By Scott Unger • Of the News-Register • 

County board Chair Johnston ends ‘back-and-forth’ in comment letters

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Comments

treefarmer


I watch the BOC meetings every week. I applaud Chair Johnston’s approach to reading public comments into the record. We probably have as many opinions about our board members as we have citizens and it seems totally inappropriate to use the meeting time to air written opinions about the Commissioners when there are other venues available for comments and/or complaints. (Or as he noted, citizens can show up in person to express themselves.) I wish he had put a stop to reading letters the week before last when a particularly critical accusatory letter was briefly debated and, at the urging of Ms. Starrett, then read aloud. One person’s written opinion should not be accorded the appearance of that much weight. Thank you Chair Johnston. Please do establish an official policy.

Ms. Starrett was quite testy about the very real concerns brought up about the trump administration’s massive firings and cancellations of contracts. Yamhill County has been negatively affected already and will most likely be further damaged in the future by current (illegal and unconstitutional) so-called policies. She said she didn’t want to “alarm” folks “needlessly.” News flash – we ARE alarmed and for valid reasons. Simply ignoring the impending cuts is not a reasonable approach. (As an example, the passionate hue and cry about the destruction of Social Security effectively caused Musk to back off a bit – for now anyway.)

yamhillbilly2

Mary wants to say “it isn’t a cut if a funding request isn’t fulfilled”. Forget the idea that Trump has pulled funding for any new projects, so yes the funding request will go unfulfilled- her twisted, pretzel logic about it not being an actual cut is really tough to listen to.

I wonder if someone like Mr. Bernards would consider running for Mary’s soon to be vacated position. There is a need and desire for a strong candidate to run against the likelihood LB will be the other candidate. They have all the signs ready that already say “re-elect”.

treefarmer


Re-elect Berschauer?! What a disturbing concept.

Starrett's seat cannot be vacated a minute too soon. I look forward to working to elect a candidate who will represent ALL of us. No more extreme agendas! Although I do not support reading letters at BOC meetings, I welcomed Mr. Bernard's letter as a fair and justified last word to address that vitriolic hit piece from the meeting before last. (I was pleased to see that Bubba did not dignify the attack on him with a response, very unsurprising that Starrett was unable to do the same even when only slightly challenged.)

fiddler

Starrett's logic is strange. Her thinking spawns strange priorities and statements of fact.

Lulu

I wonder if Johnston would read aloud any negative comments directed at him.

Angela Flood

The 1st Amendment precludes government from limiting free speech.
If the letters regarding comments about comms aren't going to be read into the record, but they will still read the letters for other topics, he has - literally- chosen to regulate content.
Either he reads all letters submitted, regardless of content, or they don't read any of them.
I thought he took an oath to abide by the constitution.

Ron

He does not want to waste any time listening to the public comment. They want to be free of public comment and opinion, which usually doesn’t matter anyway.

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