Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 07-31-26_FRIDAY_7AM

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

Greg Roberts has the outdoor report for today, then a talk with HD1 state rep. Court Boice from Curry County. Digging into politics of the day including the growing Curry County Sheriff scandal and investigation.

This hour of the Bill Meyer Show podcast is proudly sponsored by Klausur drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for more than 50 years. Find out more about them at Klauserdrilling.com. Now more with Bill Meyer. Quite a few people dead this morning here with this border crash over on Spain. A lot of people coming in from Morocco, just hundreds, hundreds of people running in from Morocco into Spain. And Bunch them getting killed this morning. They're fighting back over there.

Wow, it was kind of looking at the Biden era opening of the border there. The Biden era without shooting back because, you know, we can't do that kind of thing. You know, we hold up signs, you know, especially during the Biden era. But, you know, even today in the state of Oregon, there was, gosh, there was some story there, I think, about protesting ICE in the Rogue Valley Times. And there was the smiling, young progressive woman. And just next to the signs about immigrants. Hi, welcome migrants.

I mean, she might as well been holding that sign like those women, progressive women over in the European Union. Yikes. All right. Well, we'll just, we'll set that aside here at the moment. We can't fix that. Time to get out and get in the outdoors, okay? Greg Roberts, rogueweather.com.

Holding things down there. Outdoor report, sponsored by Oregon Truck and Auto Authority on Airway Drive in Medford. Greg, I'm headed out to the coast. I'm going on a pre-birthday little head to the coast and play around in the surf a little bit this weekend. Will it look good for me? What do you say? It'll look good for you. Honestly, it's going to look good for everybody west of the Cascades.

The only thing we've got to watch is what's going to be coming tomorrow afternoon. There's going to be a dry, cold front punch through the area that we're going to see some breezy to windy conditions develop. You know, hopefully here everybody will be smart, be careful with anything that could throw a spark, start a fire, because tomorrow afternoon definitely have the ingredients to have a fire take off very quickly. Are we talking about a red flag warning type of situation? Not quite, you know, the official criteria for that, but it's still going to be windier, breezier than what we typically see in the afternoon. and evenings. So that's the big worry. Of course, over east of the Cascades, this will definitely, I have no doubt, turn into a full-blown red flag warning due to the winds, due to the lower

humidities over there, which is, you know, it's just normal that way. You get east of the Cascades. It's a lot drier air. So the unfortunate part is with all the fires established over there, and especially the fires in eastern Oregon that are going through sage and grasslands, we're going to be dealing with a lot of very explosive growth. One of those fires to definitely watch will be the second flat fire near the communities of Burns and Hines, and we do have a task force from the Rogue Valley from various fire departments in Jackson and Josephine County that is over there helping trying to defend those two communities, and it's going to be a very difficult day tomorrow for everybody on the second flat fire

and all of those fires over there that are mainly just going right through grass and sage because you put wind on them. The wind is pushing them through that grass and sage, so they're talking about gusts on some of the higher ridges in that area, may be reaching 45 miles an hour and down on the flats, 35. Boy, that's going to be pretty rough firefighting weather. Yeah. And very good fire spreading weather is really what we're talking about.

It's absolutely perfect fire spreading weather and have worked some fires over there in that area that, I mean, when they take off and the winds hit them, it is unbelievable how fast they can move. and basically for firefighters, everybody just tries to get out of the way, way to the head of the fire, you know, where the fire is really being driven, and you just hope you also get any people living out there out of the way. What do you think about FEMA turning down the state of Oregon for funding,

emergency funding on East Evans Creek Fire? And I think there was another one that, yeah, the Roe Creek Fire. over in Prineville in that area. They said no to emergency funding. And, of course, the state's getting all hot and bothered about this. Well, yeah, they're getting all hot and bothered about it. But this one, at least, I understand a little bit more because Evans Creek, the loss there that happened in terms of structure, we did not lose a single primary residence.

I'm glad you brought that up because I know that they were hanging on that, well, you know, the qualifications for the emergency funding is that there being 150 threatened residences, except that no residences were damaged, and it wasn't really, you know, it hasn't been an emergency in, you know, quite some time. So what is it? And I understand FEMA saying no, because I think the total currently they've discovered is eight struck, quote unquote, a home, but it was a derelict property that had been abandoned for years. So essentially really an outbuilding. And, you know, back in the day, we would bump into those derelict properties. And when I was writing up the report on what burned in my division,

I would note basically just derelict property, non-primary residents, and it had the same, impact as losing, say, a shed or a barn because nobody was in there. Nothing of any value really was lost. So I understand FEMA saying no about East Evans Creek. I really do. The Roe Complex, that might be a bit premature to be turning that down. But on the other hand, at Roe Complex, same thing as East Evans Creek. They've done a tremendous job of preventing that complex, of fires from taking any primary structures at least to this point. We'll see, because that fire is definitely not under control, and that whole complex keeps backing into Crook County and starting to get into areas where there are primary residences, where there are ranches, you know, those

types of things. So East Evans Creek, yeah, I totally agree with FEMA saying no, Roe Complex. That might be a bit premature. Of course, it's always about money, right? It's always about money. And Merkley and Wyden, of course, you're getting, you know, irritated to, I guess Cliff Benson ended up putting up a notice and, hey, you know, most of the FEMA requests were approved. I get the situation on East Evans Creek. I really do. I understand this. It's like, to me, I'm thinking about, you know, pure out-and-out disasters. And yeah, there was a lot of firefighting that had to be done on something like that. We would have had to put that out anyway. And honestly, I think we're going to have to get used to the point where hot checks coming from Washington, D.C. are going

to become fewer and fewer over time. And when you're looking at 40 trillion in debt, having difficulty rolling over that $40 trillion in debt. And when it comes right down, it with $1 out of every three that's being spent, no matter where it is, whether it's the military industrial complex or the firefighting apparatus, it's all borrowed money. borrowed money, but then you get into this whole intergovernmental game of, well, we're going to try and offload as much cost as we can to, in this case, the feds, get them to pay us back. And it's all taxpayer dollar anyway. I know. Well, we did that with the Oregon Health Plan. You know, back during the Biden area, boy, that's how you they wanted to, they wanted to expand that. And Oregon put everybody with a pulse on the Oregon Health Plan. And now it's complaining because we don't have the money. The feds are pulling the rug off from underneath. It's just like, well, you're going to have to tighten up on your standards, you know? Well, exactly.

And, you know, that's part of the problem. You know, we've got states, people more famously hear about Minnesota, California, but Oregon is right there too. Yeah. And, you know, it just became this constant game of offloading, you know, or spending as much money through the federal government. So the state would look like, well, we're not spending that much. Well, in reality, at the end of the day, it's all taxpayer dollars.

It's all going to get paid out of one pool or the other. Yeah, Oregon has been trying to play hide the monetary salami for a long time. No, that salami's not there. Nope, nope, that's not our salami. It's the federal salami. And now you've got an administration in D.C. Go, oh, wait a minute, no, we're not going to be spending money like this. because these programs have far in away the intention of what they were designed for and who they were designed for.

And you nailed it saying Oregon would put anybody with a pulse on the health plant. They absolutely did that. Now, if we can only see a way that maybe the governor and the various administrative state could then say, I know we're getting really political right now in the outdoors, but you can't help when you look at these fire things. But think about it this way. When it'd be interesting, if they said all of a sudden they said, you know, maybe we'll stop having DEI agents and ministers in the various agencies and things like that. And we'll actually hire people that are actually doing things like fighting fires and actually treating things. And maybe we do a few, maybe we do fewer transgender surgeries over at OHSU for fun and profit on the kids.

You know? You know, all of that comes with a change of administration. And if Oregon is truly fed up with it and there's even research and poll. to suggest that if finally the light may be dawning in Portland, oh, it's only going to happen with a change of administration, meaning you're going to vote out Democrats and you're going to vote in Republicans, and then we're going to find out, you know,

where we're really at with this. You know, a lot of people have their questions about how much Dresen would actually really cut things in Oregon. Well, you know what? There's really only one way to find out, but clearly we surrendered to one party rule in this state, the second mail-in voting arrived, and it is definitely not working for us.

Yep, I agree wholeheartedly. All right, Greg. Well, I don't want to stick on that too much longer, but the weather, just watch out for the fire. Certainly fishing. How's that looking? Where would you go if you want to drop a line, huh? Yeah.

The water situation is exactly what we feared it was going to be. We did not get enough rain and snow. water levels are dropping out in all the reservoirs. It's impacting the fish in the fact that it's warmer water. You know, I want to say in a sleepy state, the interesting thing that happens to trout and warmer water, their flesh gets soft. In the creeks and in the rivers where there's colder water, the quality of the flesh on trout actually remains good. So if you're going out to go fishing to you want to... to consume trout, focus on, I say creeks. What I'm mainly meaning here in Jackson County

is going to be those creeks up in the Cascades, river above prospect, offers a lot of great trout fishing opportunity all the way up to the Douglas County line. So you can get up there. You're going to have great fishing because the water in the creeks is also warmer. so the fish are biting more aggressively, but it's not like in the lakes. We've reached the point in the lakes that I honestly, I wouldn't be fishing for trout right now at all because, well, they're kind of stressed because of the warmer water and there's less oxygen in the water. So if you're going to fish in a lake, try and find lakes with good populations of warm water fish, meaning bass, bluegill, those types of fish.

felt on that. Yeah, you'll be happy with the quality of that fish. Exactly. Yeah. Over at the coast, though, man, it has been lights out fishing over there on salmon, on bottom fish, and if you're soaking crab pots out in the salt, meaning you've got to get out of the bay at estuary, been doing really well over there for people who get out and put their pots out in the open ocean. So that's going to continue. We don't have... a super serious storm situation coming again, time of the year. So the mornings offer the best windows for opportunity. Tomorrow, when that cold front comes through, it's also going to really kick up the ocean from the near shore waters all the way on out. In fact, I'm going to get

another look at Medford, what they have up, what they're showing. Smallcraft advisories up for the southern Oregon coast from Port Orford down to the California state line. What that means, Winchester, probably going to be some choppy water developed tomorrow afternoon as that front comes through, but otherwise, it's going to be looking great. There is actually a gale warning, in effect, down for the northern California waters beyond five miles out going out. looks like they've got it to 60 miles out. That is also due both for current ocean conditions, pardon, and then what's going to happen tomorrow when the front comes slicing through.

All right. Greg, before we take off, I ended up sending you a article that Lucretia sent me. And, you know, anytime there's something about the climate or clouds or weird things going on, I'm going to forward this over to Greg and see what he says about this. And this has to do about, it was a YouTube video, Mystery Cloud appears over Epicenter before the 7.1 earthquake strikes Japan. And it's one of these weird-looking sort of a mushroomy cloud over a mountain there. And what did you think about that?

Well, coincidence. And there was also an article that a Japanese meteorologist explained very well what's going on. now to give people an idea on what's going on, you just go down to Mount Shasta and watch the lenticular clouds build up because that's what you're looking at. In the picture, you can see one of the Japanese volcanoes, and on the lee side, the downwind side of that, that volcano pushed moisture up into the air, it condensed, became a cloud, and then the winds there sculpted and shape the cloud. And we see that at Mount Shasta all the time. We can see it over Mount McLaughlin at times, too. They're lenticular clouds, and they have not one thing to do with the

earthquakes. It's a coincidence that they happen to show up, but one thing's way up in the air, the other thing's happening down below the surface of the ground and the earthquake, but they're not connected at all. All right, great. Well, I just thought it happened to. Just keeping you in the room, all right? Just thought it looked interesting, and I don't know anything about this, so that's fine. But you do, and I appreciate it. Greg, we'll talk next Friday, all right? You'd be well, have a great weekend, and let's keep the fire weather down here, okay? All right. Yeah, no kidding. And the other thing is, though, we were talking about issues going on in the state of Oregon. There's one major thing happening this year that contractors for fighting wildland

fire that have various pieces of apparatus like tenders, like engines, they're sitting. And I know contractors here in Medford and Grants Pass who sat while East Evans Creek was at its worst, and it's happening east of the Cascades. State of Oregon, ODF is not calling any contractors who are on the federal Viper list. They have never done that before. I have talked to a lot of people about this. And why is it? And what is the Viper list? I'm sorry to be ignorant about this.

The Viper list, meaning, okay, we've got this company with Cruz, this. And they'll put people on that list and they're on it for varying lengths of time. And it can be up to five years. Well, in the past, ODF has always been, all right, what resources are close? We're going to call everything we can get. They're not doing that this year. And people on the Viper list, everybody that I've talked to about it when it comes down to it, they believe that Salem is actually trying to fight back at Trump this way.

It is absolutely stupid. It doesn't make any sense. It puts us at risk. What people need to be doing? Do what liberals do constantly. You need to be on your phone with your state representatives, with your state senators. You need to be demanding that ODF stop doing what they're doing right now because it doesn't hurt Trump. He doesn't care. It hurts us. It hurts people in Oregon. It's also companies. here in Oregon, who've been developed and based on getting contracts and getting called out to help fight fires, they're not getting called. Their employees are not getting called. This doesn't make any sense on any level. Oregon Department of Forestry needs to stop it right now. And the only way that happens is that people start hammering their state representatives and state senators.

Duly noted. Thanks for the suggestion. All right. Thanks, Greg. All right. Greg Roberts, rogueweather.com. Rogueweather.com, okay? Oregon Truck and Auto Authority on Airway Drive, of course, the sponsor of the outdoor report. We do this every Friday at about this time.

732, quick break here. We're also going to be talking with state rep, Court Boyce. Court Boyce, he has interesting things to say about fire here, too. But I really want to take into that brewing scandal, which, you know, kind of finally popped out like, you know, a bad blackhead out of the coaster. There it is, you know. coming up out of the surf at Curry County with the Sheriff's Department. We'll dig into that and a bunch more. Hi, this is Cassie with Clauser Drilling.

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You're hearing the Bill Myers Show on 1063 KMED. Emails of the day, and that's sponsored by Dr. Steve Nelson, Central Point Family Dentistry, Central Point Family Dentistry. Just next to the new Mazatlan Mexican restaurant in Central Point. Wonderful place. By the way, if you don't have dental insurance, they have a dental plan there that works a lot like dental insurance. Better benefits, lower costs. Hey, everyone wins, right? I think you'll enjoy it. Dr. Steve, great people over at Central Point Family Dentistry.com. So the Republicans, this is from Hans Albuquerque. He says, Bill, so the Republicans are screaming about madman taking over, oh, I see, Mad Mandani. All right, there we go. Taking over the New York City grocery stores.

Yet today, the Trump Commerce Department announces that they're dumping almost a billion dollars into seven tech companies. These are like chip companies in exchange for equity positions. The hypocrisy knows no bounds. And on the real estate diversity forefront, I'm here to announce that the Giggler, the Black DEI queen, who lost in the last federal. election cycle just bought an $8 million home in a census tract of California tracking 98% non-black. Bless her heart, as they say in Texas, for those of you who know what that means.

Hans Alperkergey. Hans, it's a interesting way of looking at it. Patrick says, hey, Bill, as a conspiracy theory, Agent Fauci has refused to testify before Congress, despite the auto pen pardon, perhaps for a couple of reasons. Number one, the auto pen pardon will be found to be null and void because there's no chain of custody of authenticity for the pardon because President Biden cannot be validated as authorizing it. And number two, Agent Fauci, oh, that's where you're going like a Chinese agent, right? Agent Fauci might accidentally let slip that the whole COVID-19 pandemic was actually a gain of function, proof of concept, bioterrorist weapon for the Chinese government or the highest bidder. This would trigger a Chinese response that could cause Agent Fauci to disqualmie to disqualify.

Who knows? Interesting theory left over from Thursday here. Patrick, I appreciate the email. Bill at Billmeyershow.com. We'll dig in some more here after news with state representative court voice. What's going on out of the coast, huh? Hi, it's Megan McPherson with the McPherson Insurance Agency. We are now a 100% independent insurance agency. New name, same great service, with more companies to better serve your families and businesses. Give us a call at 541-7-87-4-1-77. Allow us to put our years of experience to work for you now with more companies to choose from, the McPherson Insurance Agency, local, trusted, and now with more options for Southern Oregon. 541-7-87-4-1-77. On the battlefield, there's a saying America's military men and women live by. Never leave a fallen warrior behind, ever. Off the battlefield, Wounded Warrior Project operates with the same goal.

Wounded Warrior Project was created to help our men and women returning home with the scars of war, whether those scars are physical or mental. Wounded Warrior Project, we never leave a fallen warrior behind, ever. Learn more about what we do at Wounded Warrior Project.org. News brought to you by Millett Construction, specializing in foundation repair and replacement. Get on solid ground. Visit Millet Construction.com. KMED News, here's what's going on. In Grants Pass, they know the name of its wanted carjacking suspect, 36-year-old Anthony,

His alleged crime spree started just before 7.30 Thursday morning calls of a domestic disturbance at a home on Northeast Meyer Drive. Officers then went looking to arrest Teal for strangulation and menacing. Around 8 o'clock, the report came in that Teal carjacked a motorist and pulled the guy out of his car, who then proceeded to hang on as Teal sped down Northeast D Street. Teal struck another motorist, backed up still dragging the original driver who finally let go. A Joe County Sheriff's deputy spotted Teal on the Grants Pass Parkway and gave chase, backing off once he'd got too dangerous for the public. Officers finally found the crashed car at Leonard Road and Willow Lane. They're still looking for Anthony Teal described as a white male, 5'8, between 170, 200 pounds,

bald head, green eyes and a beard. If you spot him, don't approach him, just call 911. Medford Police report a man robbed the key bank on Barnett Road yesterday afternoon and escaped on a scooter. He's described as a white man, medium build, light colored hair, 30 to 45 years old. He was wearing a hat with a Taco Bell logo on it. Medford Police asked if you've seen this guy call 776 7206. And the Trump administration denies two of Oregon Governor Kotech's requests for firefighting money grants. Oregon Live reports FEMA approved three of the state's emergency requests for the lower dry creek, a walk of Butte, and grasshopper fires.

They turned down emergency money for our East Evans Creek fire and the Roe fires in eastern Oregon. Bill Meyer, KMED News. Millet Construction has been a general contractor for 40 years. For the last 20 years, they've specialized in foundation repair and replacement. If you have sloping floors, cracks and walls, and windows and doors that are hard to open, you have a foundation problem that's only getting worse. At Millet Construction, they not only fix your foundation and level your house, they solve the water problem that's causing the damage.

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I'm sorry, I dropped them off there at 8 o'clock in the morning. Maybe I'll come back at 4. Maybe he'll be done by that time. No, seriously, over 20,000 items at a 15,000 square foot store. Military surplus, an outdoor gear, boots, bags, flags, patches, pins, decals, survival food, you name it, it's there. make the trip, the Army Navy Marine Store, 5100 Greater Lake Avenue and Central Point or shop online, army-nativemarine.com. People ride bikes for many reasons.

Exercise, fun, and of course, getting from point A to point B. I'm John Lager from ODOT in southwestern Oregon. Oregon's stop-as-eield law allows a person riding a bike to keep some momentum at an intersection. Just like it sounds, they're treating that stop as a yield, while all right-of-way rules still fly. This rolling stop helps make the ride more efficient and keeps traffic flowing safely. A message from ODOT. Hi, this is Mark from Jay Austin, and I'm on KMED. State Rapid Court voice back on the program here from Curry County. District 1, isn't that right, Court? Welcome back. District 1, Kuskeran, part of Douglas County's. Hey, you're getting smoke over there. Thanks for your fire report.

Well, we're not getting much smoke this morning, thank goodness. But what What about you? How's it looking? I'm heading out there this weekend. You know, we've just been very fortunate. And, you know, we always feel bad. Usually, Securi County fires that impact the Rogue Valley. And, of course, I have a lot of friends and family in your region.

And so we just got to keep working on these fires. And, yeah, Eastern Oregon, Central Oregon, as you reported, just this is shaping up, it'll be the worst fire season, maybe ever. So we're just on our toes. Yeah, well, you know, it comes right down to it. I was even reading about the worst fires ever over in France. Right, over in France and parts of Europe, Spain, various other places are just really having big problems. And over in Europe, what ended up happening is that they had a super, super wet winter.

And then it turned dry. So you know what happens. We've seen stuff like that around here in which you get that super wet winter. And then every weed and piece of grass in the entire God's creation, grows high, right? Then it dries out, that kind of thing. And that's... Especially, yeah, especially in our climate, people forget how fast things grow here and how quickly things dry out. I learned that years ago. And so that's a, that's an opportunity for us through a pivot and get our roads open. That's the best way to fight fires. And, yeah,

increased timber harvest, for goodness sake, of course. Yeah, well, yeah, roadless area means no fighting is what it means too, that's for sure. All righty. Is the Trump administration helping you out on this, or is it still mostly a state slash county coordination or a policy issue, as you see it? Honestly, up and down, he's got to move slow because of the wheels that don't turn, you know, between different administrations, but overall, very optimistic bill. But, you know, the radical environmental approach has brought us when, you know, just tremendous poor force management. And they use the term active management. Well, now is the time to step that up. And yes, I think the Trump administration certainly gets that. And I was back

in D.C. a month ago. And just fighting for funding and fighting for a new approach that's historically very sound on force management. If you don't mind here, I'd like to pivot because you used to be a Josephine, not Josephine, I'm sorry, Curry County Commissioner there for a number of years. How many years were you a commissioner out there? Six years, 2017 through 22, and this is my fifth session coming up in the Oregon

Legislation. Okay, running for re-election again. Sure, great. Now, I've got to tell you, the smoke that has been around the Sheriff's Department there has been building for a number of years. Are you going to appreciate that, right? I think you'd be the first to go, oh, yeah. Yeah, we've suspected that things

are going a little pear-shaped as it were. And it has now, now burst out as far as this growing scandal on what is going on with the current sheriff and also the former sheriff ending up getting equipment that did not go through the county commission budget. And it came from a nonprofit foundation. And I guess the real question comes to when you start getting equipment like campers and things or whatever it is or RVs titled in the sheriff's name and sitting on his property, who does it really belong to? Is that kind of what we're looking at right now? set the table on what we're looking like out on the coast?

Well, you just did set the table. Thank you. Well said. You know, my grandfather in the 30s and 40s, longest serving Curry County Commissioner of all time, 18 years. My dad, the sheriff, they're in the 60s and 70s. They would be heart sick right now.

They'd also be on the fight. You know, Bill, we've had some good Curry County Sheriff's Department employees leave over the years. And they weren't just necessarily disgruntled employees, but they left for a reason. And you mentioned the current sheriff's predecessor, John Bishop, goodness sakes, he was indicted. And it's just a tremendous black guy around the state. Senator Brock Smith, runner for the U.S. Senate, he was commissioner for four years, myself six years. So we spent a lot of years trying to improve the reputation of Curry County.

And boy, this just gives us a tremendous black guy. We've got some serious work ahead. Yeah, because we're talking about $400,000 that came into this nonprofit foundation. And I guess apparently someone died in Curry County and they wanted to donate money to law enforcement. Was that kind of what they wanted to do, honestly? It's how it all started here, as far as you know, Courtney. Yes. Yeah, and I think they had good intentions, but it went south. And if you looked at the other 35 sheriffs within Oregon, I seriously doubt any of them, have any property.

assets that would be listed or titled or uninsured in their names. Yeah, the statement that came out in one of the news stories I was reading about it was that the foundation, well, I guess the people who were the person who founded it, they didn't trust, they didn't trust the actual county officials to treat these donations properly. But yet that's actually the proper way to do it, isn't it? I mean, the legal way to do it through the people's representatives. Well, you just use the two most important words, proper and legal. That's why we have three commissioners. They serve as the executive branch of local governments. They're a proprietary ship of the state of Oregon. And so, you know, I called the Attorney General of Oregon several

years ago, then Rosenbaum and asked, hey, we've got some things going on down here. I couldn't get another commissioner to vote with me to really pursue some of those issues. Oh, so that's, so there were suspicions the smoke was rising above the sheriff's teepee even then, so to speak, right? And the interesting thing, Bill, is it wasn't just necessarily the sheriff's department. There were things, and, you know, just like they started to recall me then. Of course, it didn't go anywhere. But the current board of commissioner, frankly, in my view is, you know, they are the best

board we've had in many years since David Brock Smith and David Hitson did a super job back in 2014 through 2018. And so at this current board of commissioner, boy, they've been threatened with recall because they're digging deep and they're doing the honorable and right thing and I support them 100%. And so in other words, you're thinking then that the investigation is well needed in that we're going to go deep and find Hinky. You think that's where it's going to end up going, you know, more hinky? I couldn't be happier, and I want them to investigate the commission boards, including my tenure, and likewise, dig really deep to see where the truth and the facts are.

There's still $90,000 of that $400,000. It's completely unaccounted for. So is there a suspicion about maybe people or individuals padding, you know, pay with stuff like this? Is that the suspicion, I guess? Well said again. We're trying not to jump ahead of the investigation. We're just really encouraging anyone that was associated with the sheriff

for any potential whistleblowers to cooperate fully and come forward. Now's the time. Curry County needs a new broom to sweep clean, and we've got to get started now. And get the word out, Bill. We still have some good sheriff's department employees. we're well covered. We always need extra deputies, but very county safe, public doesn't need to be concerned,

but we do need to rebuild. Yeah, okay. And has there been any talk about the current sheriff, you know, resigning or is he just going, hey, I'm going to stand here and fight from what you know? You know, I'm, I want him to resign. And I think more is going to come out. If he's innocent,

You know, I'll put my arm around him and support him all the way. But these commissioners, they have determined and uncovered some extremely serious matters. And so the sooner we get this behind us, the sooner, again, Bill, we can build a new foundation. You know, one of the more interesting parts of the story that kind of struck me was about the reselling of ammo that the county could get. that, you know, the sheriff's department would get this discount ammo. And did that go anywhere? Do you know? And then they would sell it, you know, sell it to the public and, you know, kind of do it for fun and profit, apparently. You know, that's a separate issue.

Oh, it is? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's like, why do we need jet skis, $8,000 jet skis for rescues? You know how long I've been on the river? It just isn't legitimate or justified. Oh, I call it court. it's because it's fun. That's why.

Yeah. Nothing's wrong. Hey, Jetsky is fun. I guess the point is, do you take a foundation's donations to Curry County or to the Sheriff's Department and go out and have fun? Is it about having fun or is it about actually helping the people, defending the folks?

It's absolutely ridiculous. It's a $15,000 party that all of, you know, the current sheriff was involved in for his predecessor for retirement. I mean, How did the taxpayers feel about that? I know how I feel.

I think it's ridiculous. The commissioners didn't know, and a judge also ruled bill that, you know, the commissioners had to sue the sheriff to get him to come in and give information. He lost. The judge also ruled you're going to pay the legal fees. He's stiff armed on both that over the last few months. It's just really confusing, unfortunate, and unacceptable. Are you intimating then that Curry County Sheriff's employees who may have been leaving recently

or were just not real happy with the way, you know, with these clouds of suspicion, I guess, out on the coast in the department? There's one detective that had a 30-year history, a little less, but anyway, top-notch. So maybe we could really be proud of his career. And there's one other one in particular. and then there's one that pushed for the recall, the two of the three commissioners recently, and it failed, and he's gone.

That is fascinating. So you have a sheriff under suspicion of stuff that looks arguably hinky at worst or just pure corrupt at worst, or at best, hinky at best, corrupt at worst, okay, right? You know, that's how it looks right now. And the people were actually trying to shoot the message, the county commissioners in other words right and you're telling me it's what was going on you know

i asked stuff questions and uh there was nine attempts to get me out of office i didn't have a you know i was always in a minority and yet the citizens who elected me twice you know with big margins but you know you get those threats and it just you just realized i got to work harder and i got to uh do everything i can't expose improprieties yeah i'm a big fan of elected sheriff sorry I really am. But this particular case, though, shows the downside if you have an elected sheriff that might be engaging in possible hinkiness, right? And because it's difficult then for the county commission to really do much to the elected sheriff, except maybe through the budgetary process. It's about really the only control that a elected county, because you're all elected officials.

You're your own elected officials, aren't you? Yeah, and I think that's a good system. And this is a very popular sheriff. He is outstanding on search and rescue. He has done well with some tight budgets. But there's a reason that people keep voting down on the public safety funding increased taxes to the levies. So, yeah, I recognize that he is popular, but to not be able to work with the commissioners, regardless whether he likes them or not, there's no.

that, you know, the foundation didn't trust the commissioners. That is just not true at all. Well, and the other thing is that it's not up to the foundation to be a sheriff's department's sugar daddy, okay? It's not what it's all about. It's just undue influence in any book, as far as I'm concerned. Just an unethical way to run it. But I appreciate the update and keep us in that room.

All right, Court. We appreciate that. All right. Hey, Bill, as we move forward, is it okay if I use your term Hinky? I've not heard that before, but it's a dandy. Yeah, I don't know if, well, Hinky was something that I always heard. Maybe it was a Southern or West Virginia sort of thing, but when I was growing up, people would talk about Hickeys and Hinkies.

Well, that looks really hinky. And so it's just what I always remember from my childhood. So maybe that's what this is all about. Hey, before we take off, you're out there in the water a lot. How's it looking out there right now? You know, we battled really hard with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to keep our tour boat companies, raft companies gone. We're at a minimum flow of Los Angeles, or halfway between Crater Lake and Medford. And enough to keep that, you know, the tour boats are, they minimize their lows but are still able to work and provide their service.

So we're happy about that. I'm just focused, Bill, as many people are, on the fire season, and Evans Creek is now about 75% contained. But just hoping and praying that we don't get any more lightning, especially in Central Oregon and Eastern Oregon. It's devastating over there. Absolutely. State Representative of Cord, Boyce.

Court, we appreciate you being on. You take care. Good weekend to you, okay? See you. Bill, thanks for all you do to keep us well-informed. All my best. Oh, absolutely. 757 at KMED 993 KBXG on the Bill Meyer show appreciate you being here too

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