Raffenburg recall effort could cost JoCo $60,000
From our weekly issue dated April 9, 2008
A recall effort is under way to remove Josephine County Commissioner Jim Raffenburg from office.
Cheryl Walker, a former state representative, and Grants Pass resident Ann Bauer filed the petition with the county clerk’s office on Monday, March 31. They have 90 days to collect 4,906 valid signatures on a petition for the recall vote.
The committee formed to undertake the recall said, “Since his election to the Josephine County Board of Commissioners in 2004, Jim Raffenburg has demonstrated a pattern of making false and misleading statements about his past education, employment, public service, and other aspects of his personal background.
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“He has continued this pattern of behavior throughout his term and still appears today in his biography on the county Website.
“Since being elected county commissioner he has refused to co-operate with anyone who tries to validate his claims.
“In September 2007 he reversed his campaign promise to reduce his salary by 10 percent to help with the declining financial status of Josephine County. At that time he requested full pay be restored and is now demanding the taxpayers of Josephine County pay him $17,000 in what he calls ‘back pay’ which is the amount that represents the 10 percent reduction in salary.”
The costs to the county for the election, should it come to that, could be as much as $60,000.
The date of a possible recall election depends on when petitions are submitted to the clerk’s office, said Art Harvey, chief deputy county clerk. Once petitions are submitted, the clerk’s office has up to 10 days to certify the signatures.
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Following certification, Raffenburg would have five days to resign or submit a statement as to why he should not be recalled, and fight the recall effort. Then an election could be held within 35 days of that time, said Harvey.
That means, he said, it’s possible that an election could be held early in July or early in August. “It all depends on when the signed petitions are submitted,” he said.
Raffenburg’s four-year term will end in January.
News of the recall was on the minds of a few citizens who spoke during the commissioners’ weekly business session Wednesday, April 2 at Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.
Raffenburg used “political assassination” to characterize the recall.
“This is an effort to silence a voice of dissent on the board of county commissioners,” he said. “The person who filed those recall papers has never called me, or asked if the things cited in the article (in the Grants Pass Daily Courier) are true.
“This isn’t about truth, it’s about getting rid of a commissioner who is getting in the way of this ‘cabal’ of elitists who think they know better than you how to run your lives.”
Said Walker in an email, “The best possible outcome of the recall effort would be for Mr. Raffenburg to resign and keep the county from incurring the cost of an election; and save the taxpayers from paying his salary and benefits for work he is not performing ... his resignation or recall will preserve the integrity of the office to which he was elected.”
