The Douglas County Board of Commissioners met on April 12 to decide the fate of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. Roseburg City Councilor Ellen Porter was among the last members of SWAC when it was put “on hold due to covid-19 safety measures”. Porter inquired about her current status on SWAC.

Ellen Porter then testified that Douglas County Commissioner Tom Kress stated in a memo that the SWAC “will be dissolved after it provided advice to the Board that was deemed to be of no value in 2019” and “valueless advice was too close all but 4 transfer stations and to double the disposal fees.“

Councilor Porter’s testimony corrects Kress’s memo by stating; “A more accurate accounting of the facts during those meetings was that the County staff and consultant recommended that the SWAC agree with their conclusion that seven of the 11 transfer stations be closed and disposal fees be increased to at least $89/ton if not $97/ton. Carisa Cegavske summed it up so well in the Jan 11, 2019 front page article of the News Review.”

Councilor Porter continued; “We had numerous public meetings about the issue and they were well attended by concerned citizens. These citizens were strongly opposed to the closure of so many transfer stations, more so than their concern with increased disposal fees. Concern was greatest regarding the transfer stations in South County and Glide. The SWAC agreed with the public and chose to advise the Board to not close the large number of transfer stations recommended by County staff and their consultant.”

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Councilor Porter concluded by saying; “As a long term SWAC member, I disagree with a decision to dissolve the function as it provides much needed transparency associated with this public resource… that decision should be based on an accurate accounting of the facts, rather than the inaccurate assessment recently provided to members of the public.”

Members of the public spoke, too. Michaela Hammerson testified saying; “I don’t believe there has been sufficient public discourse about disbanding this and changing our laws here in Douglas County. I would appeal to you that before we make a decision like this we first involve the community and allow them to have public discourse. We have over the last few years really seen that the community and the public and American people in general are very interested in being a part of their own self-governance.”

Terry Noonkester testified; “Eliminating the Solid Waste Advisory Committee is the loss of a committee to represent the people of Douglas County, the loss of a hearing process to hear the peoples grievances and the loss of transparency.”

After the three testimonies opposing the vote to cancel SWAC were heard, the Commissioners had their turn to give their reasons for abolishing SWAC.

Commissioner Kress informed Councilor Porter that she and all previous SWAC members were termed-out. He spoke on the elimination of the SWAC hearings saying, “…we are not doing that, that is what we are doing here today… The BOC, before we can come to any decision have to deliberate in front of the people and allow people the opportunity to say their piece.”

The commissioners office has verified that the public is not allowed to request for items to be put on the BOC agenda. Public comments during BOC meetings are allowed only as they relate to an item on the agenda.

Douglas County Commissioner Tim Freeman stated; “This concept of eliminating a hearing, literally, when the Advisory Board Committee was doing this work, oftentimes the voice of the people got filtered before it got to us, that is problematic, I like this format much better, were we are hearing directly from the people...”.

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Commissioner Freeman continued with, “When you get an advisory committee that seems adversarial, it doesn’t really work well… It became that, when the members of the advisory committee went directly to the newspaper and said things that weren’t true. An example of that, we have heard that again here today.” Freeman addressed several problems of issues that were “left out” rather than anything contradicting the article.

Commissioner Freeman emphasized that the Board of Commissioners did not vote on waivers, "that did not happen, we did not vote on those waivers”. However, their county employee, Director of Solid Waste Scott Adams, made two of those decisions regarding the Safeway and the Windmill waivers. Freeman claimed that it was SWAC’s idea to give the Director the authority to make those decisions.

Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice stated that SWAC member Dick Heard told the county that they needed to charge $140 a ton immediately or they would not met financial requirements. That was contradicted by the Carisa Cegavske article that stated “Committee member Dick Heard suggested the number should be adjusted to $97 right away.”

Commissioner Boice addressed a statement by Ellen Porter saying “The fact that you quote the News Review Article and present it as Gospel to me is a little bit humorous because I have not known them to get the story completely accurately (sic) very often.”

The COB meetings, and this public hearing embedded within the COB meeting, are not structured to allow for rebuttal to the commissioners statements.

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Larry Spielbusch, a former chairman of SWAC contributed the following comment; “There would not be a Roseburg Landfill if not for the involvement of the SWAC, solid waste operations, public works engineering, county commissioners and numerous private consultants that convinced the DEQ that a landfill could exist where it is now with the proper controls. For the current BOC to state the SWAC is “useless” is absolutely incorrect and flies in the face of over 50 years of work by a large number of intelligent individuals that provided numerous hours of work to insure we could operate a landfill in Douglas County. This current BOC has no desire to hear what the public has to say and the current solid waste staff/engineering are by far inferior to what existed in the past.”

Neither of the Commissioners, Tom Kress nor Tim Freeman, have ever attended a SWAC meeting. The BOC unanimously passed the amendments to the Douglas County Ordinances that will strike all references to the SWAC from the County Code as of July 12, 2023. SWAC no longer exists.


--Terry Noonkester

Post Date: 2023-04-18 11:19:55

Last Update: 2023-04-18 11:38:18