John West Interview Candidate for Commissioner Position #1 | Season 2, Episode 24

 Part 1 of 3 In this episode of the Josephine County Republican Podcast. 

See the full interview video here : https://youtu.be/JIHsQIibowM

I sit down with commissioner candidate John West, who is running for Position #1 in Josephine County. 

We talk about government spending, transparency, the county budget, law enforcement, the jail, and where taxpayer money is really going. John also shares his experience from his previous time as commissioner and what he plans to do if elected. 

If you live in Josephine County, this is one you should watch before you vote. Watch the full interview and decide for yourself. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Part one of my three-part series May first, two thousand twenty-six. John West running for position number one. Let's get into it. Hey everybody, Josephine County Republican. I'm here with uh John West. So you are running for commissioner. Position number one. So position number one. All right. So um you're you're looking, we've had conversations about fraud and waste and and cutting taxes. Did you want to get into some of the topics of that? I know you said something about uh three assessors vehicles that are sitting back there being unused, and we're paying for maintenance and insurance and so that kind of stuff. We're we're trying to cut taxes, and and the people of Josephine County, they don't want to pay more taxes, they want to pay less, right? So, I mean, what is your plans for that?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Well, you know, uh one of the main jobs, uh and the county commissioners have a lot of them because they're all three phases of government, but one of the main uh jobs that county commissioners have is to cut waste, abuse, and fraud. And I believe we have all three.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

And uh and I I don't say that very lightly. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so this county wastes a ton of money. They could do way better. And there's a lot of abuse that goes on. And as far as fraud, that I'm gonna say that one very lightly because uh fraud is in the eye of the beholder.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

And so I'm not gonna, I'm not saying that we uh any have any certain employees uh that are are frauding the taxpayer um that will come as time comes about. And so um, but that is our job. And so if you cut waste and you cut abuse and you cut fraud, you will have smaller government, more efficient government, and better government. And government's job is to serve the people. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

And so you look at the average citizen of Josephine County, I think the average income of Josephine County is around $37,000 a year. When you take the average uh employee of Josephine County, and I know it's six figures. It's over a hundred thousand. That's wages and benefits. And so when I see an employee who has worked for five years of Josephine County, that gets 300 hours of vacation time. That's seven and a half weeks. That's incredible. 13 paid holidays, and one week of sick leave, then they get 12 weeks of paid leave organ, 10 weeks of FMO organ, I think it's family leave organ of something, and then 10 weeks of MNO organ, that's what I was told was those other ones. Um it's it's just insane because when you add it up, I think it's around four months a year.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

And and that's times 400-ish employees that are currently in the county, right? Right. So you got 400 employees times, what do you think the average is? Like 165,000, 150,000?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Probably, I would say we got to be close to the 140, 150 range. The average employee costs us. Now, when I say that costs us, that's their wage. Yeah, health insurance, vacation, PERS, all their perks.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

And that's all taxpayers.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Fully loaded. Taxpayers are paying for all of that. 100%. $60 million. Oh, I bet it goes over that. Wow. I think it's I wouldn't be surprised that it doesn't hit closer to the $70 million rate.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

So taxpayers are paying $60 or $70 million per year, essentially, for employees that are there. And are all those employees even needed? I mean, of course, we don't want to get rid of people, but I mean, people need to pay their families and and health care and stuff like that. But there's a lot of uh potential waste, and that's something that you're gonna be looking into. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

So I did look into it for the first two years when I was your county commissioner. And um I I get asked a lot, well, John, how come you didn't cut a bunch of this out when you were already county commissioner? Well, we're a board of three, not a board of one. Right.

unknown 4:54

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

So it takes two votes to do anything. And so uh you always have to have another vote to get there. And remember, I was heading that direction, ready to uh to work with the board on trying to uh solve some of these issues, and then uh uh then then I left office. And so it's I didn't get a chance my last two years to finish that, and so that I'm coming back, or hopefully to come back. Yeah, excellent. And uh so I have a plan, I have uh I know what needs to be done. You don't have to train me, right? Uh you don't have to put money into me, uh, and I can hit the ground running. And so, but you know, I need to work with a board that has the same mindset. Yeah. If if they don't care about the average day citizen, they don't care about what government costs, they don't care about what it costs uh the citizen to live every day, then it we're gonna be in a struggle.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Yeah, and you know, it's it's it seems like on it's a big popularity contest, but in the end, really everybody just doesn't want to pay more taxes. And that's what you're all about. You're about cutting all of that and getting down to the to the bottom line, smaller government, like you said.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Well, and you know, and efficiency, efficiency. I seen cars sit for three to seven months. Yeah, those those assessor cars, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:33

They're just back there sitting.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah, sitting in a fenced compound. And where are the assessors? Where do or where does the assessor? Well, uh, some some of them, and I don't want to pick just the assessors because we have great people that work in the assessor's office. But what I'm saying is, is I was a big proponent of let's take the county vehicles and let's stop as many vehicles from going home. People should have their own car or ride the bus if they live in town, however they want to do it, but the taxpayers should not pay for you to take the car home, and then some employees decide, oh, well, I have a county vehicle, I'm gonna take it to Walmart and go shopping on the weekend or in the evening. No, that's taxpayers' funds, yeah, that's taxpayers' money, and and so we need to be mindful of that. Even the little stuff counts, the little stuff, yeah. And so, you know, here what was it four or five years ago or something like that? They changed the county logo to show some uh it showed mountains and trees, and it showed so they changed cost a million dollars. Are you kidding me? To change a logo. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Boy, wouldn't we like to have that million dollars back? Yeah, I know the city did something, some big campaign. It was like, what was it, go rogue? Or yeah, or what was it? I can't remember the slogan, but everybody was like, Go Rogue, like what what does that even mean? And spend a bunch of city cities.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

So when I could when I was in come into office uh before, uh I uh I that was the logo was brought up, and I I was I said, How much did that cost us to change a logo? Yeah, and they said, Oh, it cost a million dollars. And I said, What cost a million? Oh, well, you know, we had to pay a designer and we had to pay the I said for a little a little tiny emblem, and they said, Oh, well, we had to throw all that letterhead and envelopes away, and all those signs on the cars had to be replaced and redone. And I said, Are you people insane? Million dollars gone, just like that. Yeah, just like that. You know, and so you know, you take the vehicle waste, you take it just goes on and on and on. And so remember, I'm not I don't begrudge anyone having vacation time and taking time off. Yeah, sure. But when you're off two months, what we have to do is we end up having to go out to uh another entity and bring in a temporary worker to replace them while they're gone. Yes, you're gonna be. So now we're paying again for that person to be off. And everybody deserves the time to take vacations and be off, but it we wouldn't have to replace them if they were off, you know, a week or two. But if you can take a month or two off, how do some departments oh? Well, I I can tell you how some departments work. Well, let's not have to hire temporary workers, let's hire more employees. So when we have employees take off, we have the extra employees take the time. Well, that really costs you a lot of money. That does, yeah. And it's like, are you kidding me? Doesn't make any sense. And the new one that I hear, which is just mind-boggling, is you know, their morale's down in the county. And if you would give them another raise, it would bring their morale up. No, then you have to give everybody a raise. Then you give everybody a raise. But it's not just their wage, the raise on their wage, they get more on their purse. Right. Everything costs more. And so we just see it just going over and over and over again. Now, don't take me wrong, we have a lot of great employees. A lot of great employees.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

But the problem is, is we cannot afford government was not supposed to be the best paying job. Government was supposed to be about service.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Now, you got paid to serve the people that you work for. But when government, when when the the people, the taxpayers, end up working to pay for those government, they're actually, in a sense, I say it, government was supposed to be designed to work for the people. The people are working for government now. Yeah, well. And and so it's backwards. Yeah, it's totally it's totally wrong. Yeah, that's crazy. And so I'm seen as a threat. I want to go in there, I want to expose it. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm pretty tight, but I'm been in business 30 plus years. I've been in the county government, I've managed the departments. I think we got 23, 22, 23 departments. And we've got great some great managers, some great directors, uh, but we got other people that thinks they it is their right.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

And what our right is, is to make sure that we serve the people at Josephine County. That's our right to serve them. And it's not that we get served and when we're done being served, we hope there's some service left for somebody else. Yeah, and so uh, but I I don't want to, I don't want to uh keep going on and on about this, but you know, and and then when we have money, so you know, a lot of people don't understand the ONC funding. So we've seen some ONC funding come back, and they see that the Trump administration has opened up logging, and I think in March they sold 95 million board feet. So I want everybody to be clear we don't get money on 95 million board feet that was sold because first it has to be logged. Right. So out of 95 million board feet, there was 25 million board feet that was instantly held up in the courts. Oh wow, it may never get logged. Yeah, and if it does, it may be three, five years down the line. So we don't see our percentage of revenue. So the way it works on ONC funding is you take all the timber sales, it don't have to be Josephine County, it's all the timber sold, and it has to be on ONC ground. Well, if you look at on the government ground, we only have a small fraction of ONC timberlands. The rest of it's late uh secessional reserve ground, it can be forest service ground, it can be BLM ground, but it don't have to be ONC timberland. So uh we don't receive funding from the BLM that's not ONC. We don't receive uh forest service money from their timber sales. And our SRS, which is Secure Rural Schools funding, we get one payment in September this year, and it's a million one hundred thousand twenty-one doll, something like that. That's our last. Unless Congress can somehow get it approved for it to come back, that's our last payment.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Yeah, and and other stuff has been drying out too. I know there was what is it, the schools thing. Um, I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Well, the schools used to get a percentage of secure real schools, yeah. And that that so that goes away. But when I was commissioner, we received $2.8 million every year from secure real schools, and that's going away. And that's going away. They talk about the PELT and uh all this stuff, all that stuff. So how we used to fund the DA was because the budgeting was about 2.6, 2.8, and we got that money. So we would slide that money over, it's going away. So um, as Trump administration is selling these timber sales, a lot of it isn't uh O and C ground, and but if it is ONC ground, it's held up in the courts. But if and the way it works in federal timber sales, most federal timber sales, they're green timber sales, and you can buy them and hold on them for three to five years, you put say 20% down. So we don't get any money till they're logged. Yeah, it's all it's done. So let's say they sold 500 million board vite this year, and nobody logs a stick of it. You don't get paid for it. Yeah, you don't get paid for it. You don't get paid for it until it's logged. So, so a lot of people are like, well, wait a minute, where when do we get our money? I'm I'm trying to tell you that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you know, and so uh as we see the one of the sales that sold in the Applegate, it sold, it was dead bug kill timber. I think 880 acres or something like that, held up in the courts because the environmentalists don't want us locking it. But you know, it creates one of the biggest fire hazards that all that dead bug kill timber and it's going to waste. Yep, and if they hold it out long enough from being logged, it has no value. Now, we don't only doing a service to our forest by getting rid of that dead bug kill timber, we're also not getting our counties and our schools any revenue. Yeah. So it's a it's a big mix. So people say, well, the the government needs to do better on forest health and forest management. Go and tell your environmental groups that. Yeah, exactly. They're the ones stopping it. Yeah. So, you know, so as we see funding drying up and and cutting down, and then we see federal money in other areas and other grants dry up, and then we say see state money dry up, you have to ask yourself, okay, where does our money come from? 58 cents. I think it's 0.5867. Right. So we get roughly $5.6 to $6 million, something like that, a year in property. That's what we run government, county government on. So in that, we are mandated to run the assessor, mandated to run the clerk. Uh, we have mandated departments, and so the the clerk takes a lot of income in uh uh that they take in that office for uh all the different permits uh and and stuff. So, but if they don't take in enough from their permitting system, then we have to help them with the general fund.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

The assessor, if you don't have an assessor and assessors, uh you're not gonna have property taxes, you're not gonna have no revenue. Right. So, and then the schools won't get paid and and and and this and that. So um that costs us, I believe, around $1.8 to $2 million a year. So I the assessment should be fairly simple, most people think, uh, because you go, well, it can't go up more than 3% a year, and that's fine as long as you don't change anything on your property. Yeah. But let's just say you have five acres, you build a house, and it's been going long, and the uh the assessed value has been going up 3% a year, but all of a sudden you build a shop or you build an ADU. That changes your assessed value. So the assessor needs to reassess that, get it to wear the uh proper assessed value. So so that takes whether they use Google Earth or they come onto your property, and and I'll be the first to tell you I don't allow government on my property.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

That's great. I mean, um, and that's just me.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Yeah. Now, uh, because that's just the way I am. Yeah, and I think that's a lot of people in Josie County, they're like, you know, nope, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

So one of the things I hear right now, and I go to the weekly business sessions or I watch them, is well, we need code enforcement back. We need code enforcement. Well, code enforcement was originally designed and it was actually sent to the voters. And the voters said, we don't have an issue with code enforcement, but we want a leash on them. We don't want them violating our personal property rights. We don't want them coming on our property and doing something, uh saying that there's something that's not going on. They so code enforcement was designed for the person who's letting their sewer run out on the ground, or the garbage is piling up and the rats and the infestation. Uh, they're stacking uh cars and oil and gases are going out, or there's 20 camp trailers on there, and there's a whole tribe of people living in camp trailers that there's no water, there's no sewer service, you know, and all that.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Which is happening right now. I know there was a couple of guys that came in there and you saw that.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

And I've seen them there. They come, they were coming every week complaining about, and the commissioners kept saying, Oh, we're gonna be on it, we're gonna get on it. No, they could get on it. They could have already had it taken care of. Yep. It's the same thing. Let's kick the can down the road and hopefully these people go away. That's what it boils down to. Yeah. The commissioners have more power, more say-so, but the problem is, is right now you have a board that's inexperienced. Uh one commissioner has has made his mark by uh giving his voting power away, not doing his job for three or four months of his first term, um, but still wants his paycheck.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

You know, and so uh it's just I don't have an issue with code enforcement, but when I was commissioner, we had code enforcement, solid waste, we had all of that. And I had a lady on Facebook on a Sunday I uh that we seen on post on Facebook, oh, code enforcement come out to my house and And they said that I'm in violation because I cut blackberry briars on my property. And so I seen that. And so I found out who it was, never met the people before. I got a phone number for them. I called them and I said, listen, I read your story on Facebook. What is going on? So they she explained it to me. They're out in the Apple Gate. I went out there Monday morning. I seen it on Sunday night. I went out there Monday morning. And I said, What are you zoned? We're zoned farmland. In farmland zoning, blackberry briars are considered an invasive species. Federal and state law gives that requirement, gives the right to the landowner to cut any and all blackberry briars. That's invasive. She paid thousands of dollars to have a person come in and mow them down to get her property back. And the county said, Oh, we're going to charge you $165 for uh as a fee just because we come and did an evaluation. Then they wanted to charge her another money. And I said, No, no.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

And and so then I find out, well, we're going to start using code enforcement as a revenue generator. So we're going to, if we can get and and do enough of these evaluation sites and where and we start charging people, we're going to be able to pay for code enforcement. It's never was designed to do that. Yeah, that is the same thing. And it's not right. Yeah. It is not right. The the the I would say we have a small percentage of landowners that violate the law. They don't care about their neighbor or they're not as concerned about their neighbor, and they do things that bring down the property value of their neighbor or jeopardizes their health. It's a very small percentage. And we need to go after those people. And at one time they told me, they said, oh, we have 1,800 people logged in to uh with that we've sent letters for uh uh for violations. And I started going through them, and we didn't have 1800 people. We had 1800 complaints, and some of the complaints weren't even valid.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Yeah, so it's a lot less than that.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

A lot less than that. So my take on it was we we talked as a board and we said, listen, we need to have two valid complaints within a half a mile. And so uh we decided that when we did that, the complaints really dropped off. It dropped off because what we found out is we would code enforcement would go out to somebody's property and say, Hey, I received a complaint that you're growing marijuana on your property, and they and they're standing there on their property and they're saying, Well, it's nothing but green grass here. I don't see no, and they go, Oh yeah, I bet it's uh such such neighbor. I got in a fight with them because their dog came over on my property and crapped in my yard, and I I didn't I I got in a fight with them over, so they were mad at him, so they called code enforcement and made up a claim. Made a false report, yes, yeah, and so uh so we we wanted to leave in a stuff like that. Yeah, so I went out to a guy on Foothill Boulevard and he had received seven letters from code enforcement. Oh, wow. And he called me and he says, John, he says, I voted for you to be county commissioner because I believed that you are gonna serve the people, you are gonna work for the people. And so I drove out to his house and drove and I said, Hey, what's the what does the letter say? And so he says, I got seven of them here. So I read them and it says he's growing marijuana and he's got greenhouses all over his property. And it didn't exist. There is not one greenhouse, not one marijuana grow. And I go, Well, I can smell marijuana. Where's it coming from? And he says, the people over there. And I said, So, and he says, I already know who's complaining. It's this lady over here. She looks at across my property and sees that marijuana over there, and now she's claiming it's me. And it's not even the same piece of property, yeah, it's a different property, and so we got code enforcement going out, sending letters, costing us thousands of dollars, harassing people. Yep. And they have done nothing wrong. Wow. And and so it was never supposed to be like this. And so I want to refine it. I want to simp, I want to make it where it's accountability. And I want it only the bad actors get penalized, and the everyday citizens not doing nothing wrong, you don't need to hear from county government.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

And and that's a that's cutting waste. That's a big waste cut. Oh, it's a huge waste cut. Because you're right. They have to go out there, they have to they have to investigate, then there's letters, and there's a lot of stuff. Um, so county expenses for the taxpayers, like, what about law enforcement and sheriff for the jail? Like, um, what do you think is one of the more costly expenses?

SPEAKER_00 27:37

So I am 100% for law enforcement, DA, the jail. So one thing the citizens uh 10 years ago voted for the jail levy, and it said we are not gonna have no more catch and release, and we're gonna have 185 beds.

unknown 28:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

We've never used 185 beds.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

No, I guess like maybe 150 max.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Yeah, maybe, and most of the time it's like 120. And most people that gets arrested is catch and release because they say, Oh, well, it's not our fault, it's the DA. Okay, well, maybe the DA doesn't have enough DAs to prosecute lack of resources, yeah. Yeah, so okay, so but let's talk about the last 10 years. What is one of the biggest costs of law enforcement? Uh maybe the sheriff patrols? So we have sheriff patrols, we have the nicest rigs, we have the nicest everything. But how many citizens know we got like 42 lawsuits? 42. 42 lawsuits in the last 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

In the last 10 years. And and what are these lawsuits about?

SPEAKER_00 28:52

And and so uh violating civil rights, sexual harassment, uh you name it.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

And this is coming from from people inside the jail that are suing the city.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Well, not necessarily the employees at the sheriff's office inside the jail. 40, I think it's 42 or 48 lawsuits. I think that's what I was given. So is Wally covering all that? Or well, so well, you gotta remember Wally's uh uh county legal counsel. Right. So our insurance company takes those lawsuits and they defend them. Okay. So people say, well, how's that costing us taxpayer money? Well, we seen, I think this year alone, county insurance went up $300,000 this year for premiums. Whoa. So when I was in took over in office, uh I said, man, how come insurance is so high? They said, Oh, it's going up 30% this year. 30%. Well, when you're already paying a million dollars and it goes up 30%, that's 300,000. Yeah, exactly. So every year we're seeing it go up another two, 300,000, two, three hundred thousand, two, three hundred thousand. Well, and everybody says, oh, well, you know, uh, we got all these, we have a lot of lawsuits that come about that in the county that are not good lawsuits, they're frivolous. Okay. Okay. But then we have a lot of lawsuits that come about. Uh, and I don't I don't know about every single one of the the jail and the sheriff's lawsuits. Um I I've tried to track some of them uh because you're not given a whole lot of information because oh, you know, we're in court, we can't say nothing. But most citizens don't even know we got all these lawsuits. Yeah, that's a lot. Oh, it's uh it's it's huge. So I seen JJ Schofield, he had posted on a on a Facebook post when he used to be the HR director. He said on a Facebook post, oh, well, you know, when I was HR director, we didn't have any lawsuits. 42. Okay. I think it was 42 lawsuits just in the jail alone, jail and sheriff, while he was HR director.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Yeah, because it's been the last 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Yeah, yeah, last 10 years. And he's been out of off, he he moved to Jackson County. So when he made that statement, it was false. Now he can say, well, that was a jail, but he's the HR director. Yeah, it covers everything in the county. Yeah. So he wow. So um, you know, I want to figure out how to simplify that. And do you know we have four counties, they're up north that they have a private company um is in charge of the jail. Interesting. And it works perfect. That saves those county monies. Now, this is what I I've researched, and and everybody says, man, it's working really good. I'm I'm like, why don't we at least look into it and see could we do that here? Could we save the taxpayers' money? Could we cut some of this liability out? Uh, because if it's working for four counties, why can't it work for five? Yeah, we'd be one of them. You know, so I'm one, just because someone says, oh John, this over here will work, okay. I gotta I gotta look at it. Yeah. I'm willing to, I'm willing to look at anything. And when I research it, if it works, my next question is, how come we're not doing it? Right. Makes sense. But not everything's gonna work for us. So I want to keep an open mind. And so I, you know, I have a lot of people say, hey, John, the county ought to do this, county ought to do that. And I hear them. And I think about it, I research it, but I go back to them and say, you know what? That's a great idea, but this is why it won't work because we're mandated by the state to do this, or we've got government regulations, and they go, Oh, I didn't know anything about that. Yeah, you know, but their idea was great, it was wonderful, and citizen input is one of the best things you can have. And it it uh because if you have 88,000 brains thinking it's better than one, yeah, exactly. Yeah, you know, and so so I I I I really think that's great. And you know, I'm not I'm not going after the sheriff or the sheriff's department, but I'm just saying this is a huge cost. We have. And there's lots of those out there. Oh, we have them inside the county. You know, uh we wanted to put GPSs in all the county vehicles, and we had departments and department heads, employees throw a fit. Because they didn't want to get tracked. They said, Oh, uh, you, you know, you're I don't want you tracking me where I'm going. And we said, listen, if we put a uh a tra uh GPS in a vehicle, if somebody says, oh Joe, uh County Jeep ran me off the road on on Smith Hill uh going to Wolf Creek, and we track that vehicle and say, uh, yes, there was a county vehicle at at this time. They were going 62 miles an hour. It tells us if the vehicle swerved, if it did anything, how their lane changing was, and we say, no, we've got all the data here. This employee did not run you off the road, or in some cases, there was no employee even there.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Yeah, and having those devices is is it's it protects the employee.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

It protects, but it's also 10% less on the insurance bill as well. And it protects the county from lawsuits. And so, you know, some employees may not like it, but it also protects them. That's saving taxpayer dollars. Yeah, and it's say, you know, so but what they don't like, some employees, we had a lot of employees couldn't care. Yeah, we had some employees absolutely didn't like all quit. Why would you quit your job over a GPS being in her vehicle?

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Doesn't make sense because it's a company, it's a it's a county vehicle, it's owned by every taxpayer. Yeah, why would they care? That doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

Maybe because they're doing something they shouldn't be doing. I and and that's you know, that's a question that's always asked, and you know, and so you know, so when we we try to look at everything, but I always say I I want everybody to realize we have a lot of great employees. Yeah, very good employees. And and we have a lot of employees that I may get there at 6 6 30 in the morning, and I'll I'll go by somewhere and I'll say, I'll knock on the door, and well, your department don't open till eight o'clock. And they put in 60 hours a week, but they only get paid for 40 because they're a dedicated employer.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

Yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

I mean, and and just because somebody don't put in 60 hours a week don't mean they're not dedicated. Yeah, but what I'm saying is is there could be somebody in finance, there could be somebody uh in a department that says, man, I got overlogged yesterday and I had a bunch of people come in and and I'm behind, and they're there working more hours than anybody else to catch up because they're dedicated.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

And so, you know, uh, we just have a lot of moving parts. We have we have a lot to contend with, but I keep I I keep going back that we're not gonna be able to sustain uh pretty soon, it won't be long at the rate we're going because you have, I think, four or five unions, and everybody wants raises, and every time they get more raises and their PERS go up and this goes up, everything goes up pretty soon. We're not gonna be able to afford all these employees.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

And what I heard from some of the unions was where it's made up of uh some older employees, they said, Well, if you got to lay people off, it's not gonna affect me. I've been here long enough. It's the young people that gets cut, not me. You know, and yeah, that may be true, but is that the attitude we're supposed to have?

SPEAKER_01 37:57

No.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

You know, and it's not about it's not supposed to be about me. It's supposed to be about us. Exactly. So I run for commissioner, I'm not after the title, I'm not after the money, I'm there to serve the people. And and service is supposed to be about serving us.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

And you never really stopped.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

I never stopped. I mean, you the new board took over, they were their own board. Uh people accused me of saying, Oh, you're still running this pulling the strings from behind the scenes. That's not true. Yeah, that's not true.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Well, there are people that can say no. I mean, come on. Yeah, there was a lot of that, and and it was ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

So I'll be honest with the citizens. The first couple of months, you had you had Andreas, who had only been a commissioner for seven months, and then you had two new commissioners come in. Yep uh, if they wanted to reach out to me and ask me, hey, John, how does this work? I would tell them. Uh, if they asked me for advice on, hey, I don't understand this. How how would you uh give me some advice on how to handle this? I would give them advice. And for the first couple of months, uh they reach out once in a while, and I would reach out to them uh here or there and say, hey, you know, you might want to think about this or that, and then I stopped. Because once they get their feet under them, it's it's yep, it's up to now. My my phone was always open.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

Uh Herman Beartrigger was a commissioner for four years. His phone, I guarantee you, was always open. If one of them wanted to call him and say, Hey Herman, you were in here for four years. I don't understand this. Herman would explain it to him. Cool.

SPEAKER_02 39:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Any I I believe most any of the commit the previous commissioners was available by phone because that's still called service. Yeah. I we weren't getting paid, we weren't part of we weren't a commissioner, but we still want what's best for the county. We want what's best for the citizen. And so uh I believe in most cases that was, you know, and so I I think that I can't speak for every former commissioner, but I know uh some of them, and they told me the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Yeah, yeah. Everybody wants to serve, I mean, not everybody, but everybody wants to serve. Some people just want it for the money or the title.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

Um, but that's not you. You've got your own money, you do your own thing.

SPEAKER_00 40:45

I mean I got my own business, God's been good to me. And um so, you know, I put I take my four businesses, I have people run it, or I put them on hold. Uh and so I I work an average of 60, 70 hours a week as commissioner. And I work seven days a week. Yeah. As commissioner, you're on call, on call, uh every other weekend, or every weekend, or every so many weekends uh a month. And so if the sheriff needs to reach out to you as commissioner because there's something going on, he does. If it's fire season, there's a fire, you got the emergency management. If there's a problem with the courthouse or some department, they reach out to you. Your phone's available 24 hours a day, right? You don't quit. And that's that's the way it is, and that's the way it's supposed to be. Yeah, it is. Because when you run for this job and you take this job, you took this job about service. And if you're not willing to do that, don't run. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So I mean, that's that's you know, and we're I'm not trying to simplify the job because there's a lot more. You got your weekly business sessions, you got your admin meetings, you got your executive session meetings, you got, you got workshops, you got, you know, and I believe that we could do better on having at least at least once a quarter a meeting at Cave Junction, once a quarter in Williams, once a quarter, maybe in Sunny Valley, and try to pull the Wolf Creek in Sunny Valley, because there's not as many residents in Wolf Creek and try to pull them together. It's only seven, five or seven miles for them to drive. So it's not too far. And so even if we don't have a quote uh commissioner meeting, we have a uh meeting to talk with the citizens, explain where we're going, what we're doing. Uh, you know, one of the things uh that's going on right now is the animal shelter.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Yeah, the animal shelter.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

They're trying to take the levy out. So I'm a hundred percent, one hundred percent behind the animal shelter. My problem is is the board of county commissioners put on a tax levy to increase uh your taxes for the animal shelter that comes on in May. If it passes, it don't get assessed till the July, and then you pay your taxes in November, and the animal shelter doesn't receive any money till November or December, I mean. So the board has the money in the general government fund right now, they could be putting money into the animal shelter, paying and helping the staff and the animals right now, but they're not putting one penny forward because they want to see if the voters will raise their taxes. Taxes first because if they do, it gives them more money to spend or waste other places. Oh boy. Yeah. So, so for for another six months or seven months or eight months, whatever that month, however, actually it's closer to eight months, they're gonna let the shelter suffer as they say, oh, they're suffering down there, our staff and the animals are suffering. Then stop the suffering today. Right. Send them the money they think that they need. Yep. But they're not doing it.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

And they just want to raise tax taxpayers.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

So if the taxpayers don't raise their property taxes in May, watch the commissioners come up with the money.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Yeah, they will. And that's another state mandated program, right? The animal shelter, but they're saying, you know, maybe we'll have to cut the cat program if we don't get this levy or or or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

Yeah, it's always a threat. Oh, yeah. You know, if you don't raise your taxes, we're gonna, or you know, so I'm about, you know, last year we got a million uh nineteen thousand dollars in the SRS funding. And I I spoke to the board earlier this year and I said, listen, don't spend that money on wages. Right. Because you get one more payment and it's over. Yeah, yeah. So don't spend it on wages because as soon as that money ends, that's it. It's it. And you're gonna have to, if you don't have the money, you got to lay those people off. Yeah. Well, that's not fair to those people. It's not fair. They may be relocated or quit a quit another job thinking, well, I've got a good job. Now I'm getting laid off again. So I said, take $500,000 that and put into the animal shelter for infrastructure. Infrastructure never goes away. Yeah. So you're building it up, you're you're fixing the problems we got there, you're solving a problem. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Instead of creating another new problem that you just wasted the money on.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Yeah, they the animal shelter wanted to build its own vet because right now they're outsourcing the animals to other veterinarians in the area. Instead of in-house, they have to take the the animal out.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

Well, so I'm I'm I'm not quite sure. One is we don't have the facility for it. Yeah, exactly. So even if you raise five cents, I asked at a weekly business session a month ago or or so, or maybe a month and a half ago, I I spoke at the weekly business session and said, said, Why aren't you funding this yourself? You have the money. And I said, five cents is not enough for what you want to do, what you're projecting, what you're saying, five cents isn't enough. And one of the commissioners said, Oh, Mr. West, you're right, five cents isn't enough. So why would you go to the taxpayers and ask them to fund five cents when it's not enough? It's not even enough. I can tell you why. Because if we keep the number low enough, we can get them to uh give us five cents now, and then we'll go back to them and get another five cents, right? And then another five cents. And we'll just we'll just so how does that fix the problem? It's not it's not fixing. It's not fair to the animals, it's not fair to the staff, it's not fair to the animal shelter program, it's not fair to it, but you know what? We're not gonna fix the problem. We're gonna we're gonna band-aid the problem and piecemeal the problem, but as long as we pull the wool over the taxpayers' eyes, we win. That's not okay. That's not okay. No, it's not being honest. Nope. I call it dishonesty. Yeah, it is. You're right. Just be straight up with the taxpayers. Yep. If you don't have the money, we don't have the money. We got two choices. We either keep the shelter open or we got a limited way down to here. But here's our books. We don't have the money. Yeah. But you have the money.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

So excellent. I mean, excellent work. I mean, I hope you get in because you have the experience. These guys don't. They're just kind of rookies over here. I like them. I like all three of them, but they're just, you know, they're too green. Excuse me.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

Well, you know, some people could argue that, hey, they're gonna get the experience you didn't have it when you first started. Right. I had 30 plus years of business experience. Yeah. My mindset was it going the right direction. I I was already, you didn't have to teach me about building and planning. You didn't have to teach me about public works. You didn't have to teach me about maintenance and facilities. You didn't have to teach me about so much of the county. Because I already have the experience. I do it every day. I it's it's it, and so you didn't have to say, oh, well, we do this in a budget. Well, why? No, I already, I already know, and so they will learn, but what will the cost be if they learn? Right. Yeah, and the problem is is you know, somebody said the other day on a Facebook, oh, how come uh John West keeps posting that that nobody is funding his campaign but him? I want to tell everybody the reason why.

SPEAKER_01 49:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 49:43

I owe nobody nothing but the 88,000 people to go and work and serve them. I don't owe no special interest group, I don't owe no person who donated a thousand or twenty five hundred to my campaign. I don't have to vote a certain way to make them happy. That's awesome. I there's I I owe only the people at Josephine County, and that's everyone.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

Yep, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 50:11

And so I feel, and God has blessed me, God has been good to me, and I feel that if I want to become your commissioner, I need to put my money, my resources, and show you that I'm dedicated and I'm willing to do it, not have you say, Oh, give me your kids the money that you need to spend on your kids' shoes, give it to me so I can I can run a campaign.

SPEAKER_01 50:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

And so I'm I'm different in that sense. I'm not saying I'm better than anyone. I'm just saying that that is where I'm at. So if you if I get elected and you say, Well, John, I expect you to do this, I'm sorry. No, unless it is the best thing for the citizens and Josephine County, you can expect that.

SPEAKER_01 51:06

And that right there is what everybody needs to know and remember. And that they can, and you're approachable, and people can come talk to you about it.

SPEAKER_00 51:13

My door is open, my phone is always on. Okay, you can get a hold of me. I I have people call me on the weekends, Sundays, call me. Hey, uh, what's going on here? I don't think I like this. And I would explain to them, oh, well, I didn't know that. Yeah. You know, but I gave them the time because that's my job.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

And a lot of people just they they sort of read the headlines and they just assume things and they they don't actually reach out to the people and they don't.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

I I had people say, you know, oh, uh, he he's doing this and this and this, and I said, no, I'm not. Well, I read it, I read it in the paper and or I seen it on social media. Yeah. Well, I'm sorry, but that's not real. It's not real. Yeah, come to me and ask me.

SPEAKER_01 52:01

Yeah. And that's what people should be doing more often. Yeah. I mean, if you want to get involved with the community, great, but go to the source, talk to the person.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

And I can tell you right now, we're not always gonna agree. No, sure. Yeah. You know, if you say, Well, I want you to cut out, I I want to you, I want you to cut out uh uh law enforcement and send all the money to building and planning, I'm gonna say no, no, no, no, it's not gonna be realistic, no, it's not, and you know, so I you know, uh, so it's one of those things, there's a difference of listening, hearing, and agreeing. So, you know, just because I don't agree with you on everything doesn't mean I don't hear you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so you know, you may tell me this certain thing, and I agree with you on a portion of it. Right. And I I say, you know what? Uh Joe over there, he uh, you know, he called me and he was talking to me about this, and I don't agree with him on everything, but I do agree with him on this, and I researched it, and I think he's right. And so I changed, I I bring it to the board, and the board goes, Well, I like that. Yeah, yeah, but it's not my idea, right? It's Joe's idea, you know, and so I do I do certain things, you know, and and and move the chess pieces around because of of, you know, but that don't mean that that doesn't mean that I I don't listen or I don't hear you.

SPEAKER_01 53:44

And there's a big difference between the popular thing and the right thing to do. Right.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

Well, there's also you may come to me with a brilliant idea. Right. I take it to the board and the other two don't like it. They don't like it. So yeah, so yeah, you know, the next thing I hear is, well, you said it was a brilliant idea, but you didn't do anything with it. We're a board of three, right? Not a board of one. Yep. And so when I say, well, my plan is to do this, this, and this, my plan is that I am going to go in and I'm gonna gather one more vote. And I am gonna hopefully be good enough and strong enough that I can persuade at least one other person to vote what I think and prove my point, lay it out, put it out there, and get one more vote on what's best for the people of Josephine County.

SPEAKER_01 54:46

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

And and so if I fail at that on every time I go in there, then I'm not a very good, I'm not a very good commissioner. And so um, I don't think that commissioners should always vote yes with each other or no against each other, because I don't think there is not always right on everything and wrong on everything. I think that if you get three people that say, oh, everything John says is right, nope, no, I can tell you right now, wrong. Yeah. So I think it's healthy to have good discussions. I think it's healthy to not agree a hundred percent with each other, uh, because I don't think we're always right.

SPEAKER_01 55:42

No, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

And so anyone that says, Well, I'm gonna become commissioner and I'm always right on everything I think, you don't want them. Nope. You don't want them.

SPEAKER_01 55:52

That's a that's a that's a fantasy land, that's a dream.

SPEAKER_00 55:56

Because I can tell you right now, if you think that if you put me in office, I will never make a mistake and I'll always be right. Wrong, then then it I'm wrong. Yeah, uh, because it's impossible. Yeah, I don't care who you put in there. I you could put in your own mom and you're not gonna agree with it.

SPEAKER_01 56:20

No, that's true, yeah. And I mean every day, everything is different, it always takes a lot of research and and discussion with the community. And but thank you for coming in. I appreciate the interview and and good luck. We're we're behind you. Uh the Republican Party is behind you, of course. And uh let's see what happens.

SPEAKER_00 56:37

Yeah, I I I hope that people go to my website and go to John Well, electjonwes.com. I I you know, I know a lot of people seen my signs, a lot of people know me. Yep. And I I really want people to know that my heart's in the right place.

SPEAKER_01 56:55

So one thing we were discussing at one point was that transparency within the county, like the 42 lawsuits that you you spoke of, um, nobody knows about that. Like you you could walk down the street and ask people, hey, you know, there's all these lawsuits that are happening in the county, it's costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Million dollars. I don't know what it is, right? Um, what do you want to do about that? I mean, to to let taxpayers know where the money's going, stuff like that. Do you have any ideas?

SPEAKER_00 57:29

So two years is your county commissioner.

SPEAKER_01 57:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 57:33

I didn't know about it.

SPEAKER_01 57:34

Really? So those those so the lawsuits have been around. There's been 10 years roughly, it's over a 10-year span. There's there's 42 lawsuits.

SPEAKER_00 57:42

Yeah, it's uh I I think it's around 42 or 46 or it's somewhere in the 40s, 38 to 48 or something like that. And I think the bulk of them, I believe there was, I my if my memory serves me correctly, it was around 42 with the the the jail and the sheriff, and I didn't know about them till two months ago.

SPEAKER_01 58:08

Crazy, crazy.

SPEAKER_00 58:10

Two months ago. Yeah, that's wild. And I was commissioner for four years, and I don't know. Yeah, you should have. I mean, I should have known. Yeah. So, how does the average citizen supposed to find out? So, what do you want to do about that? So, what I would like to do is I would like to have, instead of hiring more people and costing us another hundred and fifty thousand a year and all the benefits, all this stuff, I would like to take and have this online. So, when we do have a lawsuit, you can see that we have X as a lawsuit. Uh it's it's this is the matter. Uh, but you know, some open lawsuits we can't tell you all the details, but we can tell you because they're in the courts.

SPEAKER_01 59:02

Yeah, they're there. Yeah. So a citizen can do an open record request.

SPEAKER_00 59:05

So that's where I got mine from was courts.

SPEAKER_01 59:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 59:08

Because I know that if I would have done a public records request in the county, right? I wouldn't have got them. No. Because you didn't ask the exact you if you don't act exact ask the exact phrase, terminology, language, then they don't give you what you want.

SPEAKER_01 59:32

Yeah, they just send it back some.

SPEAKER_00 59:33

And you know, I believe there was they there was they were supposed to get back with you in five or seven days that your request was received, and they were supposed to get back to you within um I think it was 15 days. I can't remember it was 15 or 20 days uh with with with your information. People goes way longer than that. Yeah, it does. I had a request out for I think close to nine months. Wow. Wow. And and so um transparency is huge. You every every single person that runs for commissioner, every person always talks about transparency. I want to be open, I want to be transparent. Yeah, with a lot of people, it's a talking point. Yeah, sure. With me, it's genuine because I believe everything should be online. As much as we can put online that doesn't jeopardize a worker, we can't put workers' information online. That's it, you know. Yeah, but but all of all of our meeting stuff, uh, all of our notes, all of that should be online. Um, so you don't have to uh do a public records quest, lawsuits, uh costs, you know. Oh, oh we we got a budget online. Yeah, try to take that big catalog and try to figure out the average person don't even know how to read it. No, it's it I have to do. And so uh there is so much that we could streamline, and and so you could go on the county website, click a button, and go, oh, I want to look up uh public works, or I want to look up airports or something, and and then you can say, Oh, I want to look up lawsuits, or I want to look up grants, funding, grant funding for these bam, it's there. Right. So now you're not putting in have to fill out a form or have to go online, fill this out. And it goes to an employee, and then they take time. So this this board now wants to hire a public information officer slash public records request. When once we put it online, our board's office could they take they take our minutes, our meetings and everything, and it's supposed to be on online, archived. They could automatically, when they put all those minutes and everything, they could put the portion online. So it's already done, and we don't have to pay extra help. Yeah, that would be fantastic. So we can save money, be more transparent, be more open to the public, and be more accessible.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:16

Yeah, because there's so much information that's just not out there because they don't. I mean, why isn't it out there? You didn't know about those 42 lawsuits.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:24

I didn't, and I was commissioner two years. That's insane. I mean, there's lawsuits that has happened that we don't even know about.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:33

And we're not gonna know about them. And they could be closed out, and we still don't know about them. Because, well, we're not, we don't have to say anything. That's what government will tell you. Well, we don't have to tell you about them, but if you ask, we'll let you know about them.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:51

Okay, go ahead and ask. What do you what do you think you're gonna ask about? If you don't know that it happens, yeah, how are you gonna know what to ask for? Yeah, if you don't know the question, how can you get the answer? So if all of that is on online, so you can just say, oh wow, you know, you don't, you know, so it's everything's a game. I call government a game. Yeah, it is. And not everything, I shouldn't say that, but there's so much of government that, well, if we don't say it, then they won't know. And that's where it goes back to it's it's not only you're not only working and serving the govern the people, but in working and serving them, you're transparent, you're answering questions before they even have to ask them.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:42

They don't have to ask them. Oh, I was able to go right there and see it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:46

And so with these lawsuits, we're paying this huge insurance premium for the insurance company.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:51

Oh, it's killer. It's killer.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:52

And they're just there, the insurance companies fighting these cases, and it and it's it's a huge bill that it's on it's falling on taxpayers.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:01

So when I come become county commissioner, I said, hey, we've got this general government fund over here. It's a million dollars. What is this? Oh, that's a commissioner's fund. I said, What? The commissioners have their own? Is this a slush fund or what is this? Yeah. And oh, well, you know, you pay certain things out of that, you know. At that time, oh, the commissioner's pay comes out of that, and and office staff. And I said, what else? Oh, well, the sheriff's insurance comes out of that. I said, why isn't the sheriff's insurance in his own budget? Right. Why is it in here? Quiet.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:51

They didn't they didn't say anything. And there's a lot of that going on in the county.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:54

Yeah, and I go, wait a minute. How much does it cost for a deputy in Josephine County? So I go to finance director and I say, I want to know how much it does it cost for a deputy. And and I said, I opened the budget book up, but I believe there's things missing in here. Uh, what are you getting at? And I said, Well, if we're paying for law enforcement's insurance out of this general government, is it in the sheriff's budget? Well, no, because you're paying for it. Oh my goodness. I said, Well, then that's not what it costs for law enforcement. Yeah, yeah. I said, How much more of this? And I'm not picking at the sheriff. I'm just I'm just giving you an illustration. Yeah, it's an example of. So, and then you go to another department. Maybe it's building planning or something, and you go, Well, how come this is over here? Well, this got moved over here, so their budget is doesn't look so bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:05

Okay, that's not transparent.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

You know, and I go, Well, wait a minute. Why don't we just this is what everything costs, and if we have to move money over here from the general fund or something to make this whole, I want the taxpayers to be able to go on here and see every every single cost.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:29

And that would be great to have a website like that, just to be a resource to people, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:34

But how are you gonna know what it costs when part of it's paid over here and over here, and it doesn't really give you the true costs of what it pays, or what it's charged. And so uh I I I I want to bring transparency and to a whole new level. I want to bring accountability to a whole new level, and I know we're running out of time, but um, you know, uh I heard one of the questions at one of the forums about the charter.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:11

And uh that's right, I remember that. And so I want to bring that up. It it it kind of amazes me. Uh, what do you know about the charter? And do you believe the charter is good? And the charter's outdated. It is 1996, yeah. And it's had amendments and this and that, and there's a bunch of the charter stuff that doesn't even uh file follow state and federal law, and of course, there's a clause in there that you'll always follow state and federal law. Right. So, one of the things that's missing, do you know that you could be elected commissioner today, take your oath, and never make a meeting again? That's and unless you're recalled, you could get paid for four years and never show up to work. That's insane. That's insanity. And do you know that if you're commissioner, you can take I'm taking six months of vacation and you get paid because the charter does not address a commissioner's accountable for squat. Yeah, that needs to be fixed. So if we're not gonna change the charter, I want to create policy. So one of the commissioners' jobs is creating policy, and so I want to create policy that we as commissioners have two weeks paid vacation.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:35

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:36

If you take any more than that, you don't get paid at all. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:40

I think the taxpayers would like that too.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:42

I want to show the people we are accountable to you, and I don't care. People say, oh, well, you know, you're a commissioner, you should be able to take uh a month off paid like any other. No, I've only been here one week and I get unlimited vacation time. No, not okay. You know, everybody else works. I have to work one through five years on a normal job except for government. Normally you have to work one through five to get a week off, and then five through seven or five through ten to get two weeks off, right? Ten through fifteen to get three weeks off, and fifteen through twenty to get four weeks off. Yep. Government, uh, you get four weeks right out of the gate. And PERS and uh everything. So so these are and and if you're a commissioner and you don't you give your power away and you don't do your job, I want to create an ordinance that holds you accountable. Nice, I like that. I want there more to be more accountability to the commissioners than anyone.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:53

That makes sense because you are for the people, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:56

We're all three branches of government. Yeah, we're executive, judicial, and legislative. We're all three branches. So if we're going to be all three branches, we're over 400 and some employees, you lead by leadership. Yeah, exactly. And you lead by being accountable. If you want to make all of these people accountable, it starts with you first. Absolutely. Yeah. And I believe it it's most important. And when you do that, the people's gonna say, Wow. That's yeah, that's great. We have people that really take this serious. And and so cool, thank you, John.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:41

All right. Appreciate it.