JoCo election talk garners complaint
From our weekly issue dated October 29, 2008
Several Josephine County officials held a news media conference in Grants Pass Wednesday, Oct. 22 to address a recent newspaper advertisement placed by board of commissioner candidates Jack Brown and Sandi Cassanelli.
Commission Chairman Dave Toler, Sheriff Gil Gilbertson, Treasurer John Harelson, legal counsel Steve Rich and Assessor Michael Schneyder all gathered in the commission conference room in the county courthouse before members of the news media. Cassanelli and Brown were in the audience. Treasurer candidate Dale Matthews, who publishes First Friday in print and online, videotaped the entire exchange.
Toler addressed the claim that Josephine County government hasn’t implemented any cuts. He stated that the level of full-time equivalent positions has been reduced “almost in half” during the past five years.
“That’s a pretty significant cut,” Toler said. He then challenged Brown and Cassanelli to present a solution to the county’s budget problems.
“Show us some kind of a plan,” Toler said. “Show us where you’re going to cut from the budget. Give us some examples.”
Most of the news conference revolved around a full-page ad in the Grants Pass Daily Courier, which presented Crestwood, Ill. as an example of governance to be followed.
Toler said that the comparison is unwarranted, and that Crestwood is in a high-tax county. Toler pointed out that Crestwood is a suburb of Chicago in Cook County, the largest in Illinois. That county is also the highest taxed in that state, Toler said.
Crestwood has an 8.7 percent sales tax, a gasoline tax of 6-cents per gallon and a tobacco tax of $1 per pack, Toler said. It also has a $40 per month parking tax that generates $20 million per year, and that was just doubled by officials.
“In Cook County, they don’t put tax references to the people; they actually just institute them as a board of county commissioners, something we would never do in Josephine County,” Toler said.
And property taxes are much higher in Crestwood, Toler said. He noted that property tax there on a home valued at $280,000 would be $3,540 per year. The same home in Grants Pass would result in a $2,176 tax; $828 per year in Merlin.
Following his remarks, Toler solicited questions from members of the news media. Matthews asked if he could pose a question, and Toler informed him that he was only taking questions from the media.
“You’re going to define me as not being from media, Dave?” Matthews asked.
“That’s right,” Toler said. “I think you have a conflict of interest in this case,” adding that Matthews, is a candidate for treasurer.
Paul Walter, Merlin resident and NewsWithViews editor, said he had a question.
“How many thousands of dollars have you put into this race?” Toler asked Walter, referencing donations that Walter has made to Brown and Cassanelli’s campaigns.
“I don’t think we’ll find anybody else from the media that’s actually put dollars into a particular candidate, because professional journalism just simply doesn’t do that,” Toler stated.
He eventually agreed to take a question from Walter.
“It appears to us that you guys are against Raffenburg, and now you come against these two candidates as well,” Walter said. “Is it possible that you’re against anyone who doesn’t represent the courthouse cabal, or you only support candidates who support the courthouse cabal?”
Toler said that he didn’t understand the question.
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On Thursday, Oct. 23, Walter filed a formal complaint with the Election Division of the Secretary of State’s office, accusing the officials of engaging in electioneering. Walter said that the news conference violated Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 260-695, which prohibits electioneering “within any building in which any state of local government elections office … is located, or within 100 feet measured radially from any entrance to the building.”
That ORS subsection applies from the time that ballots are mailed, to 8 p.m. on election day.
“We understand that there may be a claim that this press conference was held ‘in another building,’ not in the same county building that houses the official ballot drop box,” Walter wrote in his complaint. “We urge you to follow through on this claim, as any person who would make such a statement is guilty of lying to the Secretary of State’s office and should be prosecuted.”
