By January 2021 the Oregon fabric of society was on fire. The people of Clackamas County were living with angst and helplessness. The second year of lock down was now starting. Citizens were completely burned out from bearing the brunt of unemployment, business shutdown, children at home instead of school, and their own psychological deterioration. The devastating wildfires that enveloped a large portion of the county months before and current ice storm damage stretched one’s resolve. Add to this, the violence and destruction from riots and major crime in neighboring Portland was never prioritized by the commission to give assurance of safety to its own citizens.
In spite of an already fragile state of affairs, the staff of Clackamas County would stoke up a brush fire with its own self inflicted disaster. It lit the race card. Costing taxpayers thousands of dollars; that action divided and alienated the citizens.
This series of articles will probe into how the county staff, and others, crafted a comprehensive campaign to force out an inconvenient Commissioner, relying on a compliant and incurious commission to finish him off. And when that didn’t work; a campaign to strip him of his effectiveness on commission continued.
Subjective and false accusations of racism, based on social postings can be twisted, distorted and magnified out of proportion to unfairly define a person’s total character and destroy that person. Specifically, his postings on how being against hormone therapy and sex change operations for children becomes anti LGBTQ. His opinion that there is a need for border security then makes one xenophobic. Postings about the impact of the spread of Sharia law in western societies becomes racism.
Writer’s note: “The Lilliputians are men six inches in height but possessing all the pretension and self-importance of full-sized men. They are mean and nasty, vicious, morally corrupt, hypocritical and deceitful, jealous and envious, filled with greed and ingratitude — they are, in fact, completely human.” See link below
His postings, over a period of years on Facebook, became the ingredients with which to organize a crusade to advance political dogma and continue a political campaign against this elected official that should have been fought out, resolved and ended in November 2020.
To the caretakers of the status quo, that rule Clackamas County, there was an existential threat. Their command and control of administration was uncertain. The prior election resulted in a shift in balance on the commission. Included in that change was one newly elected Commissioner, who ran on a promise to take power away from department heads and give it to the people. He would be only one Commissioner out of five. But one with too many uncomfortable questions and swing votes going the wrong way. His limited government beliefs could derail too much.
At stake was their ability to frame and influence policy for the commission. The budget process, as an example, from which funding is approved, that can allow each department to expand. The downstream feeder channel non profits that serve as staff appendages, must in turn grow to justify the ballooning government outreach. Leveraging this relationship is essential to continued growth.
Also crucial was to retain the public perception that government growth was necessary to meet public demand. Every public employee therefore was essential. During the pandemic lock down no county employee was laid off except for the Travel Department being temporarily discontinued. There was no real interruption in cost of living raises and step increases. In 2021 Federal funds in the amount of $4,000,000, that could have gone into our suffering community, was instead dispersed as a $3500 cash bonus, plus $1,000,000 for their pensions, to approximately 850 employees each for being on the job instead of working remotely during the pandemic.
Something had to be done, and soon. Better yet, even before he was publicly sworn in office.
Next is the first of three articles covering the attempt to change the results of the November 2020 election. Part 1- the execution, Later opinion pieces -Part 2- the planning and Part 3- continued psychological warfare.
Part 1 The execution
Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime- Laventiy Beria.
A cloud hung heavily over the meeting of the Board of Clackamas County Commissioners on the morning of January 14, 2021 as the show trial began. Only days before Chair Tootie Smith announced that this meeting would not be held in-person, but publicly on zoom. She cited “creditable” safety threats. Only safe call-in testimony from citizens would be allowed, thereby avoiding possible unruly in-person testimony. The public swearing in of newly elected Commissioner Mark Shull and herself scheduled this day would be postponed.
Not on the agenda, but grave enough to start off the meeting, Smith read her statement from the day before repeating her demand that newly elected Commissioner Shull immediately resign. She backed up her demand by waving a document claiming to have widespread support among both elected and unelected public officials for his resignation. She invited her colleagues to comment. The show trial began.
Each commissioner, in turn before the vote, excluding Shull, gave their own story of the emotional damage suffered to them as individuals, and to the public at large. Martha Schrader claimed Shull caused irreparable damage. Paul Savas recalled his own anguish of being exposed to discrimination in his upbringing. Sonya Fischer cut right to the chase by accusing Shull of being a phony. She defined his prior posts as “hateful” and that he deceived the voters.
The option of a Censure Resolution condemning Commissioner Mark Shull was offered by County Attorney Stephen Madcour to be voted upon near the end of the meeting. Although the accusation against Shull broke earlier in the week, and only Shull’s immediate resignation was demanded, Madcour was able to cobble together this resolution in time for expedient action by commission.
The resolution ( 2021-03) first stated the commission condemned and denounced the derogatory, offensive, insensitive, and racist statements posted on social media by Shull and censured for that conduct. Secondly, the consensus of the board is that for the best interest of the county that Shull resign effective immediately.
The pre-ordained vote passed unanimously in favor of the resolution.
By the end of the meeting, there was no doubt among the commissioners that they were good and sensitive people, easily wounded by cruel words. In fact, Commissioner Schrader described herself by stating, “I consider myself an extremely kind person.”
By the end of the meeting, there was no doubt among themselves that they were good and sensitive people, easily wounded by cruel words.
Shull’s refusal to resign foiled the hope of the tribunal, that by shaming him away, a swift solution to this ugly matter was at hand. His “no” resulted in the commission and their allies disappointingly accepting the participation trophy of censure.
“Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
A frenzied blitz by the usual political collective to pressure him into resigning had already started within hours from when Shull’s comments came to light earlier that week. Commissioners from Washington and Multnomah Counties, City commissioners (including Portland), school boards, State legislators, public employee unions, Clackamas advisory committees, newspapers and special interest groups had the same message- resign, get out. The vast majority of the individuals were Democrats. The names read like a roll call of the governing power structure of the Democrat Party. There was a sprinkling of high profile Republicans as well.
For weeks after the censure, droves of political friends testified at Board meetings demanding that he resign. Emails flooded the Board expressing shock and horror at his alleged heinous comments. Many of these were from non-profits that are funded by the county taxpayers. A recall committee was formed, with a promise to have recall on the ballot for the voters as soon as possible.
To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The attempted purge failed. It’s now more than a year and a half since the show trial. Commissioner Shull is still there. He is fully functioning and contributing in office. Although the commission has refused to rescind the original censure, the berating by Smith and Fischer toward Shull has stopped. The histrionic outcry of the public has ceased. The recall movement is quiet.
Is it time to just move on? Hasn’t this Star Chamber meeting demonstrated the county’s robust commitment to enforcing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion? Didn’t it project a positive image of county governance to the taxpaying public?
As one citizen later publicly testified, “They went after him like a pack of jackals.”
Or, on the other hand, was it destructive overreach by county staff and the commissioners? As one citizen later publicly testified, “They went after him like a pack of jackals.”
Next: Part 2 – The Planning
Last: Part 3 – Psychological Warfare
People reacted to this story.
Show comments Hide commentsWow! I didn’t know all this had taken place. I’d only heard a bit about it, Bill. Thanks for bringing this to light.
Jim