Meet about funding held But media exclusion stirs DOJ complaint
From our weekly issue dated August 6, 2008
(Photo by NewsWithViews.com)
Seeking solutions to funding crises in Oregon counties brought on by the departure of federal O&C funds, more than a dozen public officials from the state, several counties and two federal agencies met at Paradise Ranch near Merlin July 28.
But the meeting, from which news media and the public were excluded, has sparked a complaint to the Oregon Dept. of Justice on the grounds that it violated public meeting law.
Commissioner Dave Toler, chairman of the Josephine County Board of Commissioners, reported on the meeting during the commission’s administration meeting Tuesday morning, July 29, in Grants Pass.
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He stated that attendees included District 2 state Sen. Jason Atkinson (R-Central Point); District 3 state Rep. Ron Maurer (R-Grants Pass), District 4 state Rep. Dennis Richardson (R-Central Point); Jeff Griffin from Gov. Kulongoski’s office; representatives from Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service; Douglas County Commissioner John Lorenz; Jackson County commissioners C.W. Smith and Dave Gilmore; Multnomah County board Chairman Ted Wheeler; and Mike McArthur, executive director of the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC).
Toler, Treasurer John Harrelson, and Connie Roach from the assessor’s office, represented Josephine County.
Among topics discussed were increasing the O&C county shares of federal timber receipts from 50 percent to 75 percent, as was increasing timber receipts overall, Toler said, “in spite of all the rumors circulating around the meeting. There were those who advocated for the (Western Oregon Plan Revision) Alternative Two, others talked about something more moderate.”
Other possible solutions discussed, Toler said, were Richardson’s “Tax for a Tax” proposal, which would replace property tax with sales tax; and state and possible federal tax credits for biofuels in the forests.
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Wheeler even talked about the need to remove the Measure 50 property tax cap, Toler reported, noting that there was “a lot of sympathy around the table” for that idea.
“I think it was a good meeting,” said Toler. “It opened some doors and began some much-needed bridge building.
“Hopefully, this will start a dialogue with the AOC being sort of a natural transmission line. And hopefully this will move toward some real legislation.”
But Maurer indicated that he didn’t hear solutions that worked for Southern Oregon.
“Our solutions are not their solutions,” Maurer said. “We want to have access to timber. Don’t come up to us and say, ‘Oh the market’s bad.’ No. Let us have access to timber and let the market work that out.
“They don’t value our livelihood,” he said.
The meeting was inspired by an exchange between Toler and Wheeler, who met during a June AOC conference in Bend. Toler recalled how he was moved when Wheeler and a Washington County commissioner shared the perspective of their 1.6 million constituents, who value O&C lands quite differently than do counties which seek to recover timber revenue.
“‘Our constituents view those lands differently,’” Toler recalled Wheeler saying. “‘They see the value in the Nature that’s there. They want to spend time there. They have money. They are willing to pay for it.’”
“The problem is,” Toler said, “we don’t have any mechanisms to see that value in terms of money for our county.” He argued that visitors use services, such as roads and law enforcement when they visit rural counties dominated by public lands.
“Your value-set,” he told Wheeler, “in no way pays for the services that allow you to enjoy those values. Would you be committed to working with us to develop some of those mechanisms?” Toler recalled asking. “They were like, ‘Yeah!’ I think it broke the ice a little bit.”
Though the meeting may have marked a first as far as getting players from disparate counties to discuss funding strategies, exclusion of the media and other interested persons from the deliberation did little to assuage suspicions about the direction the discussion would take.
Despite the fact that the meeting was posted on Jackson County’s board of commissioner’s agenda, no official notification was put on Josephine County’s calendars. Smith expressed his surprise in an email to Toler and others on July 30, stating that he was unaware that the press had been excluded, and that having done so “runs counter to our practice as well as creating suspicion of government practice.”
Smith indicated that he had asked legal counsel to investigate any inadvertent violation of public meeting law.
Josephine County Commissioner Jim Raffenburg, who stated that he was informed about the meeting by a “concerned citizen,” voiced his irritation at the lack of notice during an appearance on a KAJO Radio talk show, the day after the meeting.
“There was no news media release,” he said. “These were a lot of heavy-hitting public officials at this meeting. You would think that someone who was interested in open government would allow the media to be there,”
Some members of the media, including representatives of KAJO, KTVL-TV and Newswithviews.com arrived at Paradise Ranch Monday afternoon, only to be told they had to leave.
For his part, Toler believes the meeting worked best because it was not in a public forum.
"It would be so lethargic if every time we had to have a venue for the public to come in when we wanted to talk about something,” he explained. “Honestly if I could just say, ‘Media,’ I would say yeah, sometimes, we need the media in there.
“Monday’s meeting is a really good example. If I could open it up and have only the media, I would do that, but I don’t believe I can do that. I’m looking into that.”
“And frankly,” he continued, “we’ve got some folks who will really do their best to screw anything up. That’s their goal and their objective. And it would be downright embarrassing and very unproductive to have Mr. Walter and his crowd would have been there.”
Paul Walter, of News With Views (dot) com, has filed a complaint with Oregon Dept. of Justice, alleging that Toler violated public meeting laws by excluding the public and media.
Raffenburg commented, “I don’t think everyone who attended it knew it was a secret meeting, and some of them might not have shown up if they had known. I don’t blame the attendees. I think he could have handled it a lot better.
“If (Toler) wants to restore the trust of the people in the county, you have to trust them with what you’re doing and not stay in the shadows.”
