It started in the May 2023 Special Election when far right local activist Mike Pelfrey unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Board of the Josephine Community Library District. Paul Schaafsma, a staple in the Josephine County Republican Party Central Committee leadership in recent years also ran for one of the seats on the Library Board. Both Schaafsma and Pelfrey lost in their bid for Library Board seats. Library supporters cheered the election results considering these two appeared to be running to tear down the library, so to speak.
In the last few years Pelfrey has become infamous for using his three minutes of public time in most Grants Pass and Josephine County governing board meetings, railing against anyone that doesn’t tow the extreme right political line. Pelfrey is also now known for sending countless profanity-laced emails to anyone local both inside and outside of government that doesn’t fall in line with his political views.
Next came Pelfrey’s Library District withdrawal attempt #1 in late 2023 which turned into a coordinated financial attack against the library by both Pelfrey and former Commissioner John West. West began calling property owners that were trying to join the Library District while lining up political allies to submit Library District withdrawal paperwork as soon as Pelfrey’s withdrawal was approved by the Josephine County Commissioners.
Pelfrey and West found one other Commissioner, Herman Baertschiger, to go along with ignoring the primary state law that determines whether a property can be withdrawn from a district. ORS 198.870 states that a property can only be approved to be withdrawn from a district if it is not “feasible for the territory described in the petition to receive service from the district.”
It does not take an attorney to figure out that it would be nearly impossible for any property owner to make the case that it can’t receive service from a library district. These days, libraries deliver some materials online and therefore the only time a property owner could even come close to making a case that they can’t receive service is if it would not be feasible to establish electricity service to that specific property. With electric service comes the ability to use internet services. District withdrawal laws are generally designed for districts such as irrigation districts where infrastructure limitations prevent receiving services from the district.
The Library District ended up quickly suing Josephine County for illegally approving Pelfrey’s district withdrawal petition. While many political allies of West and Pelfrey were quickly placed on the Commissioners’ agenda to start the Library District withdrawal process on their own properties, the quick legal action by the Library District halted the process of approving other withdrawals. This was an unnecessary legal cost that was incurred by both the County and the Library District and turned into one of several concerns listed on the Recall Petition for County Commissioner John West. Former commissioner West was overwhelmingly recalled from office in the December 17, 2024 vote.
After just a couple of months after Pelfrey withdrawal attempt #1, the County settled the Library District lawsuit and admitted the County erred in approving Pelfrey’s first withdrawal petition. What has not been widely reported is that in the legal stipulation that settled the lawsuit, the County admitted that it erred in both process and its decision to approve the withdrawal.
Procedural withdrawal processes have since been corrected by the County. But the state law qualifications required to withdraw a property from a district haven’t changed. Therefore, Pelfrey’s newest attempt to withdraw from the Library District, in front of the Board of Commissioners for a decision this week, appears to be an exercise in futility. More on that in a moment.
On August 2nd, 2024, after Commissioner West upset countless individuals and groups in his decision making in his first 18 months in office, a recall petition was filed against Commissioner West. West and Pelfrey then went on to attack any individual or group that was listed as a concern in the recall petition. Pelfrey threatened a Library District Board member a couple times during the recall campaign with verbal threats such as “We’re coming for you next,” referring to continued attacks on the Library District.
On December 17, 2024, voters overwhelmingly voted to recall Commissioner John West by an almost two to one vote. Two days later, on December 19 former Commissioner West placed on the County Board’s agenda to look at increasing the rent that the Library District pays for the Grants Pass library branch. This is a building adjacent to the County Courthouse that is owned by Josephine County.
The Library District has been leasing this building from the County for $1 per year, primarily because of Section 14.5 of the County Charter which states as follows: “LIBRARY SUPPORT. The Board shall provide for the support and maintenance of the main library and library branches. [Amended November, 1992]” But Commissioner West was not to be deterred by requirements of the County Charter and part of the reasons voters recalled West was his general lack of attention to the will of voters and lack of attention to various laws at the local and state levels.
Despite Library District officials saying they and their attorney could not be available to meet on this day and offering six other dates in January when they could meet, West scheduled a Board meeting on January 6th to talk about increasing the rent for the Library District. This was the first meeting of the two newly elected Commissioners, the last Board meeting of Commissioner West, and two days before the West recall election was to be certified.
West throws out a ridiculous proposal that the library should be charged $15,000 per month to rent that building and bulldozes the two new Commissioners into prematurely cancelling the Library District Grants Pass branch building lease with just 30 days’ notice to the Library District. And all of a sudden, the County needs to charge rent to be able to afford an emergency roof repair on the library building this year. Except Kate Lasky, Library Director who has worked in this Library Building for the last 15 years, said the roof has had leaking issues for at least 15 years and never once before January 6th did the County suggest the roof needs to be replaced this year.
The inconvenient truth is that since 2007, the County has diverted over $40 million in property tax revenues that were originally designated for the County Library system in the 1990s, the Library nonprofit and Library District has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars upgrading the interior of the building since the County cut off all library funding in 2007, and the County Charter requirement to support the Library remains in place today. If the new Commissioners insist on a significant increase in rent, there seems to be a decent chance the County will be facing another lawsuit from the Library District. And it will be hard to lawfully or financially justify a significant increase in rent.
Next up is Mike Pelfrey’s Library District Withdrawal Petition #2, set to be in front of the Josephine County Commissioners for a decision on Wednesday, January 29th. New procedures required Pelfrey to get 100 valid signatures of district voters on the withdrawal petition, which he did and turned in withdrawal petition #2 in the middle of December. Given Pelfrey won’t be able to make a proper legal case about his Grants Pass property not being able to receive services from the Library District, withdrawal attempt #2 appears to be another waste of time and money. And the County will likely face yet another costly lawsuit if commissioners end up approving withdrawal attempt #2.
Recalled former Commissioner West will likely show up at this week’s hearing to continue attacking the Library District as he did in last week’s business session of the commissioners. And expect a lineup of political allies of Pelfrey and former commissioner West.
Also very interesting is the list of names that signed Pelfrey’s newest district withdrawal petition and the list of names that helped Pelfrey gather petition signatures to withdraw from the Library District. Among those signing Pelfrey’s withdrawal petition were the newly elected Grants Pass Mayor Clint Scherf, newly elected Grants Pass Council Member Indra Nicholas, State Representative Dwayne Yunker, and various other political allies of West and Pelfrey. And among those helping Pelfrey gather withdrawal petition signatures was newly elected County Treasurer Mark DeYoung. Each of these elected officials were contacted for comment on the withdrawal petition, however not one responded to the request for comment.
Of all those contacted for comment on this latest Library District withdrawal petition story, only one person responded. Mike Pelfrey responded to the request for comment with “No Comment……..GFYS RINO.” And that’s par for the course in Pelfrey and West’s continued attacks on the Josephine Community Library District.
Pelfrey Library District Withdrawal Attempt #2 to be Heard by Commissioners this Wednesday, January 29th