The September 1, 2011 Myrtle Point Herald has reported on an email written by Jon Barton that is circulating around the county that lays to rest any doubts that special interest groups organized through the Chamber of Commerce are trying to maneuver control over county governance. Not that these groups and individuals don’t already exercise enormous sway over local and state elected officials already, but now they want an even bigger slice of the pie.
An email that has been circulating among a group of people in Coos County concerns a potential governance change for the county.
Written by Jon Barton, a resident of Coos Bay, the email outlines a bit about their plans.“It’s been a while since we have communicated. As most of you know, at least two of our commissioners favorthe concept of a change in our government structure. Rather than move to appoint a charter committee as prescribed by law, they have opted to appoint a small commit- tee to study the subject and make recommendations to the Board of Commissioners.
“Cam Parry is the liaison commissioner for that group. Presumably due to scheduling difficulties, that committee has not yet met for the first time,” said Barton in his email dated Aug. 17.
“The committee has three options: a) leave things as they are; b) do a statutory change that would leave all elected officials as they now are but change the Board of Commissioners from three to five (or seven), or c) go for a charter change which would require forming a charter with appointees by both the BOC and our local state legislators.
“Both ‘b’ and ‘c’ would require a vote of the people. Both would require some significant planning with respect to how the change in governance structure would actually work,” said Barton.
“We are starting to run into a time crunch. We need to have our proposed change, if any, on the ballot for the May primary in order to allow time for commis- sioner candidates to be on the November ballot if it passes. There is a fair amount of buzz on the street about home rule and the forces agrunst change are gathering. We are going to have to do a major selling job to get either change passed.
“But we need to urge the Governance Committee and its liaison commission to press forward with some alacrity.“As earlier mentioned, Cam Parry is the liaison commissioner for this effort and as such its leader. The committee members are Lance Benton, Bill Grile, Dana Mills, Terri Turi and Phyllis Wilson ,” said Barton, a member of the county’ structure advisory committee.
Grile is a one time planning director for Coos County and former Coos Bay mayor, Turi is the Coos County Clerk, and Benton is a retired Coast Guard captain.
Among those who received the email were North Bend city councilor Bill Richardson, Coos Bay port commissioner Caddy
McKeown, county commissioner Fred Messerle, attorney Adam Gould, executive director of development for CEDCO Greg Aldridge , Bandon port director Gina Dearth, former Coos Bay mayor Jeff McKeown, Benetti’s restaurant owner Joe Benetti , Coos Bay attorney John Whitty and his wife, Teri, former state representative Ken Messerle, businesswoman Renee Frati and Ray Penny.
It is important to rally strong and organized opposition to end excessive influence from special interest groups like the Chamber and the failed economic development schemes they promote in order to funnel public wealth into private coffers.
Many thanks to the Myrtle Point Herald for publishing this email and giving the public a good perspective on who is pushing this lopsided agenda.
[Hat tip/David Jennings]
Yup, Gene, these guys seem to promote only those jobs in industries with lots of “economic leakage”
Option B and C, will give complete control of Coos county to this group of CARPET BAGGERS, an old Texas term for scoundrels, that will sell “Your mother”, for a buck.
All the resources of this area are up for grabs, Logging, minerals, and Energy.
The same people will be controlling all of it with B and C, and it wont be the tax paying public in control, just footing the bill for all the infrastructure they will require.
Here’s part of the pitch they must use. As Al said the reason for forming the committee he is on is to brace the people for the devastated economy, and these jobs they bring ( LNG, Coal, Strip mining, and Whole log exports)will save us.
They will say WE that oppose their agenda are against jobs, period. That’s the biggest lie of all. We’re just against those jobs, period.
Those people have control of the public purse strings and they have the politicians in their pockets, so its not going to be easy to dislodge their influence on OUR CHILDREN and GRAND CHILDREN’S, FUTURE.
I’m sure these people are loved by Their families and friends, but their civic duty compass has no morals, profit has overcome their conscience. How can any moral person condone stealing another persons property by Eminent domain for their own gain, period.
Yes, just naming the list of who WANTS this will make everyone else, even if positive changes were recommended, automatically oppose it. The main reason to oppose it, however, is because of the rapidity with which it is being rammed down everyone’s throat. They are like a bunch of opportunist blow flies laying their eggs into the corpse of what used to be Coos County
Al, it appears you haven’t made it to the inner circle yet, the other names there are definitely part of the local inner circle, a few names are missing, but that’s a good list to see some of the local players.
New Commissioners, oh yea,They will stack as many members on the ballot as they can, 2 or 3 for each spot, watch the names on that list when it appears and check their affiliations to this group.