The BCC Weekly – Taking the “Blind” out of the BCC
Don’t call it a comeback. Many of the newly elected and appointed officials overseeing the most critical parts of Josephine County government have been here for years, so to speak.
Commissioner Andreas Blech, currently BCC Chair, had been an active participant in various committees of the county such as airports, the mining advisory committee, and even spent a ton of time with the Charter Change task force. Theoretically he knows the Charter inside out, which is interesting given that the current operating structure of the County is either bordering on the edge or has crossed over into a structure that potentially goes against certain Charter provisions.
At a minimum, the spirit of the County Charter is being violated in several ways, in my opinion. We have the equivalent of a County Manager (Operations Manager) overseeing quite a few departments, all but one he lacked significant experience in at the time he was appointed by his commissioner buddies John West and Herman Baertschiger in 2023. We have one commissioner who is making sweeping personnel changes without the other two commissioners weighing in. A couple weeks ago when he announced there had been several layoffs, the other two commissioners didn’t ask a thing about the layoffs and no details were provided.
Last week we confirmed that the entire code enforcement and solid waste staff were laid off. Since some of these staff work with the Sheriff, we asked the Sheriff for the reason for this action. The Sheriff was unaware of the reasons; therefore, this is not likely a criminal matter. On top of the firing of two department directors a few weeks ago, who were whistleblowers in the code enforcement arena and a big internal investigation found that two commissioners had retaliated against them, this whole mess is very concerning.
The County did an unannounced special financial audit late last year for about $31,000 and the original invoice for another big internal investigation last year was over $40,000. We’ve seen the invoices, yet the County hasn’t said a word about this in public sessions. Given they were both completed almost 4 months ago, when is the public going to find out why Commissioners are making all these sweeping changes?
The former Finance/HR Director apparently did not want to stick around for this discussion, taking a large payout from the ill-timed employee voluntary resignation program, which was approved by Commissioners without even doing a financial analysis of potential costs of the program.
And now political ally and former commissioner Simon Hare is this year’s budget officer and was paid $25,000 upfront for this budget season service. Readers of the Grants Pass Tribune know that Simon Hare is buddies with recalled commissioner John West, and newly elected Commissioner Chris Barnett has been John West’s real estate agent for the last 15 years. Sources tell us that after the December recall vote certification, John West spent a ton of time in the Commissioners’ offices lobbying the new 2025 Commissioners.
Recalled Commissioner John West got Simon Hare a consulting job doing some broadband grant work in late 2023 / early 2024. The County, at West’s direction, even started paying Hare before the County had a signed contract for the consulting work. And at one point last year, former commissioner West tried to propose a forestry cleanup project to the City-County Solid Waste Agency, and reportedly Simon Hare was part of that proposal cohort. And then of course there was Simon Hare’s recent appointment as Budget Officer with a very generous contract, without bothering to seek any other qualified applicants.
But that’s not all. Last week, Commissioners appointed a friend and business partner of Simon Hare to one of three seats on the County Budget Committee. Chad Hansen was appointed to the Budget Committee on Friday of last week, and Chad just so happens to be a business partner of Simon Hare. According to the Oregon Secretary of State Corporation Division, a new business named Patriot Solutions LLC was registered on January 30, 2025. The two members listed under this new business filing were Simon Hare and Chad Hansen.
What’s the significance of the name Patriot Solutions, I wonder? My best guess is that it was formed to provide consulting or some sort of services to government agencies. I find it awfully coincidental that the County just laid off a whole bunch of staff members, including the entire code enforcement and solid waste staff. And now Simon Hare, who was part of an informal forestry cleanup proposal last year, is now the Budget Officer and his Patriot Solutions business partner is on the County Budget Committee.
It’s all just an uncanny series of coincidences at this point. But I can’t count the number of times members of the public have accused the “good ole boys” of running the show and anyone outside the good ole boy circle can’t get a fair shake with Josephine County over the last couple years.
Don’t call it a comeback, indeed.
I sure hope the BCC will soon state their reasoning for all these employee firings and I sure hope Mr. Hare, Mr. Hansen, and our new County Manager-similar super department director allow fair competition for any government consulting service opportunities that may arise in the future. Because we now have two times in two years that Mr. Hare was given a consulting contract without County Commissioners entertaining any other proposals.
