Jay Trost and Patrick Hollinger once again deferred to Brad Alcorn when it came to selecting his replacement on the Curry County Board of Commissioners.
Alcorn abstained from voting, but his colleagues appointed his pick — Gold Beach resident Lynn Coker — to the Board after agreeing with Alcorn that the commissioner position is, for now anyway, a full-time job.
“When you look at the totality of all of the people who have applied, the candidate that rises to the top is clearly Lynn Coker,” Alcorn said Wednesday, “and I would be very comfortable knowing that he stepped into my role and took my place.”
Brookings Mayor Isaac Hodges declined his appointment as Brad Alcorn’s replacement on the Curry County Board of Commissioners, the county announced Friday.
In a letter to the Board of Commissioners — and provided to Redwood Voice Community News by Brookings City Council President Andy Martin — Hodges said he would be unable to fulfill the responsibilities of county commissioner “due to my personal and professional obligations.”
“I believe it is in the best interest of the county to respectfully decline the appointment,” Hodges wrote. “I sincerely apologize for the additional work and time this decision has caused.”
On Friday, Martin said praised the work his colleague and the entire City Council has done to foster transparency and openness in the City of Brookings. There have been few closed executive sessions since the community’s new city manager, Tim Rundel, was hired, Martin said, and more city businesses and workshops have been open to the public.
“Isaac brings institutional knowledge about Brookings to the Council and a common sense approach to local governance,” Martin said. “We will continue to be fortunate to have him as our mayor.”
The new deadline to apply for the county commissioner position is 5 p.m. Tuesday. Those who had submitted applications previously will be considered for the post and don’t need to submit a new position.
The Board will conduct interviews and make a decision at a special meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Those who are interested in applying for the position can visit the county’s website or visit the Board of Commissioners Office in person at 94235 Moore Street in Gold Beach.
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Brad Alcorn essentially chose his predecessor on Tuesday, though he didn’t vote.
Praising the way he approached a shoplifting incident involving the now-former city manager that eventually led to City Council recalls about a year and a half ago, Alcorn recommended Brookings Mayor Isaac Hodges to take on the role of Curry County commissioner.
Before making his recommendation, however, Alcorn said he doesn’t have a personal relationship with Hodges, though they have interacted with each other in their capacity as elected officials. Alcorn said Hodges also reached out to him after he submitted his application for the commissioner seat.
“It was very in depth and it was very detailed and the questions Isaac was asking me were pretty deep questions about our issues,” Alcorn said of their conversation. “I could sense in our conversation your desire to move things forward and continue to progress [on] the positive things we’ve been able to impact here. And, man, did you do your homework and research, and I applaud you for that
With one of its members citing the broken windows theory, the Brookings City Council on Monday approved an ordinance that would charge vacant property owners a $25 annual fee and require them to fill out a registration form.
The decision wasn’t unanimous. Council President Andy Martin said he felt the city should invest in economic development and make decisions that would attract businesses to Brookings. Requiring the owners of vacant properties to pay an annual fee and register with the city was government overreach, he said.
“I think government should get involved as little as possible in telling people what they can and can’t do with their property,” he said.
Curry County is hosting a cybersecurity summit that will feature information from experts who helped the county get back on its feet from a ransomware attack that crippled its network about two years ago.
Chief Information Officer Phil Dickson told commissioners on Wednesday that he invited representatives from special districts within Curry, Coos and Del Norte counties to attend. In addition to providing information about multi-factor authentication and good backup practices, the summit hosts will conduct an assessment of every attendee’s network, he said.
“It’s not something to get you in trouble or go, ‘Oh, gotcha!’” Dickson said, adding that about 40 participants have registered to attend so far. “This is going to be a moment where we can have a baseline. What these professionals are going to do is spend 10 to 15 minutes with each individual district and say, ‘This is what I recommend you look at first, this is what I’d recommend you look at second…’”
Though the outcome of a declaratory judgment against the sheriff is still pending, Curry County’s newest commissioner told his colleagues of a 2007 Oregon Appeals Court ruling that may apply to the current situation.
Referring to an ongoing dispute between the Board of Commissioners and Sheriff John Ward, Commissioner Patrick Hollinger said he and Director of Operations Ted Fitzgerald received information about Daniel v. The Board of County Commissioners for Josephine County.
“A lot of the back and forth, or the lack of back and forth, between the commissioners and the sheriff is [about] who has authority over what and why,” Hollinger told his colleagues Wednesday. “And as we all know, we have a declaratory judgment that we’re still waiting to have happen, but this covers a couple of those items within our declaratory judgment. And that would be positions within the sheriff’s department and who picks and chooses those positions and how those positions are funded.”
Lead paint on bunks at the Curry County Jail prompted commissioners to temporarily reduce the facility’s capacity, cutting its number of beds from 35 to 16.
The Curry County Sheriff’s Office will be more judicious about who they accept into the jail as a result, according to Lt. Jeremy Krohn. But it’s the less drastic of two options he presented to commissioners at an emergency meeting on Friday. The alternative was to completely evacuate the jail, he said.
Some staff have already been relocated, Krohn said.
Curry County Commissioner Brad Alcorn announced his resignation on Wednesday, telling his colleagues that he had “personal things” he needed to focus on requiring him to be gone for extended periods of time.
“I know that not being present here every day would certainly not be fair to the people of this county, but it also would not be fair to either of you,” he told commissioners Jay Trost and Patrick Hollinger at the end of the Board’s regular business meeting. “You guys show up every day. You work hard trying to solve this county’s problems, and you need someone, a third person, that’s going to be doing the same.”
Alcorn said his resignation will be effective May 1 and the Board’s April 15 meeting will be the last time he serves as its chair.
Curry County commissioners on Tuesday green lit a proposal to transfer four vehicles to the Brookings Police Department for use in its K9 program.
They reached this decision after learning that BPD would make its dogs available to other agencies in the county. But it prompted Sheriff John Ward to rehash a long-standing grievance via Facebook on Wednesday.
“This was all done without a conversation with me or even one word, no communication,” he posted on the Curry County Justice Facebook page. “They even demanded that I turn over all duplicate keys to all our vehicles. It sounds insane, but that is what is going on.”
Thumbnail: Former Curry County Finance Director Keina Wolf (far left) tendered her resignation effective Monday |Screenshot
Curry County commissioners appointed Treasurer Nick Vicino to provide financial oversight on an interim basis following the resignation of Keina Wolf effective Monday.
Vicino will receive a 25 percent salary increase for taking on extra duties, including the supervision of finance staff, said Commissioner Jay Trost who read out the order at an emergency meeting Friday.
Vicino’s other duties will include ensuring accounts payable and accounts receivable are entered into the county’s Casselle government software system and to ensure that the use of county accounts are in compliance with policies and government accounting standards. Vicino will also be required to prepare financial statements and documents for the county budget and authorize claims for payment.
Curry County’s finance director used a scatalogical expletive to describe the knot she and the county treasurer had to untangle to answer a federal inquiry about unaccounted for COVID relief dollars.
Keina Wolf told commissioners Wednesday she and Curry County Treasurer Nick Vicino spent the final hours of 2024 addressing an email from the US Department of Treasury stating that out of a total of about $4.4 million in American Rescue Plan money, only $1.734 million had been accounted for.
Wolf, who became Curry County’s finance director in February 2024, had taken exception to a public commenter who asked how she could have missed the un-accounted for balance of about $2.7 million.
