Josephine County Commissioners oppose the charter-update effort.
Like West Virginia, Josephine county is poor and angry about it. Josephine county voters blame government regulations and outsiders -- especially Democrats -- for ruining their economy. Josephine County has long been politically conservative and resentful of government. It was Trump-country long before Trump. Appalachia had its back-country alcohol stills. Josephine County had its back-country marijuana grows. Voters rejected levies to have rural policing. Lawlessness was a feature, not a bug. In 2020 the county voted for Trump 62% to 36%.
Lynda Demsher was the founding member of the charter-change group. She lives in Grants Pass. Before becoming a high school teacher she worked in Northern California as a journalist.
First, a quick geography lesson for out-of-area readers. Josephine County, in yellow, has 88,000 people. About 40,000 of them live in the county seat, Grants Pass. Jackson County, in orange, has about 230,000 people.
Josephine County's traditional forest-product economy has been devastated by environmental concerns over spotted owls, wilderness set-asides, and timber harvest lawsuits. Most of Josephine County is forestland owned and managed by the federal government. It is colored in orange below.
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Josephine County has a strong-commissioner form of government. The local newspaper, the Grants Pass Daily Courier, describes the courthouse as insular and un-cooperative. A citizen group is attempting to change the "Good ol' boy" atmosphere by establishing a county manager and increasing the number of commissioners. This is happening simultaneously with a charter-update movement in Jackson County. Both charter-update movements are attempting to align the structure of government to improve transparency and accountability. Jackson County's strong-administrator form of government was added onto a three-commissioner structure where un-transparent power concentrates within the Administrator's office. In Josephine county it concentrates within the commissioners.
Lynda Demsher was the founding member of the charter-change group. She lives in Grants Pass. Before becoming a high school teacher she worked in Northern California as a journalist.
Guest Post by Lynda Demsher
Republicans have dominated Josephine County for at least a hundred years. Elections are more tradition than contests in this irregular slice of Oregon between Jackson and Curry counties. Non-Republicans can’t help but appreciate the eccentric creativity of their neighbors and long-time residents don’t freak out anymore while overhearing talk of black helicopters and Bill Gates’ plans to inoculate everyone with computer chips. Consequently, change is viewed with suspicion in Josephine County, especially if that change doesn’t come from approved channels and can be taken as a threat to the established power structure.
Demsher
Almost three years ago now, a few prominent citizens starting bugging the Board of Commissioners about updating the county’s charter, approved 42 years ago and last amended 27 years ago. Josephine County Commissioners appointed a nine-member, volunteer Josephine County Charter Commission, consisting of seven Republicans, one non-affiliated person and one Democrat. This was the commissioners’ interpretation of a non-partisan, blue ribbon commission.
Much to the Commissioners’ surprise, this group took their job seriously. After two years of intense meetings and legal research, this enlightened assemblage came up with a streamlined version of the county’s charter, free of amendments already covered by state or federal law or that conflicted with such laws. Those included prohibiting people from trying to overturn the US Constitution, making it a misdemeanor to enforce gun laws and requiring anyone who wants to start a nude bar to post a $10 million dollar bond and locate it two miles from civilization.
County Commissioners Herman Baertschiger, John West and Dan DeYoung were not impressed with the changes the exhausted Charter Commission presented. It turns out the commissioners knew of another charter proposal on the back burner. The chief petitioner for this one is a law-enforcement retiree from Arizona who ran for sheriff twice and lost twice. Jonathan Knapp, who hasn’t yet gathered enough signatures to get his proposal on the ballot, took the current charter, crazy amendments and all, and added a section making all local elections partisan. He seems to believe if he can keep those pesky Democrats out of a sheriff’s primary, he just might win the next time he runs.
Knapp, a citizens committee of one, started gathering signatures about the same time the non-partisan group, Citizens for Responsible Government, started its petition drive. CRG took the blue-ribbon commission’s final product and added provisions for expanding the board of commissioners from three full-time to five part-time members, having four run from districts for better representation and hiring a county manager with the savings from commissioners’ salaries for better management in the courthouse. After more than 3,400 petition signers thought this was a good idea it became Measure 17-116 on the May 2024 ballot. (see www.jococrg.org for details).
It was the establishment’s turn to freak out. Baertschiger went on a local right-wing radio talk show and said it was a plot by the Democrats to take over the county. The Democratic Party was surprised to hear this since they don’t actually get money from George Soros for this kind of thing. And, to give credit where credit is due, far-right conspiracy theories have been very creative, including the ones about Measure 17-116 taking people’s guns away and giving commissioners power to sneak around and paste mystery taxes on everyone. In this atmosphere full of distractions, CRG members are just forging ahead, focused on explaining what a charter is, what’s actually in their charter proposal and why they believe it will improve governance in Josephine County. CRG is offering change, and possibly a bit of collective political maturity as well.
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4 comments:
If the Josephine County Commissioners find their blue-ribbon commission’s charter recommendations too radical, it’s probably because out of the nine members, two of them weren’t republican. So now the establishment is opposing the charter update and spreading lies about it, while CRG responds by “explaining what a charter is, what’s actually in their charter proposal and why they believe it will improve governance in Josephine County.” It will be interesting to see whether reasoning with them has any effect on the black helicopter/tinfoil hat crowd.
“All politics is local.” — Tip O’Neill. The core values for local representation should be transparency, accountability, accessibility and consensus building, not “let’s stack the deck so my side wins and the hell with the rest of you.”
It’s unfortunate that the Josephine County goes to the ballot before Jackson County. It sounds like they will have a tough slough. On the other hand, the good citizens of JoCo did pass a law enforcement district last November by a slim 1% margin after 10 years of virtually no police protection in the County. So maybe rationality will prevail?
And just this week, the JoCo 3 dolts on a Dais voted to allow a single party opt out if the Library District, opening up a very big can of worms. Will they allow someone to opt out of a Fire Protection District, or a Law Enforcement District ?
Don't be surprised, if the JoCo ballot measure passes in May, to see these 3 jokers try to overturn whatever the people want .
I'm actively gathering signatures to get the Jackson County measures on the ballot, but being as close to Grants Pass as to Medford have met several Josephine County residents, all of whom have indicated their support for the measure coming up over there in May. I think any resistance will come from those areas further West and South, like Ketby, Cave Junction, etc.
That said, even in deep red Gold Hill, the reception to our proposals has been extremely positive, and I'm hoping my health stays good enough for me to see Jackson County moved into the 21st Century.
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