Last Friday’s county meeting proved inflammatory as a multitude of citizens lined up at the podium to voice their displeasure toward the Josephine County Commissioners cutting popular programs and reshaping the structure of the county government without community input.
During the April 11 weekly business session, held at Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass, critics of the board, several of whom testified to being participants at the previous week’s ‘Hands Off!’ rally against the Donald Trump presidency, rushed to defend the event against allegations leveled by Commissioner Chris Barnett.
Barnett, tapping into his radio personality background, had offered his real-time take on the protest and made several claims that rallygoers called lies, such as that protesters were bussed in and paid off by anti-Trump parties, behaved violently and even impeded an ambulance from responding to an emergency.
Eva Boris Avery, an organizer of the protest at the Josephine County Courthouse, called the event “wildly successful with hundreds of participants from all over Josephine County.”
“Commissioner Chris Barnett, who unfortunately isn’t here, was across the street sharing misinformation and starting rumors,” said Avery. Those rumors suggested the people across the street were paid to be there and had been bussed in from outside of Josephine County. Another rumor was that there were multiple confrontations and that rally attendees impeded an ambulance. I can attest to that – these are blatantly false.”
Avery added, “Regarding the ambulance, it was not held up by people but by traffic and once they engaged their lights and sirens, cars made every effort to clear the way for it to get through. The only reason I can think of for spreading these lies was to rile up folks on the other side of the street. Sad. Unfortunately, Mr. Barnett does not take his role as a non-partisan commissioner seriously. If he did, it might have served him well to come over to the event and engage with the citizens he is supposed to represent to see how he might address their issues.”
Frequent board critic Victor Zaitsev also offered the commissioners harsh words, specifically about their introduction of prayer before every WBS. Zaitsev is a strong believer in the separation of church and state, and has made it clear that he stands against “the religious dogma forced on the public by this board.”
“Why is it that Christian prayer is only practiced at the WBS and not at your other commission meetings?” Zaitsev asked. “Not a big enough crowd I guess. So it appears to be done to impress others and enhance the show… People, let’s try again. Stand up, fight back; let’s recall them all.”
Zaitsev was not the only citizen to call for a recall during the meeting. “I think you all need to wake up a little bit and realize you’re serving us,” Libby Watts remarked. “You’re working for us. You’re not working for yourselves, any of you. And it appears to me that you’re all headed towards recall.”
Watts decried what she saw as “disappearing county services” and department heads being terminated and having their responsibilities handed over to “a political crony.”
Vicki Palmerton, who said she has lived in Josephine County for most of her life, also said she was concerned by “lies.”
“You’ve taken away 4H, you’ve taken away Master Gardeners, and now you’re going for the library and you’re still listening to John West and (Herman) Baertschiger who have a bone to pick with these agencies,” observed Palmerton. “I am embarrassed that I’m at a function for commissioners and I have to be preached at. Yes, everybody has freedom of speech, but there is a time and place for somebody to tell me how I should believe… You claim your Christianity or stand behind your God comments, and yet lying to the constituents doesn’t seem to be an issue.”
Despite Palmerton’s aversion to the commissioners’ actions, she said they could still redeem themselves: “Many people are already calling for a recall after four months. You have a choice. You can do better. You can turn this bus around and do better.”
When presented with the opportunity to defend himself and his colleagues, Commissioner Ron Smith declined. After all interested citizens completed their testimony, Chair Andreas Blech said to Smith, “This is your opportunity to respond should you choose.” Smith merely replied, “I don’t really have any comments right now.”
Without going into specifics, Blech dismissed all of the criticism against him and maintained that the board is making decisions for the community’s benefit, not their own.
“It was brought up that our board is not representing all the people,” said Blech. “We are representing all the people. All the people includes those that yell and stomp their feet as well as those that come and speak to us in a nice and professional manner.
“We are moving forward with the reorganization of the county. That’s true. We’re making good progress and this is for the well-being and health of Josephine County moving forward. And again, we’re doing this in consideration for all residents and citizens of Josephine County.”
Blech made sure to note that Barnett had a prior engagement and was excused from the meeting, since a great deal of their constituents’ ire was directed at him specifically.
Ironically, given Barnett’s spread of unsubstantiated claims about the ‘Hands Off!’ rally, Blech noted, “Remember that what you read in print, whether it be a newspaper or on social media, is not necessarily true. So I would implore people to do their research and make sure that what they are talking about is actually what is happening. There’s lots of misinformation out there.”
Outside of public testimony, the commissioners made a number of appointments to their reorganized advisory boards, starting with the JoCo Airports Advisory Board, a spinoff of the now-defunct Grants Pass Airport Advisory Board and Illinois Valley Airport Advisory Board.
Sean McGilvrey and Lena Traeger were appointed to the Grants Pass Airport commercial tenant positions; Ryan Marshall was appointed to the Grants Pass Airport private tenant position; Jamie Jones and Brett Hopper were appointed to at-large positions; Cameron Camp was appointed to the Illinois Valley Airport private tenant position; and Wolf Emmons was appointed to the Illinois Valley Airport commercial tenant position.
“All seven positions are filled and we are very grateful and thankful for those people to have applied and look forward to their input as the Airport Advisory Board to the Josephine County Board of Commissioners,” Blech remarked.
Finally, the commissioners selected applicants for the JoCo Budget Committee. Blech recalled that six individuals applied to the committee.
“Commissioners reviewed those applicants and scored them according to how we felt that they would be a useful tool for us to utilize for our budget,” said Blech.
Chad Hanson, Nathan Siebel and Mark Kirby were all appointed to the budget committee.