane).
Chad Hansen statement #3 – Another interesting statement Mr. Hansen made in a presentation last month was the following: “The last thing I want to do is sit in an office and be your County Commissioner, but I have to do it. And I’m not going to actually sit in the office, I can’t do that…trust me, I’m going to be on the tailgate of everybody.” I perceived that statement to mean Chad doesn’t do administrative type office work. In my opinion, should Chad be elected, he will be shocked at how much administrative work needs to be done to be an effective commissioner. Josephine County has no County manager; therefore, Commissioners serve as the chief administrative officers of the County among other duties. Chad seems to be very busy and successful in the nonprofit arena, and my gut sense is he would be miserable in the administrative role of County Commissioner.
Thankfully, based on other statements made by Chad Hansen, he seems to be completely at peace if he’s not elected. But his close relationships with other candidates like Simon Hare and John West along with his high level of motivation to get elected are significant red flags. The Grants Pass Tribune has reached out to Chad Hansen many times this year by text and email. Chad refuses to respond to our media requests so readers can draw your own conclusions regarding these red flags.