Two vocal groups emerged during a town hall meeting held Monday, Feb. 5, in Boardman to discuss community opinions on the Morrow County Board of Commissioners.
Morrow County Citizens for Liberty and Justice, resident-led organization, hosted the event to gauge the interest of others on potentially recalling commissioners.
Two commissioners — David Sykes and Roy Drago, Jr. — attended the meeting, though Drago left a little over halfway through when Jonathan Tallman of Boardman made allegations of unethical behavior.
Stuart Dick and Raymond Akers, the hosting group’s public faces, led the meeting and kept time during the nearly two-and-a-half-hours-long gathering. Around 50 people attended in person at the Greenfield Grange No. 579, with 30 people tuning in virtually.
Describing the reasoning behind the town hall meeting series, Dick said: “We’re seeking solutions and (a recall) would be a last resort.”
Rather than meetings to determine whether to hold a recall or even agree on the basic facts, though, Boardman’s meeting was more of a space for people to argue positions they already believed. Members of both sides tried to convince others of their positions, and few attempted to find places of agreement.
Dick started the meeting saying a recall would be a last resort, but later said if nothing changes, his group will be asking for a recall.
Across the four meetings the group has hosted around the county, including the Boardman meeting, Dick said the votes they have tallied show approximately twice the support for a recall than against.
Rehashing the issues
The most contentious issue was the ongoing conflict between Morrow County and Morrow County Health District, the county’s ambulance service provider. The two entities continue to publish inflammatory press releases and disagree on the basic facts.
Supporters on either side are following their lead. Details from earlier in the process were rehashed, such as why Boardman Fire Rescue District applied for ambulance licensure without an ambulance service contract.
Health district supporters said Boardman Fire could have waited to apply for an ambulance license until after the fire district had been awarded an area, as licensing is only required when actually providing service, not to apply. If Boardman Fire had waited, they said, it would not have been impeding on the health district’s service.
But their opponents said the opposite — that the fire district had to be licensed to apply to provide services, so receiving the licensure for its ambulances was not premature and doesn’t have anything to do with the health district’s service.
“You’ve got an agenda and it’s hard to figure out what it is,” health district paramedic David Landstrom said to Sykes, who sat in the front row.
“I agree,” said Tess Rehak, a Boardman resident and blogger. “Our board of commissioners have an agenda: to bring our county into compliance. Why is anybody arguing against this?”
People also disagreed over how expensive it would be to have multiple service providers in the area rather than just the health district.
More people spoke in favor of the health district, but Rehak seemed to be speaking on behalf of a group of county supporters, as people clapped for her multiple times after she spoke.
Scott Ezell, a health district emergency medical service provider, said, “When one of us goes down, another one steps in. We are here looking out for each other. You can’t put that in an ASA.”
Morrow County Health District supporters said the county should have entered into discussions about a contract the district proposed at the end of January, the details of which the district said were open for discussion.
In response to the proposal, the county had said it could not sign the contract and it would be inappropriate to make any such decisions before the Oregon Health Authority approved the county’s ambulance service area plan. The OHA is reviewing that proposal.
“Our board of commissioners cannot just simply take the contract that Morrow County Health District has submitted,” Rehak said. “State law requires that they consider every contract.”
Rehak later said she believes the commissioners are working “diligently” for the interests of the county and its residents.
Getting personal
As emotions began to surface in multiple commenters’ statements, said he was worried about how the county is planning to cover ambulance services after March 12, the end of a 90-day notice given to the county by the health district because of the initial ambulance service area plan draft.
“By law, you are required to provide for an ASA service equal to what’s here,” Dick said to the commissioners. “Are you going to do that? Do you have the people? I want you to come up and tell us how you’re going to do it.”
After a few moments of silence, with no movement from either Sykes or Drago, Dick addressed the crowd.
“They’re not going to come up because they can’t do it and they know it,” he said. “So you’re going to be left out there. If you live in the south end and you have a bad accident, nobody’s coming as of the 12th.”
Sykes stood, saying he had to respond to Dick’s comment.
“I have listened to this fearmongering from him, from the health district and many other people,” he said. “We’re just trying to follow the law. We’ve been putting up with trash talking on Facebook, multiple nasty messages, so we’ve heard this fearmongering and this is just more of it.”
He did not say anything about a plan for how the county would meet its legal obligations to provide full ambulance coverage, though the county has assured it would do so in press releases and during public meetings.
The meeting turned briefly chaotic when Boardman Mayor Paul Keefer and Tallman started making more personal claims, at which point Drago left the meeting.
Two audience members yelled at Tallman — one swearing at him — as he left the podium and he stepped up to respond. A local law enforcement officer stepped in and deescalated the conflict, leading the two who had yelled out of the room.
Moving forward
Dick moved onto the next topics of discussion: tax breaks for Amazon and nitrates in local well water, both of which were less tense and more discussion-based than the first topic.
People were more divided on the benefits and drawbacks of tax breaks for industry in the county, but everyone who talked was in support of finding solutions to get clean drinking water.
People mostly said they didn’t feel another study was necessary, but Sykes explained the recent federal funding the county received should cover one last study plus the start of determining solutions.
Ana Maria Rodriguez, a local resident and community organizer with Oregon Rural Action, said she would like to see more diversity in the people participating in these conversations, as many affected people are Latino. It would be made easier by having translators at county meetings and materials printed in English as well as Spanish, she said.
“Differences of opinion aren’t going to go away,” Sykes said in conclusion. I would ask everybody to think about that and concentrate on that as we move forward. … Let’s work on ways to work together.”
“We’re dealing with some incredibly intense issues,” Dick said once the meeting ended. “We’re talking about life and death. It’s emotional.”
At the end of the night, people could vote whether or not they wanted to petition for a recall of the commissioners. Of 39 votes, 10 were against a recall and 29 were in favor, which is about the same ratio that other meetings have seen.
