The BCC Weekly – Taking the “Blind” out of the BCC
Several times in recent weeks at Weekly Business Sessions, the Josephine County Commissioners have stated something to the tune of “My door is always open,” or, “If you have a question about something just call the Commissioner’s office and set an appointment to talk to me.”
The last time I tried that a few weeks ago, Commissioner Ron Smith returned my call, Commissioner Andreas Blech returned my call, Commissioner Chris Barnett did not return my call. But let’s get real for a moment, there isn’t enough time in the day for Commissioners to meet with every citizen one on one any time somebody has a question. This is nowhere near feasible, and not efficient for either the commissioners or citizens. Although an in-person meeting is great when there is time.
Commissioners need to respond to citizens when they take the time to email them. In the last 4-5 years I’ve emailed the Commissioners dozens of times. I received a couple responses from former Commissioner Fowler, but otherwise Commissioners never responded to emails. Wally Hicks, the County’s elected legal counsel, also regularly ignores emails.
Commissioners also need to respond to citizen requests or questions when they take time out of their day to show up to attend the Weekly Business Sessions. That’s partially why they are held in the format and place where they are held.
And Commissioners need to respond to media requests and media questions. Commissioners regularly complain that local media coverage is not fair, but how can it be fair if the Commissioners never respond to local media questions? The Grants Pass Tribune is on track to hit 8 million article views on its website this year, likely more online article views than any other local media source. And yet, the Grants Pass Tribune’s staff asked Commissioners and County Legal Counsel Wally Hicks twice this year to recognize the Grants Pass Tribune as media per the County’s media policy and they won’t even respond.
BCC Order 2023-068 “In the Matter of Revision to the Josephine County Executive Session News Media Attendance Policy” lays out an official policy on recognizing media (which the Grants Pass Tribune meets the definition of in our opinion) and states “Josephine County shall make a determination promptly after receiving the evidence submitted by the entity.” Our last request was made to BCC Chair Andreas Blech and Legal Counsel Wally Hicks by email on March 5, 2025. So far that request has been ignored. Given that it’s now been almost 2 months since we made this request, we hope we will receive an answer soon because it will be hard to convince a judge that a response longer than 2 months is “prompt.”
And Commissioners need to keep in mind that when one or more citizens show up with concerns or questions, or email with concerns or questions, there are often dozens or maybe even hundreds or thousands of other citizens that have those same questions. Answer them in a format or venue where citizens can easily share those responses or in Weekly Business Sessions where many are watching or where many can watch a recorded video of the meeting.
And please keep the BCC meetings archived on YouTube, one of the most convenient places to watch recordings of meetings. Why are the County staff taking videos off YouTube in recent weeks right after meetings are held? Why not keep those meeting videos on YouTube as well as the County website? Since the meetings are broadcast on YouTube, taking them down off YouTube seems to be a waste of time and is a step backwards in transparency.
Here is the long list of other questions that many citizens and local media have been asking. Some are questions that have been outstanding for months, while some are brand new questions. Since Commissioners have not answered most questions in public meetings or emails for the last few months, the list is long but not yet complete. This is a good starting point in answering the big picture questions asked most frequently in recent weeks and months.
1) Commissioners keep repeating comments (as recently as Monday April 28th) such as 80% of our budget is “grant funded” and we need to prepare for the loss of state and federal funding. Very little of the day-to-day operating budget revenues for General Fund Programs, Law Enforcement Programs, or Public Works Programs come from “grant” revenues so why do Commissioners say this and what specific grant funding are you worried about losing?
2) There was a massive restructuring of departments, department directors, and employee layoffs. In each case, why were these actions necessary and why is the new structure seen as the most efficient structure?
3) The County’s former budget officer said he was approached to serve in a role similar to the Federal DOGE program. Is this true, are you still considering contracting or hiring for this purpose, and if true why do you see this as being necessary?
4) Does the County intend to create a permanent position called Director of Operations or something similar? If so, will you do a normal recruiting and hiring process for this position and why do you see this position as being necessary?
5) County officials have informally confirmed that the County laid off all the code enforcement and solid waste staff. Why is this and will these positions be funded and hired again in the near future?
6) Why did the County recently fire the Community Development Director, Public Works Director, Public Health Director, and demote the Juvenile Justice Director without even reporting this to the public and what were the reasons? Why was it such a sudden action without any notice or transition period?
7) When the County’s day-to-day operational revenues have actually increased significantly in the last two years, why did you approve the Voluntary Resignation Program and why did you approve this program without doing a financial analysis of potential costs?
8) The County just last month spent at least $6 million of timber reserve funds to purchase forestry properties up in the Astoria, Oregon area. It appears this major land purchase contract was never disclosed to the public in public meeting documents of a BCC public meeting. If so, why was this not posted to a WBS packet and acted on in a WBS meeting like any other major contract would normally be acted on by the full BCC?
9) Will the County be pursuing the sale of additional County-owned timber properties in Josephine County in favor of purchasing timber properties out closer to the Oregon Coast and if so will you do any kind of mineral assessments on those properties before they are put up for sale as recommended by the County Mining Advisory Committee?
10) About 10 days after Commissioner Barnett was on the Bill Meyer radio show talking about the great job Michael Sellers was doing as the Interim Director of Operations and talking like the Director of Operations role would be the new structure going forward, Commissioners then announced that Michael Sellers has gone back to his role of IT/Emergency Management Director. Was this job title and duties change done by a Commissioner’s request or by Michael Sellers’ request?
11) Is the County considering or studying the possibility of giving the Public Health Department Operations over to the state to run rather than having this be a County operated function? If so, what County officials are studying this transition possibility?
12) Last year the BCC voted to assign Michael Sellers over the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) plan program. The rumor is, Michael Sellers has refused to do anything with this program even after being offered assistance from the former Public Health Director and Josephine County may be falling behind on the County’s obligations for this program. What is the truth and the status of this program? If we are falling behind are we risking having to pay the state back for state funds provided to the County for this purpose?
13) There was a big internal investigation last fall regarding retaliation and bullying by two Commissioners against former Directors Weber and Stevenson. Assistant County Legal Counsel released the results internally at the end of last year. The County was invoiced approximately $43,000 for the consultant’s investigation. Why hasn’t this investigation been discussed in public meetings of the Commissioners and when will results be publicly disclosed?
14) Why did the County’s external financial auditors Moss Adams do a special financial audit project last fall at a cost of approximately $31,000? Why was the audit done, what were the results, and why has this never been discussed in a public meeting of the BCC?
15) When will the BCC act on the March 5th (second) request by the Grants Pass Tribune to be recognized as approved media in the County’s Executive Session News Media Attendance Policy?
16) Do you see a risk to the County in delaying the Exec Session media attendance request by the Grants Pass Tribune when Commissioner Barnett personally started several new News/Media companies or outlets earlier this year such as the one Barnett named the Josephine County Tribune? The Josephine County Tribune has done paid advertising on Facebook and has been advertising for journalist jobs, so money must be behind Commissioner Barnett’s new business venture. Has the BCC asked County Legal Counsel whether this is a risk to Josephine County?
17) Have the Commissioners or County staff identified any state or federal grant funded programs that support County operating programs (as opposed to capital projects) where we know for sure that the grant program has been defunded or terminated?
18) BCC Chair Blech mentioned on Monday April 28th that there are some expected cost savings as a result of recent reorganizations. What cost savings are expected or targeted as a result of various operating structure reorganizations done or in process now?
19) Can the BCC provide an org chart of what the County’s structure looks like now or what it is expected to look like after the restructuring? Are there any new Department Director or central manager/director (or higher) job grades in the new operating structure?
20) Has the County’s insurance policy provider CIS threatened to drop Josephine County or not renew the County’s insurance policy due to the high number of lawsuits that have been filed or threatened against the County in recent months?
There are more, but for now I’ll stop at twenty questions. Any of these that the Commissioners can’t answer right now, they should simply say so and say why they can’t answer right now. All local citizens and County employees deserve the highest level of transparency that can be legally allowed at this time.