Prineville, Ore. – Shortly following our previous story, the Crook County Cemetery District (CCCD) Board held a public meeting Nov. 21st and announced it had selected current Crook County Commissioner Susan Hermreck to fill its remaining board seat, all amid ongoing questions on when the CCCD Board even held deliberations in order to come to its decision.
The Crook County Cemetery District has been embroiled in controversy that initially started with local citizen’s raising complaints about the management of the cemetery grounds.
Under Oregon’s public meetings law, both the decision and deliberations related to filling an elected seat must take place publicly. That differs from hiring of staff, which in some situations, allow the deliberations taking place in executive session. In either situation, the final decision must be made in public.
While the decision to appoint Hermreck to the seat took place during a public meeting, the meeting’s agenda indicated a decision had already been reached despite no deliberations having taken place during past meetings (or even in executive sessions which the Prineville Review was present for), raised questions on when the deliberations by current directors Jamie Wood and Gary Bedortha actually took place.
That same provision under the meetings law recently required the Crook County Fair Board restarting its entire process to fill a vacant seat on its board, although its vacancy is ultimately appointed by the Board of County Commissioners, not by the Fair Board itself.
The district’s now former manager, Cory Nelson, was also fired by Director Wood and now former director Velda Jones who held multiple illegal meetings in the process of firing Nelson. The district is now facing multiple lawsuits, including from Nelson, for a slew of public meetings violations and alleged constitutional violations by this reporter for attempts at restricting news media access.
Nelson was entitled to have a review of the allegations against him either in an executive session, or in a public meeting as his discretion, something he was not provided.
The CCCD Board claimed that a subsequent vote at the Aug. 27th meeting in public on Nelson’s firing cured the previous violation.
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It was unclear since they still did not afford Nelson an opportunity for the public deliberations on the issues surrounding his firing if their vote to “cure” the violation was sufficient. The course of action has effectively kept the allegations from Wood and Jones from becoming public, and Nelson indicated in an interview with the Prineville Review after his firing that he was being scapegoated and would have wanted a public hearing if provided the opportunity.
Those issues were only discussed in an executive session that had taken place illegally. Additional details were discussed in an executive session which we were present for, but the cannot reveal the contents of the executive session.
Both Jones and Wood are also currently facing an investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC) for alleged violations of Oregon’s public meetings laws surrounding Nelson’s firing. It is not investigating previous violations as those took place beyond the 30-days from when the grievance which is subsequent to the formal complaint takes place. Their preliminary review case is expected to go before the commission early next year.
OGEC officials confirmed that so long as a citizen files the grievance within 30 days of the alleged violation taking place, they preserve the ability to file the formal complaint for an investigation by the OGEC for up to four years.
Hermreck, has also ignored requests for comment from the Prineville Review sent on Nov. 21st seeking her view on the questions related to the appointment. That included a question about when the existing directors may have held deliberations concerning her appointment.
Jack Radenberg, who had previously ran in 2023 against now former director Velda Jones (who resigned in August amid the growing controversary) told the Prineville Review that he had submitted an application for consideration, but believed he would not get any consideration due to his recent criticisms of the board. Radenberg has been raising questions since 2022 about illegal public meetings, issues with records requests, and general management practices by the special district.
During its Nov. 21st meeting, the CCCD Board stated they had only received one application for consideration to the vacant board seat — which was Hermreck’s application. We asked the CCCD’s attorney shortly after the meeting about the conflicting claims made by the CCCD and Radenberg, but he did not address the question.
Radenberg has repeatedly stated he is likely to run for a seat on the CCCD Board at the next election. The position recently filled by Gary Bedortha through appointment will be up for election in May.
In a recent response to a public meetings grievance, an attorney for the CCCD Board also addressed a similar situation during the appointment of Roxanne Cummings-Basey in July, inaccurately claiming that executive sessions could be used for deliberations on appointments to vacant elective positions.
“It is common and acceptable for a Board to reach a consensus in executive session and the purpose of the “final decision” requirement in ORS 192.660(6) is to allow the public to know the result of the discussions. In this case, the Board acted properly when it voted to approve Ms. Basey-Cummings to the Board, even if it was after the Board came to a consensus of her appointment during executive session,” said Ashley Wigod, an attorney with Jordan Ramis, PC (the firm representing the CCCD).
Under ORS 192.660(7)(a), the exception granted for holding an executive session, even if only to deliberate and not make a final decision, does not apply to the filling of a vacancy in an elective office.
Cummings-Basey served less than a week before resigning and leaving a scathing review of Jones and Wood contained in her official letter of resignation which was also provided to the Board of Commissioners.
Late last month the Prineville Review also discovered that the CCCD Board approved false meeting minutes for its July meeting that claimed it held a public vote on Cummings-Basey’s appointment. The minutes were produced following months of delay under a public records request from this publication and its claim that its recording ended early due to a “technical issue”.
Even had the vote actually taken place, the CCCD Board violated the meetings law when it conducted deliberations for the appointment in Cummings-Basey’s case as well.
In the recent public meeting grievance response from its attorney, the CCCD double downed by claiming again it had voted to appoint Ms. Cummings-Basey after its recording stopped.
“After the District Manager reported that the Board appointed Ms. Basey-Cummings [sic] to the Board, and after the recording stopped, Ms. Jones made a motion to vote to approve Ms. Basey-Cummings [sic] to the Board and Ms. Woods seconded it. Then, both Ms. Woods and Ms. Jones voted in favor of Ms. Basey-Cummings’ appointment,” wrote Wigod.
The Prineville Review had captured an audio recording of the July 11th meeting portion that the CCCD claimed was not recorded due to the technical issue, a recording which confirmed again that no such vote took place. Instead, Cummings-Basey was simply announced during the July meeting as being a new member of the board.
Note: This story was updated after initial publication to include a copy of the falsified meeting minutes from the July 11th meeting of the CCCD and additional details surrounding Nelson’s firing and board action under a state ethics probe.
This is a developing story which you can count on us to keep you updated on.
 Board held a public meeting Nov. 21st and announced it had selected current Crook County Commissioner Susan Hermreck to fill its remaining board seat, all amid ongoing questions on when the CCCD Board even held deliberations in order to come to its decision.){kind=link}