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Griffith files for re-election as commissioner
By Damian Boudreau, Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:32 PM PST
COOS BAY – John Griffith has worked as a logger, a newspaper reporter and as a purchasing agent for Weyerhaeuser Co. Each of those jobs, he said, helped prepare him for politics.
“I know how (political bodies) are supposed to work and why they don’t,” he said.
 John Griffith
After he left his newspaper jobs, he figured he might as well give politics a shot, he said. Eight years and two elections later, Griffith, 59, is the chairman of the Coos County Board of Commissioners.
Now, he’d like to serve again. On Friday, he filed paperwork with the Coos County Elections Office, seeking a third term.
His move comes nearly a year after he presided over a board tasked with an enormous job: Cut about $6 million from the county budget after the federal government eliminated in-lieu timber payments to the county.
In all, about 100 jobs were cut, including about 45 deputies from the Sheriff’s Office, the result of a $3.5 million cutback in that office alone. Congress authorized an additional, and final, $7 million timber fund payment in 2007. Instead of rehiring the workers, the board put most of the money in the bank.
Griffith talked about the board’s controversial step to cut county jobs, insisting those upset with the decision are in the minority.
“The minority are making themselves look bigger by making a lot of noise,” he said.
Griffith contends the cuts would have been much deeper if the county waited to bring down the ax.
“They’d be a third larger,” he said. “For every two (employees) you lay off, you’d have to lay off a third to pay for unemployment on all of them.”
One of the biggest challenges he sees for the county in the coming years is what he referred to as the normal issues including outsiders trying to make the economy in the county worse, especially where the federal government and timber are concerned. He sees himself as a challenger to the status quo: Someone some policymakers don’t like.
“I’m a fact finder,” he said. “Some people don’t like that because they’re used to getting their way without having their opinions tested.”
But the budget, he said, remains a major issue for the county.
Griffith may face a challenging campaign. In December, current Coos County Assessor Bob Main announced he was running for the seat currently held by Griffith.
Main’s decision followed a showdown of sorts between the two.
Last year, Main ordered the closure of the Assessor’s Office, reducing hours of availability to the public due to budget cuts, which resulted, Main said, in his losing four employees: Two staffed positions and two vacant positions that were not filled.
Coos County legal counsel Jacki Haggerty informed Main only the Board of Commissioners could set office hours.
At a meeting of the Board of Commissioners on Jan. 31, 2007, Griffith and Main exchanged heated words. Griffith told Main his office would remain open.
But on Sunday, Griffith said he didn’t want to talk about his opponent.
“People will find out about him,” he said.
In addition to chairing the Board of Commissioners, Griffith was re-appointed to the Ocean Policy Advisory Council on Jan. 25.
Griffith has lived in the area since moving here from Portland in the early 1970s. Griffith has been married to his wife, Katie, for 36 years. The couple live in Coos Bay and have three grown children. |
