Fred Messerle was already seated up at the bench while commissioners Main and Parry conducted a public deliberation of the seven candidates and then moved to appoint Messerle. Main acknowledged that proper public procedure had not been followed last Tuesday when a panel chosen by the commission to select an interim commissioner deliberated about the candidates in executive session. Executive session bars the public from participation.
Messerle’s presence on the bench this morning and yesterday during a budget session clearly demonstrate his appointment was decided upon out of the public view and Main stated that all three had accepted an award on behalf of the county last Saturday, even before Messerle was sworn in. Nevertheless, Main scolded The World for a syntax error in an online headline that said the commission may have erred appointing Messerle. He noted that Messerle had yet been appointed…
Main explained they were not trying to hide anything from the public but only to make the process more comfortable for the panel and will release transcripts and audio of the executive session. Main assured the audience that he had not influenced the panel’s decision. Then Main and Parry discussed the merits of each of the seven applicants. Messerle was then sworn in.
There are now three conservative male voices in control of the county, its a regular boys club up there. During the ‘deliberation’ Main indelicately referred to applicant Jody McCaffree as a “housewife willing to stand up for what she believes”. (yes, he really said that)
Presumably, by performing the deliberation I would guess the formerly empowered selection panel was effectively dis-empowered. Main told me after the ballots were counted on Tuesday that he had left the decision entirely up to the panel. At least now, though I still disapprove of another conservative voice on the board, the commission must now take total responsibility and ownership of the pick, something I advocated for all along.
What will the panel have to say about the audio now being released, I wonder?
Have no idea, aghast!, but even though I was not a fan of many of Nikki’s votes, she had a great wealth of institutional knowledge and helped keep Bob in check even reminding Bob at the Feb selection meeting they couldn’t deliberate in exec. Now we have two inexperienced commissioners and one commissioner who appears undeterred by protocol and a county counsel unable or unwilling or ill equipped to control this runaway freight train.
The other thing about Nikki is she would get back to you with information and she worked very hard (maybe not on what I would have liked) but she generated a lot of results, (good or bad) and I don’t see that kind of energy coming from Bob.
Still, as I have said before, Bob has made some truly heroic votes for which we should all be grateful.
Do you think White advised the commissioners to perform this dog and pony show? Do you think she said it would be fine for Messerle to sit in on an exec session? Do you think she approved him sitting at the bench?
Boy, hoooey, if she did!
Agreed, themguys, this is an executive branch version of thumbing your nose at the public AND proving to the public that you believe they are too stupid to see through it.
It starts already. Why the hell is Fred Messerle accepting plaques and more importantly, why the hell is he inside an executive session without being a board member. He is NOT a board member until he is sworn in.
Are these clowns just slapping the public in the face time after time? At what point does it not become just that?
Bob Main ???? Can you tell me why Messerle is included in Executive Session when he is no more a BOC member than I was at that time?
They are telling us, Go To Hell, we will do what we want whether you like it or not.
Much easier to say I’m sorry than to ask permission, right?
Unbelievable. I’m going to ask Bob directly.
There has been no expression of gratitude emanating from the direction of the commissioners office, only stony silence.
My repeated requests for copies of the audio from BOTH unauthorized exec sessions have gone unanswered
Hey, have the commissioners thanked you for bringing this error to their attention?
They entered the meeting this AM a bit later than usual coming out of exec session. Joining them from the backroom was Messerle, so it appears he attended while the rest of the public did not. Bob then read from a prepared statement regarding the procedural hiccups from last Tuesday. Personally, I have to wonder if discussing boo boos is a valid topic for exec session…
Trying to picture the pair of commissioners with citizen Messerle sitting in the commission seat trying to convince the public they hadn’t deliberated privately about how to handle this very public problem
Cam later appointed Jody to a renewable energy committee. Hopefully this is more than a token offering.
Still wondering what the panelists will think when they learn the candid statements they thought they were making in private are about to be released to the public
May the audio of all illegal executive sessions for appointment of assessor, surveyor, commissioners not have 18 minute gaps. What an ass wipe Bob Main is. If Jody McCaffree is just a housewife, Hannibal was just an elephant trainer. Maybe Jim from Squim was right when he wrote that there are idiots in the village.