Roughly two weeks after they retired one of the county’s police dogs, the Curry County Board of Commissioners faced tough questions from the man who made the canine’s purchase possible.

Dick Wilson, a Brookings-based realtor who donated $14,000 to the county to purchase D’Arvit, asked commissioners Wednesday why they hadn’t contacted him before turning the dog over to his former handler.

Commissioners spent about 35 minutes giving Wilson a timeline of the circumstances surrounding the dog’s retirement, including Sheriff John Ward’s statement at a July 29 meeting that he was a “dirty dog” because he didn’t have enough training. At the end of the exchange, Wilson said he wouldn’t do anything more for the county.

“The sheriff and you three will never agree,” he said, referring to an ongoing communications breakdown between Ward and the Board of Commissioners. “From what I’ve seen on the tapes, you guys are so against the sheriff and, of course, [when] you beat down a guy so long, he’s not going to respond to you. He’s going to tell you to take a hike. It takes cooperation between you and the sheriff.”

Commissioners spent more than half of their regular meeting explaining their side of the conflict to residents.

One man, Buddy Wright, who lives along the Chetco River, asked for help trying to get squatters in the area to move along and take their trailers and cars with them. Another resident, Michelle Martin, is part of the Facebook group, “Citizens for Curry Justice,” which supports Ward as sheriff.

Martin accused the Board of Commissioners of micromanaging Ward and undermining his authority.
Former commissioner Christopher Paasch reminded his successor, Commissioner Brad Alcorn, that he campaigned on a promise to ensure the sheriff’s office is funded. Paasch urged the Board to allocate more money from the county’s Road Department reserves into the sheriff’s office.

Paasch also criticized the property tax levy commissioners said would fund a 24-7 sheriff’s department and which failed by more than 71 percent of the vote in Oregon’s May 21 primary.

“I don’t know how you would expect people to spend almost $3 per $1,000 [of assessed property value],” he said. “If it had been done at a lower number, you would have gotten a bigger response.”

Before he launched into his questions about the Curry County Sheriff’s Office K9 program, Wilson said he could remember when the county’s Road Department reserve had about $40 million in it. Though commissioners had already approved a $1.2 million allocation from the Road Fund to sheriff’s patrol, Wilson urged them to increase that allocation.

Wilson also reminded commissioners that he’s donated money for two K9s, about $14,000 each. He criticized commissioners for spending 45 minutes questioning Ward about D’Arvit and asked how much money was in the county’s budget.

The answer was about $58 million, Curry County Finance Director Keina Wolf told Wilson.

There is about $16 million “and some change” in the Road Department Reserve, Commissioner Jay Trost said.

Trost told Wilson that though he donated the money to purchase the dogs, they’re county assets that the commissioners are in charge of, “just like a vehicle.”

In June, before he and his colleagues approved the county budget, Trost said Ward had informed them that he was about $6,000 short in his budget to fund a K9 deputy and had asked the Board for help. Trost said he and his colleagues voted to give up their salaries to invest in the K9 department.

After the Board of Commissioners approved the county budget, Trost said, they were told that D’Arvit had been sent to Josephine County for fostering.

“[The sheriff] described the dog as a dirty dog that lacked in training and that’s why he gave it to Josephine County,” Trost said. “That’s what prompted us to have an internal look at what the canine had been involved in, what cases the canine had been involved in, because those were red flags for litigation.”

Alcorn had urged Ward to offer the dog to local police departments so it can continue to serve Curry County, Trost said, but was told that it needed to stay in Josephine County. At that point, Trost said, Curry County officials drafted a release of liability with Josephine County to keep the dog.

Josephine County notified Curry County last month that they didn’t want to continue to train the dog, Trost said. At that point, Trost and his colleagues voted to retire D’Arvit and give him to former deputy Tim King.

Wilson asked Trost why they hadn’t talked to him about the dog.

“Wouldn’t common sense tell you that if I gave a dog to you guys that you might ask me if I wanted the dog?” He asked commissioners, adding that he didn’t want the dog to be put down nor to become someone’s pet. “Common sense doesn’t exist here, so you guys have really upset me with this dog.”

Alcorn said the sheriff’s description of the dog as dirty was a factor in the local police departments deciding against taking the dog. They were concerned, he said, and “rightly so.”

“I know D’Arvit was certified in May of 2023, which meant his certification would have run out in May of 2024, and that would have met he would have been working at the sheriff’s office from that time until Deputy King retired, and he wasn’t certified,” Alcorn said. “How is that possible?”

Both Alcorn and Trost denied Wilson’s assertion that the Board of Commissioners dissolved the K9 program. They said Ward informed them via email in August that the program was being dissolved.

Alcorn said he and his colleagues are working on a plan for “re-envisioning public safety in Curry County.” This includes having conversations with the Brookings, Gold Beach and Port Orford police departments, Alcorn said, as well as working on a plan to “get back natural resources in this county.”

Paasch had referred to a statement he said came from the Trump campaign about using federally-owned land to build new housing. He suggested the Board of Commissioners go to Washington and lobby for allowing the county to harvest its timber on that federal land “in a smart way” and letting homeowners buy the land.

Alcorn pointed out that Curry County has a lot of timber and referred to Oregon’s Wildfire Hazard Mitigation Map, which he and his colleagues say affect many homeowners’ ability to insure their properties.

Alcorn said he also wants to continue reaching out to the sheriff even though he hasn’t responded to their emails or inquiries since August.

“I would like to talk to the sheriff about creating a different MOU and different policies that would relate to supporting police agencies in our county,” he said. “We have an agreement with other allied policing agencies that they can provide resources, but we haven’t been able to have that conversation [with the sheriff] and I’d really like to have that conversation.”