A board of elected officials on Friday, Feb. 19, selected Colene Martin and Gary Richardson to fill the two empty seats on the Josephine County Board of Commissioners. Martin and Richardson were selected as the top candidates after interviews the previous day.
Martin and Richardson had both run for a seat on the board in 2024. Martin is a former CEO of the Grants Pass & Josephine County Chamber of Commerce, and came in second after a runoff between her and Chris Barnett that year. Richardson is a longtime board member of the Grants Pass School District board.
Both commissioner seats will be up for election this year, so Richardson and Martin may not be in the seats for long unless they decide to file for election and win. For Martin’s seat, the winner could be declared either in the May primary election or the November general election, depending on the number of filers and vote tallies. For Richardson’s seat, it will be decided in the November general election.
The former holder of Martin’s seat, Chris Barnett, was recalled earlier this year in a recall election. The former holder of Richardson’s seat, Andreas Blech, resigned in December rather than face a recall election.