As I write this today, my main concern is for Gilliam County residents and electorate who enjoy the opportunity to vote when major actions are being proposed that completely change the nature of our County government. The following actions happened without that opportunity to vote.
Order 2023-01 dated December 6, 2023 transfers two duties of official responsibility assigned by state law to the county's elected Judge.
They are:
1. Juvenile Court Jurisdiction
2. Probate Jurisdiction
In this letter I want to solely address Probate jurisdiction. The transfer was based on ORS 111.115. In their Order they changed the ORS to read “probate matters may be transferred at any time from a County Court to the Circuit Court for the county by order of the County Court”.
The actual language of ORS 111.115 reads as follows:
“An estate proceeding may be transferred at any time from a County Court to the Circuit Court for the county by order of the County Court”. The first word of the law is (an) meaning "singular" case.
The rest of ORS 111.115 goes on to describe an example of why (a) case should be transferred to Circuit Court and the procedure to use when (a) case meets required criteria
So to put order 2023-01 in place the following actions were taken by County Court:
1. Rewrite a portion of ORS 111.115
(Forgery?)
2. Present the Order to the public in a public meeting with rewritten ORS law embedded in the order.
(Fraud?)
3. While Under oath of their elected office represented order number 2023-01 to be lawful under ORS 111-115
(Perjury?) (Lying under oath of office?)
The solution to this issue is simple. Rescind or amend the order to comply with existing ORS law.
This Order was presented as a New Business agenda item, discussed and passed in one fell swoop to become effective December 13, 2023. The citizens had no idea this was happening.
After two months of public outcry citizens obtained an Attorney’s written opinion on the illegality of this action and formed Frontier Justice PAC to hold our elected official accountable. (Judge) Farrar-Campbell and Commissioner Pat Shannon lobbied the State Senate Judicial Committee and found Bill 1576 to add their requested changes to the Probate Statute as an amendment. They provided proposed amendment language on Gilliam County Court letterhead. This is after they have already broken the law. In my opinion, more appropriate action should involve the Oregon DOJ and Ethics Commission to investigate possible Fraud, Forgery, Perjury, and Election Interference on the part of the Gilliam County Court.
The next Big Change the County Government is proposing involves hiring a County Administrator with a salary starting around $117,000 annually. With Step Raises and benefits, this new position will cost taxpayers $867,000 over the next 5 years. The Hiring Committee will be interviewing applicants on February 21st and possibly February 20th. Do you want this? Let your voice be heard.
—Lenn Ball, Arlington
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