Overtime speaker draws Chairman Toler’s ire
Deputies, police respond to call for assistance during meeting of county commissioners
From our weekly issue dated May 7, 2008
While administrative assistant Linda McElmurry phoned for law enforcement at the direction of Chairman Dave Toler, Commissioner Jim Raffenburg questioned the decision to remove an attendee; he was supported by Commissioner Dwight Ellis. Lawmen (above) stand by in the auditorium lobby. No action was taken. (Photo by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley News)
Law enforcement officers were summoned at the direction of Chairman Dave Toler during the Josephine County Board of Commissioners weekly business session Wednesday morning, April 30.
At least four Josephine County Sheriff’s Office deputies and two Grants Pass Dept. of Public Safety officers responded within two minutes of the call and stood by through the end of the meeting in the lobby of Anne G. Basker Auditorium .
Toler decided to summon lawmen after Grants Pass resident Ward Ockenden argued with the chairman rather than be seated as directed. Ockenden took his three-minutes turn at the podium to criticize Toler for writing a letter of recommendation for Merlin resident Holger Sommer for a position with the Oregon Dept. of Land Conservation & Development, among other topics.
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Ockenden went over his three-minute limit, but insisted he had more to say.
Toler then asked, “Will I have to call on law enforcement to remove you?”
Commissioner Dwight Ellis recommended that Ockenden sit and that others be allowed to speak before he was given more time. An audience member then asked Toler if he could yield his time to Ockenden to finish and “save us all time.”
Toler said, “OK,” and Ockenden continued.
Ockenden began by noting that Cherryl Walker recently reported that he’d pushed her at the Grants Pass Growers Market while she was collecting signatures for a recall effort. She is chief petitioner in the move to recall Commissioner Jim Raffenburg.
Ockenden characterized the allegations and subsequent article in the Grants Pass Daily Courier as “lies.” And he noted that Walker had made several visits to Toler’s office in recent days.
“I wonder if you’re talking about doing things like this?” Ockenden asked.
Two minutes into Ockenden’s second three-minute allotment, Toler interrupted Ockenden to berate him for not paying due attention to him as the presiding officer.
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“When you don’t pay any attention to me you are violating orders and laws, do you realize that?” said Toler.
“What am I violating Mr. Toler?” Ockeden repeatedly asked. Raffenburg then asked if Ockenden’s second three-minute period had elapsed. Toler replied, “I really don’t know.”
While commission assistant Linda McElmurry phoned for law enforcement, Ockenden asked Ellis if in fact he’d been granted three more minutes, and Ellis agreed. Ellis then asked Ockenden to sit, and he agreed to do so.
Raffenburg then stated he would consider making a motion to overrule the chairman, and asked Toler to withdraw his decision to have Ockenden removed in light of his having sat. Rather than answer, Toler asked for other citizen requests.
Officers arrived in any event, and Raffenburg made a motion to overrule the chairman, and Elis seconded the motion. The motion passed 2-1, with Toler quietly casting the “No” vote.
The officers lingered in the lobby as citizens attending the meeting continued their comments to commissioners.
Rycke Brown, of Grants Pass, and Holger Sommer, of Merlin, lambasted Ockenden for apparent ignorance of meeting laws.
However, Barbara Gonzalez, also of Grants Pass, indicated that Toler had set the precedent for argumentative behavior by permitting disruptive conversations to continue in the past.
“This man did not disrupt, other than he said things you didn’t like,” Gonzalez said. “He did not threaten you; he did not do anything that violated other than go beyond his three minutes, and he said a lot of things you didn’t like.”
She continued, “I just hope that we do not have to be so constricted in our conversations with you … pretty soon you’re going to implement cards (with their questions in writing) so that no body can express anger, they can’t express distrust. They can’t even talk about emotional life-threatening decisions …”
Gonzalez gestured toward the lobby, “because pretty soon there is going to be police standing behind all of us waiting for us to step out of line.”
Toler later apologized to Ockenden, with the comment, “If it seemed like I stepped out of line ...”
He continued, “If it seems like some special treatment it’s probably based on other behavior that clearly has been over the line in the past, and I didn’t call for law enforcement to remove you when I’ve asked you clearly to (remove yourself).”
