Perhaps because he is seen as the most vulnerable or perhaps because he is the commissioner most people want to see replaced, Kevin Stufflebean faces seven challengers though only five attended last nights forum. Dale Pennie, Geno Landrum, Daniel Baumann, former Commissioner Gordon Ross and Sheriff Andy Jackson.

Of the challengers Landrum, Ross and Jackson were the most vocal with their opinions and willing to challenge some assertions made by the incumbent, Stufflebean who was clearly comfortable with the crowd and used a lot of policy speak in his answers.

The room was packed mostly with Bandonistas and both Bob Main and Nikki Whitty, also up for reelection, attended.

One question asked what position the candidates take on LNG and specifically the pipeline as it regards to property issues. Stufflebean skirted the issue on LNG and used a land use application currently with the County to avoid taking a position on the pipeline. Ross, who has signs up saying he will defend private property rights got upstaged by Jackson who stated clearly he would support private property rights after Ross favored the pipeline.

If I have time I will listen to the recording I did last night to add a bit more flavor to the recap but think I am going to be putting up a post with a long explanation, with links to source material and voting records, to explain why I will not be voting for any incumbents this year.

My thanks to Free Lunch author David Cay Johnston for doing the analysis and Adam Colby, Coos County Assessor for providing the statistical data -

First the top ten report – click on the image for a larger screen shot

Now for the side by side comparison done by Johnston- As you can see most of us are paying twice the tax rate of our already heavily subsidized corporate neighbors.

FONSI, meanwhile is pushing for the swift close of a county deal on a mineral rights lease with ORC to strip mine chromite on forest lands.

I need not remind you that this project will bring 70, or more, direct family wage jobs to this area and inject close to $8 million into our local economy. Moreover, they will eventually provide additional freight opportunities for our railroad and perhaps even additional barge traffic. They will add significant property tax revenues to the county’s general fund and are projecting $1.5 million or more in mineral royalties, if they are successful in negotiating a lease for county lands, as proposed. They are paying their fair share for road maintenance, per an agreement worked out long ago with county officials and they have agreed to coordinate mining operations to coincide with the county’s timber harvest and to replace topsoil and replant trees at their expense after the county harvest and the their own mining operation saving the county significant money in reforestation costs.

Jon Barton, FONSI president and the author of this graf neglects to mention the 22 county road workers laid off to help pay for the $450k improvement to upgrade 4 miles of W Beaver Hill Road to industrial grade status even though only one user, ORC requires an industrial grade road.

Barton claims ORC will add significantly to the property tax revenue but they intend to avail themselves of enterprise zone exemptions so it is very likely property tax revenue will actually go down for at least five years and possibly ten. Dan Smith of ORC stated they would likely seek an extension.

The $1.5M in royalties and the unnamed savings in reforestation are nothing but projections and promises with no guarantees of any savings or even any real local jobs.

Coos County is not the only place where this stuff happens and these battles occur. Cascade Locks on the Columbia Gorge is being courted by Nestle to open a spring water bottling plant. You can sign a petition here to help fight this.

Economically distressed rural communities are ripe pickings for resource extraction industries but just as our own history in Coos County shows they are not sustainable business models. The sustainable in FONSI only works if there are new and ripe communities to move on to but for people left to clean up the debris this is not a sustainable business practice.

Little communities like Cascade Locks and Coos Bay want and need sustainable industries and when public opposition rises to fight things like LNG and ORC and Nestle the opposition are labeled as ‘anti-jobs’ or as Kevin Stufflebean once famously said, ‘anti-people’. Nobody, wants to keep saying no to new jobs. The disagreement is over the type of jobs.

You have to laugh that those of us opposing what we view as corporate looting are deemed anti-people (that will always make me laugh) when, during the greatest period of capital influx into renewable energy by the federal government ever seen and green tech investment frenzies on Wall Street, Coos Bay chooses now to ban wind. They call us anti-people… the irony of it all!

This weekend I had the great privilege to sit with a dear friend tired after a long bout with cancer as she settled in to pass on.

My heart is with you Norine and I will forever be grateful for our too short friendship and for the wonderful teachings you passed on to me.

You could not have picked a more gloriously beautiful weekend to ascend.

Peace be upon you.

President Obama commemorating the bicentennial birthday of our 16th President reminded us of Lincoln’s view of democracy, “The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people what needs to be done but which they cannot by individual effort do at all, or do so well, by themselves.” Lincoln graciously defines what cannot be done individually to include providing for the young, helpless and afflicted and building public roads, schools and highways and maintaining the ‘machinery of government’ itself.

In the 200 years since Lincoln’s birth government has, through the implementation of subsidies, tax cuts, enterprise zones and urban renewal districts, broadened the concept of what requires community effort. These incentives are meant to entice new business and new jobs by reducing startup costs for free enterprise. This is great if creates jobs but what is the return on investment to the taxpaying public? What is the price to the community per job?

Enterprise zones let qualifying businesses receive total exemption from the property taxes normally assessed on new plant and equipment for at least three years and possibly up to five years. In Oregon, these zones, 59 of them are primarily designated in economically depressed areas, 48 rural.

A study entitled “OREGON ENTERPRISE ZONE TAX ABATEMENT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STUDY AND URBAN RENEWAL STUDY”, published by Portland State University concludes, “The cost per job created appears to be relatively high, and the comparison of reported employment growth with data from the Employment Department indicates that the reported employment growth may be overstated, which would further increase the abatement cost per job created.”

Locally, we have a prominent example of government subsidy at work in the hopes of job creation at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. According to Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, David Cay Johnston in his book “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and stick you with the bill)”, the world famous golf course benefits from four government subsidies that exceed payroll for 325 employees and amounts to $37,000 per full time employee.

Perhaps even more famously, at least locally, a new airport terminal was built to manage the increase from 3 executive jets per year to over 5,000 private jets ferrying golfers to the self contained resort, at a price tag of $31M, half from a ticket tax and half from the Oregon State Lottery. So far, those 325 jobs are costing Oregon taxpayers quite a bit.

One of the recommendations in the PSU study is to mandate a thorough fiscal assessment of the impact on local taxing districts for local taxing authorities and offer an opt-out provision if it isn’t paying off. In Coos County we need only look at the empirical data and rising unemployment rates to decide if our tax dollars have been wisely invested and are producing badly needed jobs.

Oregon Resources Corporation qualifies for the enterprise zone property tax exemptions, (as does Bandon Dunes) and may soon enter into a mineral lease agreement with the County to mine or explore up to 8,000 acres of County timberlands for chromite ore. Coos County Commissioners Griffith, Whitty and Stufflebean took steps last December to further assist ORC by laying off 22 workers thereby freeing up $450K of Road Department funds to improve W Beaver Hill Road necessary for ORC mining operations.

South Coast Development Corporation formed, according to Whitty, as a liaison between government and private enterprise supports ORC and having the County pay for road improvements. Coos County funds SCDC $10,000 annually to attract business into the area and ORC promises upwards of 70 jobs if they reach full production.

Commissioner Main has called for the County to conduct some in depth due diligence before committing county road funds or entering into any leases. Considering ORC has already cost the local economy 22 jobs part of that due diligence should be to accurately determine the ROI to the citizens of Coos County for their investment.

A final note on enterprise zones – Coos County with its high unemployment and low median income clearly meets the criteria for an enterprise zone and the legislature makes no distinction about what brings a company to do business within an enterprise zone. Nevertheless, ORC or any other mining venture is only here because of the resources available and not with the direct intent of boosting local employment.

Without the chromite ore ORC would not be here zone or no zone. To further subsidize ORC by laying off workers and funding road improvements does not seem appropriate for a county in such dire economic straits that it qualifies as an enterprise zone in the first place.

At an organizational meeting for the committee working to recall Kevin Stufflebean it was announced tonight that in just one week 2,190 signatures had been collected to date. A total of 3,773 valid Coos County registered voters must be obtained within 90 days of the original petition filing giving the committee until April 20, 2009. If successful in obtaining the signatures, after verification, Stufflebean has five days to post an answer to the petition or resign. Assuming he does not resign a special election will be held within 35 days.

An 11th hour layoff, New Years Eve, of 22 Coos County Road Department employees by commissioners, Whitty, Stufflebean and outgoing commissioner, John Griffith has unleashed a firestorm of activity. The abrupt manner in which the County conducted the layoffs has resulted in an unfair labor practices (ULP) complaint filed against the county and initiated a recall effort of Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean.

According to claims included in an amended ULP, filed with the Oregon Employment Relations Board, January 28, 2009, the County contracted out ‘bargaining unit’ work to managers and further failed to notify the Union. “The decision to contract out bargaining unit work is a mandatory bargaining subject under ORS 243.650(7).”

The ULP claims multiple ORS violations including the County’s refusal to provide ‘…any notes, reports, transcripts, minutes and/or recordings from the County Commission’s executive session held on December 31, 2008.’ The Union requested the information January 12, 2009 to investigate possible violations of Oregon law and the Public Employees Collective Bargaining Act.

Citizens for Fair and Open Government, headed by former roadmaster, Larry Van Elsberg, launched a recall believing a perceived lack of transparency on the part of the former Board of Commissioners excluded citizens from actively participating in the reorganization of the Road Department and jeopardized public safety. The County denies these claims and asserts all meetings were properly noticed in accordance with Oregon’s open records laws.

As reported last week, during a January 20, 2009 ‘worksession’ at the Owen Bldg, Stufflebean claims the Road Department layoffs were openly discussed during an announced December 16, 2008 special meeting. The Sentinel listened to the recording of that session and provided copies to some citizens to try and obtain an opinion as to Stufflebean’s claim.

Present at the meeting were Commissioners Whitty, Griffith and Stufflebean and the department budgets discussed included the Sheriff, SCINT, Juvenile and Planning as well as the Road Department. Stufflebean, aided by management from the Road Department, referred to charts that appear to be the same information supplied to media and during the Owen Bldg meeting.

Stufflebean presented anticipated reductions in revenue, the cost of maintaining aged county equipment and then explained, “…One of the things we run into with the road department is road department is actually maintenance department where we need materials, meaning asphalt and gravel in order to maintain roads. We have invested in everything but equipment and supplies… that has put us in a very difficult situation that we are in right now.”

Stufflebean notes the department has been operating in the red for several years ‘spending down carryover funds’, a claim disputed by Van Elsberg. The next spreadsheet discussed is the ten-year budget projection also provided at the Owen Bldg that includes a shift towards increased spending on asphalt, equipment purchases Stufflebean says “…we are looking at staff reductions in the 2012-2013 budget year.”

Stufflebean announces a major reduction in road department complaints owing to an emphasis on customer service attributed to managers Barry Austen and Shawn Migas. After explaining the need to invest in new equipment and that as jobs have become vacant in the last two years they have been left unfilled he states, “…we will be maintaining backhoe crews, brush cutting crews, making sure we have a culvert installation crew, do our ditching crew, we will be able to do paving, we will be able to run the crusher and we will be able to do slide removal. Sign and spray is one of our most critical functions we do, herbicide spray… plus we will be able to retain bridge inspections and we will have fleet services also.”

Reference is made to an organizational chart that lists how many people are qualified to do the jobs listed above. No reference is made in open session to impending layoffs. Ed Pool, a Bridge resident who has listened to the recording but was not present to view any of the charts says, “I heard nothing that would lead me to believe they were about to lay anyone off.”

John Griffith called an executive session citing labor negotiations and current or potential litigation. Treasurer Mary Barton, Road Department managers, Shinnock, Migas and Austen, and Human Resources Director, Steve Allen all attended with the Commissioners and County Counsel Jacqui Haggerty. The ULP claims that a decision to layoff road crew workers was made during executive session December 31 but it may have occurred during this December 16 meeting.

Pool found it curious that just before the audio cuts off Stufflebean is heard saying, “I would prefer that this be handwritten notes and not taped executive session…” Pool is now actively collecting signatures for the recall petition.

Whether the public was properly informed that a major decision relating to road maintenance was being made there is little doubt the road workers were kept in the dark. Union president Adam Wideman, about a week before the layoffs, received a copy of a 10-Year Projection for Road Dept Budgets prepared November 11, 2008 and referred to in the meeting of December 16.

The projection was part of the handouts provided to the public at the Owen Bldg meeting but was not provided to Wideman by anyone affiliated with the road department management and indicates 40 employees maintained through 2010 with a reduction of personnel beginning in 2011.

Wideman, along with all other road department employees, had been advised at 7:00 AM New Year’s Eve morning to attend a mandatory meeting at 3:30 that afternoon. Unaware that he would be laid off that afternoon he attended the regular BOC meeting that morning to ask if there were any major reductions to be made in the next couple of years and was advised there would be some changes. This was the only notice given to County Road Department employees.

The Sentinel has learned the layoff of 22 Teamster workers reduced the ratio of union to nonunion employees affecting the Oregon Teamsters Employers Trust health benefits. The number of Teamsters must exceed the number of non-Teamster workers to stay in compliance with the terms of the policy. The County has been notified that nonunion employees will lose their coverage as per trust requirements effective as early as March. Not all county workers are covered by OTET but amongst those about to lose their health insurance are the county commissioners and the human resources director.

Still in the construction phase, Citizens for Fair and Open Government have setup a new website to help organize their efforts to recall Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean. Visit RecallKevinStufflebean.org for contact info