Josephine County’s elected officials met for the first time Thursday to fill two vacancies, after recalls left the board with too few members to conduct business.
Only one commissioner remains in office on the three-person board, after two were recently recalled by voters.
Andreas Blech — who himself was appointed to fill a seat left open by recalled John West — resigned in December after recall petitioners submitted enough signatures. Chris Barnett chose instead to face a recall election on Jan. 6, in which voters overwhelmingly decided to kick him out.
Barnett resigned Monday, just days before the election was certified. He said he was resigning over personal safety, not because of the recall.
The vacancies forced a temporary board made up of the county’s other elected officials to convene to fill the open seats. Members of the temporary panel include the sheriff, treasurer, county clerk, assessor, surveyor and legal counsel.
Voters approved a charter amendment in the 1990s that defined this temporary board, in an attempt to prevent the governor from filling those vacancies under state law.
The board agreed to fill both of the vacancies, rather than just the one needed to meet quorum requirements. County Assessor Chris Parton said they want to make sure the board’s authority isn’t challenged later.
“You also don't want to hang that around whoever ends up in the spot, with accusations of being illegitimate or anything like that," he said. "It's important that we get that right.”
Barnett had attempted to fill Blech's seat, but his colleague Ron Smith recused himself from the process, denying a quorum.
County Treasurer Dustin Calvo, who was elected chair of the temporary panel, said people were already trying to influence the process.
“I want it to be unbiased," he said. "I want it to be very transparent, be very much, 'we're doing what's best for the county,' and not what somebody else is trying to get us to do.”
Applications will open this week and be due at midnight on Feb. 8. They then expect to pick finalists to interview publicly the following week before making the appointments.
Last time, around 30 people applied for just one open seat. This process is moving swiftly because right now, the county commission can’t conduct any business.
