Episode Transcript
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(00:14):
Thank you, KCIW
listeners,
everyone out there in the Curry County and
in the cyber world on the podcast.
This is Amanda Whittemore with the Quality Living
with Peaceful Support Program.
We gladly invite you to listen to our
guests and especially go online and view past
(00:35):
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with peaceful support.
And today,
well, if you're just turning into quality living
(00:58):
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(01:19):
If you ever wanna call in, that's totally
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especially if you're listening to a past show
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Please
(01:39):
do. If you have comments or questions,
please definitely email us. We love to communicate.
Obviously, we have a radio station.
And so,
we also greatly
thank all of our sponsors that participate.
We have some brand new sponsors by
surprise.
My actual mother,
(02:01):
Bobbie Goldman, she is a caregiver,
and she is one of the most radical,
she's a golfer and she makes
the best club sandwiches you could ever get
out of golf course.
And, she's one of our most recent sponsors.
Thank you, mom.
And,
I really appreciate it. Didn't expect it. Totally
(02:23):
appreciate it. And one of our other new
and recent sponsors is Sunny from interior design.
Well, from pardon me? Sunny of Sunny's interior
design.
She's a local interior designer and real estate
broker at Century 21
Agate Realty.
And we thank you, Sunny, for your sponsorship.
(02:44):
And also, of course, Ernie from Guitar Central,
Dana from Wildwood,
Multifarious
Gifts.
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keeps this radio station alive.
And
also,
one of our other
radical sponsors that we have is actually in
(03:05):
the station with us right now.
And so we want
to thank Georgia.
Pardon me.
Georgia
is a published author
and of mystery and suspense.
You can find her
at
color
(03:26):
and words by Georgia
dotcom. That's her website
color and words by georgia.com.
And Georgia is in the studio right now.
Say hi listeners.
Hi listeners.
Hey, Georgia. I was
that's cute.
Yeah.
So Georgia has another,
(03:46):
program or another,
recorded session here with us. We record all
of our sessions.
We air them. We record them. We post
them on the podcast for all of our
quality living living
listeners to be
able to hear them when they want to
hear them, not just when we
air. So, Georgia, what do you have for
us today?
(04:08):
Well, I have more
information
on what has been going on with the
board of commissioners meetings,
and,
I share this information because
the name of this program
is Quality Living,
Peaceful Support. Well, my husband and I first
bought in Curry County 20 years ago, and
(04:28):
I am very interested
Curry County.
So I think it's important that you are
aware of,
some of what's going on,
through our local government.
That is
that is quite a special gift, and we
are pardon me. My microphone's going wild.
(04:49):
That is a super special gift because, you
know, some of us would like I appreciate
that.
People think about quality living and they think
of,
you know, their their body,
maybe their vehicle, perhaps their family or their
business. However, it extends to our community and
our government and all parts of being here
(05:10):
on Earth, even to the solar system.
So, yeah, Georgia, let's let's hear and what
exactly is going on and how people can
get in contact with you and find out
more.
Okay. Thank you, Amanda.
The last talk that I did,
I had given to the board of commissioners
at one of their meetings on October 17th.
(05:32):
I spoke at that time on the commissioner's
erroneous
use of the term metric as one method
to determine what level of safety in this
county
they decided was adequate.
I'm here today to discuss a second method
also used in error. I am referring to
the phrase
span of control.
(05:53):
Although without any evidence of executive level education,
training, or experience,
mister Alcorn used his self proclaimed
law enforcement
expertise
to impress upon the public that span of
control is the all purpose measuring device for
law enforcement agencies.
He spoke of the span of control numbers
(06:14):
in large agencies, providing three examples.
OSP is one supervisor to 8 troopers, Portland
is 1 at 1.7,
and Fresno, 1 to 8.
It makes sense to use span of control
in these large agencies because that is the
purpose for which it originated.
Experts will tell you that this method of
(06:35):
organization
is most useful
in medium to large organizations,
less useful in smaller organizations,
and least relevant in the smallest organizations
like that of our Curry County Sheriff's Office.
This is because supervisors in a small agency
such as our sheriff's office have multiple duties
(06:56):
in addition to supervising.
Span of control is not some sacred law
enforcement tool. It's merely a model for large
agencies to consider.
Yet meeting after meeting, it was used to
justify dangerous and unnecessary cuts to our sheriff's
office.
Throughout the budgeting process, the sheriff, captain, and
(07:17):
lieutenant each made several attempts to explain why
their supervisors are necessary
and how the deep cuts would destroy safety
within our county.
Anyone with training and strategic thinking would have
wanted a better understanding of the sheriff's office
operations
before making cuts.
And it wasn't just the sheriff's operations that
(07:37):
the commissioners didn't understand.
The commissioners began eliminating
county department positions without first talking to the
department heads.
Our county clerk and chief assessor each attended
the June 10th Board of Commissioners meeting and
expressed their disappointment for not being consulted
before the commissioners decided which of their employees
(07:59):
to cut.
The county clerk informed the commissioners that they
were cutting mandated services,
positions supported by Oregon law.
She stated that if necessary, they could contact
the governor and declare a fiscal emergency.
The chief assessor informed the commissioners that she
had been in contact with the Department of
Revenue
(08:20):
about the commissioners making a motion to remove
2 of her employees.
She also commented on mister Trost's threat to
file a lawsuit against the Department of Revenue
if they interfered with the commissioner's actions.
Mister Trost's threat lends itself to the current
state of the legal department
being a 145
percent over budget,
(08:42):
and that's the budget they just spent weeks
working on.
To summarize, the Board of Commissioners, knowing nothing
about operations in the sheriff's office or county
departments,
went about cutting positions without first talking to
Sheriff Ward and county department heads. They base
their careless and damaging decisions on the erroneous
(09:02):
use of 2 methodologies,
metrics and span of control,
neither of which should ever have been introduced
into their budget cutting process.
And the carelessness
continues.
During the October 17th meeting, mister Trost proclaimed
that the commissioners owed it to themselves
and the taxing districts within the county to
(09:24):
order a forensic audit of the county finance
department.
Not just one forensic audit, but that a
forensic audit be completed every 3 years.
Let me explain.
A forensic audit is an in-depth examination of
a company's or individual's financial records to uncover
evidence of fraud, misconduct,
(09:45):
embezzlement, or irregularities.
The purpose of a forensic audit is to
gather evidence that can be used in court.
Like the other words and phrases they've used
to support their gross misjudgment,
their comments in favor of forensic audit suggests
that not one of them knew the meaning
of that to which they all agreed.
(10:06):
So the question becomes, if the commissioners,
counselor Fitzgerald
and commissioner elect,
think that a forensic audit is necessary now
and that they'll need additional forensic audits every
3 years,
who would it is it in the finance
department
that they suspect of criminal behavior, fraud, or
(10:27):
embezzlement,
and why would they allow an employee they
suspect today
to continue working for the county until their
planned forensic audit 3 years from now?
Holy goodness.
The next thing that I will discuss is
another, board of commissioners
(10:49):
talk.
Okay. And so for everyone that's tuning in,
this is the Quality Living with Peaceful Support
show. And we have
Georgia
Cockerham
giving a really juicy detailed report on the
for the health of Curry County
and from the commissioner's board meeting.
(11:12):
Thank you, Georgia. Please continue.
Okay.
There are a few words and phrases
running through the board of commissioners' board meetings,
one of them being transparency.
Mister Trost alluded to transparency
during his November 6th
rant.
He seemed out of control as he stared
(11:32):
at those around him, raising his voice
and using expletives
in an attempt to make his
point. He stated, and I quote, all we
have done since we've been up here is
ask for more transparency,
unquote.
Yes. They have demanded demanded transparency
from others, but how transparent have they been
(11:54):
with the public?
Following the failed levy last May, a member
of the budget committee commented about the manner
in which the board of commissioners presented the
levy to the public,
resulting in the public believing the levy was
only about the sheriff's office, when in reality,
a past levy would have also provided considerable
funding for the county departments.
(12:16):
Mister Trost acknowledged
that the commissioners had discussed
discussed how much information they should provide to
the public
and intentionally
decided to present it as a law enforcement
levy
knowing that it would have dramatic impacts on
all aspects of county government.
There was a clear and intentional decision to
(12:38):
put transparency
aside and keep the citizens in the dark
about the full impact of the levy.
It was recently mentioned that the
last,
levy
didn't pass because the public didn't trust the
sheriff's office or the Board of Commissioners.
Well, that's wrong.
The public does trust the sheriff's office. It's
(13:00):
the commissioners they don't trust.
Lack of transparency
has also been an issue for mister Alcorn
and his repetitive insistence
that he will come up with a plan
for public safety.
At the June 10th budget meeting, mister Alcorn
stated to the budget committee,
what we agreed upon and what we voted
on is not going to work.
(13:23):
So,
I put together this plan.
This plan starts with reorganizing
the structure of the sheriff's office,
and that's a quote.
This was the first plan mister Alcorn put
together with no understanding of how the sheriff's
office operates,
and without first talking to the sheriff
(13:43):
about his plan before presenting it to the
public.
For several reasons,
mister Alcorn's explanation of his plan was dismissed
during that meeting.
It has been 6 months since the commissioners
defunded the sheriff's office and still have no
viable plan to restore safety to Curry County.
(14:05):
During these 6 months, mister Alcorn has mentioned
several times
that he has a plan.
However, he's never explained just what his plan
is.
This again reflects the secretive non transparent
actions of the commissioners.
Maybe the commissioner should be required to explain
their secret plan
and provide a detailed list of the associated
(14:27):
costs
to the citizens.
With this information, Curry County citizens could compare
the cost of keeping our sheriff's office against
the cost of mister Alcorn's plan.
Going on now to bring you more current,
do you know about the recent efforts by
(14:47):
a group of citizens to obtain the Board
of Commissioners agreement to put on the ballot
next May a law enforcement levy?
This would be a levy promoted by the
citizens specifically for the sheriff's office.
It would be used to hire 5 more
patrol deputies,
2 dispatchers,
and 1 sergeant.
(15:07):
The levy would provide funding for the sheriff's
office sufficient to eliminate its financial dependency
upon the commissioner's funding approval.
Ending the sheriff's office dependency upon the county
would leave about a 1,250,000
in the County General Fund and Road Funds.
(15:29):
The levy would be for a dollar 12
of assessed property value. It would last for
no more than 5 years and could be
shortened if a permanent source of funding to
arise.
I am working with a group of citizens,
and have been working with them,
presenting
this levy and the idea of it to
(15:51):
the Board of Commissioners, and thus far,
the Board of Co Commissioners
has not indicated that they would approve putting
it on the ballot for us. That's all
we would need the commissioners to do.
So we would be able to hire the
5 additional patrol deputies, 2 dispatchers, 1 sergeant,
and cover a substantial
(16:13):
amount of money other than that that is
currently funding the sheriff's office out of the,
out of the county,
and what we want is
to make the sheriff's office independent
of the county financing.
There's been an expected increase in crime since
the commissioners determined how much of the 17,000,000
(16:36):
in road funds they would use for sheriff's
office patrol deputies.
They chose to fund only 3 patrol deputies,
knowing that crime would increase and that the
deputies could not be at all places at
one time.
Curry County spans 100 miles north to south.
If a crime occurs in Langless
and one patrol deputy is attending a training
(16:58):
program,
another is out sick, and the remaining deputy
answering a call in Brookings,
it will take considerable time for the deputy
in Brookings to arrive at the Langla scene.
If your family goes to a Chetko River
Campground for an enjoyable day of recreation
and you find a homeless camp blocking the
entrance,
(17:18):
chances are there will be no deputy available
to immediately respond to a call.
If you are gone for the weekend
and
someone breaks into your garage
or someone breaks into your shed, or even
your home,
you can call the sheriff's office. However, rather
than a deputy immediately
responding,
(17:39):
you will be asked to complete a written
report, and it will be addressed as soon
as they are able.
There are some Curry County citizens who don't
believe road funds should be used for the
Sheriff's Office Patrol,
even though Oregon law provides for just this
use.
There are some citizens
who, because they live in the city,
(18:01):
think they do not have a need for
the sheriff's office.
This too is short sighted.
As crime goes up in Curry County, our
property values will fall. If the sheriff's office
is denied adequate funding to operate the 911
emergency dispatch center and it is outsourced to
a separate company,
you will pay for that.
(18:21):
If due to increased crime, city police are
asked to respond outside of their city limits,
you will pay for that.
If the sheriff's office is not able to
maintain the jail and that service must be
privatized to an outside company,
you will pay for that.
Would research
show that the cost to outsource all of
(18:43):
the functions now handled by our sheriff's office
would be in excess of the dollar 12
per 1,000 of assessed value as proposed in
the Citizens' Levy?
It has been 6 months since the commissioners
defunded the sheriff's office,
and still they have no viable plan to
resource safe restore safety
(19:03):
to Curry County.
And so some of our listeners,
may not have,
all that much of an idea of how
exactly this process works
because we're hearing that the Board of Commissioners
are
making decisions and creating plans without talking to
certain department heads and things of that nature.
(19:24):
And then how involved is
our city
council with the board of commissioners? Do they
meet regularly?
Or how does that work? Well, that's a
great question,
Amanda.
It would be my guess that the great
majority of listeners
(19:44):
are not aware of the power
that they put into the commissioner's hands when
they vote for them. Mhmm. And clearly,
with the budget crisis,
the
current
individuals
serving on the board of commissioners
do not have the executive level experience,
(20:07):
and education to have been able to handle
this.
And that's, yeah, that's
been pointed out to quite from quite a
lot of, people in town. They're questioning
how how and where did this come from.
They and so
where we're at now,
it's most important listeners to,
(20:30):
if if you,
to get more information to actually go
to the,
meetings and or tune into 100.7,
the Quality Living Show.
And then thankfully, we have phenomenal
community
citizens such as Georgia that take initiative to
(20:51):
not only go there, but also
to be a responsible
participant
in providing this information to us. And so,
what are some,
how can they how can our listeners get
in touch with you
if they wanted to hear more or when
(21:11):
can we remind them? Because they may not
all if you're everyone's welcome to go to
past shows and listen, but when exactly is
our board of commissioners meeting?
The first Wednesday
and
I believe the third
Thursday. Although,
I would ask that they confirm that Mhmm.
On the website.
(21:32):
1st Wednesday,
I I will be at the commissioner's meeting
this Wednesday.
That's at 6 PM,
and then on the, I believe, 3rd Thursday
of each month, it is at 4 PM.
And if you cannot attend the meetings,
they are live on video. You are able
to log on to
(21:54):
Curry County Commissioners meeting and put in the
date,
and you will be able to hear it
live. They are recorded so you can then
go back, which I have done with many
of the meetings. You can go back and
listen to exactly what is being said. Mhmm.
My email address, if anyone would like to
(22:14):
contact me and receive the specific
resources
that I have used
from these meetings. I can give you the
meeting date,
the hour, and the the,
minutes into the meeting
that these quotes occur, and then you can
listen to the meeting, what is said both
before and after in order to get the
full context
(22:36):
of what has been said. My email address
is my first and last name, georgiacockerham@msn.com.
That's Georgia spelled like the state,
coccherham@msn.com.
If any of you are interested in in
learning more about what I've spoken of, I
(22:58):
would be more than happy to, again, give
you resources and talk about this with you.
If I may,
I will mention,
I will mention one other thing,
and this may help too with your listeners'
understanding of what's going on.
(23:19):
There is a big difference between the sheriff's
office
and
the county departments.
The sheriff's office
is one of the major divisions of the
executive branch of the government,
and this is what I'm about to tell
you comes from Black's Law Dictionary
(23:41):
in defining
the Office of the Sheriff.
The Office of the Sheriff is not simply
another department of county government.
The internal operation of an Office of Sheriff
is the sole responsibility
of the elected sheriff.
County department heads,
such as the county finance department,
(24:03):
are subordinate
to a county governing body, that being the
commissioners,
because a department is truly only a division
of county government.
The office of sheriff is a statutory
constitutional
office
having exclusive
powers and authority
under state law and our state constitution.
(24:25):
These inherent powers are not subject to the
dictates of a local county governing body, such
as the commissioners.
So the use of the term department implies
being a subordinate
unit of government.
The use of the term office
implies inherent powers and independent
(24:46):
sovereignty.
So our Sheriff,
one of the the,
things that the commissioners
continually
seem to bring up is,
why isn't the sheriff here?
Why isn't the sheriff doing what we want?
Why isn't the sheriff,
answering our questions?
(25:07):
Well, the sheriff doesn't have to show up
at the board of commissioners meetings, and the
sheriff did answer their questions. Commissioner Alcorn came
up with 50 questions,
and the sheriff, his captain, and lieutenant were
all,
participants in answering those questions.
And at one point,
(25:29):
after the questions were answered,
mister Alcorn stated that was all that was
needed. He thanked the sheriff and said he
understood.
But subsequent to that meeting,
we hear over and over again, well, why
isn't the sheriff here answering our questions, or
why isn't the sheriff telling us
about our safety?
(25:49):
Was that the sheriff that took the safety
away? It's the commissioners
that took the safety away,
and
they know that crime is up.
They warned
people that crime was going to go up.
So they understood
before they determined that 3 patrol
deputies is all that they would fund.
(26:11):
They knew
that this was
defunding the sheriff's office was going to increase
crime in our county.
Oh my. That is just very
full.
I don't even have words because it's like,
it almost doesn't feel
it's like, how could that even be?
It's because we don't know enough to pay
(26:33):
attention
to who we are putting into positions of
power.
And,
unfortunately, we don't have a large population in
this area. So a lot of times, one
person is running for a position,
and there's no one running against them. Oh,
geez. End up in a position of power.
Yeah. Wow. And that's that's very I've seen
that actually. Yes. I'm sure it happens
(26:55):
Yeah. A lot. Yeah. And,
so,
we
can
participate by educating ourselves more,
And that's kind of the the main
goal. And,
we want to give a special thank you
for your time today and and the time
that you give on Wednesdays Thursdays and on
(27:17):
your spare time to write
as you are a published author. It's
it's good to, be able to hear parts
and bits and pieces of your work. And
if people wanna hear more of what Georgia
does and has
listeners, you can find her on color and
words
by georgia.com.
(27:38):
And we thank you so much for your
time. Thank you, Amanda. I appreciate the opportunity
to educate the public. Beautiful. And we'll keep
it keep it going. Alright. Thank you, listeners.
Have a great evening.