This story was originally published by YachatsNews.com and is used with permission.
Three elected law enforcement officials and three treatment providers blasted Lincoln County commissioners Wednesday for trying to make last-minute changes to months of their collaborative work on a new state-funded drug “deflection” program.
But Lincoln County presiding judge Sheryl Bachart, Lincoln County Sheriff Curtis Landers and district attorney Jenna Wallace had to use 3-minute public comment time at the end of Wednesday’s commission meeting to voice their complaints because the issue was not on the agenda — despite two requests by commission chair Casey Miller that it be discussed.
“This is the only forum I have to speak to you,” Bachart angrily said, adding that emails and phone calls to county administrator Tim Johnson, county counsel Kristin Yuille and commissioners have gone unanswered. “I’ve been completely ignored.”
The acrimony was preceded by a 30-minute statement from Miller that hinted at Johnson’s possible departure after two years in the job, questioning Yuille’s involvement in deflection decisions and administrative work during Johnson’s recent absences, and asking whether apparent decisions on the program were properly handled under Oregon’s open meetings law.
Wednesday’s criticisms were spurred by Yuille’s statement to a deflection work group meeting two weeks ago that county administrators and commissioners Kaety Jacobson and Claire Hall thought the coordinator position should not be in the district attorney’s office – and the inability of work group members to discuss it with commissioners.
In his statement, Miller said that such a decision was made without his knowledge and could have violated state meeting law requirements.
Oregon lawmakers voted this year to recriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs and allocated millions of dollars toward rehabilitation options as an alternative to jail. The legislation also encouraged counties to set up “deflection” programs to allow people to avoid court and jail and have their arrest expunged if they successfully complete a rehabilitation program.
Lincoln County and 27 of Oregon’s 36 counties are setting up programs funded by $20.7 million in grants. Lincoln County is getting $341,500 for the work.
The money is to pay for a new position of “deflection coordinator” and help cover the treatment for any offenders who take that option. After three months of meetings, a work group that included Miller, Bachart, Landers, Wallace, a defense attorney, and social service agencies determined the best place for that position was in the district attorney’s office.
Two weeks ago, Miller, Landers and other committee members say Yuille told them it had been “administratively determined” with the blessing of Hall and Jacobson that the best place for that position was in the county’s parole and probation office, not the DA’s office. But there was no explanation or discussion with the subcommittee as to why.
Under longstanding meeting protocol, Hall and Jacobson did not respond to Miller’s statement or his many questions Wednesday.
But in statements Thursday to YachatsNews, Hall disputed Miller’s characterizations and Jacobson said she did not agree to anything.
In her statement, Hall said she simply wanted to know why the position was in the district attorney’s office and asked Johnson and Yuille to study if it might be better in already-established positions in community corrections or health and human services departments.
“I asked to see the notes of the subcommittee meetings in order to better understand how they arrived at this recommendation,” Hall said in her statement. “I was astonished to learn that no notes were taken, and that the meetings had not been noticed as required by public meetings law. Four elected officials were at that table — a judge, the district attorney, the sheriff and a county commissioner. I am still baffled why they allowed this breach to take place.”
Jacobson said Thursday that after seeing the description of the coordinator’s position “I was concerned about the lack of resources the state was providing for deflection.” She thought the county could save money on staffing costs by assigning someone in corrections those duties so “we could provide more services to those in deflection and better serve them.”
Jacobson also said she discussed her concerns with staff.
“I didn’t feel I had agreed to anything, but was doing my due diligence and providing feedback to Mr. Johnson, who was tasked with following up,” Jacobson said in her statement.
The three county law enforcement officials and treatment providers lambasted commissioners for not trusting their collaboration to set up a program in just a few months’ time.
The apparent decision to move the coordinator out of the district attorney’s office doesn’t make sense to them, they all said, and is causing delays in getting the program started that could jeopardize lives.
“If you don’t make a decision and move this forward, Lincoln County loses. People will die,” Bachart told commissioners in a trembling voice after Miller angrily overruled Yuille from trying to cut off the judge’s comments after three minutes. “I’m not trying to be dramatic here, but this opportunity for recovery is something our community needs …”
Others told YachatsNews on background that the whole issue of where a single position should be placed in a county with 500 employees illustrates growing dysfunction or disarray in the commissioner’s office and regular disagreements over budgeting with other elected officials.
Bachart, Landers and Wallace emphasized that it was that lack of trust that also bothered them.
In her comments, Wallace – who was elected to the district attorney’s position in May and was appointed in June by Gov. Tina Kotek after controversial former district attorney Lanee Danforth resigned – said she had hoped the “tumultuous history” between the DA’s office and commissioners was over.
“I was hoping for a fresh start,” she said. “I know you probably don’t trust me. You probably didn’t want me to be in this position.”
But she said the deflection work group has a “Plan A” and if it doesn’t work, they’ll fix it.
“Put a little faith in me and my office and the program,” Wallace said.
Landers – who is retiring when his term ends in December and has endorsed Hall’s opponent in November’s general election – told commissioners he was disappointed the deflection group has not been able to discuss its work with the full board. Landers added that he’s not sure why Yuille was involved in telling the group that Hall and Jacobson wanted the sole, new position in a different department.
“We should have been well on our way if they would have let us do our job,” Landers later told YachatsNews.
It is unclear what happens next.
It was thought Wednesday that commissioners might need to call a special meeting Friday to approve a revised grant application that included details of the deflection coordinator. Landers later found out the application only had to be revised and sent in by 5 p.m. Thursday to reflect a $35,500 increase in the county’s grant.
But Miller’s long statement prior to comments from Bachart, Landers, Wallace and three principals at the Phoenix Wellness Center also brought up other issues, including: Other issues surface
- Although Johnson has been the county’s first administrator since April 2022, commissioners only recently finished their first evaluation of his work. Miller wanted this to be discussed in executive (closed) session — as every other local government does – but said he was told by Yuille and the county’s human resources office that only he should discuss the three commissioners’ evaluations with Johnson;
- Miller said both he and Johnson are confused about the evaluation process, where it stands, and that Johnson may decide not to go through it. “In the interim I suggest we let Administrator Johnson get back to the work he is doing for us. And I can talk with him about bringing you an exit strategy and succession plan for his remaining tenure in the coming months that allows him time to finish and/or hand over the projects he has been tasked in a manner that captures the best of what has been provided to us from him and allows us also to create clear and reasonable expectations of him during his final tenure and prepares us with better equipped and clear expectations for future individuals who work in the position.”
- In Johnson’s absences recently, Miller said the administrator’s duties had fallen to Yuille without seemingly being designated by commissioners as required in the 3-year-old ordinance establishing the position, its duties and what happens when the administrator is away. He asked for a list of what Yuille has been doing and for commissioners to discuss more formally designating the administrator’s stand-in;
- Numerous questions about whether commissioners were following Oregon law when it came to responding to emails from the human relations department on Johnson’s evaluation, and whether commissioners’ weekly staff meetings and those of a local law enforcement public policy committee and the deflection work group were subject to open meetings rules.
At the beginning of his statement, Miller said he was laying out a long list of questions to staff and commissioners and “that I and the community deserve answers to these questions.”
“I am being very deliberate in proposing these questions and have highlighted them in yellow,” he said. “I also recognize that these are my truths and my analysis. You may not be comfortable answering them today. I’ll understand if you need time to respond. This is lengthy report, and this may be the first time you’ve considered these points of view that I am proposing.”