Contents of the complaint –
The Coos County Commission formed a “structure advisory committee” that meets the definition of a governing body=

The advisory committees meet the definition of a governing body and are governed by Oregon statutes 192.660 – 192.690

(3) “Governing body” means the members of any public body which consists of two or more members, with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on policy or administration.

The statutes clearly state, “The Oregon form of government requires an informed public aware of the deliberations and decisions of governing bodies and the information upon which such decisions were made.” They also address all electronic communication which includes phone calls and emails.

192.670 Meetings by means of telephonic or electronic communication. (1) Any meeting, including an executive session, of a governing body of a public body which is held through the use of telephone or other electronic communication shall be conducted in accordance with ORS 192.610 to 192.690.

(2) When telephone or other electronic means of communication is used and the meeting is not an executive session, the governing body of the public body shall make available to the public at least one place where the public can listen to the communication at the time it occurs by means of speakers or other devices. The place provided may be a place where no member of the governing body of the public body is present. [1973 c.172 §7; 1979 c.361 §1]

Earlier this year the Coos County Commission formed several advisory committees including a seven member “structure and organization advisory committee” presumably to streamline and improve county government functions. The committee has made radical recommendations including the hiring of a county manager, additional commissioners and the sale of public property. Since its inception the committee appears to have committed multiple public meetings law violations, some detailed below and most recently this is evidenced in a draft report prepared by the committee and outside of public view. The attached report states – “A detailed discussion of each department would make this report far too lengthy to be meaningful to its readers. To the extent the Commissioners want to discuss individual departments in greater depth, members of the committee stand ready to do so. Instead, the Committee will provide herein a summary view of findings for those departments it deems critical to the County’s operations. “ While it is not clear whether the “reader” is the public or the commissioners to whom they are advising the public is not provided access to the information from which the committee claims to derive its conclusions. During a recent public meeting committee co-chair, Al Pettit, admits that a lot of information has been passed back and forth via email, effectively forming an electronic quorum outside of public view. Video may be viewed at http://coosmediacenter.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=3f8df59f4de1a1d176cccf086ecdfe51 a portion of which is quoted below.
Al Pettit –
“The by-laws made the rounds, but so did a lot of emails. So, you got a chance to download those or have a look at those but, uh, we have a copy here and why don’t we just take a moment and look these over…” [Begins at 1:18]
Another exchange occurs between co-chair Jon Barton and an unidentified member-
[Begins 2:09:00]
MEMBER – Do we send it just to you two or to everybody?
BARTON – Well, we can’t circulate to everybody…
MEMBER – That’s what I thought
BARTON – Yeah
MEMBER – I’ve got no problem with that…
BARTON – I do…[meaning he DOES HAVE a problem letting the public see it]… laughs
The committee has also withheld results from employee questionnaires releasing only subjective summaries to the public.
We, the undersigned request that the Government Ethics Commission obtain copies of all emails between committee members related to the structure committee. Further we request detailed citations for claims made in the report. For example –“State-wide, solid waste disposal has dipped to 1993-94 levels and Coos County has experienced a similar dip in disposal. “
The solid waste facility is a multimillion-dollar incineration plant paid for by a bond measure voted in by the people.. It has become apparent that Commissioner Cam Parry, Fred Messerle and Bob Main have deliberated outside of public view about the fate of the Solid Waste Department. Committee member co-chair Al Pettit told a witness that the commissioners were “leaning toward turning it into a transfer station” and Pettit further indicated that Parry and Messerle were “working hard” on the project, however, this work is also not occurring with full knowledge and understanding of the public.
We ask that OGEC obtain all email communications including from the commissioners personal email accounts between the commissioners and members of the structure committee and between Messerle and Parry and Main relating to the solid waste department.
On November 29, 2011 the structure advisory committee met again and concluded with a request from Al Pettit that members submit their recommendations to Jon Barton via email so they could present a finished product at the next scheduled meeting on the seventh of December. Video can be found here – http://coosmediacenter.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=93541d9dc06ff84b9bb384affc96a103
Beginning [1:19:20]
PETTIT – We have to have this into a presentation by the 7th. If anyone has any additional thoughts after reviewing this please submit those to Jon before, say, at the latest, Sunday
BARTON – Yeah
PETTIT – At the latest
BARTON – And I appreciate the help I got from everybody, it was good
SLATER – I guess the only other thing I would add to that is read it a number of times because I know a couple of items I didn’t see it initially read through it again then saw a couple of sentences and went, “oh, okay that’s how we put that issue in there”

PETTIT – So our job on the 7th is to get some of these issues across to them in a concise, consolidated presentation and to some degree throw it over the fence to them. As the governance committee they need to look at the challenges and their job is to come back and make some recommendations about how this thing will be structured.
On December 1, 2011 the committee posted a DRAFT conclusions document that could only have been formulated after the November 29 and on December 1, 2011 a newspaper article in The World entitled “County analysis complete” available online here – http://theworldlink.com/news/local/article_d1c90ebf-e007-51ae-9fa7-53460d53861b.html
None of the supporting material used by the committee to reach its conclusions or to support the analysis reported in the local paper have been made available to the public, nor have the deliberations that formed this summary been conducted in public view.

We the undersigned, will provide a copy of this form with the information above, and with our signatures and contact information, by pdf and mail to your office by Friday, 12/9/2011.

Mary Geddry Coquille, OR
Robert Fischer Bandon, Oregon
Harry Stamper Charleston, Oregon, 97420
Holly Stamper Charleston, Oregon, 97420
Randy Sanne North Bend, OR
Ken Johnson Myrtle Point, OR
Kate Jones North Bend, OR
The following individuals are involved directly or indirectly in these violations
Cam Parry, commissioner
Fred Meserle, commissioner, liaison member structure advisory committee
Bob Main, commissioner
Al Pettit, co chair structure advisory committee
Jon Barton, co chair structure advisory committee
Daniela Kellum, Coos County staff, member structure advisory committee
Timm Slater, member structure advisory committee
Craig Zanni, Coos County Sheriff, member structure advisory committee
JJ McLeod, member structure advisory committee
Bryan Laird, member structure advisory committee
Oubonh White, Coos County Counsel