This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
Lincoln County commissioners broke several public meeting laws when they privately cast votes on hiring freeze exemptions in 2025, according to findings by Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigators.
On Friday, the ethics commission is expected to approve a final order agreeing to the findings and issue letters of education to commissioners Walter Chuck and Casey Miller. It’s the last step of a year-long process after Miller objected to the hiring process and filed a complaint with the ethics commission last July.
When county commissioners approved their 2025-26 budget, they balanced a $4 million shortfall with a hiring freeze – impacting about 20 vacant positions. Department heads could apply for exceptions, which had to be approved by county commissioners. The issue was publicly contentious, as District Attorney Jenna Wallace issued multiple news releases and called for the public to show up at commission meetings to demand some of her vacant positions be unfrozen.
Rather than voting to approve or deny exemption requests in a public meeting, human resources director David Collier conducted an email system asking commissioners to privately cast their votes electronically – a “yes” vote, a “no” vote, or to abstain. The agency’s stipulated facts for Miller and Chuck’s final orders conflict on whether the process was approved by the county’s attorneys.
The commission’s investigators determined the votes broke several of Oregon’s public meeting laws.
Miller stopped participating and alerted the ethics commission to the issue in July. The commission voted to conduct an investigation in October. Initially, Commissioner Claire Hall was also named in the investigation but was removed after her unexpected death in January.
Ethics commission investigators found the actions to violate several meeting laws – including a law that prohibits commissioners from deciding or deliberating on a decision in private. Their actions also violated laws around giving public notice for meetings, recording and taking minutes, investigators found.
Chuck was found in violation of additional laws than Miller because he cast a vote, where Miller did not. Even though Miller alerted the ethics commission he was still found to violate meeting laws because of his responsibility as a public official, according to the commission’s staff report.
“Despite not establishing the process and despite not responding to the emails regarding the exemption requests, as a Lincoln County commissioner, Casey Miller is responsible for ensuring the requirements of Public Meetings Law were followed as a member of the governing body,” the final order reads.
Both commissioners will receive letters of education rather than a financial penalty, putting the year-long complaint to rest.
Miller, who stopped the unethical hiring process last year by filing the complaint, said in a statement Tuesday that he’s “comfortable receiving a letter of education.”
“I brought this matter forward to get clarity and to improve,” he said. “There’s too much distrust in institutions; we can rebuild that trust by making decisions collectively. I believed we could utilize a better process. The Oregon Government Ethics Commission affirmed that. Transparency does not weaken county government. Meeting laws ensure the community has understanding of how and why we make decisions.”
Chuck was appointed to the commission in 2025 but lost his seat to former sheriff Curtis Landers in the May primary election. Miller is in a runoff with Cathie Rigby and Cristen Don and Joe Steere are vying for Hall’s seat in the November general election.