“I would like to wish the Democratic Party condolences because it’s my understanding that on November 5, 2024 you died.”
_ Resident Mike Pelphrey
Despite push back from individuals and organizations such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the Board of Josephine County Commissioners did not reverse course on their new tradition of reciting a prayer in addition to the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of meetings.
The Wednesday, Feb. 5 weekly business session held at Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass was very brief, lasting less than half an hour and including no significant decisions on legislation or county functions.
Most of the meeting was devoted to requests and comments from citizens and the commissioners’ responses to them.
First to speak was meeting frequenter Victor Zaitsev, who again criticized the board for including a prayer. When he did so the previous week, Zaitsev reported feeling like he received a “verbal stoning” from Christians in the audience who felt attacked by his opposition to praying during government events.
“As I said before I am strongly opposed to the practice of prayer or promotion of religious dogma at public government meetings or functions,” Zaitsev stated. “The practice is discriminatory and exclusionary and a subtle way of making it known that if you don’t agree and participate you are less valued in the group.
“It is written in the Bible that Jesus instructed his followers not to pray in public to impress others, gain recognition or increase social standing but rather to go to a private space to commune with the almighty for guidance and salvation.
“Faith should be in your heart; not on your sleeve,” Zaitsev opined.
He went on to decry the recent firing of county administrator Wendy Watkins, saying he “didn’t see much Christianity practiced” by firing a single mother who would be “economically devastated” with the loss of her job.
Zaitsev linked the termination to that of office manager Trish House, and speculated they were both let go because they “knew where the lies were buried.”
He concluded by slamming the state of government as a whole, saying, “Our government is failing us from the local level to the state level with garbage like SP 762 and the surrealistic madness in the executive branch at the very top. The onion is rotten from the top all the way down and it truly stinks.”
Another meeting frequenter, Mike Pelphrey, condemned another lawsuit aimed at the city of Grants Pass related to the handling of homeless individuals. Pelphrey blamed the lawsuit on “left-leaning” “enemies.” He opined that instead of suing Grants Pass, the homeless community should consider a lawsuit against nonprofits that have been unsuccessful in delivering proper medical care and shelter for them. Pelphrey, a vocal conservative activist, signed off with the following sentence: “I would like to wish the Democratic Party condolences because it’s my understanding that on November 5, 2024 you died.”
Next, recalled commissioner John West used his three minutes to express opposition to a rumor he heard that the board was considering the transfer of $200K from the Forestry Department to Juvenile Justice.
“If you continue to take away to help other programs it is going to dissolve the forestry program and if you do that we are headed down a road of disaster,” said West. “We have to follow the Trump Administration on what he’s doing with our federal government. We have to downsize and we have to make cuts where we have to make them. And no one likes it; it’s not a pretty topic but it still has to be done.”
Commissioner Ron Smith responded to Zaitsev’s condemnation of Senate Bill 762 (commonly known as the Fire Map) by sharing his positive take on the forum the county held at the Fairgrounds.
“It was very full,” Smith noted. “More people showed up than we expected. There was a meeting planned for Douglas County and we have a state rep that wants to have a meeting up there. We’re going to hold a meeting in the Illinois Valley and we’re going to continue to hold meetings on this until we get some traction with the state to amend or change that law or repeal it.”
Commissioner Chris Barnett gave a slew of updates on the county’s response to the disruptive snowstorm it was in the throes of, and thanked employees of various departments for their service, including Public Works, Facilities, the Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Management, Community Corrections and Forestry.
Barnett concluded by advocating for the actions he and his fellow commissioners had undertaken since their terms began:
“I just want to thank my colleagues up here. We’re a diverse team of commissioners working together for what’s best. In just our 30 days that we’ve been in office we’re addressing policy, working on budgets, we’re out in your community, we’re meeting with constituents, we’re building bridges, we’re attending community events as much as we can and I also want to say that we had great attendance for SB 762 led by Commissioner Smith to my left here. We were all there in attendance to show our support and we had standing room only – the biggest attendance I’ve ever seen at the fairgrounds building over there, so thank you for the community supporting that and knowing that we’re trying to help.
As well as community support, I love the attendance that we had on Friday for our 169th birthday. I’m very happy with the turnout and support from the Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for attending and doing the ribbon cutting for us and also to the historical society as well. We’re going to continue to do great things as your commissioners in Josephine County. Thank you for your support.”
Board Chair Andreas Blech assured West that the board takes budgeting seriously, noting that they have been “digging into that trying to understand how that funding was set up and yes, we need to make sure that all the departments are funded appropriately and that we know that we have five years’ worth of funding projection for the county because we want to absolutely be good stewards for the citizens.”
On SB 172, Blech weighed in, “This is a big deal and we’ve been talking about this for a long time and I want to encourage everybody to get involved in that to the maximum capacity.”