The BCC Weekly – Taking the “Blind” out of the BCC
It started around the fall of 2023 when newly appointed IT/Emergency Management Director Michael Sellers refused to meet with Library District officials to finalize a grant of almost $200,000 that had been arranged by the County’s previous IT Director. After eight requests to meet, Library officials gave up. The community lost a $200,000 grant as a result.
Not long after, former Commissioners West and Baertschiger approved a Library District withdrawal petition without following the correct legal process. The Library District had to bring a lawsuit against the County to stop and reverse it. Several political allies of former Commissioner West were lined up to also withdraw from the Library District, according to meeting documents right after the first withdrawal was illegally approved.
Former Commissioner West then redirected his attacks on the Library by attempting to raise the rent/lease price significantly on the Grants Pass Library branch building owned by the County. Towards the end of 2024 West arranged Board discussions suggesting that the County was paying close to $25,000 per year to maintain the exterior of the Grants Pass Library Branch (which was an inflated figure) and proposed a monthly rent price that was even higher than what the County charges most departments for office space.
Then on January 6, 2025, West’s last meeting as Commissioner before his recall was certified, West convinced new County Commissioners Chris Barnett and Ron Smith to prematurely terminate the $1 per year lease using the 30-day cancellation clause for convenience built into the previous lease.
The various public discussions by West and the BCC were centered around financial considerations. But it wasn’t about the money. It was a political attack on the Library District led by former Commissioner West, plain and simple.
Tension between Library officials and County officials boiled over as County officials were very slow to arrange new lease negotiation meetings after voting to prematurely cancel the previous lease. County Commissioners stood up Library officials for a lease negotiation meeting at least once (potentially due to a misunderstanding), and then County Legal Counsel Wally Hicks sent an email to Library officials saying the County would entertain storing library materials “if a move becomes necessary.”
Political allies of recalled Commissioner John West continued to make the argument the lease cancellation was just so the Library District would pay their “fair share” and tried to make the case the County could not afford to continue the lease at $1 per year.
Bill Kronert, formerly holding a title with the Josephine County Republican Party and outspoken advocate of former Commissioner John West, released in March 2025 on his blog what I would call a hit piece on the Library. Again, Kronert tried to make the case this is a financial discussion and the library should pay their fair share because the County couldn’t afford to continue with the $1 per year lease. Commissioner Chris Barnett paid Facebook advertising in March to spread this library hit piece widely on Facebook.
However, it was only costing the County about $14,000 per year to maintain the exterior of the GP Library Building. The County’s General Fund had a projected surplus of $1 million to $2 million in the 2025-2026 fiscal year and a projected ending fund balance significantly higher than financial policies require. And the County has a Charter requirement to support the maintenance of Library branches.
And a big part of the County’s permanent tax rate originated from a Library services tax levy that was in place at the time that permanent tax rates were frozen in the 1990s. Since the County cut off operational funding to libraries and essentially closed the County’s library department in 2007, over $40 million of property tax revenues originally intended for library operations have been diverted to other County departments.
But somehow the County cannot continue to afford to pay about $14,000 per year to maintain the exterior of the GP Library building and the Library needed to start paying something closer to a fair market rent, according to former Commissioner West. Never mind that pesky legal requirement approved by voters in the County Charter that requires the County to support the maintenance of library branches; it’s no longer applicable says former Commissioner West as recently as a few weeks ago when this issue was back in front of the BCC.
West has tried to make the case that the Charter requirement isn’t valid anymore because it’s no longer a “County” library system, but rather a community library system. This argument doesn’t hold legal water because anyone in Josephine County can get a library card whether they reside inside the library district boundaries or not. And the cost of a library card for those outside the district boundaries is similar to the amount of property tax they would pay if they were inside the district.
A few weeks ago, after negotiating new lease terms with Commissioner Chris Barnett, the BCC considered a new lease that would have the Library District pay for all maintenance (interior and exterior) rather than just the interior maintenance and would also have the Library District pay a share of the roof replacement. In return, there would be no more 30-day cancellation clause for convenience, only a cancellation for cause, and the Library would have a 5-year lease to give the proper amount of time to plan a new facility in downtown Grants Pass.
At the second weekly business session where the BCC considered this new lease, Commissioners Ron Smith and Andreas Blech insisted on adding back the 30-day cancellation clause for convenience. This was completely unacceptable to the Library District Board and was a key part of the recent negotiations. The Library District Board rejected the new lease proposal and made another request to the BCC last week.
Then, despite there being no argument about the financial portion of the proposed lease (only the cancellation clause), last week Commissioner Ron Smith rolled out a proposal on both the KAJO radio program and all over Facebook that if just half of the Library Card holders would pay or donate just $1 per month towards the lease, the problem would be solved. This would mean revenue of close to $13,500 per month that could go towards a lease.
Except County officials have never officially proposed the Library pay any significant monthly amounts towards the lease! And the County still has a legal charter obligation to support the maintenance of Library branches (the $1 per year lease is how they’ve been meeting this requirement for many years now). As citizens pushed back at Ron Smith for suggesting this and asking why the County isn’t going after other lessees that rent County buildings for $1 per year, Commissioner Ron Smith said in part it’s because “they are not a taxing district.”
So now all of a sudden the Library lease is a financial issue again. Except, at its core this is not a financial issue. If the County was hurting so badly as certain Commissioners and political allies of the Commissioners have repeatedly said, the County would be making an attempt to renegotiate other leases of County-owned buildings that are well below market value. Commissioners and allies have stated the Library should pay “their fair share” now that the Library District collects about $1.7 million per year in property taxes to support the library system (which includes 4 Library branches throughout the County). Except, most other agencies that have below market leases with the county have even more annual revenue than the Library District.
From a records request received earlier this year, as of February 2025, the County leases 10 properties that have a building on them. Five of the ten are $1 per year leases similar to the Library lease, and one other one is well below what would be considered a market value lease. So, six of the ten County building leases are well below market value as shown below.
The Grants Pass YMCA lease – the GP YMCA had revenue of about $2.5 million back in 2021 (the most recent nonprofit tax return filing available to the public). And YMCA officials have bragged about how much membership has increased over the last several years since the Covid lows. As I understand, the YMCA does in effect get some tax revenues as Medicare covers the cost of some memberships. The YMCA’s annual revenue today is likely approaching $4 million per year based on membership growth stats shared in public presentations. The YMCA enjoys a $1 per year lease on a county building that is more than twice the size of the GP Library building.
Options for Southern Oregon, who gets most of their revenue from tax sources, also enjoys a $1 per year lease on a large County owned building on Ramsey Avenue in Grants Pass. As of the 2022 tax year, Options had revenue of over $70 million per year.
The Galice Community Association, likely a very small organization, has a $1 per year lease on a small County building that is approximately 1000 square feet.
The Southern Oregon Education Service District, a taxing district that collects property taxes of about $3.4 million per year from Josephine County properties, also enjoys a $1 per year lease on a large County-owned building on Highland Avenue in Grants Pass.
And the Civil Air Patrol, a congressionally chartered and federally supported national nonprofit organization is currently leasing a large county-owned facility out near the Grants Pass Airport for only $250 per month. Negotiations are beginning for a new nonprofit to be formed for the local Civil Air Patrol branch, and they would likely ask for an even cheaper lease or donation of some kind from the County if they moved in this direction.
Other than the Galice Community Association, of all entities that enjoy a significantly lower than market lease from the County, the Library District has the lowest amount of annual revenues of all these organizations.
County officials, led by former Commissioner John West, have singled out the lessee of County buildings that is least capable of affording something closer to a market rate lease amount. The Library is also the only organization where there is a legal County Charter requirement to support the maintenance of the facility.
This continues to be a political attack, plain and simple. This is clearly not a financial issue, despite County officials’ continued attempts to make it sound like a financial issue.