Charges that the prior County Board of Commissioners deliberately obscured the reorganization of the Coos County Road Department from the general public have not abated since the New Year’s Eve layoff of twenty-road workers. Done before Commissioner Bob Main took office, he was denied the opportunity to vote but has still had to live with the consequences. The timing of the decision further fueled claims the Board acted with a deliberate lack of transparency.
Citizens claim the bare minimum notice was given and even that was written in code and further used unapproved budgets. Testimony about possible serious impacts to public safety was given week after week at the BOC meetings.
Citizens questioned the impromptu budget projections, prepared without public input, used to justify the work force reduction and asked questions and pointed out perceived discrepancies and anomalies in the prepared figures to the Board. Main moved twice to reconsider the reorganization to allow the public to have input in the process and was overruled each time by Whitty and Stufflebean.
A December 31, 2008 press release explaining the road department reorganization includes a five-year revenue projection. The projection, prepared by Commissioner Stufflebean, shows a beginning balance of $3,500,000 for 2009-10, a half million less than the previous year. However, current budget work sheets indicate a proposed beginning balance of $5,867,497 or $2.3 million more than the New Year’s Eve projection.

Why did the BOC make major decisions regarding public safety based upon a budget prepared by only one man, Kevin Stufflebean?

I was lying in bed last night thinking about my interview with you and your Editorial Board yesterday.  I came away from that meeting feeling I didn’t give you the exact answers you were looking for, so I would like to elaborate a little more. I believe you said you attended the IBO lunch and heard the speeches Kevin & I gave.  I would think it’s fair to say that Kevin is a far superior public speaker than I, something I’ve never claimed as a strong point and really don’t like to do.

You indicated that you really didn’t want to spend too much time talking on the process of Kevin’s road department reorganization and agreed that it could have been presented to the public in a better way.  Reading a World editorial concerning the recall sometime back, I was left with the impression that you felt the way he handled the reorganization was lacking, but not a reason for him to be recalled. I have to disagree with this thought, as I feel an elected official has a duty to their constituents to be up front and honest with the public and employees who work for them.  In this case it didn’t happen and for me is a very important issue of this recall.

Like many citizens, I don’t have the luxury to attend all the Board of Commissioner meetings, but do read and watch local news media to try to keep informed about local issues. I want an elected official in office I feel I can trust to do the right thing and keep the public informed.  In Kevin’s case, I feel he was deceptive in his actions and has violated that trust. Kevin had an agenda and averted the public process when he prepared a proposed budget entirely on his own, in the middle of an approved budget and much of it based solely on projections. If he’s willing to do this on such a major public safety issue, I suspect he would do it again on other issues he favors and wants to push through.

You asked what’s next if Kevin is recalled. I believe I said I wanted to see someone appointed who supports industry and is open to the public process. I believe Kevin, like the majority of people here in Coos County do support new industries. I do not believe we should sell the farm to get them here as in the case of ORC and the $450,000 Kevin took out of the maintenance budget.

You also asked what I would have done that would have been different than what Kevin did.  While Roadmaster, I was always cautious when it came to reducing personnel. As I explained, the county road system requires a considerable amount of routine road maintenance. This is not a one time function, it continues through out the year. In order to do this, you need personnel to perform these tasks. Kevin’s plan is unrealistic and will put public safety at risk with slower response times in emergencies and a growing backlog of maintenance that will eventually impact the integrity of the road system.

If the county wanted to implement a reorganization of the Road Department when I was there, I would not have wanted to make the decision alone. I would have discussed this with the full Board of Commissioners early on and recommended that the public be involved, as they’re the ones who would be impacted the most by any decision made. My preference would have been a go slow approach after an analysis had been made of the department and what services will be impacted.  I do not believe a budgetary emergency existed.  If there was one, it was created by Kevin and his desire to play politics with Road Department funds, something I always tried to avoid.

Kevin blames prior Roadmasters, including myself, for not implementing this plan sooner.  He doesn’t seem to grasp that maybe there was a reason for not implementing such drastic measures.  Everything he wants to do mirror the larger and richer counties (Multnomah, Jackson, Douglas, and Marion) of the state. Many counties not so fortunate to have the funding they do, struggle just as Coos County does to keep their roads maintained.

Kevin talks about the high cost of equipment maintenance. Any piece of equipment that is used on a regular basis is going to have maintenance cost.  I do not believe any comparison was made to evaluate how excessive these cost actually were, he just threw out large figures to justify his plan. We always kept our equipment well maintained, old or new. I know when we compared our equipment and labor rates to local contractors; we were always lower in both areas.  Maintenance costs were figured in the rates we charged. I’m not saying that equipment doesn’t need to be replaced, but should happen in a reasonable manner over a period of time and as the budget allows. We upgraded much of our most used equipment during my term a Roadmaster and were still able to keep our roads safe.

Summer time is when much of the preventative maintenance is done.  With 9 road workers left to do this work, it’s mind boggling to me how it will be accomplished. For example: The paving crew takes a minimum of 6 employees, sometimes 7 if a pilot car is used. Unless the job is real close to the asphalt plant, most of the County’s trucks (7 or 8) are used to haul asphalt, the numbers don’t add up. This is just one activity, there are many more that will need to be done during this time (rock crushing, culvert replacements, brush cutting, paint striping, and storm repairs to name a few.  Kevin says they won’t contract any of this work. If this is true, I don’t see how the new Roadmaster can accomplish such a major task. If he does start contracting out some of this work, has that additional cost been evaluated?

Early on, just after the layoffs, I stopped by the Road Department with a former Foreman Don Beebe.  We had just come from a meeting at the courthouse and ran into Barry Austin the new Foreman who also attended the meeting.  I told Barry I realized he couldn’t talk about the layoffs and told him I almost asked him in the meeting if he could look me in the eyes and say there were sufficient personnel left to maintain the roads.  His response was “he would have said yes, but he wouldn’t be looking me in the eyes”. Kevin alludes to the fact that it was his managers who alerted him to this emergency funding problem, I really doubt this and believe it was a matter of Kevin telling his people this is what we’re going to do.

This recall could have been avoided if Kevin was up front with the public and the employees. The complaint from the union could have been avoided if he had given proper notice of his plan. If the union prevails, the taxpayers will be stuck with over a half million dollar judgment against them, plus attorney fees for outside legal advice. If he had been willing to reconsider his actions and allowed more public discussion the recall could have been avoided.

I’m only one person involved in this recall process and I surely don’t have all of the answers to this complicated issue, that’s what the public process is all about, to hear ideas.  I found early on in the signature gathering stage that there were various reasons why people signed our petitions. Some agreed with our position and issues, others had their own reasons from prior experiences with Kevin as a city counselor, dealings with him on a personal level and dealings with him in his previous job to name a few. From being out and talking to people, I truly believe that our recall effort will be successful and hopefully Coos County will get back on track for better times in the future.

Larry R. Van Elsberg

Kevin Stufflebean “Could I make a comment first? I would prefer that this be hand written notes and not taped executive session “

Coquille Valley Sentinel, Letter to the editor, March 3, 2009
Larry Van Elsberg – “Only Commissioner Stufflebean knows why he wanted only written notes and not taped. While Roadmaster, I sat through numerous executive sessions and never witnessed a Commissioner requesting the meeting be recorded by written notes only.”

Listen to the audio here

This notice will serve as official notification of the affirmative verification of 3773 valid signatures of registered voters in Coos County, Oregon for the Petition of Recall for Kevin Stufflebean, Coos County Commissioner, Position #3.

                     3773 – signatures required

                                                                      4747 -  signatures accepted

                                                                                          petition-verification-results1

He now has 5 days to respond or resign. Get ready to Vote to Recall Kevin Stufflebean.

The committee to recall Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean turned in over 5,300 signatures Tuesday 3-17-09. The County has ten days to check and validate the collected signatures.

Once Coos County has validated 3,773 signatures Stufflebean and head petitioner Van Elsberg will be notified. Stufflebean then has 5 days to resign or file a response prompting a special election within 35 days.                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                  Larry VanElsberg and Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown

Is this the result of Kevin’s road reorganization? This did not need to happen. This is why Kevin has gotta go!

http://mgx.com/blogs/2009/03/19/did-the-reorganized-road-crew-fail-88-year-old-man/

http://mgx.com/blogs/2009/03/21/larry-van-elsberg-responds-to-editorials-critical-of-stufflebean-recall/

http://mgx.com/blogs/2009/03/20/coos-county-puts-up-barriers-after-drowning/

Jack Beebe said this about Kevin Stufflebean:

“I was a City Council member for 8 years and a County Commissioner for 16 years and I know how things are supposed to be done.  I have never seen such arrogance and disregard for due process and budget law and the people of this County.  We can’t afford to have this man in County government any longer.  He must go and the quicker the better.”

Letter to The World Newspaper 1/22/09.

Stufflebean and the prior Board of Commisioners slashed funding for Law enforcement while spending millions on building remodels, computer upgrades, and projects of far less importance than public safety, while failing to properly utilize the Federal Timber Funds.

Stufflebean served as the department head of IT, Maintenance, and Road Departments without being qualified for these positions. He has mismanaged these departments by placing the public at risk and wasting tax dollars. His Road Department  reorganization left insufficient resources to respond to emergencies and maintain county roads for safe passage.

Stufflebean has lied to the taxpayers and county employees, by conducting the public’s business secretely and deceitfully.

Without corrective action, County Government will remain out of touch with its citizens  and as a result Coos County has become increasingly unsafe.

Commissioner Stufflebean has repeatedly refused to reconsider his unwise decisions. Therefore, his recall is the only way to protect our community and return County Government to the people.