While no reason is given, Gold Beach has suspended their police chief, Russ Merkley, placing him on temporary, indefinite paid leave. Gold Beach administrator, Don Flynn will supervise the police department until a replacement can be found. Having watched the Coquille City Council these last two years I marvel when I read stories like this or the one where a discontented Reedsport withheld a raise from their city manager.

It seems that some city councils really do pay attention and ‘council’ their hired administrators. Yet here in Coquille a city manager of eight years that has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of departmental oversight, receives little or no admonition or ‘oversight’ from the council.

As I read the latest news regarding disgraced officer, Randy Ulmer, I can’t help but get angrier and angrier at city manager, Terence O’Connor for ignoring complaints about then police chief, Mike Reaves. Again and again he sided with the chief over the safety and well being of the citizens. His indifference to actions and inaction of his friend and ex chief, has, in my opinion contributed to the downfall of Randy Ulmer.

Personally, I had my own issues with Ulmer and regarded him as either, incompetent and just plain slow witted or thoroughly dishonest, either way the net result for me was negative. That said, I don’t really think he is a horrible person and he has a very nice family that are no doubt all suffering greatly at this time. So I can’t help but get angry because there is no question that a real police chief would have already implemented the structure and policies to have prevented this from ever occuring. Further, had Ulmer had any real supervision, his gambling (if that is in fact what the problem was) might have been discovered and counseling sought to help him with it long before it got to this point.

So we have had some tort claims, some insurance payouts from grievances, a man who never had an opportunity to give his side of the story is now a quadriplegic, numerous other complaints and potential for lawsuits under the watch of Terence O’Connor and our council does nothing. As I understand it, O’Connor, knowing full well that Reaves was leaving the job and the profession let the city pay for a week long jaunt at a police chiefs annual gala shortly before he retired.

It took hiring a real professional for the job of police chief to even uncover the depths the department had sunk under the former chief and with the full complicity of the current city manager.

Frankly, our police chief is over qualified to be answering to someone like O’Connor and I believe our council is remiss in not seeking a professional to replace him. Just look at the wonders that have been performed at the PD and just think how wonderful this city might be.

O’Connor is not alone in his responsibility as I think of Councilor Capehart and her blind allegiance to the police department simply because her husband was a trooper, her constituents be damned. The same can be said for Bruce Parker and I note they have both been mum on the topic of the total mess the new police chief inherited, much of it on their watch.

Now, it seems the city manager may have knowingly or unknowingly advised the council incorrectly regarding the Kathy Hagen debacle, possibly to the point that they are violating the city charter and disenfranchising voters. More on this soon as I have requested some outside legal opinion.

As mentioned I attended the county commission meeting yesterday regarding the annex building and downtown parking. O’Connor quipped that people will ‘walk two blocks to shop at Pony Village Mall’ but are too lazy to stretch their legs to shop downtown and suggested that people should think of the benefits to their figures.

Apparently, he feels the parking problem is the fault of the shoppers and not a concern for the city to try and solve. Clearly, in his mind, the merchants can solve their own parking problem by catering only to physically fit patrons.

It is a good sign that six, count ‘em six, people applied for the city council and a couple of them were young to boot! We must have some new blood on the council, willing to work with our mayor and not against him, to move this city out of the mud flats from which it has settled.

Apparently, in a bid to discredit Mayor Steve Britton and anyone who supports him, a disgruntled ex employee of The Sentinel who now runs a blog is inferring that Concerned Citizens of Coquille, a human rights advocacy group founded two years ago by Dian Courtright, had an earlier iteration that tried to recall the council. Courtright contacted the blogger to advise him that CCC had never been involved in any recall but the blogger refused to retract his statement.

The blogger continues to push his personal agenda, an apparent vendetta against The Sentinel and the mayor, over a seat to be filled by vacating councilor, Kathy Hagen. Speaking with the mayor today he told me that he was advised by city staff that according to the water department billing department, Hagen was not eligible for the council effective October 31, four days before the election.

Herein lies the problem. Since Hagen was not eligible for a seat on the council should she be considered one of the top three vote getters? The mayor believes that the top three eligible candidates were Corky Daniels, Fran Capehart and Dian Courtright and prefers to have the voters make the choice. The city attorney, John Trew, believes that regardless of eligibility, Hagen won the election and must now resign the seat and the council must take applications and interview candidates.

Trew’s interpretation of this very unusual circumstance puts the choice of a new council member in the hands of the council rather than in the hand’s of the voters, as the mayor believes is appropriate. The council can ask for a ruling from the Secretary of State or can choose to handle the matter themselves which is what tonight’s special council meeting is about.

Nevertheless, the blogger wants to portray the mayor as consorting with a group that once attempted a recall and to further cast a shadow upon Dian and his former employer. Dian gave him an opportunity to correct his site but he refused to do so. We have a letter coming from someone involved in that earlier recall attempt confirming that Concerned Citizens of Coquille was not involved and will be published here, on Dian’s blog and likely in The Sentinel soon.

Coquille, alas, seems to be inhabited by a group, small perhaps, but a group nonetheless of very thin skinned individuals. Perhaps it is a genetic mutation but in keeping with the nature of such anomalies as those suffering from this inherent weakness they seek out others of their kind and band together with other members of their species for protection into, well, you know a group, a hive, a band or even a club.

These thin skinned people are recognizable for their unbridled willingness to hurl mud and sling poo at their perceived adversaries while immediately crying FOUL if a defense, particularly in the form of an offense is mounted.

Now, the former chief of police, Mike Reaves, has taken issue with Mayor Steve Britton going on offense in response to a letter written on behalf of the ex chief by a sitting city council member, Bruce Parker, accusing the mayor of being a criminal. The mayor volleyed back with a letter of his own and asserts unprofessional conduct by Reaves while he was chief. Granted, Reaves did not write the letter accusing Britton of being a criminal but then he never does his own fighting… he ALWAYS has someone else do it for him, in this case Parker.

Unable to take what they dished out Reaves and his wife employed George Derr, their lawyer who famously called Coquille citizens ‘unhappy unwashed‘ for disagreeing with Reaves, to write a ‘letter of intent’, (technically it should have been a ‘demand letter’) threatening to sue The Sentinel, the mayor and the City of Coquille, unless The Sentinel prints a letter of apology from Britton for 10 consecutive weeks!

Derr claims that Britton’s letter was published…

…with the intent to cause harm to Mike Reaves, his wife, Teresa, their children and their marriage.

Honestly, what do these people expect when they attack someone publicly? What was the intent of their attack? Surely, anyone expects if they shoot at someone that shots may be fired in return. How lame to cry foul when you fired the first salvo? Why fire the salvo if you can’t stomach being in the line of fire?

So what does The Sentinel and Mayor Steve Britton intend to do? Jean Ivey, editor of the paper decided that rather than throwing the letter in the trash, to instead have legal counsel write Derr to advise the Reaves to ‘put up or shut up’ and I received this email from Jean.

In case you are wondering why anyone would write a NOTICE OF INTENT TO SUE; no one would if they had grounds for a suit. If one has grounds, one just brings suit.
It is a guess on my part, but I believe Reaves is finding it much more difficult to be a bully now that he no longer has a badge.
Well, I’m ready to play…… Lets see what he’s got.
Jean Ivey

Ivey told me that she looks forward to the opportunity to prove to the Reaves’ that it is ‘much harder to be a bully without a badge’.

Mayor Britton had similar sentiments and told me, rather gleefully that he is, ‘grateful to the Reaves’ for providing the opportunity to publicly prove my statements’.

Really, what a colossal, whiny assed pussy Reaves is! More importantly, why didn’t O’Connor ever discipline Reaves for mishandling the firing of at least one officer amongst many other things, not to mention fire him? O’Connor never put the best interests of the city first.

Whether the Reaves will take the challenge is yet to be known but for the sake of the paper and our mayor, and having experienced the drudge and drear of a recent pointless and harassing lawsuit I hope the Reaves think better about it. Although, as a people watcher sitting in the people watcher stands with my people watcher mint julep in hand, watching the entire community air the Reaves legacy laundry and THE THIN SKINNED CLUB dumpster diving and pawing through trash looking desperately, DESPERATELY, for anything they can spin to their advantage, may have some serious entertainment potential…. for those of us suffering from Post Election Stress Disorder.

We will see how this plays out…

Emotions always run high during an election season and when mud starts to be flung and re-flung and re-flung by the same fistful of tactless, mean spirited people, taking the high road can look less and less attractive. Mayor Britton, no doubt exasperated by the continued petty attacks on his character over a thirty year old incident, fired back with a very biting letter to the people of Coquille in this week’s Sentinel.

I feel sure you must be tired of all the rotten tactics that political opponents use to make their candidate look better. Until now I have taken the high road, not wishing to respond to the few who have no idea how to be a public servant or even how to talk with the public. You don’t have to always agree, but you must always listen.

The Mayor unleashes a lot of pent up frustration unloading a list of wrongs he believes the former police chief, Mike Reaves, has perpetrated against the city. Though I have corroborating support for some of Britton’s claims about the ex chief, my interest is more in why the city manager, Terence O’Connor, chose to keep these transgressions from the public and why Reaves was never disciplined?

Meanwhile, an apparent fan of an erstwhile Sentinel reporter is claiming that his blog, or more accurately, his RPO (Reaves/Parker/O’Connor) Wire Service, is actually a newspaper. There is even a claim that the RPO is a member of the ONPA (Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association) though a search of their membership under several names does not support this claim.

Britton is not the only angry person in this week’s paper. My column this week is angry too as I was much appalled by Paul Frasier’s request to control more public money via Measure 62. There are a couple of letters to the editor from educators responding to Frasier and arguing against the passage of Measure 62 in addition to my column.

Phewww! Only back from Portland for a couple of hours and the mint juleps and the election bleachers are already filling up.

Despite competing with the League of Women Voters forum in Coos Bay, The Sentinel sponsored candidate forum went off very well. Questions from the audience filled the two hour forum with the last ten minutes turned over for closing statements by each of the candidates.

After the forum there was food and drink and the candidates had an additional opportunity to speak to the citizens and socialize with each other.

Absent from the forum was incumbent Kathy Hagen who may be moving outside the city limits and no longer be eligible to serve on the council and candidate for mayor, Mike Reaves. Also not present, city manager, Terence O’Connor.

Councilors Loren Wiese and Linda Short were in the audience and sixty or seventy citizens listened attentively and sent questions up to the moderator, Ronne Herne.

As a citizen it is my belief that elected officials are meant to represent the people and not there to defend governance. Certainly, it is important to work with government to ensure it work effectively to provide for the public safety, essential services and maintain the infrastructure required for a decent quality of life. However, when elected officials side with government over the welfare and well being of the citizen they are not doing their job.

With that in mind I cannot help but shake my head at the campaign tactics being employed by certain members of the community. Dragging up events of nearly thirty years ago, engaging in character assassination rather than running on issues is so damned counter productive. Mostly, dredging up old stuff does more to highlight the character of the accusers than those being assailed.

Most citizens prefer to judge a candidate based upon their ability to handle the concerns of the day and how they represent the city. In my opinion, the current record of the former chief does not reflect a skilled administrator or a proper statesman. Over the next couple of weeks I hope to gather public records regarding issues that have been brought to me over the last few years to corroborate my opinion above.

UPDATE: This morning I stopped by The Sentinel to find former police chief Mike Reaves and, this is a guess, his wife speaking with editor Jean Ivey. Since I was advised that they were having a private conversation I can probably conclude they were there to talk about me. Considering that Reaves threw the first mud balls into this election campaign accusing Mayor Britton of being a criminal, I have to note that the gruff, stern faced, lumbering ex chief is very thinned skin.

Mike Reaves isn’t the only one running a muddy campaign, in fact, Reaves is probably taking his cue from John McCain