Illinois Valley News

Toler (right) with Rogue Truck Body owner Keith Hill, discusses the effects of a recent economic development grant for the Kerby business with members of the press. (Photo by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley News)

Although many candidates have stepped up to challenge Josephine County Commissioner Dave Toler for his position, the 50-year-old Illinois Valley resident maintains that he is the most qualified for the job.

Toler first was elected commissioner in the November 2006 election, replacing then-incumbent Jim Riddle. Toler already had spent nearly a decade on the Three Rivers School District (TRSD) Board of Education. He ran against Riddle to win his first term, and was re-elected to that seat twice.

In his first race, Toler began his commissioner candidacy in earnest, and detractors set about directing a barrage of negativity. Even though Toler was no stranger to the politics of elected office, he said that the personal attacks took a personal toll.

“You expect it, but it still hurts,“ he said. “You don“t know how mean it“s going to be until it hits you.“

Dave Daniel, who was the county sheriff at the time, took first place in the May 2006 primary election. Toler came within one percentage point of Daniel, despite the fact that none of his information was included in the Voters“ Pamphlet, and a run-off election was scheduled between the two for the general election in November.

But Daniel dropped out due to health reasons. A couple of candidates attempted write-in bids, but Toler won.

He took office in 2007, and said that he deliberately tried to keep a low profile while learning the ropes. His main focus, Toler said, was to see how county operations compared to those of TRSD.

“I stayed pretty quiet for the first five months,“ he explained. “I did a lot of active listening.“

Although it can sometimes be awkward adjusting to a new situation, Toler“s upbringing had made him adept at doing so.

His father was a career officer in the U.S. Army. As such, Toler grew up on military bases for the first 12 years of his life.

Born in Alabama, Toler shuffled around with his family to 15 communities in 18 years. When he was a teenager, his family had settled in Atlanta, Ga. But that stability was uprooted, and they moved to Norway.

Toler“s family stayed in Norway, and he headed to London Central High, a Dept. of Defense school. He graduated and then went to George Mason University in Washington, D.C. to begin his college education.

After a couple of years, he transferred to Western Washington University, and graduated in 1981 with a major in environmental science and a minor in economics.

Toler spent some time in Portland before being admitted to the University of Oregon graduate school of economics. It was during that time that he met his wife-to-be and started a family.

Although he had invested nearly a year in his graduate school education, Toler abandoned those efforts and opted to take his family on a six-month road trip to Arizona and Mexico. Those travels brought him to Josephine County for the first time, but it would still be a couple of years until he would take up residency.

In the meantime, he worked as a forestry technician for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in the Wallowa Whitman National Forest, based in La Grande. He transferred to the USFS Illinois Valley Ranger District in fall 1988, and purchased property on Rockydale Road the following year.

The work Toler did with USFS was seasonal. But it served his family well, as Toler“s then-wife had a seasonal winter job and the couple took turns home-schooling their two children until the eighth-grade.

Work with the USFS kept Toler busy until he started doing similar work through private forestry contracting. Duties included chopping firewood and planting trees throughout the area.

“I was scratching out a living working in the woods,“ Toler said.

But by the mid-1990s, the passage of the Northwest Forest Management Plan and emerging environmental issues surrounding the “endangered“ spotted owl prompted Toler to reconsider his future.

He was admitted to the University of Oregon law school, and a program for dislocated timber workers would have funded the first year of that education. However, he said his family was reluctant to move, so he began exploring other options.

He said that in 1996 he made a “dramatic change“ in careers and decided to work as an administrator for nonprofit organizations.

Oregon voters approved Measure 11 in 1994, which established mandatory minimum sentences for many crimes. Anticipating a rise in the number of inmates in state custody, the Legislature passed a bill in 1995 to begin a process of establishing locations for new prisons.

The list of potential locations was released in 1996, and included the former Martin Dairy property off Rockydale Road in Illinois Valley.

At first, the proposed prison site was supported by the city of Cave Junction and the Josephine County Board of Commissioners. But when Toler examined the issue, he found that the city would have to nearly double its water and sewer capacity “literally overnight.“

There were other problems, including the fact that the site is on a flood plain, contrary to the state“s criteria.

Toler set about defeating the plan, and began reaching out to various organizations and community members to build an opposition coalition.

“We got organized,“ he said. “We got involved.“

State officials visited Josephine County in October 1996 to tour the site. When they showed up for a community meeting on the matter, Toler had helped rally 550 people to attend and make their voices heard.

“I will never forget that meeting,“ Toler said. “It was standing room only, and 90 percent of the people there were against it.“

The county commissioners subsequently pulled their support for the project, which was scuttled.

“That was my first real public role in the Illinois Valley,“ Toler said. “It was a huge issue.“

Toler already had began his involvement in various community organizations by then. He listed them as the Illinois Valley Community Response Team, Rockydale Neighborhood Association (RNA), Women“s Crisis Support Team, and Siskiyou Community Health Center. He also performed administrative tasks for Takilma Dome School, and served as development director for the Siskiyou Field Institute from 2005 to 2007.

Through his involvement with RNA, Toler authored a timber plan in 1993 that he said added a “third dimension“ to the natural resources debate.

That 150-year management plan started with 1 million board feet on 400 acres. Toler said that it was opposed by environmental groups and timber interests.

“It had a lot of legitimacy, in terms of the science behind it,“ Toler said.

As a TRSD board member, he was faced with difficult decisions in 2000. Continued declining enrollment was battering the district“s bottom line, and led to the closure of schools in Merlin and Selma.

“That was really tough,“ Toler said. “It was my hardest time on the board, for sure.“

Frustration with the state“s education funding prompted Toler to run for the Legislature in 2000 as an independent. He was unsuccessful, but the experience he gained cutting budgets on the TRSD board would prove valuable in later years.

The November 2006 election that sent Toler to the commissioner“s office was the same one in which county voters defeated a library levy. Toler said that the resulting closure of all the branches of the county“s library system was “excruciating“ and “terrible,“ but that hindsight has rewarded him with a broader perspective.

“As I look back, it was the right decision,“ he said.

In spring 2007, the county received a full payment from the federal government. But instead of rushing to spend the money, Toler said that the commissioners opted to reduce staffing levels and save for a rainy day.

“We put over half of the money in the bank for reserves,“ Toler said. “It wasn“t easy to do.“

The county“s record reserves ultimately lead to an A-plus credit rating from Standard & Poor“s last year, which enabled it to refinance its bonds at a lower interest rate and save nearly $1 million. Operating the libraries had cost the county around $900,000 per year before the levy“s failure, Toler said.

But a nonprofit organization, Josephine Community Libraries Inc. (JCLI), formed to reopen libraries. Toler and Commissioner Dwight Ellis voted to approve a $300,000 grant request from JCLI, and all branches now are open.

For the past three and a half years, Toler has seen the county face any number of critical challenges. He“s also faced nearly endless criticism during weekly business sessions Wednesdays at Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass from citizens who never wanted to see him as a commissioner in the first place.

“You just have to know who you work for,“ Toler observed.

He related that he views his main task as ensuring that Josephine County residents receive reliable service delivered as efficiently as possible.

“That“s how I see my job and what I put my energy into,“ he said.

The role of partisan politics often has been overstated in the commissioner position, Toler said, adding that he has never been a Republican or a Democrat. He said that citizens ultimately pay the price when the commissioners are distracted by political issues.

For the future, he said that he remains optimistic that the county will receive more federal funding, even if it“s a portion of what has traditionally been allocated. Toler said he also expects to see more harvesting on federal forests and more timber receipts generated as a result, and the increased use of woody biomass material to produce renewable energy.

But to carry out his vision for the county, Toler must get past the nine challengers currently seeking his seat. Approximately 11 candidates had filed for the position, including Toler, but Grants Pass resident Ed Bowers dropped out last week due to health issues.

The primary election is scheduled for Tuesday, May 18. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held during the November general election between the top two vote-getters.

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