Lincoln County commissioners Walter Chuck and Casey Miller are expected to receive letters of education Friday by the Oregon Ethics Commission for violating various state public meetings laws. (Shayla Escudero/Lincoln Chronicle)
SALEM — The Oregon Government Ethics Commission on Friday approved a “letter of education” for Lincoln County Commissioner Walter Chuck, but pulled back one for Commissioner Casey Miller.
The action was done to change the language in Miller’s agreement. not to change the penalty, commission executive director Susan Myers told the Lincoln Chronicle on Monday. The move came after county counsel Kristin Yuille notified the commission about conflicting statements between the Chuck and Miller documents.
Miller’s stipulated final order stated the commission voting process used to make hiring freeze exceptions was developed and approved by the county’s legal counsel while Chuck’s said legal counsel was not consulted. Yuille told the Lincoln Chronicle last week that she did not approve the process.
Myers told the Chronicle that the commission’s objective is to resolve the issue and approve the final order for Miller at its September meeting.
— Shayla Escudero/Lincoln Chronicle
By SHAYLA ESCUDERO/Lincoln Chronicle
Lincoln County commissioners broke several public meeting laws when they privately cast votes on hiring freeze exemptions in 2025, according to findings by Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigators.
On Friday, the ethics commission is expected to approve a final order agreeing to the findings and issue letters of education to commissioners Walter Chuck and Casey Miller. It’s the last step of a year-long process after Miller objected to the hiring process and filed a complaint with the ethics commission last July.
When county commissioners approved their 2025-26 budget, they balanced a $4 million shortfall with a hiring freeze – impacting about 20 vacant positions. Department heads could apply for exceptions, which had to be approved by county commissioners. The issue was publicly contentious, as District Attorney Jenna Wallace issued multiple news releases and called for the public to show up at commission meetings to demand some of her vacant positions be unfrozen.
Rather than voting to approve or deny exemption requests in a public meeting, human resources director David Collier conducted an email system asking commissioners to privately cast their votes electronically – a “yes” vote, a “no” vote, or to abstain. The agency’s stipulated facts for Miller and Chuck’s final orders conflict on whether the process was approved by the county’s attorneys.
The commission’s investigators determined the votes broke several of Oregon’s public meeting laws.
Miller stopped participating and alerted the ethics commission to the issue in July. The commission voted to conduct an investigation in October. Initially, Commissioner Claire Hall was also named in the investigation but was removed after her unexpected death in January.
Ethics commission investigators found the actions to violate several meeting laws – including a law that prohibits commissioners from deciding or deliberating on a decision in private. Their actions also violated laws around giving public notice for meetings, recording and taking minutes, investigators found.
Chuck was found in violation of additional laws than Miller because he cast a vote, where Miller did not. Even though Miller alerted the ethics commission he was still found to violate meeting laws because of his responsibility as a public official, according to the commission’s staff report.
“Despite not establishing the process and despite not responding to the emails regarding the exemption requests, as a Lincoln County commissioner, Casey Miller is responsible for ensuring the requirements of Public Meetings Law were followed as a member of the governing body,” the final order reads.
Both commissioners will receive letters of education rather than a financial penalty, putting the year-long complaint to rest.
Miller, who stopped the unethical hiring process last year by filing the complaint, said in a statement Tuesday that he’s “comfortable receiving a letter of education.”
“I brought this matter forward to get clarity and to improve,” he said. “There’s too much distrust in institutions; we can rebuild that trust by making decisions collectively. I believed we could utilize a better process. The Oregon Government Ethics Commission affirmed that. Transparency does not weaken county government. Meeting laws ensure the community has understanding of how and why we make decisions.”
Chuck was appointed to the commission in 2025 but lost his seat to former sheriff Curtis Landers in the May primary election. Miller is in a runoff with Cathie Rigby and Cristen Don and Joe Steere are vying for Hall’s seat in the November general election.
- Shayla Escudero is an enterprise reporter for the Lincoln Chronicle covering local governments, education, housing and social services and can be reached at [email protected]
Many thanks to Commissioner Miller for bringing this to the attention of the State Ethics Commission. It has been a long fight but he was right. I think we are overdue for a new county attorney.
I feel a financial penalty is in order. Just plain tired of all the deceit in government.
I wish to thank Commissioner Casey Miller for bravely attempting to correct this violation of the public meeting laws. Look at the terrible price he and his family have paid for him daring to speak up — he was unjustly removed from the county offices on 9/19/24, one day after the 9/18/24 meeting where he asked two other commissioners to stop violating open meeting laws. It took 22 months of smearing, ugly press releases and social media postings, and a bogus claim of bullying and a full investigation that cost taxpayers $68,000 to be found innocent of the bullying charge. Still ignoring 13,800+ voters, the county human resources and counsel’s office still refused to allow him to return requiring a federal judge to rule on a preliminary injunction to return him to his office and to restore his full rights as a commissioner. Commissioner Miller only wished to serve the people of Lincoln County honestly and with transparency and hopefully the voters will vote to correct this injustice in November.
Again, time for all new commissioners. Time to reboot and start with three new people. The election is coming with great new candidates ready for a fresh start. Vote!
Mr. Miller, thank you for the courage of taking your oath and obligations seriously to identify and bring forth the longstanding abuse of authority and questionable influence of our county leaders, department heads and your advice from county counsel. You deserve public apologies from Commissioner Chuck, the county counsel and human resources director, Lincoln County Democratic Party, and Quinton Smith and his staff. These actions have been going on for decades. Thanks for being brave.
The voters should now know who they can trust to correct the counties problems.
Shalom,
A.Kittel
I don’t understand why Human Resources director David Collier was thought to have the authority (that he apparently did not have) to require the County Commissioners to conduct an email voting system wherein the Commissioners would privately cast their votes electronically – a “yes” vote, a “no” vote, or to abstain. I also cannot understand why the Commissioners’ attorney, Kristin Yuille, did not advise the Commissioners as to their ethical obligations and advise the Commissioners not to do as Collier was requiring the Commissioners to do. Isn’t one of Ms Yuille’s jobs to give correct legal advice to the Commissioners on what is or what is not unethical for the Commissioners to do? It sure looks to me now from reading Federal Judge Ann Aiken’s June 18th Opinion And Order and now this from Oregon Government Ethics Commission that the Commissioners staff, particularly Collier and Yuille, have created all of the problems the Commissioners have had — particularly Commissioner Miller. It seems to me that instead of complaining about Casey Miller, everyone should be looking at Collier and Yuille as the sources of much of the Commissioners problems.
I agree. Too much politics as evidenced by comments that read like a political speech. Maybe voting in new people is the answer. But vote regardless.
David Collier and Kristen Yuille are not elected officials, yet they seem to hold a hand over those who were elected. I’m voting to give Casey Miller the opportunity they neglected to give him; Curtis Landers is already in over Chuck – let’s get Joe Steere voted in for a commission that should be able to work together – even if they agree to disagree on things. It will all be better than allowing unelected folks, i.e., Collier and Yuille, to be masters over those whom we voted for.
We should all be grateful to Commissioner Miller for standing up to county counsel Kristin Yuille, David Collier, and Walter Chuck in the face of their ongoing abuse of power that they erroneously seized and claimed. If not for Casey MIller’s courage, integrity and strength of character we, the taxpayers would still be in the dark about the abuse of power that’s been going on at the county for decades . . . at our expense. Thank you Casey Miller!
Thank you, Commissioner Miller, for tackling this head on. What you have been put through by Yullie, Collier and Chuck is unacceptable. At this point we can only hope that you keep the position you deserve and along with Landers, you can clean house and get back to the business of running a county.
Thank you to Commissioner Miller for having the courage to endure what the county has put him through. For those that think we need all new commissioners, please consider that as a 1st-term commissioner Mr. Miller has shown that he knew more about public meeting laws and other government process than a 10+ year county counsel and a 20+ year commissioner, who was also acting administrator at the time. Mr. Miller has earned my vote and I encourage others to consider supporting him in this November’s election.
While the Oregon Government Ethics Commission did issue Commissioner Walter Chuck a “Letter of Education” (agenda item 15) after he stipulated to violating five of Oregon’s Public Meeting Laws, they chose to not issue a letter to Commissioner Casey Miller (agenda item 14). Instead, they removed that item from the consent calendar without explanation, and did not discuss the item for the remainder of the meeting.
Here’s a link to that point in the meeting:
https://youtu.be/hQJKM89Ukbs?t=789