Board of Josephine County Commissioners Chair John West recused himself and left the room at the very beginning of the board’s Aug. 28 weekly business session at the Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass, but after he returned he became a focal point of the meeting. As an effort to recall West from office unfolds, both supporters and detractors of the embattled commissioner approached the podium to offer their interpretations, which offered a slew of contentious partisan bickering.
“I am going to be stepping down for item number one,” West said immediately after he and his fellow commissioners recited the Pledge of Allegiance at the meeting’s onset. “I’m going to recuse myself of being involved in the board’s business on this for a potential conflict of interest. So I’m going to be handing this over to Vice Chair Commissioner Baertschiger, and I’ll be back for the rest of the meeting.”
The agenda item that spurred West’s recusal was a public hearing in the matter of rezoning a property near Interstate 5 just north of Grants Pass from Forest to Residential. This property is owned by KND Development, Inc.
James Black of JoCo Community Development explained the lengthy process of getting the property rezoned, wherein the decision was twice appealed to the Land Use Board of Appeals since its initial public hearing June 7, 2021 before the Rural Planning Commission before finally being approved for the zone change.
“That land use decision was signed June 13, 2024 and we are happy to say that no appeals were filed on that last land use action,” said Black. “This ordinance is an administrative component of the process.”
With no feedback from the public, Baertschiger and Commissioner Andreas Blech both voted in the affirmative, moving the land use ordinance to a second reading Sept. 11.
West returned to the dais to open up requests and comments from citizens, which took up the remainder of the meeting, but before doing so he issued a statement that several of his political opponents in the audience went on to test the limits of:
“Business sessions are not and have never been the appropriate forum for political campaigning. Public funds enable the broadcast of these meetings, and we will not permit you to employ public funds for the purpose of advancing your political case. We otherwise welcome you to generalize your comments about public policy.”
While none of the ensuing commenters explicitly mentioned the recall effort, they made their feelings regarding West’s performance clear.
Tina Gotchal “raised serious doubts” about the truthfulness of statements West had made in recent weeks. One of these was an accusation that commissioner candidate Pat Fahey petitioned West to create a county manager position and advocated for former Commissioner Lily Morgan to assume the role. Gotchal said Fahey had denied the details of this exchange, and even challenged West to take a polygraph test.
Gotchal went on to cast doubts on the accuracy of cost savings the commissioners had claimed by cutting the budget, including by the decision to combine the I.T. and emergency management departments. She also questioned the qualifications of Emergency Management Director Michael Sellers, saying, “You repeatedly have stated he has a Master’s in cybersecurity and is highly qualified. However, according to a former Josephine County HR director, Sellers has a Master’s in Public Administration, not cybersecurity, and lacks significant Emergency Management experience at a growers’ market.”
A West supporter, Holly Morton, defended Sellers’ appointment to the position, noting, “I’d just like to point out that Michael Sellers, our I.T. director and emergency management director, has a degree in cybersecurity, which is very, very important in this day and age. He also served in the military. He’s probably the most qualified man that we’ve ever had in those positions.”
West himself defended Sellers, saying, “As far as Mr. Sellers’ education, I could not care one iota what a disgruntled employee wants to say, or that person’s thoughts of the education of the person we hired. This is the same person who recommended we do something that cost the taxpayers over $600,000. But this person’s the genius of Wall Street now and knows everything. So I couldn’t care less what that person says because I know the truth.”
Although he did not name the “disgruntled employee” he was likely referencing former Human Resources Director J.J. Scofield.
Lifelong resident Libby Watts also slammed West, remarking, “I checked out John West’s business background and I found a history of intimidation, retaliation and litigation. And that’s how he’s running this county. If county personnel don’t jump on board with his schemes, they are harassed out of a job. If department heads stand up on principle, their department budget is stripped. If other elected officials openly disagree, they find themselves under surveillance. Is this what we want for this county?”
West did not react to much of the criticism directed at him, explaining, “I’m not going to discuss myself. This isn’t the forum to discuss myself. It is any person’s right to come up here and say whatever they want about me when I took this office… You put your big boy pants on and you take the beat, and whether it comes from the Courier or the citizens or whoever it is, that’s got an agenda. That’s just the way it goes.”
An unlikely ally came to West’s defense in the form of political activist Mark Seligman, who despite currently running for state representative as the Democratic Party’s nominee, also used his three minutes to attack his own party.
“First of all, I want to commend John West for everything he’s done in a year and a half,” the Selma resident said. “What this all comes down to is you either have government officials that want more government, more taxes, more regulation. You have that group of people or you have the opposite.
“The Democratic Party has banned me from their meetings because I dare disagree with them,” Seligman accused. I don’t disagree with them on national issues. I disagree with them on local issues. I agree with Commissioner West on local issues – they don’t. They are the intimidating people now.”
Seligman also railed against former commissioner and former state representative Lily Morgan for being, in his view, the “lead person on the recall,” opining that she is pursuing West’s ouster in the hopes that she will be appointed to his vacant seat. “This is the endgame of Democrats and those that want the recall. Rather than put up their own candidate, they wanted to change the whole charter. Wouldn’t it be more simple to find your own candidate?” Seligman wondered.
“Lily Morgan has intimidated members of the Gold Hill City Council, she has intimidated her own staff as county commissioner, she’s intimidated her own staff as state representative, she’s intimidated me at meetings, she’s intimidated marijuana growers, hemp growers who are legal, and she supported unlawful searches and seizures,” Seligman remarked. He concluded by saying “John West is Sandy Cassanelli on steroids,” referencing the former commissioner who was recalled 15 years ago, and urged West, “Keep up the good work.”