WALDPORT – A group seeking to recall two members of the Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue board on Monday turned in more than 400 signatures to potentially force an election in May.
Staff at the Lincoln County clerk’s office now have 10 days to verify the signatures by determining if the people who signed the petition are both registered voters and live in the fire district. The group needs 292 verified signatures to begin the second phase of the recall process.
If the clerk’s office finds there are enough valid signatures, then COCF&R board members Todd Holt and Kathryn Menefee have five days to either resign or ask for a vote. If they choose to go to an election, then the county has to schedule it within 35 days.
Lincoln County Clerk Dana Jenkins estimated the cost of a special election at $4,500 to $6,000, which the fire district would have to cover.
The recall drive is being led by former board member Peter Carlich of Tidewater and a group called Save Our Fire Services. Carlich said the group plans to continue collecting signatures this week. The deadline for any last signatures is April 20 – three months after the county initially approved the recall petitions.
Holt and Menefee were elected last May have been in office since July.
Those two, chair Buster Pankey and board members Reda Eckerman and Kevin Battles were notified last week that the Oregon Government Ethics Commission has received complaints accusing them of holding an improper executive session in March. Pankey called the meeting under a provision of state law that allows an executive session to consider information or records that are exempt by law from public inspection. The board spent the meeting discussing a memo from its attorney, Lori Cooper of Eugene.
The next day, two members of the Seal Rock Fire District board said in its meeting that three members of the COCF&R board intended to dismiss Fire Chief Jamie Mason, but backed off. An executive session to discuss the employment of a chief executive officer is in a different section of Oregon’s public meetings law, and the employee could request that such a discussion be held in public.
Under Oregon ethics proceedings, there is an initial look into the complaint and then a staff recommendation to the commission whether to proceed to a full investigation.