Jackson County, Oregon. An Update on the Charter Update

Denise Krause, co-petitioner, Jackson County For All:

                   "We're over 7,500!"

As of Christmas Eve: Facebook site for Jackson County For All

The petition drive to update the Jackson County, Oregon governing charter is ahead of schedule.

Signature-gathering is going so quickly the drive may qualify for the May ballot. 

The original plan assumed it would take eight months or more to get to 10,500 signatures, and the goal was to have them in time to qualify for the November ballot. Under state law a group has two years to gather petitions to get onto a ballot. Jackson County reduced that time limit to one year. Petitioners need 8,351 valid signatures from Jackson County registered voters. The local committee began collecting signatures in September. Their 10,500 goal was to provide ample extra signatures to account for duplicates and signatures by people ineligible to vote in Jackson County.

The group has three separate proposals. Oregon requires that any initiative address only a single subject.

Number One: Change the office from partisan to non-partisan. This would bring the Commissioner office into line with the other elected officials including County Clerk, Sheriff, District Attorney, Assessor, and Judges. This would allow the fastest-growing segment of voters -- non-affiliated -- to participate in choosing the finalist candidates.

Number Two: Increase the number of Commissioners from three to five. The number three was set back in 1853 when the county population was below 4,000. The intent is to increase representation and address the internal communication problem in a three-person board. Under the public meetings law, two commissioners cannot speak to one another about county business unless it is in an advertised public setting. It means that a third person -- the County Administrator or someone who reports to him -- must participate in any substantive communication including one about the Administrator, making it difficult to do their primary job of supervising that Administrator.

Number Three: Cut in about half the Commissioner salaries from the current $145,000 level. They are currently by far the highest paid County Commissioners in the state. Their own salaries are set by a Budget Committee whose members they appoint. 

December was an active month for the 100-plus petition-carrying volunteers. The group had petitions to sign at holiday events around the county. Their website stays updated with times and locations of upcoming events.

May or December. The Jackson County For All Committee has a strategic decision to make. Should they turn in the ballots in time for the primary election in May? Or should they wait until November's general election.  Some of the appeal of the three proposals is that they empower independent, non-party-affiliated voters. Under the current primary system, those voters normally have little reason to get involved in May elections, in which most of the highly-visible contests are intra-party primary elections, where they cannot vote. Non-affiliated voters have little to vote on -- so why bother? Or, it could work the other way, as a motivator for non-affiliated voters to vote if they realize and remember that their future ability to choose a Commissioner candidate is on the ballot.

The current Jackson County Commissioners could have placed these issues on the ballot on their own, but they refused to do so. They are on record opposing the proposals. That is what necessitated this initiative petition effort. Petition-carriers I have questioned tell me the public response has been near-universally positive. This does not surprise me. Now that the county has become in practice a strong-Administrator form of government, the presence of three Commissioners, paid as if they were hands-on managers, is a hold-over from an earlier era. It is the sweetest deal in Oregon government. Jackson County Commissioners are not only paid far more than Commissioners in any other Oregon county, they are paid more than the Oregon Governor, the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, and many times more than are our State Representatives and Senators. Commissioners are the beneficiaries of salary creep, inertia, and the disappearance of local media coverage that might otherwise have brought more attention to the issues of these initiatives. So citizens went around the log jam and are taking action.

I am one of the many former County Commissioners who  publicly support the charter update. Others include: John Rachor 2011-2015, Dave Gilmour 2003-2011, Sue Kupillas 1988-2004, Jeff Golden 1987-1991​​​, Carol N. Doty 1977-1979, and Jon Deason 1973-1977 and 1979-1983.