Dave Toler

Confidence in County government.

An annual survey of Grants Pass citizens (about 38% of county residents) gauges citizen confidence in local government. One question queries citizens about whether “they feel they are getting their money’s worth” from the various local agencies who serve them.

A tally of the positive responses (either “always” or “often”) are as follows:

What’s really unique is that both state government (25%) and federal government (22%) actually score rate higher than Josephine County.

While it is difficult to know for sure why Josephine County government scores so much lower than other local agencies, there is one important difference between Josephine County and all these other agencies.

Josephine County is the only one of these local agencies that does not have a professional manager overseeing the everyday business. Instead of a professional CEO, three elected lay people manage the $100 million business we call Josephine County.

A professional management structure will provide three major benefits:

EFFICIENCY:

It’s simple - one is better than three. You have three politicians micro managing every little decision. Each management decision becomes a political issue. Decisions take three times longer than necessary. And for all that dysfunction, you pay much more than you should! Imagine having a business run by three lay people with no qualifications required for the job. All decisions must be arrived at collectively.

Then in addition, imagine these managers being restricted by law from ever communicating with each other unless it is in public session with media allowed. It’s what we call Josephine County government!

COMPETENCY:

There are no qualifications required to be a County Commissioner. That’s no different than the Boards who govern all the other local governments. However, Josephine County is the only agency that also demands this elected official to be a CEO of the business. And even if the three commissioners had professional management qualification, why would you want three of them?

MEASURING PERFORMANCE and ACCOUNTABILITY

Whether it is a private corporation or government, the CEO is always accountable to the Board. Any leader who fails to perform can be replaced by the board in a heartbeat. That means in Josephine County, under the current three CEO structure we are literally accountable to ourselves! Who will evaluate our performance as CEOs? We will. Who will hire and fire us, we will! Without any real accountability, how can we assure Josephine County citizens that their county is being well managed?

SUMMARY

I believe that Josephine County citizens want to support local services like law enforcement, jails, criminal prosecution, libraries, and public health. The citizens of Grants Pass provide strong support for city services, yet those same citizens often vote down county levies. I believe the difference is confidence and trust. This plan will at last win the confidence of our citizens in county government.

With the potential loss of federal funding, the time has come for competent and efficient county government under the direction of strong and experienced management . It’s time we stop investing in politicians and start investing in our citizens!

Julie Rubenstein

Does Voter Refusal to Raise Taxes Constitute a Violation of Civil Rights?

County voters have repeatedly refused, by wide margins, to raise property taxes aimed at funding essential public services. The Josephine County Long Term Funding Task Force struggles to come up with a politically viable recommendation, while County Commissioners bicker among themselves. They’re still hoping for a reprieve from Congress as the clock ticks down.

Josephine County enjoys the lowest permanent property tax rate in the State of Oregon. Curry County has the next lowest rate, and they’re already essentially bankrupt. Adequate public services – law enforcement, public health, public works, etc. – were not designed to rely on this extremely low tax rate. They were designed to rely on O&C funding.

In a discussion with the Editor of Grants Pass Now, he proffered an argument that refusing to levy a tax that would adequately fund public services might constitute a violation of our civil rights. He gave as examples the abandonment of vehicles and dead animals along public roadways, and the premature release of criminals because there aren’t enough jailers to secure them. So I looked up the Civil Rights language in the Oregon Constitution. Here’s what it says:

Article 1, Section 20. Equality of privileges and immunities of citizens. No law shall be passed granting to any citizen or class of citizens privileges, or immunities, which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens.

You could make the argument that refusing a levy grants privileges and immunities to property owners – who’ve escaped paying a higher tax – that don’t apply to the rest of the citizenry. The privilege of paying a lower tax comes at the expense of non-property owners, who must suffer the consequences of making that 911 call and being told there’s no one to help. However, I think it’s a big stretch.

More interesting, though, is this provision:

Article 1, Section 22. Suspension of operation of laws. The operation of the laws shall never be suspended, except by the Authority of the Legislative Assembly.

It’s possible to argue that the nay-saying voters have caused the County to violate its own charter, in effect suspending it, by making its laws unenforceable and thus inoperable. If that’s the case, then it begs the question – what remedy is available? Sue the County? It can’t raise taxes without voter approval, and you can’t sue the voters. So while it might make a neat argument, I don’t see a real solution at hand.