The World newspaper has published the second of two articles addressing wild accusations from Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean regarding corruption in the Sheriff’s office and the road department when it was headed by Larry Van Elsberg.

‘Andy and Larry are both so responsible for the pipeline fiasco,” Stufflebean wrote in an e-mail to The World.

Van Elsberg and Jackson dismissed the accusations as lies and campaign rhetoric. Jackson further described Stufflebean’s remarks about him, published in Thursday’s World, as ‘slanderous.”

Construction of the natural gas pipeline from Roseburg to Coos Bay began in June 2003. By September of that year, state and federal authorities had issued cease-and-desist orders to Miami-based contractor MasTec Inc. and notices of noncompliance to the county for alleged violations of environmental laws. The project led to multiple lawsuits, finally settled in 2008, when MasTec agreed to pay the county $8.7 million.

‘Larry had the sole opportunity to revoke their permit in the right away when he seen that MasTec was not doing the job properly and did not do anything,” Stufflebean said in his e-mail to The World.

Yesterday, without first contacting the DA’s office, The World curiously went to press with Stufflebean’s alleged email accusations sparking an investigation by the State Attorney General.

Jackson and Frasier immediately asked Oregon’s attorney general to investigate the claims.

‘… if the allegations are false, the public deserves to know that fact so that they can have confidence in the Sheriff’s Office and the work done by its employees,” Frasier said.

Jackson said he didn’t want to comment until the investigation is complete. But he called Stufflebean’s allegations ‘slanderous.”

Frasier said there have been instances locally when individual officers have been investigated, but he can not recall another time when the entire sheriff’s department has been called into question.

‘This is a first for me,” he said.

Inexplicably, the paper has refused to release the email to the public or the accused despite the fact all correspondence from public officials relating to public matters should be a matter of public record. Stufflebean didn’t have the manners or the courage to address the sheriff or former road master directly.

After yesterdays article I requested the paper print a correction because article was misleading. The paper quoted Barry Austen who claimed Larry Van Elsberg was road master while Austen spent hours at a time on the public dime playing blackjack. Van Elsberg says that occurred before he was running the department and the paper never asked him specifically about the blackjack matter. Despite learning the source quoted in the paper has lied, today in an email from the author, Meghan Walsh, the paper has refused to print a correction.

> > On 5/27/10 1:16 PM, “Mary Geddry” wrote:
> >
>> >> Meghan,
>> >>
>> >> The article you printed today regarding Stufflebean’s charges against
>> >> Andy and Larry is misleading and should be corrected. Being aware of
>> >> the circumstances of the blackjack claims the section below leads the
>> >> reader to assume that Larry was in charge at the time which I believe
>> >> you know is untrue.
>> >>
>> >> “Employees have conflicting assessments of Van Elsberg’s management
>> >> practices.
>> >>
>> >> ‘He had no management of his staff,” said Barry Austin, the current
>> >> foreman, who has been with the department almost 15 years.
>> >>
>> >> Austin said he and other workers sometimes played blackjack for hours a
>> >> day. Others were known to use county materials for personal use.
>> >>
>> >> ‘Maybe some of this Larry didn’t know, but if he had been doing his job
>> >> he would have known,” Austin said. ‘That stuff doesn’t happen anymore.”
>> >>
>> >> Stufflebean said Van Elsberg allowed a fleet manager to put $2,000 worth
>> >> of repairs and new tires on a vehicle, only to sell it at auction to the
>> >> fleet manager’s wife for $200.
>> >>
>> >> Shannon Hunt, the former fleet manager, said his wife bought a Ford
>> >> Taurus at auction, but it barely ran and did not have new tires.”
>> >>
>> >> Further, you are quoting someone who has admitted misusing public funds
>> >> by playing cards on the job and is presently high up in Stufflebean’s
>> >> road department… a questionable source in my opinion and something
>> >> that should be pointed out to your readers. Personally, making a news
>> >> story out of Kevin’s accusations hardly seems like news but regardless,
>> >> I believe you owe the readers and Larry and Andy a correction in the paper.
>> >>
>> >> Lastly, while I am pleased The World published the inconsistencies in
>> >> Kevin’s bankruptcy explanations, I reported them on my blog several
>> >> times months in advance of your article. Technically, the uncovering
>> >> was not done entirely at The World.
>> >>
>> >> Let’s hope the editor corrects the wrong impression left above. Van
>> >> Elsberg was not in charge during that incident and was responsible for
>> >> bringing it to the attention of the road master at the time.
>> >>
>> >> Mary
> > From: Meghan Walsh
> > Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 09:25:38
> > To: Mary Geddry
> > Subject: Re: Van Elsberg
> >
> > Mary,
> >
> > We will not be printing a correction.
> >
> > Austin said Van Elsberg was the roadmaster at the time. Since, I was not
> > there all I can print is what employees said. I tried to represent both
> > sides, which is why I also included Hunt’s quote. I spoke to several other
> > road employees as well, however they would not go on the record.
> >
> > When a candidate makes allegations of the kind made by Commissioner
> > Stufflebean, a newspaper must report them.
> >
> > I was not aware of you providing public records to prove the inconsistencies
> > of Stufflebean’s statement regarding his bankruptcy.
> >
> > Meghan
On 5/28/10 11:19 AM, “mgeddry@mgx.com” wrote:

> > Still it seems that when a source turns out to be untruthful you have a
> > responsibility to report it. Failing to do so calls into question all other
> > reporting.
> >
> > Clark has refused to release Kevin’s email. Can you at least confirm the time
> > of day it was sent? Was it a late night transmission?
> >
> > Mary
> > Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

You will have to get that information from Clark. It is not my place to
release it.

So far, no response from editor, Clark Walworth. Not advising the public that a source has lied in an interview does a disservice to the reader and calls into question the integrity and accuracy of everything The World reports.

Also, I take issue with Meghan’s claim ..”When a candidate makes allegations of the kind made by Commissioner Stufflebean, a newspaper must report them”. Having been the recipient of one or two bizarre emails from Kevin, I believe it is incumbent upon the paper to first determine whether the claims are rational before subjecting everyone to some personal vendetta or just plain gossip. If they wanted to report that the commissioner sent a wild email rant and not provide a copy of it, that’s one thing but to report these ‘rants’ and give them credence forcing an investigation from the State is just unprofessional.

The paper should first have gone to the DA. The sheriff can’t just arrest someone on an accusation without some proof but the paper, in my opinion, enabled the ramblings of someone I seriously suspect based upon my own communications, has a drinking problem without doing the professional thing and talking to the district attorney. I also suspect that a FOIA request for the infamous email will reveal some crazed ramblings (not to mention major grammatical flaws as seen from the samples above) that any quality journal would have known better than to rely upon.

The paper is becoming very ‘tabloidish’.