The Board of Josephine County Commissioners held a trio of rapid fire public hearings during their March 6 weekly business session at the Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.
All three hearings were meant to amend the Josephine County Code by removing or altering the verbiage of provisions the county deems outdated or no longer applicable, and to ensure compliance with state law. The county code sections being amended are: Chapter 2.05, relating to meetings of the BCC; Chapter 2.10, relating to the Finance Department; and Chapter 2.20, relating to the Unified Board of Appeals.
Assistant County Legal Counsel Leah Harper joined the board over Zoom to summarize the changes.
“In 2018 the county adopted all of the ordinances that it had ever adopted into one code and many of the ordinances were outdated or needed to be repealed or modified to reflect current state law,” explained Harper. “We didn’t do it at that time in 2018; we just adopted everything to keep the integrity of the code. Now we are going through the code chapter by chapter and updating them as needed.”
Under Chapter 2.05, a sentence in 2.05.30B had the term “or” changed to “and/or”: “(Executive sessions) must be attended by an attorney, the Human Resources director, and/or the property manager.” Also, 2.05.30D relating to “News Media” had the term “must” changed to “may” in the sentence, “Accredited representatives of the news media may register in the office of the Board of County Commissioners.”
In addition, while this provision has long been common knowledge, it was added to 2.05.30 as section E: “Members of the news media and other persons allowed in executive session are prohibited from reporting on or disclosing any matters discussed during executive session. Any person who violates public meetings laws with intentional disregard for the law, or with willful misconduct, may be liable for a personal penalty of up to $1,000.00 per occurrence. Confidentiality of executive session discussions may be waived only by majority vote of the Board of Commissioners.”
The last change to Chapter 2.05 was the removal of two sentences from 2.05.70: “Audible use of portable electronic devices is prohibited during meetings” was stricken, as was, “Members who wish to make private recordings of meetings must first obtain approval from the majority of voting members who are present. Meeting attendees may make private recordings without obtaining private permission.” The sentence, “No recordings may be made during executive sessions” remained intact.
Under Chapter 2.10, all mentions of “Department of Budget and Finance” were changed to its current name, the “Department of Finance.”
Additionally, the duties of finance director were reworded to reflect current procedures. For example, instead of reading, “To assist the Budget Committee in preparing the annual county budget,” it now reads, “To act as the Josephine County Budget Officer and to prepare the annual county budget.” It was also noted that monies overseen by the finance director come from the county treasury, rather than county clerk.
Finally, Chapter 2.10.70, pertaining to record keeping, was completely revamped and now reads, “The Department shall maintain all books, records, and documents in accordance with Oregon Public Records laws, state archives rules, and federal law.”
The last public hearing of the meeting was a complete repeal of Chapter 2.20, as the Unified Board of Appeals was disbanded.
Harper provided a brief explanation as to why: “Chapter 2.20 of the county code was adopted back in 1982 and what happened back then was any appeals of the decisions of the county building official were required to go to this appointed unified board of appeals. The statutes have changed and now all decisions of the state building official who works for the county have to go up to the state chief inspector of the Department of Consumer and Business Services – that’s under ORS 455.475 so this chapter is no longer applicable.”
All three code change ordinances were advanced to a second hearing and expected adoption March 20.
The only other action taken by the commissioners March 6 was approval of the Ambulance Service Area plan for Josephine County.
“The Ambulance Service Area plan is required to be adopted by the state and modified every five years,” explained Harper. “This modification is the current one. It is a broad overview of what is required from all ambulance service providers in Josephine County. It’s based on state statutes and administrative rules and the state requires these plans so that there are no gaps in services or conflicts between ambulance service providers. The update to this plan is that it updates references to state laws and rules. It has updated maps and includes the mass fatality index from the Emergency Operations Plan and it also has copies of all of our mutual aid agreements with other service providers within the county and neighboring counties. And the plan has been approved by the state and the next step in adoption of the plan is for it to be certified by the Board of Commissioners.”
The board opted to do just that by a unanimous margin.
Today’s meeting of the BCC takes place at 9 a.m. in the Anne G. Basker Auditorium.