Several people were shocked, to put it mildly, at the selection of Oubonh White as Coos County counsel prompting several inquiries to the board of commissioners asking who was on the interview panel. According to Mike Lehman during Tuesday’s BOC meeting, three candidates were interviewed and the panel recommended White for the position. White if you recall has been involved in at least one and probably two illegal executive sessions. The first one involving the appointment of Steve Jansen to replace Adam Colby in which she not only sat in but offered her opinions of the candidates and one on May 17 held prior to the infamous ‘do over’ deliberation for the pick of Fred Messerle to replace the late Nikki Whitty.
Main, Parry and White as well as Mike Lehman are the subject of an ongoing OGEC investigation into alleged public meeting law violations.
White is widely perceived to be too inexperienced for the position and has exhibited legal errors in the past.
An email I sent yesterday to the commissioners and Bobbi Brooks, assistant to the commissioners, requesting information about who was on the panel has gone unanswered. According to a reader who placed a call to Brooks, she informed the caller that she had been inundated with requests for this information and had been told to “sit on it”.
Earlier I sent a second email to all three commissioners, “Apparently, the commission has taken a stance not to inform the public who was on the ‘interview panel’ that selected Oubonh White for the position of county counsel or even to explain the reason behind such a position. Obviously, this will be a potential battle with OGEC but will the commission at least advise as to how many members were on this interview panel? Three, five, one…?”. Moments ago I received a cc from Commissioner Parry advising Brooks that he is still on the road and “would you be kind enough to get Ms. Geddry the information she needs”.
The order to “sit on it” must therefore originate from either Commissioners Main or Messerle.
UPDATE: From Mike Lehman
Here are the particulars –
1. The panel was composed of the three commissioners (Bob Main, Cam Parry and Fred Messerle); Paul Frasier, DA; Steve Jansen, Assessor; Teri Turi, County Clerk and Craig Zanni, Sheriff. We had asked another elected official and a former county counsel to sit on the panel however, they were unavailable on the interview date.
2. When applications closed on August 1, 2011 there were a total of 4 applicants for the position, 3 were interviewed on 8/25/11 in executive session under ORS 192.660 (2) (a).
3. At the conclusion of the interview process in Open Session the Board authorized me, as HR Director to tender an offer of employment to Oubonh White and negotiate the terms. If I was able to get an acceptable agreement, the Board would consider it at their meeting on August 30, 2011.
4. At the Board of Commissioners meeting on August 30, 2011 I reported the results of my discussion and the Board (Bob Main and Fred Messerle) passed a resolution to hire Oubonh White.
5. The announcement for the position was posted: (1) Coos County Website and bulletin board; (2) the World Newspaper; (3)Oregonian Newspaper;(4) Register Guard Newspaper; (5)Oregon Law Schools: (6) Employment Division; (7) Craigs List and (8) was sent out to several list serves like Association of Oregon Counties.
