After spending the past several days, reviewing the events and conversations that have taken place during the past couple of weeks and watching what is happening during my first election cycle as a County Commissioner, I have decided to respond to the Letter to The Editor submitted by Steve Shaffer last week.
I am surprised at Mr. Shaffer’s obvious ability to ignore what had been discussed during our four conversations over the last two weeks. Two telephone conversations, one in his living room and a my rebut of his accusations regarding my lack of research during the last County Court Meeting.
I will attempt to explain one more time to Mr. Shaffer the research I did and the reason for it. I did not contact any past elected officials or Juvenile Directors who had not been involved with moving Juvenile Cases to Circuit Court. None of them would have any experience with the effects of having done so. I contacted those who are currently moving cases to Circuit Court in an attempt to see if they thought there were any negative results from doing so. I did not receive any information that would indicate it would not be a good idea to permanently move our cases since that is where they have been handled for the past five years successfully. I had also researched and found out that there were not any Oregon Counties currently handling these cases locally.
Mr. Shaffer also ignored the explanation of two County Court members who had talked to a past Morrow County Commissioner regarding the incident he commented on in his letter. It was as if what we had heard did not matter because it was different from what he had heard.
I would also say he did not indicate in his letter that I had informed him during our meeting in his living room, that I was not in favor of moving forward with a Board of Commissioners at this time because of the District Attorney’s opinion regarding the ORS Statue addressing probate cases and the public input received during the last County Court Meeting. His agenda is obvious. Mr. Shaffer would in my opinion better serve Gilliam County if he would support the County in moving out of the 1960’s and into the 20th Century.
—Pat W. Shannon, Gilliam County Commissioner
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