As a Gilliam County resident for almost my whole life what unprecedented and pressing times that are occurring in our County Court Government. In my opinion some major and long lasting extremely poor decisions that the Court has made have failed to represent the voice of the voters of Gilliam County.
Unfortunately the focus, division that is currently happening did not need to hap-pen. On December 6th of 2023 the County Court voted to transfer Juvenile and Probate statutory authority to the County Circuit Courts. Why didn’t the Court let the County voters vote on a major long lasting decision like this? What was the rush? Restructuring the Gilliam County Court? Upcoming County Election? If this decision was the right thing to do then it should have been a process with discussion, information, and transparency along with voter participation. The County Court needs to rescind the Probation transfer, leave our current government positions in place, let the upcoming elections take place and let the voters decide on any government structure changes.
With regards to the Gilliam County Probate jurisdiction transfer the court has been repeatedly asked to provide the justification and legality of the transfer. The Court maintains there legal counsel affirms the legality of their decision is lawful and correct. If that is the case then why not have their legal counsel provide documentation showing how and why it was totally legal?
Gilliam County Court has had numerous residents testify facts as to why the Pro-bate transfer is not legal. I also support a recently formed Frontier Justice PAC group of citizens which presented the Gilliam County Court with a legal counsel’s document stating why the Probate transfer is unlawful. It’s very unfortunate that some residents needed to hire legal counsel to challenge an unlawful motion by the Gilliam County Court. Multiple County Judges, Commissioners and residents also provided testimony to the Oregon House/Judiciary Senate when the Gilliam County Court attempted to get legislation passed that made their Probate transfer legal. Which did not pass because of misinformation.
As a candidate for Gilliam County Commissioner position #2 any County government structure change needs to go to the voters. I have over twenty years of attained, appointed and voted positions in Gilliam County. As stated in County Court meetings the court is in crisis and we need to get the focus and priorities back on track, with my work ethic, experience I feel I can make a positive impact in representing Gilliam County voters.
Sincerely,
Grant Wilkins, Arlington
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