Hopefully, by now most of the county is aware that interim commissioner, Fred Messerle, unilaterally and arbitrarily reduced fees at the planning department driving the department into the red. Messerle may not have disclosed this fact to the budget committee which based its final budget recommendations on the higher fees to enable the department to maintain an impressed balance of $88,000 to begin the new fiscal year. Failure to disclose the fee reduction of $15 per hour may even be illegal but it must certainly be regarded as either unethical, incompetent or both.

The taxpayer has now picked up the tab for a shortfall of $20,760 that should have been paid by applicants to the planning department which include Messerle’s own company. Messerle contends that every taxpayer benefits from having a planning department and should, therefore, help pick up the tab because planning is a state mandated public service. Apparently, Messerle is of the opinion that the $15 per hour research fee lays the entire burden of the $88,000 on the too few applicants and interim commissioner, Cam Parry, came up with a bizarre argument to support this. “if you only have two applicants in a year,” said Parry, “and you say you’ve got to balance that holdover fund between the two applicants they get billed $44,000 a piece”. Parry never explains how $15 per hour for research done on your boundary line adjustment translates to $44,000 but the department historically just reduces staffing levels to accommodate the workload.

Last year, Messerle’s company moved a fish bearing stream without obtaining the proper permits requiring Oregon Department of State Lands to levy penalties and order restoration, so it was ironic when Messerle argued that everyone benefits from being protected by inappropriate land use and should share the burden.

Messerle should have brought up this matter of “fairness” during the budget hearings rather than ramrodding it through and deciding to stiff the taxpayer without first telling them he was going to do it. Not sharing the fee reduction makes it look like he was hiding something and he also tried to deflect blame upon the planning director for doing as she was told. He has effectively swept the matter under the carpet by paying the shortfall out of the general fund 9900 account “contract services”.

That Messerle benefited from the fee reduction clearly falls under the purview of the Oregon Government Ethics Commission which handles conflicts of interest.

Forcing taxpayers to shoulder the costs of planning isn’t the only thing this commission is trying to ramrod through as quickly as possible. Beginning August 1, the county will hold two hearings required by law to enact a new ordinance or place it on the November ballot.

At its regular meeting on July 10, 2012, a majority of the Coos County Board of Commissioners voted to direct Commissioner Cam Parry to work in conjunction with Interim County Counsel Josh Soper to draft an ordinance that would, if enacted, make several changes to the current County governance structure. Those changes are based on the recommendations two citizen advisory committees developed over the course of the past year, and include: expanding the Board of Commissioners from three members to five, elected at large; providing each Commissioner with a stipend of $1,000 per month in lieu of current salary and benefits; and hiring a County Administrator to oversee the day-to-day operations of the County.

Parry and Soper have since been working to prepare a draft ordinance, which will be completed by July 25, 2012. At that time, the draft ordinance will be posted to the County website and copies will be made available to anyone who requests one from the Commissioners’ Office in the Coos County Courthouse, located at 250 N. Baxter, Coquille, OR 97423, or by phone at 541-396-3121 ext. 225.

The Board scheduled two hearings to consider the ordinance, as required by law, at its regular meeting on July 17, 2012. The first will be held on August 1, 2012 beginning at 1:30 p.m. in Salmon Room West at The Mill Casino, 3201 Tremont Ave., North Bend, Oregon, 97459. During that hearing, the Commissioners will discuss the draft ordinance and take comments from the public, and may also make amendments to the ordinance.

On August 15, 2012, the Commissioners will hold a final hearing on the ordinance beginning at 9:00 a.m. in the Conference Room at the Owen Building, 201 N. Adams, Coquille, OR 97423. During the final hearing, the Commissioners will again discuss the ordinance and take comments from the public, and may also make further amendments to the ordinance. At the conclusion of the final hearing, the Commissioners will vote on the issues of adopting the ordinance and referring it to a vote of the electors of Coos County in November.

The first meeting at the The Mill Casino follows the weekly chamber luncheon and the timing will prohibit most citizens from attending. The same is true of the second meeting in Coquille held at 9:00 AM. Most of the county’s citizens will not be able to attend.

Messerle has come out publicly saying he will not vote to put the ordinance on the ballot but will vote to simply adopt the governance change. Parry has claimed he is insistent that it must be put before the people. Main will only support putting it on the ballot if the commission also agrees to put a proposed county charter initiative on the ballot as well. So unless two commissioners either agree to vote in favor of a November vote or if Parry flips and agrees with Messerle to simply vote it in… nothing will happen.