How Low Can Bob Main Go

The American War of Independence was fought from April 1775 to September 1783. For 8 years, 4 months and 15 days our forefathers revolted against British sovereign rule. The Declaration of Independence was codified on July 4, 1776, a day the United States celebrates every year.

It’s estimate that between 25,000 and 70,000 revolutionaries died securing our independence. Nonetheless, anti-democracy Coos County Commissioner Bob Main wants to return to authoritarian rule and name convicted felon, ajudged rapist, riot inciting tax cheat, Donald Trump as the permanent president of the United States. (See video to the right).

Believe it or not doing away with our democracy is not the lowest Main is capable of stooping. First, it must be noted that Main has a long standing and well earned reputation for being both thin skinned and exceedingly vindictive. He is also running for reelection in November after performing badly in the primary.

Oh yeah, like Trump, Main is a climate denier.

Nothing I’ve written so far will displease Main because he appears to be running almost entirely on his loyalty to Trump rather than what he has done or could do for the county. Trump, afterall, won Coos County and despite this position being nonpartisan the strategy worked for Rod Taylor and Main has been grandstanding and pandering to the local MAGA crowd ever since.

During cittizen comments at last Tuesday’s BOC meeting, Main decided to settle a score for a perceived slight while at the same time showing off for MAGA voters.

Several people attended the meeting to respond to Commissioner Rod Taylor’s introduction at the previous meeting of debunked conspiracy theorist, Douglas Frank. Garrett King, a local teacher and active in the democratic party finished speaking when Main called him back to the podium.

Before I detail the exchange, last fall I wrote a piece “Bob Main Misrepresents County in Comment to BOEM”. In short, someone claiming to be Bob Main submitted a comment regarding a proposed windfarm implying the commission had passed a resolution opposing the project. Only problem, the commission had not yet voted.

King and others lodged a complaint with the county alleging filing the resolution as if it had passed indicated some confidence or precognition about the outcome that could indicate some prior illegal discussion between the commissioners. When there is reasonable suspicion of public meetings law violations the recourse is to file a greivance with the agency and a possible followup to the Oregon Governmentt Ethics Commission.

County Council Colton Totland responded November 15, 2023 to King with almost identical letters to other complainants. In the letter he makes a couple of curious assertions. Curious because they are provably false.

…Commissioner Main also denies submitting the draft comment to BOEM. The help desk at regulations.gov confirmed that this public comment was submitted on Sept. 26, that it was submitted through a web form, and that the email address provided with the submission was listed as bmain@co.coos.or.us.

Main’s email posted on the county website

Whoever submitted this commentt was not aware that the county email for Commissioner Main – who does go by Bob – is actually rmain@co.coos.or.us, the “r” standing for Robert. Given the manner and timing of this submission, and the fact that Commssioner Main himself denies submitting it, the County takes the position that someone else submitted this draft resolution as a comment.

In my own records I can confirm receipt of emails from Main under both addresses dating back as far as 2014. Why Totland makes this claim is unclear particularly when “bmain” is listed on the county’s website. In King’s complaint he suggested a simple remedy would be for Main to remove the comment. Totland indicates they are requsting the comment be removed, and I can confirm it has been removeed, but claiming they are doing so only because it was not filed by Main.

King was satisified and there is no record he pursued the matter with OGEC although other compalinants may have. All this makes the following exchange more surprizing.

Main: Mr King, would you come back up please. You mentioned commissioners three or four times in your talk. I was not here last time, I was in Canada. You said commissioners.

King: Thank you Mr Main, I’m right there with you. I’m glad you had a great time, you have a nice tan going and I like that too. I know you weren’t here you couldn’t have stopped that. I’m asking you to stop that in the future.

Main: I understand that part. The second comment, David Jennings said we shouldn’t be accusing people of illegality without basis of fact. You have, however, sent a letter off to the ethics commission of the state of Oregon saying I have an ethics violation and it was summarily dismissed out of hand and you and two other people by the State of Oregon. You should take some of your own advice.

King: Mr Main, as you know we met a year ago and I am rather new to politics, I’m rather new to sitting at commissioners meetings, I’m rather new to all of this.

Main: But you should have facts before you accuse somebody of ethics violations

King: And I’m standing up here and taking responsibilty for that and understanding where all of that wrongdoing might have occured. I vow to do btter and make sure I have more facts moving forward.

Main: Just keep it in mind in the future.

King: I am not an elected official.

Main: You’re a school teacher at Marshfield High School though, you have access to kids.

King: You’re bringing my profession into this?

Main: You brought me into it as an ethics violation and it was unfounded.

First, nothing in King’s grievance was untrue. There was positively the appearance of impropriety. The grievance was also polite and looked for solutions rather than accusations. King had nothing to apologize for.

Second, it’s interesting how Main lumps David Jennings in with the King… they are both democrats so somehow King is responsible for what Jennings said. At the same time, Main objected to being lumped in with the commission. I’d lay bets that he would have approved Douglas Frank had he been there.

Third, the thing about OGEC is that it is seriously underfunded. Further, any canny politician can sneak around public records laws. They can communicate via carrier pigeon or more likely spouse messenger services that don’t leave a trail. Several times it has appeared to many people that Main and Rod Taylor may be coordinating outside the public eye.

Fourth, there is no question Main knew what he was doing with that dog whistle, “access to kids!” Some of his buddies in the audience reacted as Main expected with nasty comments about keeping hands off children, etc…. It was probably the dirtiest thing I have ever witnessed him do and in my opinion it was a threat to the school as well.

Douglas Frank taught high school math and therefore had access to children. Our county clerk was also a school teacher. In my opinion, the reason for Main’s overreaction is because he is guilty of public meetings violations, that and he never misses and opportunity to draw attention to himself.

Personally, I believe Main is worried about the outcome this November. He’s made some desperate moves, like slashing the commissioner salaries by 60% and refusing to lay anyone off until after the election.He could have retired a winner but now he may leave the job a loser.

The meeting is available here with King’s comments beginning at approsimately 3:03:00