Lincoln County commissioners Walter Chuck and Casey Miller will meet remotely on Wednesday while the public will be allowed into commission chambers to watch them on the county’s TV monitors. (Shayla Escudero/Lincoln Chronicle)Twice-monthly Lincoln County commission meetings are moving back into courthouse chambers – but commissioners Casey Miller and Walter Chuck won’t be there, just anyone who wants to watch them meet remotely.
Commission meetings went remote on March 18 after human resources director David Collier ordered them online after staff complained they felt threatened and unsafe March 4 by some audience members who were angry about not being able to use the public comment opportunity.
The return to the courthouse on Wednesday, April 1 – yes, April Fool’s Day — follows the last meeting where the county rented a room at Oregon Coast Community College in Newport where a handful of people watched the proceedings. Miller showed up there as well, but was in a separate room.
The county attempted to rent space at the college in April and May, but the college declined. The college said if county employees felt unsafe in the courthouse and the county was unable to provide security, then why should it jeopardize college staff and students.
In an email to county officials, the college said it “cannot introduce these ‘safety concerns’ into our environment; one without a sheriff’s department on site, metal detection, etcetera. Further, the times of your meetings are busy times of the academic week.”
“We appreciate these are challenging times and we always strive to be a productive partner,” the email said. “Our focus must be, however, always on student safety, first and foremost.”
The county looked into renting space at the Newport Public Library and Oregon Coast Aquarium, but decided to open commission chamber doors so the public could watch there. According to the Oregon Attorney General’s manual for public meetings, a public body holding online meetings does not need to provide a space where the public can watch but just a link and access code so people can watch remotely.
Sheriff Adam Shanks told the Lincoln Chronicle that he does not have patrol deputies available to attend the twice-monthly commission meetings but that he or a member of his command staff could sit in – if asked.
“We will make every effort to have someone there if they request it,” Shanks said. “Whatever they decide; if they need assistance, we will do that.”
— Quinton Smith/Lincoln Chronicle
Congrats to OCCC for not allowing itself to be dragged into Lincoln County’s nonsense.
It is not nonsense when employees and members of the public are all feeling physically unsafe due to certain members of the public having a specific agenda. Members of the public have been surrounded and felt threatened and harassed for speaking out against Casey Miller for example. It is too bad the misinformation continues to reverberate for some of the public.