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                Today's Board of Commisioners Meeting. | Curry County

As Curry County struggles to generate enough income to balance its annual budget, the Board of Commissioners continues to quarrel over personal grievances.

At today’s business meeting, Commissioner Court Boice responded to Commissioner Chris Paasch's threats on March 3 to sue Boice over an email sent out in early February that accused Paasch of corruption.

“He threatened that day another lawsuit against the County and that’s very unfortunate,” Boice said. “In the five years I've been here, I have not started any of these battles. I have not sued anyone, I have not accused anyone of ethics violations, not had anyone investigated. I have stood against the waste of County staff time and resources, which we know are very limited. But I’ve been the brunt of some very vicious lies.”

This specific argument between Boice and Paasch stems from an emergency council meeting attended by Paasch and County Treasurer David Barnes in regard to a previous lawsuit involving Boice and now-retired County Counsel John Huttl. While the emergency meeting was approved by Paasch and Board Chairman John Herzog, Boice took offense to this last-minute meeting, which he was unable to attend. Because of the lack of notice, Boice considers the meeting to have been illegal.

In response to this ongoing feud, Boice challenged Paasch to a town hall debate at today’s meeting, which Boice said would be held on April 28 at the public events center in Gold Beach. Boice then added that the debate could be vetted by “fact checkers” who would do independent research to determine if any of the commissioners have acted unethically in their duties.

“What I would like to do is make a proposal to Commissioner Paasch that we simply have a town hall debate and we can call it the ‘Truth Town Hall,’” Boice said. “That would give you three weeks to prepare and set up the logistics of the debate. This would give both of us adequate time.”

Paasch seemed confused by the unconventional proposal, partly because he has publicly stated that he will not seek reelection this year in order to spend more time with his family. The commissioner has officially endorsed Brookings City Council member Brad Alcorn to fill his seat.

“I don’t know where this comes from,” Paasch said. “I’m a little baffled on why you want to debate me. I’m not into doing this. I can see how that could really could go in the wrong way and the room could be stacked and all that. I’m not interested in that ... You sent an email out to the people that I was corrupt. That was an accusation of a crime. All I did was respond to that.”

Paasch followed up Boice’s proposal by reading an email allegedly written by Boice in response to the aforementioned emergency meeting. This email, Paasch said, is an example of Boice attempting to hold a meeting that actually would have been illegal.

“I submit for the record an email sent to me on April 23, 2020 from [Commissioner Boice] saying: ‘I want a discussion with the three of you regarding [the emergency meeting] before the weekend,’” Paasch said, quoting the alleged email from Boice. “That would be an illegal meeting and it's here in writing. The illegal meeting you said David Barnes and I had was approved by the Board. So I will show facts in a public meeting. I will not have a debate with you in a forum because I think that would be very, very embarrassing to you and the county.”

Chair Herzog, who has failed to respond to a number of emails from the Outpost regarding the ongoing feud between Boice and Paasch, spoke publicly about the ongoing tension for the first time at today’s meeting and tried several times to wrap up the argument.

“I tell you gentlemen, with what we’ve got going on, and the financial issues, we’ve got to come together,” Herzog said. “There’s a reason farmers don’t look backward when they’re plowing a field. You can not plow a field with straight lines if you’re looking backward. At some point we’ve got to quit looking backward and plow straight lines and our fields are going to [have] beautiful straight rows.”

Paasch also stated publicly for the first time at today’s meeting that he no longer plans to file suit against Boice, citing the cost to taxpayers as his reason for dropping the case.

“Against legal recommendations, I have decided not to sue,” Paasch told the Outpost. “The issue with that is the County is self-insured, so if we were to win a judgment, the taxpayers of this County would have to foot the bill and I wouldn’t do that in this instance.”

At the end of today’s meeting, Boice officially announced that he is running for Governor in the upcoming Nov. 8 election. After keeping quiet on the subject for several weeks, Boice made a full statement today, comparing his candidacy to his run for Congress in 2018, in which he used the platform to address his key concerns with the State.

“It wasn’t that I thought I had a great chance or a great opportunity or higher wishes to move on to bigger, better public office — not at all,” Boice said. “The governor thing, my issue is this: There’s 14 or 15 Republicans that have filed for governor, so don’t be too impressed that I’m running, except my message this time is natural resources.”

Paasch, meanwhile, expressed his concerns with Boice’s gubernatorial bid.

“Commissioner Boice is a liability to the County, in my opinion, as he has had many complaints over the years and even today on the agenda tried to say that myself and Commissioner Herzog did something illegal,” he told the Outpost. “You just can’t email the public a note saying a fellow commissioner is corrupt with nothing to back it up and have no consequences. And now he is running for Governor.”

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