Another meeting of the ‘Structure’ advisory committee was held today and I am going to wait until I get the video to comment much except to say that these guys all have a hard core agenda and public input is considered more of a hindrance than a help. On a side note, Douglas County commissioner Robertson is recommending the formation of a forest committee to rethink the O&C lands.
My guess is the formation of appointed citizen advisory committees is a strategic byproduct of some obscure national think tank that feeds its guidelines down through the Republican Party. None of the sitting commissioners, on their own, seem inclined toward independent and creative concepts.
The citizens should form a committee to enact changes to county governance that prohibit commissioners, especially appointed commissioners, from empowering unelected citizen committees without prior public hearings. What they are doing is undemocratic and I know my son didn’t fight for this type of subversion of public process.
These guys are running amok.
UPDATE: I have pulled this up from Randy’s comment because it is a good recap of the meeting. As a note, I find it disquieting that Fred Messerle would appoint Jon Barton, Sandy Messerle’s boss at SCDC, as a co-chair of this committee. Were other applicants for this committee rejected to make room for Barton? Barton is one of the most divisive characters in the county and has been a vocal shepherd of some of its greatest catastrophes… the pipeline, the airport.
If the members of the Governance committee are as self absorbed as some of the members of the Structure committee it will be difficult for the citizens to have their voices heard or their rights protected. Co-chair Jon Barton told the first citizen that spoke at the meeting held on the 11th that we were not allowed to ask questions in these public work sessions, we were only allowed to make comments. We were told that if we or any other citizen had a question it should be submitted in writing. The question that was initially rejected by Mr. Barton just happened to be “how does their proposed citizen drop box work”. So not only did Mr. Barton not want to take live public questions, he didn’t want to explain how people could submit questions. After some prodding it was explained that this was not a physical box to place a question in, it will be an electronic drop box that is only accessible on line and will require the download of some specific software. This citizen then informed them that he didn’t own a computer, but they did not offer him any alternatives.
In an effort to respect Mr. Barton’s demand, I made my address to the committee in the form of a comment! After which some of the more sensible members decided it would be alright for citizens to ask questions so long as it was understood that they may not have answers to every question at the time they are asked.
Mr. Barton also informed me that this committee was appointed by the commissioner to research and recommend alternative ways to staff and provide county services for the commissioners. They were not formed to represent the tax paying citizens. Mary I’m sure you remember all of our commissioners stating publicly that they believed these individuals were representative of the citizens and that they want the citizens involved in the process.
The committee does plan to send out questionnaires to county employees and conduct interviews. Sheriff Zanni informed them that they could not require union employees to fill out the questionnaire or participate in interviews. Mr. Messerle then said that he could require management staff to participate. I believe this committee has the potential and the desire to drastically change the way our county operates, and the commissioners will have the luxury of passing off blame to the committee for any unpopular changes.
This Structure committee also spent a considerable amount of time discussing Home Rule. J.J. McLeod presented information he’d gathered comparing other similar sized counties to ours by Governance Structure, # of Commissioners, other elected officials, whether or not they had administrators, their budgets, and the # of departments. He stated that he believed they could even get State authorization to alter the general law that we are currently governed by to allow the commissioners additional authority over other elected officials such as the Sheriff. At one point in this discussion Mr. Messerle stated that the Structure and Governance committees would work together on this issue at some point.
While I feel this committee has the greatest ability to affect the counties current service levels, they, the commissioners, and the governance committee should review ORS 203.720 through ORS 203.760 with regard to any attempt they may make to invoke some sort of Home Rule Charter on the citizens of Coos County.
The next meeting of the Structure Committee is scheduled for August 24 at 7:00pm at the North Bend City Hall and I would encourage EVERYONE with the ability to attend to do so and remind our commissioners that they work for us.
Well Good Ol Boy Fred told us he was hitting the ground running, didn’t he?
Deal is done, this is just theater for the masses.
Let’s all work to pull Jon Bartons’ finger out from where it no longer belongs !!!!
I’d be up for some peaceful protests. It would be fun, its cathartic and these guys will have no doubt of their one term status
@Randy @Gene boycotts are good, although the general high employment in the area makes this an across the board sweep of all business. As for attending these meetings, people should definitely attend to protest how undemocratic they are and that these appointed people have no authority over the people.
Otherwise people should not participate in their own abuse, they should not act as if their comments on ‘structure’ matter to the committee or the commissioners one bit. Honestly, if people don’t start making calls and carrying picket signs and making some noise, Bob Main and his gang of Republican anti-government hacks are going to make a huge mess.
Business owners participating in this charade are the most vulnerable to a boycott.
The other guys are professional middle men, who get in the middle of everything, that’s their income. Jon Barton is an example, he’s got or has had his hand in just about every venture this county has delved in since he set up shop. He has lots of friends, that’s how he has survived this long, milking the system.
The other middle-men, not directly connected to a doors open business, are following the slime trail left before them.
Follow Jon’s trail outside this county to see the bigger picture, and the bigger players..
Mary and Gene,
If the members of the Governance committee are as self absorbed as some of the members of the Structure committee it will be difficult for the citizens to have their voices heard or their rights protected. Co-chair Jon Barton told the first citizen that spoke at the meeting held on the 11th that we were not allowed to ask questions in these public work sessions, we were only allowed to make comments. We were told that if we or any other citizen had a question it should be submitted in writing. The question that was initially rejected by Mr. Barton just happened to be “how does their proposed citizen drop box work”. So not only did Mr. Barton not want to take live public questions, he didn’t want to explain how people could submit questions. After some prodding it was explained that this was not a physical box to place a question in, it will be an electronic drop box that is only accessible on line and will require the download of some specific software. This citizen then informed them that he didn’t own a computer, but they did not offer him any alternatives.
In an effort to respect Mr. Barton’s demand, I made my address to the committee in the form of a comment! After which some of the more sensible members decided it would be alright for citizens to ask questions so long as it was understood that they may not have answers to every question at the time they are asked.
Mr. Barton also informed me that this committee was appointed by the commissioner to research and recommend alternative ways to staff and provide county services for the commissioners. They were not formed to represent the tax paying citizens. Mary I’m sure you remember all of our commissioners stating publicly that they believed these individuals were representative of the citizens and that they want the citizens involved in the process.
The committee does plan to send out questionnaires to county employees and conduct interviews. Sheriff Zanni informed them that they could not require union employees to fill out the questionnaire or participate in interviews. Mr. Messerle then said that he could require management staff to participate. I believe this committee has the potential and the desire to drastically change the way our county operates, and the commissioners will have the luxury of passing off blame to the committee for any unpopular changes.
This Structure committee also spent a considerable amount of time discussing Home Rule. J.J. McLeod presented information he’d gathered comparing other similar sized counties to ours by Governance Structure, # of Commissioners, other elected officials, whether or not they had administrators, their budgets, and the # of departments. He stated that he believed they could even get State authorization to alter the general law that we are currently governed by to allow the commissioners additional authority over other elected officials such as the Sheriff. At one point in this discussion Mr. Messerle stated that the Structure and Governance committees would work together on this issue at some point.
While I feel this committee has the greatest ability to affect the counties current service levels, they, the commissioners, and the governance committee should review ORS 203.720 through ORS 203.760 with regard to any attempt they may make to invoke some sort of Home Rule Charter on the citizens of Coos County.
The next meeting of the Structure Committee is scheduled for August 24 at 7:00pm at the North Bend City Hall and I would encourage EVERYONE with the ability to attend to do so and remind our commissioners that they work for us.
Well put Gene. Further, why does a ‘businessman’ think he/she has the experience to come in and show public employees how to do government work? Bill Gates could join one of these committees and I would not believe him to be qualified for the task ‘gifted’ to him by these errant commissioners.
The real thing to watch is the legality of these moves. For example, this committee plans to ask all employees to fill out a questionnaire, etc… their union should look into whether they can be forced to cooperate.
Currently, the county is operating with essentially no legal counsel and Main has shown again and again, from violating public meeting laws to trying to get BLM staff to participate in pushing a bill through Congress, that he is careless with public process.
Its starting to appear that waiting for the next election to replace these three, might be too late to stop the home rule plan. BOC advisory committees will be so entrenched by then that the next set of commissioners will be beholding to this group, by some sort of charter they pass before the next election.
I don’t think they would set this up so fast if they thought the voters could reverse all their efforts to get a strangle grip on this county, with these committees..
When business owners are involved and do things like this, the only recourse may be a boycott of their businesses. Some of them don’t depend on local money, so their corporate sponsors will be forced to take the hit for them. I haven’t tried to make a list of these businesses that are members of SCDC yet, because I was hoping they would pull back on their own, when the bad press started appearing.
All these business owners involved in this scam need to be hit in the pocket book to change their ways. Its real sad that the Bay Area Hospital felt the need to be a member of this gang of 88, its the one service that will be impossible for the community to do without.
You people who own businesses and support the SCDC and the chamber of commerce agenda are putting your financial future on the line, by going along with the architects of this national scam to steal the resources of Coos County. When the quiet majority gets it, your finished. So please dis-enroll in the plan, while you still can.