The BCC Weekly – Taking the “Blind” out of the BCC
On Wednesday, January 7th, the day after nearly 62% of those that voted said yes to the recall of Commissioner Chris Barnett in preliminary voting results, a familiar voice was on the Bill Meyer radio show lamenting Mr. Barnett’s loss. Holli Morton, former Josephine County Republican Party chair until May 2025, who still defends certain local elected officials she helped get elected in November 2024 even after a long string of documented bad behavior by those elected officials, called in for sympathy from the radio show.
Before Holli could even get started in earnest, Bill Meyer inserts with his own thoughts, “Kicking Chris Barnett out is not going to fix the Josephine County mathematics problem…weren’t you telling me that Josephine County is only down to $4 million in the bank in reserve?” Holli replies, “Yeah, that’s the reserve, and that’s down from $8 million a year ago and so that gives you an idea of the fiscal trajectory of the County…”
Those statements from Bill Meyer and Holli Morton couldn’t be more wrong. I’m so tired of certain past commissioners and their supporters as well as Bill Meyer claiming incorrectly that Josephine County is broke, that I sent in an email to Bill Meyer later that day. Below is most of that email.
Boulder in my shoe – Josephine County does NOT have a math problem!
Hi Bill,
After you and callers on your show saying so many times in recent weeks and this morning that the main problem is Josephine County has a math problem…I really can’t help but say something. Now I have MANY dogs in this fight…but keep in mind I’ve watched or listened to almost every meeting of the Josephine County Commissioners for almost 14 years now, and I’ve been a daily listener of yours for about 4-5 years.
The misinformation from certain past Josephine County Commissioners and some of their supporters has got to stop. It will be very hard to get back to the regular business of the County if we can’t even agree on basic math. You’ve taken Herman’s and other Commissioners’ word for certain things, and they are misleading you (in the case of previous commissioner John West flat out lying to you).
Let’s take for example Holli Morton’s comments on your show this morning. Holli said, “Josephine County’s reserve dropped from $8 million last year to $4 million this year.” That is flat out wrong, and I’d love for you to ask her where she got those figures.
The reality is Josephine County is in a better financial position than it has been in for close to 14 years. You don’t need to take my word for it – just see the attached document which shows the budget for our General Fund this year. You’ll see on pages 4-5 of the attached JoCo budget document and the figures I highlighted on those two pages that they projected the County’s general fund balance (which is the County’s main RESERVE fund, if you want to call it that…) to start at $18.3 million for the year and end at $19.5 million for the current fiscal year…a $1.2 million SURPLUS for the current fiscal year and a very healthy starting and ending fund balance.
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Anyway, one of the main reasons I got involved in the John West recall is that he and Herman Baertschiger TOOK MONEY AWAY FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT PROGRAMS as compared to the general fund revenue allocations that used to go to law enforcement before VOTERS approved a new County Law Enforcement District in November 2023. I’ve been a huge supporter of local law enforcement…what conservative doesn’t support law and order?
What the likes of Herman, John West, and Holli Morton won’t tell you is that we were promised 27 new Sheriff staff members with the approval of the new Law Enforcement District. The new LE District has a permanent property tax rate that brings in over $5.5 million per year in NEW revenues starting in the Fiscal 2025 year. We’re now in our second fiscal year of the new district, and so far the commissioners have only granted about 11 new Sheriff staff. So WE VOTERS AND PROPERTY OWNERS ARE NOT GETTING WHAT WE ARE PAYING FOR!!!!! To say this another way…we’re paying the equivalent of $500k per new staff member in the Sheriff’s office…what a bargain! It’s not the Sheriff’s fault; the Commissioners took general fund money away from the Sheriff right after VOTER approval of the new LE District.
Looking back on that email, I was pretty fired up. Using CAPS is not my normal style. Years ago, Bill Meyer used to respond to just about every email I would send him (which was not many). This email from last week didn’t get a response.
As with most cities and counties in Oregon, the “General Fund” is the main fund that has reserves and discretionary dollars. Most other funds outside the General Fund are restricted or dedicated to a specific purpose. I contacted County Finance Director Ruth Nelson about where the General Fund balance actually started this fiscal year 2026, the period of July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. The County is behind on closing the books and doing the FY’25 annual audit (in my opinion due to all the chaos from the BCC office in the last year) but the preliminary projection for the FY’25 closing balance for the General Fund is $19.8 million.
This means the County’s General Fund had a SURPLUS of close to $4 million dollars last fiscal year, because the General Fund ended the previous fiscal year at close to a total fund balance of $15.5 million. And because budgets are never fully spent (by law they can’t spend more than budget), the County’s General Fund will likely have a $2-$3 million surplus in the current fiscal year and end the current fiscal year with a balance of about $22 million.
That’s just a bit off from Holli Morton’s stated “reserve” figure of $4 million. And the General Fund has a surplus, not a deficit as suggested from Morton’s radio comments. Add in the cash from all the other funds of the County other than the General Fund, and we’re talking about closer to $70 million of cash in the County’s coffers just as the County’s last audited financial statement showed.
No, Josephine County does not have a math problem. Josephine County has had a BCC management problem in the last two years. And how about that $2-$4 million General Fund annual surplus that we’re seeing in FY25 and FY26? That’s because Commissioners took that money away from law enforcement programs, as compared to General Fund revenues that were allocated to law enforcement before the first fiscal year of the Law Enforcement District in FY’25.
I have my suspicions as to why Commissioners took some General Fund revenue away from law enforcement programs. But speculation aside, it has become crystal clear that most Commissioners serving in 2024 and 2025 do not understand the County’s General Fund budget and the financial position the County is really in today.
I had a great meeting with former Commissioner Andreas Blech in his office before Commissioners adopted the FY’26 budget last June. It lasted almost 2 hours, and he thanked me for my perspective on the financial position of the County. He then proceeded with his public budget comments and actions as if that 2-hour meeting never happened.
As one of the leaders of the John West recall in the fall of 2024, I was asked what does the phrase on the recall petition “ignoring the will of the people” mean and how do you quantify this concern? The answer is simple. When Commissioners take votes and actions that go directly against something the Josephine County voters put in place through a measure previously on the ballot, that is ignoring the will of the people.
When the Sheriff promises 27 new staff members with the passage of a Law Enforcement District and 2 years later we only have about 11 new staff members because of budget restrictions imposed by the BCC, that is ignoring the will of the people.
When a commissioner launches a financial attack on a Library District that was approved by voters, that is ignoring the will of the people.
When commissioners defund the collection of any new property tax revenues three years in a row for the Josephine County 4-H/Extension Service District which was originally approved by voters, that is ignoring the will of the people.
When commissioners ignore various provisions in the Josephine County Charter as they have in the last two years, that is ignoring the will of the people considering the Charter was voted in by the people.
Let’s hope that our next few appointed and elected commissioners get back to relying on facts when making budget decisions and quickly return to respecting the will of the people.