Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 02-25-25_TUESDAY_7AM

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

State Senator Noah Robinson with a legislative update, fire map rally and more today. Former State Senator Baertschiger and I discuss homelessness policy. Looking like many in southern Oregon have had a bellyful of this issue.

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Clouser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at clouserdrilling.com. Here's Bill Myers. Reporting from the Marble Nuthouse, State Senator Noah Robinson rejoiced the program. How are you doing this morning, Noah? Great to have you on. It's great to be on. Thank you very much for inviting me. All right. How nutty is the nuthouse right now?

Is it nutty, getting nuttier, nuttier right now and becoming less nutty? How would you judge the temperature? Because no one's safe as long as the state legislature is in session. We know that every year, and this is the big one. That's right. And early in the session is when everyone is looking around and saying, well, it's not too bad yet. We hope things are okay. But the real problems usually develop farther into the session than this.

We have things coming up like in the Energy Committee. You know they made you pay five cents at the grocery store for every bag you get. Oh, that came from the Energy Committee? I never knew that. Well, actually, I don't know which committee it originally came from the energy committee i never knew that well i don't know actually i don't know which committee it originally came from but in the committee is an expansion of that where you won't be able to get anything except paper you'll have to pay for it still okay no no wait a minute wait a minute years ago weren't they telling us that the paper bag was the was the horrible thing wonderful yes it was cutting we were going to lose all the trees, right? This is it. We all had to switch to plastic because the paper was in short supply.

But now if this bill goes through and they're pushing you pretty hard, you will only be able to have paper. So that means that when you go to some stores and they will charge you and then you get those really heavy-duty paper or plastic bags, the ones that can be used multiple times. And I actually save those ones when I get them. We wouldn't be able to get those any longer? Yep, those would be illegal at the checkout. Now, you could buy them somewhere else in the store, but you couldn't buy them at the checkout. Couldn't buy them at the checkout, okay.

I love it when the legislature is choosing what I'm allowed to buy for my own good. It's my favorite behavior coming out of the legislature. I love it. Exactly. And if you calculate it, I figure about a hundred people spend full time just interacting with the gas on average. If you add up a little bit of time everybody spends, there's a hundred full--time equivalent just interacting over, do you want a bag? How many bags do you need? It used to be convenient.

Now it's a mess. Yeah, I guess so. That's being a serious thing because, you know, I was reading that there was a new fight coming over plastic bags. So this is what it is. It's just going to ban the plastic and then back to the, all right. Now, if you're going to have to have us have only paper bags can we guarantee that the paper bags have a certain weight capacity then so that way we're not

spilling our groceries on our foot i mean this is for a safety rule i'm kind of teasing you half teasing you here noah but they're you better watch out or there'll be an amendment on that and the bag is going to cost ten dollars that's right they'll be cardboard bags right you know they with thick cardboard with handles i don't know yeah the same bill the same bill is also going after the little plat the little shampoo bottles in hotel rooms those will be illegal and it will be illegal for a fast food restaurant to give you plastic silverware without asking this just makes everything more convenient. You know, these are some of the most violated laws that we have in this state.

I swear the state legislature is trying to turn everybody into a criminal because, you know how I know the existing law right now says they're not supposed to, well, they have to, you have to ask if you wanted a drinking straw, as an example. Well, I know that you go through most drive-thrus, they just stick it in the bag. They know you want it, right? That's right. And if you want a plastic bag at the grocery store, the best time to ask is after they rung you up.

You might just get it anyway. Okay. What about, though, the fire fire map this is the one i'm concerned about and today is going to be the big rally i know there are buses uh one just departed grants pass one departed medford earlier this morning and maybe maybe more buses i don't know but uh there are people that are going to be joining the rally what do you know what is the current status of senate bill 762 is it teetering on life support or uh are the democrats going to fight to the death to be able to destroy rural landowners

well on the fire maps themselves the indication is that the democrats realize they've overreached and want to repeal them now nothing has happened yet i have a full repeal bill, 678. It has not been, there's no hearing scheduled for it yet. At the same time, Senator Golden has stated on the Senate floor that he thinks that the fire maps aren't working and we need to repeal them. Senator Broadman has said the same thing. He's another Democrat. Of course, the Republicans are united on this. I haven't heard from any Democrats who are supporting it. And really, I think the debate right now is whether we get a full repeal of 762 or just the fire maps. And, of course, 762 did do other things.

My preference when a bill has caused this much trouble, because he did have some things in there for fire suppression and money spent here and there. Yeah, what were some of the other things? Because Senator Golden has said on the show, he says there are good things about it, but we didn't really get into the granularity of that. Could you help us out? Was there anything good in Senate Bill 762 worth saving? The thing that I like most, and I haven't evaluated how well it's worked, but there were some cameras put up to try to see smoke early, try to detect fires early. Okay. All right. I mean, that's reasonable. At least it's attempting

to put out fires. That's good. That's right. There were other things. There was some money spent on programs to try to suppress fires in various ways. And what ought to be done, because it's been four years, is every one of those little programs should be evaluated, see how effective it was. And I particularly like detection technology. I think if we could see the fires early and put them out early, we'd be way ahead. And I think the technology probably could do that. I'm trying to find out if something exists that could see most of the state, and I don't know the answer to that yet, but it's the right way to go. That sort of thing is good. So I would personally prefer to repeal the whole thing, then look through it for anything that was useful, and put that in another bill just because of the whole situation. I think more realistically,

we will probably have to just repeal the fire maps themselves. And as long as that covers the fire maps and everything associated with it, and isn't some temporary hole that is still there, if that part is completely gone and anything related to homeowners on it, then that works, too. We just need to get rid of the fire maps. And it's urgent. People are being hurt right now. They don't know whether they're going to be able to continue living on their property. Senator, wasn't there a part of Senate Bill 762 that also repealed the limitation on the ability of ODF to assess a property owner for fire protection services? Or I forget exactly what it was like. There was a limit reasons Senate Bill 762 was created was to find a way, some kind of a Trojan horse, some kind of political leverage to transfer firefighting costs from, like, BLM lands and Forest Service lands that burn over into public lands.

They wanted to transfer the liability, really, from the state over to the landowners that live out in the rural lands, wouldn't you say? I mean, it's kind of the way I read it. That's exactly what it did. That's what the fire maps did. We took the responsibility for, you know, the forests have been mismanaged for decades. Right. And so now we're going to put this all on the homeowners. They're going to have to, and it's wrong.

Yeah, it sucks to be that you live near forests, right? That's right. And I hear from property owners who have been very careful to try to fireharden their property as much as possible on their own. Right. But what they can't do anything about is the government land, which is right next to their property, which is... Essentially, you're living next to irresponsible, arsonist-controlled lands.

You know, they'll just... And by the way, I'm not saying that the employees of BLM and Forest Service want it this way. It's kind of a federal policy. It's been, you know, you can't harvest it, you can't do anything with it, and you can't burn enough of it in prescribed burning to keep it

safe. So something's going to happen, right? It's almost like it's the attractive nuisance that is happening. And remember that a few decades ago, they started getting rid of the roads in the forest. There used to be all these logging roads, some of them very well maintained. So you had fire breaks. You had ways of getting equipment easily into the forest. And they, for the most part, didn't eliminate them, but they just took them off the maps and let them grow up

so that you no longer had access inside these forests in case of a problem. So the whole government policy has been to just let the thing decay and let it burn, and this is where we are now. Now, is there any talk about repealing that ability for ODF to pretty much charge the sky's the limit for assessments on properties. Yes, I have not heard any talk about that, but that should be done. Because you knew that, as far as I was concerned, the fix was in when they removed that limitation. That limitation was actually a private property protection mode, I thought. Yeah, exactly. No, that should be done. And I am also very interested in,

like I was mentioning earlier, the question is how effectively can you put out the fires? They need to be done. We need to be able to see the fires as early as possible. We need to be equipped to put them out as fast as possible because the fires are expensive and damaging when they burn out of control. So the goal of ODF and W should be to put these fires out quickly, not wait around and not try to blame on the property owners and go down. You know how much money and effort has been wasted on these maps, even if you get them repealed? It's crazy.

We should be focused in another direction. Are you suspicious when – maybe suspicious isn't the right term, but, well, i'll say it i'm a little suspicious with uh governor kotex uh push to say okay we're not going to do anything involving the administrative uh rules or these hearings about the wildfire map until after the state legislative session is over and there was a part of me that was concerned that, all right, she's trying to put the landowners to sleep so that they don't get their appeals filed before the March 10th or not. Do you have an opinion on that? I don't know. Well, the result of that press release she put out was that there were headlines all over the

state basically implying that. So there's going to be a lot of confusion. Whatever she meant by it, a lot of property owners are going to think, okay, everything's on hold, but it isn't. If you want an appeal, you have to appeal by the March 10th deadline. She has sort of tied how are we going to fund wildfires to repealing the maps. It's not clear what she meant by that, but it looks like that's a press release. And this is a repeal that needs an emergency clause and needs to be done immediately because people are hiring lawyers. They're worrying now. They don't know what they're going to be able to do on their property. And this whole deal with the uncertainty around what

are your insurance rates going to be, that depends on sort of a stable situation. And I don't think insurance rates are going to immediately go down because we repeal the fire maps. And you've got a very uncertain situation. And so we need to start on this immediately. I think it's been dangerous what has been allowed to happen because of the improper managing of forests or the lack of attention to this for a long time. And I would uh tie this into what we saw like down in los angeles same sort of thing too senator because i'm concerned that

we out on the west coast because of horrendous forest and and land planning you know around this around our area our neck of the woods out here on the West Coast, are going to become uninsurable because there's no way that an insurance company could pencil insuring for fire coverage. Any thought about that? Did he talk about that in the state legislature? Well, that's exactly right. And many properties in my district are not insurable now. Owners cannot get insurance or it's ridiculously expensive.

So this is a very real problem, and it needs to be addressed. We need to figure out how to clean up the forest. There's a lot of brush out there. I sort of favor putting cows out in the forest. It works great. I mean, farmers do this. You put it on your – before the fire season starts, you put cattle out on your field. Yeah, but then that goes against the no moo by 2032 or whatever it is, you know, the whole agenda coming out of the BLM, right?

You remember those kind of stories that would come out. Well, yes, they want to get rid of cows, but, you know, most people like hamburgers. And I think we should go down a practical route. The rationality in these agencies is not something you should expect, and we have to reject it some other way. What kind of reaction in the state legislature has been filtering down from the very strong possibility that Oregon could find itself subject to lawsuits based on grand stream funding and sanctuary status, sanctuary state status. A discussion there? Just curious. Well, I have heard a little rumors, and I think the other party is kind of worried about that. So Dan Rayfield, of course, is puffing his little pigeon chest out and filing lawsuits and joining lawsuits.

And secretly he's kind of concerned about this, though, is what you're saying. That would be my guess. Remember that politicians worry about money above all else. If they can spend tax money, they're happy. Losing those grants is not something they're going to let happen, in my opinion. Okay. So we'll likely be seeing some modification of how fervently we'll defend sanctuary state law, I'll bet. That's what I would expect, but they could surprise me.

All right, another question I had before you take off, and I'm sorry to just pepper you, because it's been a few weeks since we last talked, Noah. State Senator Noah Robinson, Governor Kotick ended up popping into the state legislature yesterday, and she's pushing a bill that would create a statewide homeless shelter system. Cost about a quarter of a billion dollars over the next couple of years. This was reported in Oregon Live. I don't know, have you heard anything about that? I know it's probably on the House side. Maybe it's on the House side yet. Have you heard? Because it's a lot of money. I have not heard of that, and I am very suspicious of those sorts of programs.

I don't think it will solve the problem. I think they'll wind up spending a lot of money. But we'll have to look at the details of what she's trying to do, because it's not something I'm super familiar with. But they've tried this before. We're just going to build affordable housing, which always, when the government does it, winds up costing more than regular housing. And the regular housing is expensive, too. Sure.

Yeah. Well, yes. Every time the government's involved, it costs more. And these problems we have with homelessness are fundamentally, a lot of it's drug-related. And they think that they can treat all the drug addictions at the same time promoting marijuana. And it's just state policies have not been good. And I don't think you're going to fix this problem just by spending a quarter of a billion dollars. It would be nice if we could, but I'm sure I very much doubt it. All right. Appreciate the opinion. Keep us in the loop in the room there, State Senator.

Thanks for coming on. We'll have you back, all right? Be well. Thank you very much. State Senator Noah Robinson. It is 725 at KMED, 99.3 KBXG. You're on the Bill Myers Show. If you're a business owner, you know time is money. As a business owner myself, I know that your time is best spent working within your business. Hi, it's Megan McPherson, your local farmer's insurance agent. Allow me the opportunity to put my years of experience to work for you, helping with your insurance needs. Give my office a call at 541-776-0673 to start the conversation.

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of Financial Regulation, the Oregon Association of Broadcasters, and this station. This is News Talk 1063 KMED, and you're waking up with the Bill Myers Show. Whenever I saw your face, I thought the sun rose in your eyes. Remember we had announced yesterday that Roberta Flack, Grammy Award winning artist, had died. Pianist and singer, just an amazing vocalist. And of course, we all knew her from the first time ever I saw your face.

That was a big one. And I thought that was the first time it had ever been done. And Bob Hayworth sent me the kingston trios version of this and this was in the early 1960s you know something bob how entry a very different song with a different arrangement right you know the a totally different feel now even bob said that he thought that Bob Hayworth, of course, in the Kingston Trio said he thought that Roberta Flack did it better. But I thought that the Kingston Trio version of it was quite interesting, and I never knew that. Thanks for expanding my musical education there, Bob.

I really do appreciate that. It's 729. Some emails of the day, And those are sponsored by Dr. Steve Nelson and central point family dentistry, central point, family dentistry.com. And they have in-house lab now, which works really well.

And I think you would enjoy this because you can get your tooth prep. And instead of having to wait a couple of weeks or so for someone to make the crown and send it to you you they can just have it done and send to you it's pretty darn cool all right central point family dentistry.com on freeman way next to the mazatlan mexican restaurant i'm going to give uh email of the day hans albuquerque writes about the department head talk we were talking with doge and the emails going on bill i gotta compliment you on the musk questionnaire that's actually a great idea to have tasked each department and cabinet head with the duty versus an overall national response

to doge it accomplishes the gig and it keeps it tight within each department now after that cabinet head can then bring the data forth to the executive and then staff maintain security with each department, like Department of Defense, FBI, DNI, et cetera. Now, on a related note, I have a close relative who works for a DOD contractor back east who was griping about the email. The complaint was multi-pronged. First of all, she, he was pissed that it happened on a weekend. Second, they couldn't believe that they actually have to read a single email on a weekend

and actually think of a five-answer list on their, quote, personal time. The horror of it all. And this person voted for Trump. It really exemplifies, though, the total spoiled brat mentality of someone who is in the civil servant swamp. Maybe they need to look up the word servant in the dictionary. Hans, I appreciate your writing. Jerry the Bull emails me this morning too. He says, Bill,

I'm going to get straight to this point. And I think he was responding to a Jay Austin commercial that I talked about the other day about what to do with gold. Someone who had written me after Mark had been on the show, right? He says, Bill, if you own gold and you need some emergency cash, say $5,000 or less, you'll be able to get it if you own some gold. Now, it won't matter if you have a car payment, mortgage or rent obligation, poor credit score, whether you're divorced or your debt to income ratio is out of balance, or if your credit card is maxed out. If one had some gold, a coin, or a bar, possibly even jewelry, but didn't want to sell it, it could be used as collateral to secure a small loan. Yes, the loan will need to be repaid or the gold will be lost, but you will get the loan. Here's why. Money talks. It has supreme authority.

It is the ultimate asset, and even bankers will listen. This brief story was inspired by a Gen Z-er who wanted to start a business and needed a couple thousand dollars, but had a car payment, debt-to-income ratio problems, etc. I shared this information with the Gen Z-er, but it wasn't taken to heart as far as I know. I wanted to say, sell your shiny car and buy one you can afford, but I offered this suggestion instead. Like a man said to me years ago, build an asset base. Build an asset base.

Jerry. Jerry the Bull, I appreciate you writing about that. Of course, great time to talk about Jay Austin, of course, with looking at that price of gold still touching $3,000 pretty soon. Yep, you could. That is something that you could use the gold for. All right? I need a short-term loan, but I don't want to give up the gold.

But there, that's considered real money. It's a very, very good point. Jay Austin and company, it's 1632 Ashland Street in Ashland and 6th and G in downtown Grants Pass. It's not very often I kind of combine the emails of the day with a little talk about Jay Austin, but I think it's worth remembering what they're doing over there. Good people.

All right. Let's see, who else ended up? Oh, yeah. Mark from Grants Pass wrote me. If we could moderate the Salem communist legislature. It's a big if, Mark, but I'll let you write. He says, you vote, we vote. Doesn't work. They want to kill us. Portland. Understand the insurance rates for homes under

the Oregon fire map alone could cause the uprising. We're not going to pay because we cannot pay. Mark, I appreciate your opinion. Thanks for joining in. Janet noticed something on Facebook and said, kind of a funny thing in Ashland, Bill. A woman on Ashland Facebook is asking for feedback on how many people would be interested in a movie Vigilante about how the far right steals our elections. Wants to know because theater space will cost her 700 bucks. Did you respond back that you wanted to go, Janet? Oh, that's pretty funny. Butch also writes me this morning, too, about bureaucracy. He says, I've been unable to renew my registration for the Magnum.

It expired in June, but it's insured. I decided to skip a mortgage payment and get caught up with necessity, so I went online to DMV2U, and I entered all the data for a 2005 Dodge Magnum. Somewhere along the line, I checked a box which identified my 1963 Plymouth drag car. No VIN number, no document number, zero data entered about the 63, but I got a confirmation for the 1963 drag car. This morning, I called the DMV and I pleaded stupid and I asked them to cancel the 1963 and renew the 2005. Nah, can't do it.

Not gonna do it. They want me to renew the Magnum again. I wished I had $126 to pee away again, but I don't. My solution is to take the year's stickers for the 1963, never registered in my name, about 26 years ago, and put them on the Magnum's license plates. I even went up the food chain at DMV, but no help. Had I sold the 1963, they would transfer the renewal to the Magnum. If I'm alive tomorrow, I'll call this in for pebble in my shoe Tuesday. I do agree with you regarding Elon Musk. It's really stupid to ask someone to justify their work.

How will he confirm it? Being a recovering government employee, I would suggest telling agency heads to call out less than satisfactory employees and give them a quota. I'm sure this will be resolved quickly. Michael Murphy writes me this morning about Roberta Flack and says, Bill, I went to her concert in 1973, and she told us that what inspired her to sing the first time ever was a new puppy that she had gotten. Yeah, first time ever I saw your face. That's really interesting.

Jeff Roselma says, Bill, I see the Elon move as you do, kind of like when you buy a car to fix it up. As you put money into it, it raises the value for resale. However, you can reach the point of diminishing returns. Same thing applies without landish moves. Appreciate the call and the emails there, Jeff. Email bill at billmyershow.com. Herman joins me here in a minute or two. Oregon Truck and Auto Authority is your tonneau cover source.

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PressurePointRoofing.com and let us take care of your roof, no matter the season. News brought to you by Millette Construction, specializing in foundation repair and replacement. Get on solid ground. Visit MilletteConstruction.com. From the KMED News Center, here's what's going on. Oregon's Department of Forestry continues to accept appeals from property owners concerned about their designation of the new wildfire hazard map. Governor Tina Kotak announced last week the appeals will be put on hold while state lawmakers discuss potential changes. But still, your appeals must be filed by March 10th to reserve a place in line for future hearings.

A recent study found that the top three smokiest cities in the country from 2019 to 2023 were in Oregon, including Bend, Grants Pass, and the smokiest being Medford. The study used an algorithm that measures the impact of wildfires and smoke in a faster way. It collected two sets of data through satellite images of smoke and particulate matter. Nearly 5,000 Providence nurses voted to ratify a new contract ending a 46-day long strike at eight Oregon hospitals. Union-represented workers will see pay raises ranging from 20 to 42 percent. I'm Bill London, KMED. Medford, Grants Pass, Ashland, smokiest cities. Who knew? Yeah, I know. Let me talk with John. John, you wanted to talk about smoke and the fire map there. Quick one.

What do you say? Yeah, a couple years ago I had an incident. We had a fire near our place, and the state had upgraded their maps. They had put their maps on tablets so that the crews could find the places quicker. Only they used 10-year-old, at least 10-year-old maps, so I had to show them how to get there, because the roads that they had were washed out. Oh, and this is the upgraded maps? No. Well, hopefully they have upgraded them since. Uh-huh. Yeah. They had transferred old paper maps onto tablets.

Well, I can understand why they would do something like that, but you would think you would use new paper maps. But, of course, that would make common sense, right? Well, it's the state of Oregon. All right. I will say our local guys are good, though. Yeah, well, at least they probably know where the roads used to be, the ones that have disappeared from the map. I appreciate the call. Thanks for that, John.

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That's bestofsouthernoregon.com. Presented of southern oregon.com presented by dusty's transmissions hi this is lisa the hughes lumber girl and i'm on 106.7 kmed by the way tomorrow looking forward to talking with a ufo guy danny sheehan danny sheehan interesting attorney and has been involved in the UFO world. And there is a big UFO seminar coming to Southern Oregon University. It's going to be March 6th. And Danny has agreed to come on the show tomorrow at 810. We'll have a pretty good conversation about this because I'll tell you, the federal government seems to be wanting to throw open the books, so to speak.

And I have a feeling this is what this seminar is going to be all about. Throwing open the books and letting you take a peek inside at what some people have already said. Yeah, yeah, I already know about this, but, you know, whatever. But Danny's an interesting guy. He has been one of the go-to attorneys in this issue, okay? It's 19 before 8. Former State Senator Herman Barachiger. Herman, welcome back.

Always good to have you on here as we jawbone a little bit about politics and how things are going. How you been? I've been fine. And I would like to start off our talk today with thanking all these people that have worked tirelessly on trying to bring some, you know, realistic point of views to this Senate 62 and its fire map, because it is just a real piece of crap. It always was right from the beginning, and they've been trying to decrapify it bit by bit with various reform bills but the whole basic concept of it is about transferring liability for federal fires onto the backs of homeowners that just happen to live near federal lands i mean really that's what it was all about really yeah yeah well yeah this is the first shoe

the second shoe to drop is how how are we going to pay for firefighting in Oregon? And that's the second. And that's still coming because they do not want general fund money paying for wildland firefighting anymore. They want to free that up so they can give $218 million to the homeless. I was going to ask you about this because Oregon Live reporting this morning, I talked about this with State Senator Noah Robinson. Of course, it was in the slot that you used to hold over there in the district, right? Yep. And yeah, you're right. $218 million that she's looking to spend over the next two years.

So it's like a hundred-something million a year. It's actually not a small amount of change. Pretty good hunk of change here. And it represents the ongoing cost of supporting 4,800 shelter beds that the state already funds challenge that i see here herman is that the shelter the shelter is not the issue i mean there are issues maybe with shelters in some town well even right now there are shelters available in josephine county over at Rescue. But there aren't shelters available for drug-addicted people that want to keep doing drugs or drinking or bring their dogs in and do all the rest of it.

And it sounds like this is what she's trying to build, almost like low-barrier shelters everywhere, as far as the eye can see. Well, you know, the homeless problem, I think, is i think people have had a belly full and the only way that this individual speaking for myself would approve of any government money to help the homeless is if it was in a controlled environment and there was absolutely no way they could use drugs or alcohol in the facility and i don't think that's what the democrats want i if you look at the policies that the democrats have created in oregon over the last decade it's all very favorable to alcohol and drug abuse. There's no getting past that, and yet one of the biggest markers of you not being responsible

enough to be in a home and being able to take care of yourself is that you're a drug addict or a serious alcoholic, and now there are functional alcoholics too i mean i don't want to say i mean i've known functional alcoholics too but for the most part you're super out of control drinker if you're a super out of control drug addict you're not working you're not being able to be productive you're not able to take care of yourself it doesn't matter if they handed you a home you wouldn't be able to take care of it, right? Where are we wrong about this? And this is the part that still does not seem to have sunk into our left-wing folks up there. Because I'm looking at, by the way, the Oregon Live story here, Herman. This bill that we're talking about is the result of a joint work group led by COTEC and Representative Pam Marsh.

I can't believe it. Every time we're looking at all these intrusions that are coming out, if it's not the fire map and Jeff Golden and Pam Marsh, now it's with the homelessness with Pam Marsh. Here we are. It's like they seem to be the major lieutenants of Governor Kotek. But what it would do is direct the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department to divide the state into regions, none of them smaller than a single county and appoint regional coordinators responsible for creating annual plans for their region and overseeing the implementation of a cohesive shelter which is alcohol and drug abuse. None. Zero. You know, and and, you know, I look at Governor Kotech's quote, when I came into office, it was clear

Oregon was facing a humanitarian crisis in our state and we have to make big, bold moves. You created it with your policy. I mean, legalize marijuana, legalize hard drugs. And then her bill that they're trying to repeal, you know, that allows them to, you know, rest wherever they want to rest, in your parks, on your streets, and your schools. And they created it. And now, oh, we need to take taxpayer dollars, and we need to solve the problem and make big molds. I would add, though, that going back to that bill that she's proposed here, she's trying to get the legislature to do this year, at least 70% of the state shelter funding would be for low-barrier shelters.

In other words, this is where you go to do drugs and continue to drink like crazy, and you'd be paid at taxpayer expense. Yep. And they're wanting to spend more money on these low-barrier shelters than what they spend on wildland fires. Really? Yes. Look at the numbers.

$218 million. So you've got to remember, Bill, when you're seeing the money they're spending on wildland fires, that's not all general fund money. A lot of that comes from the landowners. But yes, they're willing to spend general fund money, hard-earned taxpayer dollars on low-barrier shelters where these people can go and do their drugs, which the legislature has made legal. You talk about a screwed-up state. I just, am I missing something, Bill? And then you would also then have the battle then of who's going to want the low barrier shelter with guaranteed drug taking and drinking problems in their neighborhood. Who would want that? Well, that prompts another discussion. What's going on right here in Josephine County?

They want to take a piece of property that's in the county. It's right on the city limits. And then they want to include it in the city limits. And then they want to go ahead and make that a place for a homeless camp and to put these tiny houses, low barrier shelters. Now, let me ask you something. If I'm a private citizen and I have a piece of property and I want to make it into a campground, do you think I can click my heels together and throw pixie dust in the air like the city does and have the zoning all changed and everything's perfectly fine? Of course not. If I wanted to make a campground on one of my pieces of property, I'd be at it for two or three years going through all the hoops. So it's absolute insanity. But like I've said before, these are the people that get

elected. And at the end of the day, the problem lies with the person that cast their vote. However, we have to put up with the disorder that has come here. Herman, you've been there in the state legislature before. Where are we on actually getting treatment? Where are we on deflection? Do you even know, remember your time as even a county commissioner with uh you know the josephine county commission here how is deflection working out have you heard are we getting people are we getting people actually put into treatment because this is the root of so much or a major portion of our homelessness issues here in southern oregon if it's not mental illness it could be mental illness in combination with a serious drug and alcohol addiction. And that's always been the question.

Of course, it's all mental illness. Anybody that wants to take drugs, be miserable, and sleep in this wretched weather has a mental problem. It's really that simple. So it is mental illness. But everything that is available to these people are outpatient. Okay, now what does outpatient mean, Herman, for those who don't know? It basically means if they want to continue drugs and everything, there's no place for them to go. A good excuse is the Gospel Rescue Mission. There's beds available there and everything, there's no place for them to go. A good excuse is the Gospel Rescue Mission. There's beds available there and everything, but guess what? You can't do drugs

if you're going to be there. Which means the beds go begging there, right? Yes, and they don't go there. So there's nothing that are forcing these people, and it is their decision. So now you have a person that is on drugs or has a alcohol, severe alcohol problem, and they're saying, oh, if you want help, you can go get it, but you have to initiate it yourself. They're not going to do it. In other words, the only way that you're going to be able to do this is probably some form of recommitment or civil commitment again that we used to do with someone that had some serious problems like this. This is going right back to my deinstitutionalizing of the state of Oregon and all the other states for that matter, not just us you're going to have to put them in a facility in which they are kept until you get them off of drugs or and get them and sober them up and at that point then you might have a chance of keeping them that way in society and then they can go to an out out uh patient program but just giving uh them a low

barrier shelter in every town taxpayer expense it might get them off of the street or keep them from going to the bathroom in someone's doorway downtown right maybe it may stop that um you know there you have to remember these people that suffer from these addictions are irrational so they don't think like you and i do that does not so just because you give them a place to go does not mean they're going to stay off the streets you know always remember they're irrational bill all right wash rinse repeat in other words is what we're hearing no but i will tell you people have had a belly full i really do i they're losing their milk of human kindness rapidly um they're just at it they can't take their kids to the parks uh they're there's you know these people are everywhere they're

harassing um the stores are suffering because of the theft in the stores. They've had it. People have had it. And I have to point out, the only way we're going to change this is by electing different people. And running the people who are currently there for the most part out. Right. Hey, Herman. Tina Kotek is out of her ever-loving mind with these policies. These policies are not going to help Oregon. It's going to make it worse. You think there's a possibility that maybe Tina Kotek's mind will be refocused in a more rational sense, given that there is likely going to be an attack on GrantStream funding that takes care of a lot of current Oregon needs out of the Trump administration.

And the Trump administration is not going to be writing hot checks to sanctuary state areas. They're just not going to do it. It made this pretty clear. I know Dan Rayfield can huff and puff and file lawsuits all he wants, but I don't know if he's necessarily going to be successful at this. No, I don't either. And my Chris Bell tells me Tina Kotek's not going to be around long.

I anticipate Senator Wyden retiring, and I anticipate Tina Kotek taking that position, being appointed to it, and then her and her wife can move back to the East Coast, where they're originally from, and serve as Oregon Senator for a long time, because the people in Portland will continue to elect her. That's what my crystal ball says. All right, interesting crystal ball. I'm going to make note of that. We'll hold you to it, Herman. All right. Hey, have a good right. All right. Hey, have a good week.

Thanks for the talk. But the bottom line, though, belly full. You know, between the belly full of homeless and the disorderly conduct around here and the criminality that comes with it, along with the fire map, it's getting pretty hot down here, wouldn't you say? A little sporty? People are upset. They're upset, you know, and now the county is really going to have some financial difficulties at the county level. I tell you, there's going to be some really, really upset people here in the next, this year. Yeah. Maybe you just need to merge with Jackson County.

I mean, Jackson County, my goodness, I'm reading that Jackson County Airport is going to expand because they're seeing all sorts of demand. It's possible, you know, but there's one thing that I do know that the Trump administration sees, and that is the $37 trillion that we have borrowed. They know that's bad. And they're not going to probably reduce it in four years, but I think President Trump

is going to do all he can to stop it from growing. He's going to have to meat exit to a certain extent. Yep. And there's no other way out for it. It's the only real exit policy that we have. Which means that everyone's going to be squealing. Everybody's going to be squealing. Now, that also makes me wonder if some of those plans to expand the Medford, you know, the Rogue Valley International Airport, because supposedly we're going to all be wealthy off of, you know, tourism and motels being full, I think is the goal. We have Rogue X and, you know, all the rest of this kind of stuff.

I wonder if some of those plans might have to be changed over time, because I have no doubt that a lot of this is probably built on assuming that there's going to be federal grants coming. Yeah, and also you've got to remember that the Rove Valley Airport is actually a significant airport here in the Pacific Northwest. It's the only real international airport between Portland and San Francisco. And so I can see the investment in there. Plus, Southern Oregon is growing in population. So if there are grant monies out there, it may, your Rogue Valley may rise to the top because of its location, and it is a regional. So maybe it's primed then to uh be better than i thought but but you know there's there's a part of me though that uh has been concerned of the

the focus on tourism because i look at tourism is uh tourism is great in great economies right but it's very discretionary very discretionary if you really look at the numbers the tourism and in southern oregon is not you would think it would is more than what it really is i've always said when i was a county commissioner and they ramp tourism tourism tourism i'd say why would anybody that lives that why would any family of four in michigan decide to take their two-week vacation to josephine county oregon well i think what's going on though is that there's a little bit of this in at least in the jackson county world of if we build it they will come and you know the city of medford if we build the uh the rogue x they will come and if we build another ball field they will come and then

we'll do this and that the other other. Jackson County is a little different. You have Crater Lake. You have the Mountain Lakes. You have Mount Ashland. You have Shakespeare's Festival and some other things like that. It's a little different than Josephine County. And maybe so. Yeah, you're right.

You're in a different situation. And Curry County has the ocean, you know. What is Josephine County? We have the Rogue River, but it is maxed out because they only issue so many permits on the lower rogues. So it's all maxed out. You can't have any more rafters down there. That's it. You're limited. And that's the only thing we really have. We have the Oregon Caves, but that's not a real big attendance for as far as national parks go. And kind of a pain to get to, you know, for most people. Yeah.

Yeah. And they're also the kind of one thing about the Oregon Caves. I mean, I'm thankful we have them. It's the kind of national park where when you go there once, you don't ever need to go again. Because once you've seen the caves, you've seen the caves. That's the only thing there is the caves. Yeah, it's one and done, right? Right.

Unless you book a hotel room and try to see the haunted ones that some of the ghost people go to go see. Well, and that's another thing. There's no hotels out in Cave Junction anymore. Yeah. So, you know. Oh, you mean that one that smelled like cat urine? They closed that?

Is that the one that got shut down? Yep. It's all done. Ah. So, Josephine County, you know, when people used to always say tourism, tourism, tourism, I'm just like, okay, tell me what are the attractions that we can promote? Very good. Herman, this is the challenge issue we get in Josephine County for sure.

Sharpening of the mind. We've got a lot going on. We'll talk next week. Be well.