Introduction:
Regarding the Josephine County budget committee meeting on June 4, 2026. Watching the video of this meeting sat poorly with me. I believe the public needs to be aware of what happened and decide for themselves. The video starts about 3 hours and 18 minutes into the budget meeting.
During the meeting, committee members openly altered the wording of an official voting motion specifically to manage public perception. To avoid taxpayer backlash over a mathematically accurate 36% salary increase for the District Attorney, the committee pivotally reframed the raise as a flat $12,000 annual increase before passing it unanimously. Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s increase was kept as a percentage rather than a dollar amount.
Key Discussion Points
- The Percentage Problem: Because the county only pays a $32,000 base supplement to the state-funded DA, the required market adjustment of $12,000 created a mathematically high 36% spike.
- Fear of Public Backlash: Members explicitly worried that local media would publish the “36%” figure without context, sparking outrage among citizens used to standard 2% to 3% annual raises.
- Intentional Reframing: Committee members openly advocated for changing the motion to “dollars and cents” specifically so the public would not be influenced by the high percentage.
- The Procedural Pivot: Through a friendly amendment, the committee scrubbed the “36%” phrase from the official motion and replaced it with “$12,000.”
- The Unanimous Approval: Once the language was altered to optimize public optics, the committee voted 6-0 to approve the rewritten raises.
