Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 12-17-25_WEDNESDAY_7AM

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Josephine County Commissioner Ron Smith discusses the recusal, denial of quorum over appointing a new commissioner. He explains his take on the issues. Listener calls about it all follow!

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Klausur drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausordrilling.com. Commissioner, Ron Smith, Josephine County on the program. Commissioner, good to have you on. Welcome. Well, thank you, Bill, for having me on your shows to clear the air. Yeah, I'm glad to do this because I have to tell you, Ron, I've always looked at you as being kind of a stand-up guy, and I've been scratching my head over what's been going on the last few days with the rest of

resignation of Andreas Bleck, and what I always thought was kind of a straightforward process of the remaining two commissioners, and that's you and chairman, Commissioner Chris Barnett, I'm going to talk with him about this tomorrow too, and you go through the people who would like to be the temporary Josephine County Commissioner and you make a choice, and then off we go, and that hasn't been happening, and so instead of me scratching my head, because I'm starting to take a little furrow in my in my head right now tell me what you're thinking about this and why you have not been coming to those meetings and all the rest i i know what i heard you say the other day when you and chris kind of got into a dust up there for the cameras yeah yeah well

good don't pull your hair out over this okay okay so my question is if we post a job opening in the county typically it's seven to 14 days the opening is posted to give the broadest appeal for broadest participation by the public, why was only 48 hours allowed for this commissioner position? And why was I not consulted about that 48-hour window? That's a bare minimum, Bill. Why would that be done that way? Okay. Well, do you have a shortage of applicants? I think there's more than 30, aren't there? Not the point. Not the point. If we're hiring a custodian, we do seven to 14 days for such an important job as a commissioner. Or wouldn't you want to keep that window open to find the best possible candidates?

Okay. Well, I guess so, but that's not the reason that you were giving for recusing yourself, though. All because there's a lot of outside meddling in this. If you look at my statement that you got kind of illegally from Chris Barnett, because that my letter was not given to him. it was given to the daily courier, and without my noise knowledge, he gave it to you. Oh. Which he should have come to me and talked to me about it.

Why was I not consulted in the 48-hour window? Who made that unilateral decision? Yeah. Well, okay. The other thing I have to ask you, though, is that it's been almost, it's been more than a week, so it's not been 48 hours. So... No, no, no. You don't understand.

The application, the ad goes in, and it's open, and it gets... closed. It doesn't, they don't, we're not receiving an application all that time. Okay. All right. So even within, well, even if it is, by the way, I think the only rule is it you have to have 30 days, right? Or like, you have to get it replaced within 30 days, don't you? Why would they give 30 days? They'll just think about it. They give 30 days in order for you to do this posting of 7 to 14 days to give it every wide participation by the constituents in the county. Yeah, but if I recall correctly, Now, correct me if I'm wrong, when John West was recalled, did you not get a replacement within 48 hours, two or three days, at least?

Yeah, but I wasn't consulted on that decision either, and I was brand new and I didn't understand the process. This process is seriously flawed. Let me start. Let's start from the very beginning. Okay. When the first post was put out for a vacancy on the board, that was put out by BLEC, totally legally deficient. because there was no vacancy at the time that that was posted. Okay, and we know that.

In other words, he knew that he was going to quit, so he's putting out a notice, right? That's essentially what's going on. No, he can't put out a notice without a vacancy. Yeah, but that was what was driving that, I think, right? Would that be fair? I don't think it was ill intent, but, you know, if you say so. Yeah.

Because, you know, you don't have Andreas to kick around anymore. Kind of use an old Dick, Dick Nixon thing, you know. I never kicked Andreous around anyway. I'm just teasing you around. Okay, so I guess the point is, okay, so we know that that wasn't legally deficient. Okay, so then you come up with a legally, you know, a legally proper way of doing this. Do you or do you not think I should have been consulted in that 48-hour window? Okay, well, who did it?

That's a good question. I guess Chris Barnett did it unilatery without talking to me. Okay, well, is there some, is that right? there's some law that says that Chris Barnett can't put an opening for the board out there. No, I'm asking you there, is there, whether it's right or wrong, morally or something that, I'm just talking about legally. Is there a legal problem with him having put out the notice because it was kind of self-evident with the, with Andreas Black gone? It's obvious that there's an opening, okay? That's a good question for legal counsel, because I'm not a lawyer.

Okay, all right. But I don't think, I don't think the board works that way. One commissioner makes You don't allow the decision for the rest. Okay. All right. Well, we can have that argument, but we're still at this point now where you haven't been going to meetings for a few days. I recluse myself in the paper. He can continue to run a dog and pony show meetings. I'm not going to the meetings because I recluse myself from the whole process.

Okay. I don't, I'm not so sure that's a wise thing to do, Ron. And why is that? Because, well, first off, there's no quorum. You can't get anything done. Business needs done, you know, at some point. There was no business here. There was no, I had never, in my whole year, missed one single business meeting.

Not one. Don't imply I did. Okay, well, I wasn't implying that you did. Okay. You said I missed meetings. I missed meetings that little Mr. Barnett scheduled for himself to do this little dog and pony show. But it is his prerogative as the board chair to schedule that meeting, though. That's fine.

That's fine. He can post all those meetings. want. I already recluse myself from the whole process, and he knew that. Okay. But why? Why? Because there's a group of people behind this whole thing. They're trying to manipulate to get their certain free chosen candidate appointed. So what? What if they are? It's called lobbying. No, no. Is that the way it's supposed to work? What? Are they, what, is someone walking into your office and holding a gun to your head, Commissioner? And if so, call the sheriff. So there's no point in doing a process. So it's just to point that guy. Because you're doing

a phony process. It's predetermined, aren't you? Okay. Then how are you going? You don't think that fraud on the people? No, I don't. I don't think it's fraud, but people are going to talk to you, Commissioner. I have no problem. I could call you up and say, hey, you know, I happen to think Joe Blow over in Merlin would make a great county commissioner. ignore me because I'm not a constituent in Josephine County, but I'm saying people can do that. I have no problem with that. I've taken a dozen phone calls and all kinds of emails. Okay, then what's the problem?

When they start threatening me and intimidating me. Okay, what threats and intimidation? Well, do you want me to get the recordings? No, just tell me what are these threats that you're talking about. Oh, you'll appoint this or we'll never support you. appoint this or we're going to drop you, appoint this, or you're going to get recalled, do this, do this, do this. So what?

So what? What do you mean? So, like, that, that's, Ron, that's politics. That's fine. And it's politics to do what I wanted to do here. I have every legal right to do what I've done. Every legal right. Okay.

I'm really kind of confused about this because it sounds to me like, you know, you're irritated that people are bugging you and trying to influence you. No, no, no, no, no, not at all. I expect people to talk to me, and I talk to everybody who talks to me. The point of it is, I don't like people telling me what to do, telling me to do this, do that, appoint this guy or else. Okay. If somebody actually says that, appoint this guy or else, then you can say,

hey, I'm going to appoint who I want. Have a nice day and then show them the door. That's all you got to do, Ron. Yeah, here, Bill. Let's do it real simply. Okay. Let's think about this process. Me and Chris Barnett, both in a meeting to choose a commissioner.

If I do not agree with Chris Burnett, then it goes to the elected officials anyway. Yeah. So what's the problem? Go on the record. What's the problem? What's the problem? Make a choice. What's the problem?

Stand up and make a tough decisions that are uncomfortable, Ron. I did make a tough decision that was uncomfortable, didn't I? And the people aren't happy with it, but that's their problem. I made a legal decision. I made a legal decision to recluse myself. from a position that I was a no-win situation for me. Damned if I do and damned if I don't. Okay. Well, what's the damning, though? There's nothing that you can, you know, if this is all, if people are going to threaten to recall you, that's sport in Josephine County. You knew

that when you signed up for the job, okay? I did. I did. I did, but I don't like the flawed process. The process is fatally flawed. You don't do an opening like this in a 48-hour without consulting me. And if you can justify that somehow, tell me how it's justified. Okay, well, I don't even care how it's justified. The chair, I think it's the chair's prerogative. Maybe I'm wrong about this. I'll have to talk to Wally about it, maybe.

But, okay, so let's say that let's try to solve this marriage problem, okay? If Commissioner Chris Barnett, who is the chair, who schedules the meeting, says, all right, I would like to get this going, and we are going to choose, Let's choose someone in a week. Would you be okay with that? Was that enough time in your world to be able to take a look at 30 people or how many people have signed up? What?

Well, that's fine. I don't have a problem with that. But when I get certain people, former commissioners running behind the scenes and manipulating this whole thing to get certain people appointed, I have a problem. Do you? No, I don't because it's politics. Okay, that's fine.

No, no, it's not that I'm happy about going behind. So what? It's like, the decision is still yours. It's not theirs. They can maneuver and try to do what they want is what I'm getting at. And I made a decision that for some reason people are unhappy with the idea of the other elected officials pick of the candidates. I don't understand that. They're all elected by the people, too, aren't they responsible to this constituent within the county?

Or are they not? Okay, who is responsible to the county? I'm sorry, I'm missing. The other elected officials that will make up this temporary board. They're all elected by the people. Oh, yeah, yeah, I suppose so. But I'm just surprised that you would take this diver kind of stall because you're saying, well, if we don't agree, then it goes to the elected officials. Well, agree or disagree, but make a choice is all I'm seeing, Ron.

Do it. I'm not going to play that game, Bill. I made a choice, and I can't help it if people are unhappy with it, I have every legal right to make the choice I did. I trust the elected officials in County to make a wide and informed choice. I'm sorry, sorry that other people don't feel that way about them. If that's the way they feel about the other elected officials, maybe the other change their vote when it comes time for election for these individuals. Okay.

Why are you so reticent about making a choice out of the 33-something people that are there? Even if it's not not, why are you so reticent to not do this? No matter what decision I made, it would be considered a backroom deal by many. That's everything, everything people do can be considered that in politics. That in itself. What do you think there's some Marcus of Queensberry rules in politics? I mean, so you don't think the public trust and transparency is important. Of course, you're doing it out in the open.

It's your vote, and it's only your vote, and it's only Chris's vote. That's all there is to it. What influence led to it? Ignore it. You have your opinion. You have your opinion. What, what, are they dragging you with painful chains into the, into the county to vote here? I mean, I thought that was just your job, Ron.

Bill, you have your opinion. I have mine. I think I believe I've done the right thing for the people in the county. Okay. Are you going to show up at 10 o'clock's meeting today or what? No, I'm not. I recluse myself from that process. You recuse.

Okay. Yeah. I had a public statement yesterday. I'm not going to show up with that process. First of all... Okay, how long will it take, Ron? What's that? How long will it take?

Well, that's going to happen 30 days after I had raised... You see, you're intentionally not wanting to make a choice, and that bothers me. Well, that's your opinion. I'm not going to make a choice that I'm not if I do and damn if I don't, would you? Well, see, that's not a legal reason for recusing yourself. Okay. Hey, let me give you this from legal counsel. Okay.

Listen, listen, very closely. There is no explicit requirement in any law that a member of the Board of Commissioners take an action or refrain from acting, except in the case of an actual conflict where commissioners must refrain the vote. In non-conflict situations, the Commissioners have full power and authority to exercise their discretion in matters of cowardly concern. The commissioners may vote, not vote, appear at meetings, or not appear at meetings, participate in discussions, or not participate in discussions.

The commissioners have discretion to act in a manner that they believe is in the best interest of Josephine County. So you think it is in the best interest of Josephine County that you don't make a choice, that you don't make a choice public? 100%. Okay. I don't know what world you're living in, Ron, but God bless you. Okay. Well, I'm living in Oregon the same state you are, and I just live in.

read through the law right there. Yeah, I know there is no penalty for you not doing this. I just think it's taken a dive, though. Are you thinking you can immune yourself or immunize yourself from a recall of some sort if you don't upset one half of the faction or the other half? That's not the point. That's not the point. I think it is. I want an unfair and transparent process that is not happening in this situation. Forty-hour window for this application process is flawed. If I were hiring If we're hiring a custodian, we get seven to 14 days. Why? Only 48 out. Okay, if you get 14, okay, let's say you get 14 hours. Let's say you get 14 hours, then what? Or 14 days, rather. Are you happy? How long will it take? Because it sounds to me like you want to run the clock out and have everybody else do it. No, no, that's fine. If we'd open this up and got a full spectrum of people, that'll be fine. But to do 48 hours is not right.

Okay. All right. Ron, I guess you and I will have to cheerfully disagree on something like this, but... Well, that's fine. That's fine, Bill. I don't want to, I don't want to have a problem with you. You don't know. You don't have a problem with me. I'm just... I'm doing what I believe, and my discretionary right is best for the people in Joseph Wayne County. I am going to continue to scratch my head, though, okay? Isn't that why I was elected to do what I believe in my, my discretionary right, believe to do what's right for the people in the county. It's not why I was elected. All right. Well, Commissioner, I appreciate you coming on talking about it. I disagree with this.

It's just my opinion, and you have your opinion, and we'll see what the folks in Josephine County think about that, too. Okay? Well, thank you very much, Bill. You have a good day. All right. Commissioner Ron Smith of Josephine County. It's 733 at KMED.

Hi, this is Lisa from Kelly's Automotive Service. Recently at our Grants Pass Shop, staff member... You're hearing the Bill Myers Show. on 1063 KMED. 7705633-770 KMED. So Commissioner Ron Smith Josephine County says he's going to stay out and looking for a totally transparent process.

Okay. What do you think about that? Let me go to Steve and Sunny Valley. Hello, Steve. Go ahead. Good morning. Well, Ron is right in one aspect. This whole system is not fair. and it's not fair that they recalled John West, and they did it at an off-year election.

It's not fair that they're recalling these. It's the minority using unfair political tactics to undo the will of the voter. Now, the voter, we voted for Ron Smith because we were looking for a fighter like Dwayne Yonker. And what he has done is essentially who's out. And, yes, it wasn't fair that they put Black in. Black is what they deserved after what they did to West, we need another black. We need somebody who is smart and is a fighter. And if Ron Smith doesn't see that, he doesn't see that he is the reason we elected him to stop these backroom shenanigans that the other side is doing with the recall, he's not going to get elected again.

Well, my concern, though, is that, you know, people are going to lobby you because that's just the part of politics. and yeah you can have all sorts of people that are out there trying to twist your arm on that and it's like okay yeah and that's why i kind of i know i may sound flippant but i said well so what that's kind of a whole process of you know politics is not marcus of queensberry and uh you know and and rules people can try to persuade you any way they wish to as long as they're not going into physical threats or asking you know to commit crimes and things but that's what happens isn't that part of the job is what i thought you know when you were well i see it is that these recall efforts are dirty politics, and dirty politics, might as well

respond with dirty politics, and have the two commissioners that we did elect, appoint somebody that we would rather elect, rather than one of the losers that the leftists put up on the last ballot, which is what they're aiming for. I guess that would be... I guess they're looking for fair and balanced, right? Yeah, well, they lost, and they're not happy with it, so they're been making... the rules with off-season elections to try to get, you know, their minority candidate installed. All right.

I appreciate your call, Steve. Thanks for that. 770KM. Herman, you wanted the way in, because you're saying that there was a missing part of the statute that Ron Smith was referencing that you wanted to read. What's that? Yes, there is. By the way, I will say in full disclosure that you are one of those people who applied

for that position, too, right? That's absolutely correct. Okay. Well, the first thing, the reason it's kind of imperative that you select the commissioner quickly, the importance because of that is you only have two commissioners. And if one says no on an issue and the other one says yes, you don't have a tiebreaker. So it's imperative that you get that third person in there. And that's why that's so important.

Second thing is ORS 244.125, section 2B, subsection B, subsection B, refers to to, if a commissioner has a conflict of, a direct conflict of interest, or a elect official has a direct conflict of interest, however, their vote is imperative to go forward on a decision that that person should recuse themselves from the discussion, however they should vote. Ah, that's an interesting part. So Ron should not be part of the discussion if he doesn't want to discuss this, but he should still do the vote according to your reading of that law then, right?

Yeah, all you've got to do is read the rest. He read the first paragraph of conflict, interest. You've got to read the whole statute, and it does because if we don't have that law, this is what happens. Nothing's moving forward. Everything has stopped in Josephine County, because you only have two commissioners, And one says yes, and one says, no, nothing happened. So it's imperative to get that third person in there to break these ties.

What was your thought when Commissioner Smith talked about, well, it was only 48 hours for this process? We need more transparent, more longer practice. All right. All right. I can understand, I mean, I can understand why he took that position. Then what you do is you say, Mr. Chair, I would like this open for. a week or whatever, and then we will go forward. But he didn't do that either. So, you know, all of I can say to Commissioner Smith is,

don't run for the legislature if you think this is a hot potato. Okay. Thanks, Armin. All right, if you're on hold, I'll be right with you after news here. We'll catch up with the rest of it. 7705-633-770 KMED. We're talking about the filling of this open position in Josephine County. How do you see it?

This is the Bill Meyer show. News brought to you by Millette Construction, specializing in foundation repair and replacement. Get on solid ground. Visit milletconstruction.com. From the KMED News Center, here's what's going on. News Talk 1063, KMED. This is the Bill Meyer Show. Glad to have you here.

We're taking your call 7705-633. Topic du jour here, filling this open Josephine County position. And let me go to Phil. Phil, you brought up an interesting question. to raise. Maybe we could ask Ron about this another time, but go ahead, please. Yeah, we spoke briefly, but while this commissioner has kind of recused himself, because I can completely understand why, you know, having to go through 30 applications within 48 hours and make an informed decision, but while he's recused himself, is he currently going through these

applications so he can make an informed decision? Huh, that's an interesting question. Good question. And then, yeah, and then put himself back into a position where he can actually sit down and make with the other commissioners and make a decision. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, with the other one with the board chair, that would be Chris Barnett, would be that. They would buddy up and figure this out. I just thought maybe if he was still listening to your program this morning, he could contact you again and give you an answer on that question. All right, very good.

Phil, I appreciate the call. Thanks for that. 770KMED. Holly's here. Hey, Holly, you're former chair. What's going on? Are you involved in this at all? Well, I 100% agree with what Steve said. These recalls are just a mechanism that are being used to overturn true elections. And this particular one was so well choreographed, we end up having it right, the vote right over the Christmas holiday. It's absolutely insane. Yeah, that's the best time if you want to have the minimum number of people involved in the process. Right. That's what you do. It's well choreograph.

and I don't like it. I was one of the people who called and lobbied Ron because I have very strong opinions about who I think would best run the county at this time. And my feeling is, of course, you've got to have somebody who's seasoned. You know, Chris and Ron are both relatively new commissioners. Yeah, I think the last thing that Josephine County needs is another, well, someone who is just getting in the job. I swear it's about a year or two before you probably really get your sea legs. I could be wrong about that, but there's a lot to learn, you know. said out to him, and I pointed it out to him, that, you know, it's important to pay attention to your base because those are the people that are electing the officials. And so the base

that elected him, he should pay some attention to those people. And they just infuriated. And he was so angry at me. And now he ran around and told everybody I was threatening him and so forth, because now I'm having people threatening me, contacting me, threatening me that if I try to do anything to stop this recall process or do anything about it that they're going to expose me and all that. We'll bring that right on because I'm not the chair of the party anymore. Yeah, well, and the other thing, though, is that everybody here who's listening has a First Amendment right to be able to call up Ron or call up Chris or call up anybody within Josephine County government and say, hey, I think you ought to do this. You know, I think this would be a

better move for you. That's okay. It's called lobbying. It's called... Exactly. It's called petitioning our government for a redress of grievances. Now, if, and by the way, if some, and when a threat ends up being, well, people are threatened to me their recall, it's like, well, yeah, get in line. I mean, it's all it's been going on in Josephine County. Oh, it's just ridiculous down here. The process that they use for a recall is unbelievable.

They only count 10% of the signatures, first of all, which means that if you have somebody that signed seven or eight or 12 times, like one person says they did, that won't be noticed in that process. It's a ridiculous scenario. And then the speed at which it took them 13 or 14 days to count the recall numbers for John West, it took them a day and a half to count these. Because they wanted to push it up. They wanted to make sure that the election fell right in the middle of the Christmas

holiday. So it's being well-foreographed right across the board in our county. And we watch, as they recalled John West for things that he didn't even do. You know, they said, oh, he had 17 ethics violations. Zero of them panned out. They just used those to make him look bad. Well, it does appear that the Ethics Commission is being used. You know, it's being used again on another candidate right now.

Did you read the story about Danielle Bethel, one of those Republicans running for governor? Did you hear about that? No, I haven't. But I did meet her, and I kind of like her. She's a nice gal. What are they up to with them? Oh, yeah. There are a couple ethics reports in there had to do with when a trooper or a police officer

stopped her daughter, and they were talking on the phone because there was an expired insurance card. It's pretty interesting. I'll have to – I'll send you a link to that. But, yeah, the weaponization of the ethics charge, because the charges most of the time end up going away because there's nothing to it. But, oh, someone has an ethics charge. you're running for office. Oh, we've got to get rid of them. Okay. That's...

17 violations and none of them panned out. Give me a break. Okay. Thanks, Holly. Appreciate your call, too. And actually, the person who we were just speaking about is a former commissioner, Wes. You wanted to the way in on this, too. John, I have a feeling you have an opinion on this, having been recalled before. Welcome back. Thanks, Bill. Well, I was chair for a year. In fact, I was chair when Ron and Chris come into office, and the process is very clear. The chair steps the agenda.

The other commissioners are always welcome to add to the agenda. And if they have any issues with the agenda, they take it up in a meeting. If they want to change some of the process that's being done, that the chair is set out, they can bring that up to a vote. But in this point, we only have two commissioners. And the reason why we have three is so we don't have a tie, so we can always come up with a decision. At this point, Commissioner Smith has taken away the decision-making,

and he says he wants to put it on the other elected officials. Well, I have a problem with that for the simple fact, the charter puts that into play specifically if the two commissioners can't choose one candidate or if there's not two commissioners in play to choose. And so what this is indicating is that Commissioner Smith's stance then is stopping the ability to make a choice, right? Correct. And I don't like to have to say this, but this is a pattern.

when he first come into office, he gave up his voting power for the first 60 days of his office to Commissioner Black. So he wouldn't have to make those hard decisions. Yeah, what was that all about? Now, why do you think that was, in your opinion, Commissioner, former Commissioner? Well, there was, it was his understanding. There was going to be some movement with employees letting some go or whatever reason. And he didn't want to be a, part of it. He explained it to me that he did not want to have that on him, and it was best that he bowed out of that. So he gave his power away, so he couldn't be, nobody could point his finger that, oh, well, he let this person go or he agreed to let that person go.

You know, in your opinion, was that an actual legal, a legal action that the board ended up taking at that time in which we're just going to turn this over? That always felt little flaky to me from my view, but I'm on the outside looking in. Well, as far as the word legal, I would never do that. I would make the hard decision regardless of who likes it or not, and I would live with it. But to do it for political reasons is not a reason to bow out of making a decision. Okay. Because you're going to make decisions for your, if you last your four-year term, you're going to make decisions that not everybody likes and may, at times, nobody likes. And that's just the way it goes. That's why he's being paid the $98,000 a year plus his benefits. And it's just

a part of politics and it's what you sign up for. And it just bothers me that this is a continual theme of, oh, well, you know, it's a decision I'm not going to make, and I'll let somebody else make it, and then I can't be held responsible for that. Yeah, well, that was the point that I'm making, though, is that, you know, people vote for these people, you know, to make the decision. And it's not the same as like when the Republicans denied quorum over that legislature situation a few years ago. It's kind of apples and oranges because the commissioners in Josephine and Jackson County, they are the top dogs. You know, the These are the executives, the heads, the final deciders of such issues.

And frankly, I don't know if I were Josephine County elector and you end up voting for these two commissioners that say you were part of that. Would you really want Wally Hicks then weighing in? I mean, nothing against Wally Hicks or the surveyor or anything else. I mean, the thing is you're the people there to make the decision is what I would have thought. Well, I can about guarantee you that the elected officials get lobbied just like the commissioners do on if they have to make a decision. And look at the protest that stood out in front of the courthouse to protest the clerk by using statistical analysis versus counting everyone. Do you not think that that's some sort of lobbying to the clerk? Yeah, if you're going to be an elected official, there's going to be political pressure brought to you, and it's not going to be fun.

That's not a fun part of the job. And the clerk followed what she says, the secretary of state has instructed her to do. So she didn't cave into political pressure. She owns it. She did what she thought was best. And so whether it's right or wrong, she held her ground. and that's what makes an elected official a, they should be able to stand proud because they make a decision, they stand behind it.

If it's wrong, they'll admit it. Yeah, but I think the difference here is that the decision is being made to not make a decision, and that's not sitting well, at least. No, if it's not, and Josephine County isn't an uproar over it. I believe that Commissioner Smith is making a very, very grave mistake by doing this because he's taken his payroll and he's taken his benefits, but then he says, I'm going to bow out of the decision-making that you elected me to do. And I believe, and there is no threat here, I just believe that in all of our actions, there can be consequences. And if he wants to

wants to get reelected in the future, I will think this will haunt him very bad because people will remember it. This is one of the most talked about things in our community right now, and it's been going on for weeks. This could have already been resolved. This 48 hours, this is new. He first come out with a press release that he was recusing himself because of threats and this. He's never filed a police report. He's never threats of a recall. Those three have been threatened with the recall from day one. That that didn't stop Ron for making decisions other times. People stood up there and told him about all different decisions he had to make, and he still made decisions. So to me, this is a cop out. This is, this is,

A pure cop out, and I just don't understand it. He says he's the People's Commissioner, and he's been trained for 20-plus years for this job. But he's not. Okay. Former Commissioner West, I appreciate the take on it, and thanks for the call. 770 KMED. I'll grab one more. Boy, a lot of heat from Joe County this morning.

Hi, good morning. Hello? Hello? going once, going twice. All right, off we go. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Recent minor, Dave.

Yeah, Dave. I'm not going to comment on a friend of mine, Ron Smith, but I am going to comment that you know the whole election system in Oregon's being investigated by the FBI, and I'm thinking they're taking note of this right now. What, of this controversy? Of anything going on in Oregon, because the FBI's investigating election fraud.

Okay. All right, Dave. Thanks for that call. I don't think anyone's talking about any fraud here, at least. I don't believe so. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this on K&D?

Gene. Hi, Jane. What's going on? Okay, on the whole issue with Ron Smith and Chris Barnett? Yes. Is there a possibility that the recall idiot are trying to put a dictator in there so they can end up getting their five commissioners in this county?

You know, I was kind of wondering about that. I didn't bring that up, but that's been kind of, in my mind, that maybe we try to foment some sort of controversy here in which all of a sudden, well, you know, we can't just make it work anymore with three. It's a very interesting take on that, Gene. Yeah. Well, they want to dictate everything to just. Justine County, so you put five in there and then.

Yeah, and then you have five and you changed it like they were looking. They wanted to have five. And remember, they wanted districts. Remember that? They wanted districts so that way people weren't elected at large. And I have a feeling that was about, you know, making sure you got your progressive in there. You know, they'll gerrymander the way that, you know, those districts look. Yeah, but they wanted to get their dictators in there.

All right. Appreciate the call. Good morning. This is Bill Meyer. Who's this? Hello. Brian Weldon. Hey, Brian, what are you thinking this morning, huh? Well, I personally think we've been talking about this a lot at our GOP office. Ron is being, well, I mean, his biggest concern is he just bought a house and he does not want to be recalled.

He has to have his county money, his income. And so he's going to do whatever that they tell him to not get involved in appointing somebody or, you know, voting on anything. So, in your opinion, you're saying the push then is to throw it to the other elected officials in order to get a more preferred candidate. Is that kind of what you're getting at? Yes. And he does not want to be connected to anything where he. he can be recalled in the future because his income is the most important thing to him. Now, I can't speak to that, but it's your opinion.

All right, Brian, I will take one more call. They were going to kind of shut this down. Then we're going to talk jihad a little bit. That's going to be like a little pallet cleanser. You're going to go from recalls and appointing people to jihad talk here. But anyway, hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome.

This is Ed, Bill. Ed. Welcome. Always good to hear from you. Well, Bill, I'm sitting here. Nobody is responding in a way that what is the time period that Ron wanted to accept application. I mean, you have a, you know, he described a window that you could have up to 14 days or something, and it took 48 hours. And I think you have to do it within 30 days one way or the other.

It has to be done within at least 30. Right. But the simple thing is, is that his authority. with him being a commissioner, gives him an opinion that this wasn't enough hurting. Well, who made the decision that it was limited at 48 hours because they didn't have the authority to do that. Well, that was the chair. The chair set the meeting, yeah.

And that's the dispute between the two commissioners. If that's the dispute, all of the other talk is irrelevant. Just ask how many days do you want to leave it open? Yeah. Well, that's what I was trying to get to. The point being, though, is that it was never about 48 hours until maybe over the last 48 hours. It was always about a different grievance before. That's something new that was brought up. That's all. Well, I haven't been paying attention to it, but I look at it and if it were to give the commissioners individually their authority within a three-person board, a five-person board, whatever it ends up. whatever it is but each one has a certain authority to work for the citizens we have to consider or they have to at least make a decision in regards to that with a demand that's what would end the infighting so you know you got to have a demand that's present of how many days well how long

do you want to leave it open okay is one week enough is four days enough is whatever come to a decision on that and the other people that are trying to pressure things we're trying to do it within this window. I don't like that part of it. I agree with Ron. Totally. Yeah, and I agree with this. However,

it sounds to me as if he's trying to avoid making a decision on it. Well, you know, it reminds me the thing in my own life, Bill, that I isn't based when a family member had Alzheimer's, okay? And it's, you only have your choice of bad decisions.

Your only hope is to pick the best decision. out of all bad decisions. Yeah. Well, and that's Ron's choice right. Well, that's Ron's choice right now. The best of bad. Okay. Well, it actually, but that's the question.

See, right there, logically, we've got to break that down. Is it truly his choice? In his authority, does he have the power to say, I don't believe 48 hours is enough? And then the question then becomes, well, how long do you want to do it? If we do it two weeks, then we only have two weeks to go. complete process. But you still have to show up to provide quorum to make that happen. And he's not doing that. And I would agree with that. And it's a tough position on either case. But I also look at it and say, you know, let's get definitive and let's solve the problem at hand. And if that's

the problem at hand, then we figure out how many days you can take. I don't know how many more people want to be commissioner up there, you know, but the reality is you have 30 applications. Do you want 60 applications, set a number in a time, and, you know, eliminate all of the infighting that's going. Yeah, but the infighting, I think it's all about dragging it out to the point where it doesn't, where he doesn't have to make a decision because it ends up by statute or by charter having to go into the other elected officials deciding it. And, well, the sad thing about what it's doing is that it's opening it up for the Democrats

to show critical areas that they can use. news and campaigns, future campaigns. And that's the reality. That's my concern, too. Sure. Yeah, the Democrats want their guy or girl, whoever the case might be. All right. Hey, Ed, I appreciate that.

Got a roll. Thank you, Bill. Thank you for checking in. KMED, KMED, H.D, Eagle Point, Metford, KBXG, Grants Pass. On a silent night.