#josephinecounty

I received my ballot pamphlet the other day and attended the 4/28 meeting in Sunny Valley supporting Measure 17-116. I was relatively positive about this measure and actually signed the petition to get this measure on the ballot. When I sat down and read the measure in the Voters Pamphlet, I was shocked. I became horrified when I saw the supporting site and the details.

It does not provide true RURAL representation as advertised.

It doesn't save any money for the county

It puts our Second Amendment rights in jeopardy

It limits parental rights

On the surface, it sounds great to go to part-time commissioners and lower the expenses. But that ends up being misrepresented. First problem is the supporters have divided up the county into four districts that consist of 22k people. Each district has ½ it’s population from Grants Pass eliminating the “rural” component. I would be more likely to support taking the rural 44k residents and dividing them into two districts and then the 44k “urban” Grants Pass residents into 2 districts to provide fair representation. I do understand that the “At-Large” representative would most likely be from Grants Pass and supporting their issues, we at least would have true representation on the commission. What made me solidify my objection was when I made this suggestion, the representative say they could not do that because it would be gerrymandering!

I'm sorry. I have lived in Georgia, and their gerrymandered districts looked more like the current map than a rural/urban map. Also, I understand people are all different, but having rural districts would at least keep the base concerns common.

The idea of part-time commissioners making less than the current board made sense, but the County Manager ruins that equation since there will be no money savings. If you go to HERE, you will see that our current expenditures are $403,804, and the new commissioners would cost $120,000. That is a savings until you get into the details, and they openly say, "savings of $283,804 can be used for a County Manager's Salary/Benefits." Based on the comparable salaries provided, that would most likely be consumed.

Why not make the at-large commissioner full-time and the district commissioners part-time? You’ll have $24k x 4 and then ~$ $100k x 1, which is still less than the $403k they are spending today and would not include another level of bureaucracy.

I was also looking at a chart from <CLICK> HERE, which lists the current Oregon county managers and their salaries with the population. The top one is Benton County, with a population of 86,000 (a few thousand less than Josephine), which is $409,711. The next one with a "less" population is Polk at $167,028 with 76,000 people. Jackson County's is $276,000 for 200k people. The county may spend a lot of money to "attract" someone capable and would not guarantee any figure. Also, the history of county managers I have seen in places I have lived is that they mess up one county and just get hired at another.

The third concern is that the rights of our community are diminished. Consider Section 29.1. Right to Bear Arms, which shall be removed from the charter. The supporters say, "Because the US Constitution doesn't need help from Josephine County to guarantee Constitutional rights, and the county cannot arbitrarily add to the Second Amendment." While this sounds logical, Salem has made many laws that violate the Second Amendment. Removing these stipulations forces the hand of the Sheriff to enforce state law. The Second Amendment does not need help from the county, but we do need help from the county to protect our rights from the State of Oregon.

Please note, concerning a question on parent rights, the site said, "A charter cannot supersede state law." I believe the country charter AND the state law are on equal footing. In 1973, Oregon enacted a statute delegating to all counties the power to enact local legislation on matters of county concern. The Secretary of State site states: "The National Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations identified county government in Oregon as ​having the highest degree of local discretionary authority of any state in the nation." (ref: https://sos.oregon.gov/blue-book/Pages/local/counties/about.aspx)

I am taking a break and intend to explore other aspects of this. Again, initially, it sounds great, but the DEVIL is in the details. Unfortunately, the supporters use glittering generalities to support their point without showing how these changes improve things. Supporters pounced on me at the SV meeting because I had taken the time to look behind the curtain. PLEASE DON’T TAKE MY WORD AND DO THE SAME.