The BCC Weekly – Taking the “Blind” out of the BCC
I’ve spent close to half of my 25-year professional career working in accounting/finance in the private sector and half was 12 years working in the Finance Department of the City of Grants Pass. The 10 years from 2010 to 2020 I had the pleasure of serving as the City Finance Director. In addition to all those City Council meetings, I’ve also watched or listened to just about every meeting of the Josephine BCC (Board of County Commissioners) since 2012. I can’t count the number of times I heard an elected official or member of the public say that government should be run more efficient, like the private sector.
In some ways, I agree with that. In many ways, I strongly disagree.
When I first started with the City of Grants Pass in 2008, I was somewhat frustrated about how long it took to get projects done or to get certain approvals to do a project. The public bidding or RFP process can be especially cumbersome.
I quickly learned there are good reasons why government can’t and shouldn’t always move like private businesses. For one, many things government agencies do affect all people and businesses in that jurisdiction. On the flip side, a private business decision often only affects a small handful of stakeholders.
And unfortunately, many of the rules government has to follow and the reams of paper that make up operating policies and laws that government officials have to follow are in place because of corrupt practices of old. Historical accounts of bribes, gifts, crony hiring and crony contracting practices litter news articles from many decades ago. And unfortunately, in the last two years these types of reports have started to surface again in relation to Josephine County in our local media.
Why all of a sudden are we seeing these sorts of reports and allegations again in Josephine County government? In my opinion, it’s partially because we’ve elected or given power to certain individuals that only have private business experience. For example, recalled former Commissioner John West and 2025 BCC Chair Andreas Blech (appointed to fill the remainder of Commissioner West’s term) both had extensive private business experience but no government work experience when they became a commissioner. And they both at times have treated Josephine County like their own privately owned business.
It’s common for elected officials to focus on areas that they understand and know, or that they think they know, especially when they believe they are an expert in this area. Million-dollar contracts can be passed easily without any discussion while a 45-minute debate ensues about the best way to replace a lawnmower.
It’s especially dangerous when just one government official is given authority to approve a wide range of contracts or decisions without checks and balances from another government official. And in my opinion, the BCC has entered the danger zone several times in the last two years by assuming one government official is an expert in a particular topic and trusting without verifying.
I’ll list a few prime examples seen in Josephine County this year and last year. And then in coming weeks there will be several examples of how the BCC or other county officials have chosen to ignore the policies, procedures, and laws that have been put in place to help avoid corruption or fast-tracked decisions that bypass the larger number of government stakeholders.
When Commissioner John West came into office in early 2023, he quickly became the liaison to County Forestry and by extension the County Mining Advisory Committee (MAC). West has had many businesses in both forestry and mining, so this made sense.
At one point in 2024 I heard West proclaim, “if it was up to me I would sell every timber property the County owns in Josephine County and buy timber properties closer to the coast of Oregon.” Several times the MAC, I, and others have tried to show the BCC that on some County-owned timber properties there is many times more value in the mineral deposits than there is in the timber. The MAC even passed an official BCC recommendation to consider mineral development potential before selling any forestry properties.
A local company that I partially own and help manage called American Mineral Research even used the County Code (County Law) provisions to get a mineral exploration permit on a 76-acre piece of County owned timber property that had a historical gold mine on one side of the property. To keep a long story short, during the course of mineral exploration work, trying to renew our permit, and then applying for a mining lease that in our opinion the County is legally obligated by the code to approve, Commissioner West seemed to do everything in his power to stop us from doing this code-authorized activity. West even used illegal actions to stop us, in our opinion, since he didn’t follow the County code in the administration of our lease application and in other ways.
Despite the millions in royalties and lease revenues the County could eventually earn from this single County-owned forestry property, West was on a mission and he was not to be swayed by facts. Several years ago, the County-owned forestry portfolio stood at almost 30,000 acres. This single 76-acre property could still grow timber and has the potential to generate several new jobs along with tens of millions of economic activity through its mineral development.
The BCC tried to make American Mineral Research pay illegal (unauthorized) permit fees in 2023, and then eventually refused to give us a public hearing and make a decision on our mining lease application in a way that the County Code says is required. Two years went by before the County agreed to review and act on our mining lease application, and we had to sue the County recently just to get them to follow their own code laws.
Rather than act on the mining lease application, former Commissioner West (BCC Chair in 2024) arranged a vote of the commissioners in October 2024 to just sell this forestry property at the next property auction. We’ve earned a right to lease this property per the County Code, and rather than follow the code, Commissioners West and Baertschiger didn’t like that code and instead chose to try and sell the property out from under us.
And it took a costly lawsuit just to make them follow the County Code. Just last week, the day before the County was to appear in court to answer to this lawsuit, they settled and agreed to give us the public hearing and make the decision on our lease application that they should have made two years ago. They are now required to have the public hearing and make the decision before the end of August.
In the meantime, West spearheaded the sale of many forestry properties out in the Williams area towards the end of 2024, without any discussion of potential mineral values whatsoever (contrary to official recommendations of the County Mining Advisory Committee). And then, without approval of the BCC, earlier in 2025 the County Forestry Director purchased $6 million worth of forestry properties in the Astoria Oregon area which is almost a 5-hour drive from here. The BCC didn’t even get to vote on this potential purchase, because they gave the Forestry Director the authority to make forestry property purchases without approval from the BCC. That’s right…we just witnessed a $6 million County property purchase without even a discussion by the BCC.
Shortly after Andreas Blech was reappointed to a Commissioner seat after the John West recall to serve the remainder of West’s term, he asked and the two other new commissioners Ron Smith and Chris Barnett gave BCC Chair Andreas Blech the sole authority to make any personnel restructuring decisions that he saw fit without the other two commissioners having to discuss or approve anything. Blech moved quickly, as private business leaders often do. And another long story made short, in my opinion some of the costliest personnel decisions the County has ever made were made during the two-month stretch that Blech had this total authority. And the County will be fighting related lawsuits for years to come, largely due to no checks and balances.
And for the final example this week, during the time of ultimate personnel power of BCC Chair Blech, the Airports Director was essentially pushed out and a new Airports Manager (alleged to be friends with BCC Chair Andreas Blech) was quickly appointed to the job a couple months ago. Last week the BCC unanimously passed an Order to give the Airports Manager almost complete authority to do anything as it relates to Airport properties and Airport operations. The Airports Manager can now unilaterally approve leases, apply for permits, land use applications, MOUs for the management and operation of the two airports, and a long list of other duties the Manager now has without the BCC needing to vote on them.
While purchasing authority may not have changed, the Airports Manager can now execute just about any other kind of agreement related to airports operations. There should be guard rails for the authority of any single County official, particularly when it comes to the leasing of County lands. On my first quick skim through Airports policies, I don’t see anything that would prevent the Airports Manager from entering into a lease with someone that wanted to lease a hangar or other airport property for any period of 99 years or less. In fact, one older airports policy makes reference to an allowance for negotiations with airport tenants and airport users.
If the Airports Manager really has been friends with BCC Chair Andreas Blech since long before he was appointed as the Manager, what’s to stop BCC Chair Andreas Blech from seeking a custom 99-year fixed price lease on the airports hangar he already owns and leases today, or a similar 99-year fixed price lease on other airport properties as a favor to mutual friends?
This is not to say that it would ever be attempted, but after appointing an Airports Manager quickly without doing a typical hiring and recruiting process and then giving that manager the ultimate authority to execute a wide range of legal agreements that would be binding to the County, this does not look good on the surface. Checks and balances, or in the accounting arena “internal controls” should always be in place that prevent any one person in an organization from doing crony favors or even misappropriating assets without a second person in the loop that would notice the action. No single department director, manager, or even commissioner should be able to legally bind the county when the purchase, sale, or total lease price exceeds a certain dollar amount. The decision should always go to the full BCC over a certain dollar amount.
The current price by which the full BCC has to approve a purchase contract is $25,000 or more. If this is the right dollar amount (many cities and counties use higher numbers such as $50,000), then I say County policies should be revised so that no single County official can approve of any contract when the total exceeds this $25,000 amount.
Let’s also not forget the two-month reign of sole personnel authority by BCC Chair Andreas Blech earlier this year when he attempted to appoint IT/Emergency Management Director Michael Sellers to a newly created job of Director of Operations for a total proposed salary and benefit package of $388,000 per year. Sellers was not qualified or experienced for this specific job, and the compensation package being negotiated was way higher than even the highest paid County Manager among our peer counties. Thankfully, a whistleblower prevented this contract from being inked but this is what can happen when there are no checks and balances and somebody from the private sector wants to move quickly.
Government affects everyone, and everyone is a stakeholder. Checks and balances always need to be in place, and major decisions should not be rushed. Because in my experience, private businesses actually make more mistakes and have more instances of fraud and cronyism than similar sized government agencies. You just don’t often hear about the bad that happens in private businesses because they are…well, private.
In government, all you have to do is make a questionable decision such as spend around $2,500 on personalized morale coins and you’ll make the front-page news. If only all government officials before every major decision would think… “How will this sound if it makes front page news?” Because yes, even digital newspapers have front page news. Stay tuned in for the rest of this month for much more questionable front-page Josephine County BCC news.