Support Documents
Throughout the campaign support documents showed that very little effort was expended by Mr. Marquis to work with the Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners (CCBOCC) to get a performance based budget completed. Once the budget committee recommended that Mr. Marquis' stipend be removed he told the public he would do what was necessary to regain his stipend. It was implied that mean working with the CCBOCC. In actuallity what it turned out to mean was that Mr. Marquis was working with one of the commissioners to put together the petition for the ballot measure and to form a committee to get the petition on the upcoming ballot.
On forums throughout Clatsop County the people involved in the petition drive said their first order of business was to get back Mr. Marquis' stipend through the ballot measure to mandate his salary and second was to recall the four commissioners who voted to remove his stipend in the first place. Even though this was common knowledge on all of the forum boards the Daily Astorian does not acknowledge that this process is taking place. The Daily Astorian was provided all of the documentation on this page and refused to print any of it.
The Daily Astorian, instead, printed any innuendo of wrong doing by the committee which formed in opposition to ballot measure 4-123 as well as turning all BOCC meetings into negative events, bringing out any decision that was made looking for the negative or downside of their deliberations. Their personal lives were brought into play. Mr. Marquis began making wild accusations that the commissioners were making slams against his "family". Mr. Marquis was married five years ago. He and his wife have no children together, nor did they bring any children into the marriage. The "family" he keeps referring to is himself and his wife and no commissioner made any remarks about his wife, even after she flipped off a county commissioner during a hearing regarding whether or not it was legal for the petition for meaure 4-123 to proceed.
Mr. Marquis used his status in the National District Attorneys Association as its Media Chairperson to contact media throughout the state and nation and plead his case that local petty politics have taken his stipend away and tried to "control" his state office, something that won't happen as long as he's DA, he vowed. And it made for excellent headlines. Too bad it was all lies. Even sadder was the fact that he is supposed to be the one representing truth, honesty and justice in Clatsop County. See below, see how he manufactured the whole thing.
Here, Mr. Marquis writes to a colleague to complain how he has lost his stipend. Also, it is here that the proposal to tie his salary to a judge's comes up.
Note that the date on this email is four days after his stipend has been recommended to be removed. He still has time to tweak his budget, to ask the commissioners what they want in order for him to get it back. What does he do instead? He tells this colleague:
"I don't intend to engage in any kind of negotiation with these people. If they want to cut my stipend they can live with the consequences."
The Budget Calendar for Clatsop County.
Mr. Marquis, being also the District Attorney and a state employee, is not answerable to Clatsop County staff.
January 24th is when the review of the performance based measures is done.
Mr. Marquis keeps saying that his budget was "approved" by the administrator. His revenue estimate was approved. His budget, itself was not approved, nor was the manner in which he formatted his budget approved, his having ignored March 8th and April 6th guidance.
When compared to statewide statistics, this caseload shows that Clatsop County's DA office has a high ration of deputy district attorneys. We have 1:5,700 pop. State norm is 1:10,000-12,000. The DDA caseload in Clatsop County is 1:154, with 94% being settled pretrial plea bargains. State Norm is 1:260 with 80% being settled pretrial plea bargains. Crime in Clatsop County is below state norms in all areas except behavior crime, which includes traffic violations, fish and wildlife violations, DUII and drugs. Yet our DUII and drug rates are below state norms and we have not been designated a high drug trafficking area. We have just been issued a third judge, which Mr. Marquis argues means more cases for his office. The numbers don't show that, however. What it does show is that the traffic, fish and wildlife violations will be processed quicker with the third judge (which have little or nothing to do with his office) as will as the civil suits, domestic suits and small claims which have nothing at all to do with his office. The Daily Astorian has refused to furnish the public with any of this information so the general public is left believing that a third judge means the DA's office will have more work as well.
As noted above in the budget calendar the budget review committee makes a recommendation to the commissioners. This took place, per the transcript provided above, on May 14th. Then a public hearing takes place in which the pubic is given the opportunity to reply give their input to budget. At that time the DA read a letter to the community and commissioners committing to work with the commissioners and work out their differences. That hearing took place on June 13th. Yet, to show how real that committment is look the letters Mr. Marquis sent out and was receiving between May 14th and June 13th. The final vote on the budget was not until June 27th. At any point before then, because Mr. Marquis is a state employee and not a county employee, he can make contact w/the county commissioners and add to his budget, meaning he could have, at any point, provide them with the properly formatted budget.
"Out of the blue" Joshua Marquis' friend, Commissioner Sam Patrick uses the same wording and asks Mr. Marquis to prepare a petition to change the county charter to get him a salary, supplanting the stipend he is in danger of loosing.
This collussion between a sitting county commissioner and the district attorney is taking place before public testimoney has been taken for the budget process and before the final vote on the matter. Commissioner Patrick did not recuse himself from either process. Yet right in the email dated June 04, 2007, 2:27 PM Mr. Marquis plots with Commissioner Patrick to blame the reason for needing a ballot measure on the budgeting process.
Note that to read the emails in the proper order start at the bottom one with the time of 1:20 PM and proceed to the top, ending at 4:30PM. All of these emails received via Mr. Marquis' District Attorney account provided by Clatsop County government, with Clatsop County tax dollars and timber revenue.
The Daily Astorian not only refused to print these emails they refused to allow the opposition to Ballot Measure 4-123 to buy advertising to show the emails.
The petition is written and submitted to the county clerk after June 30th. The county clerk rejected the petition, stating that it was contrary to the state constitution and state statutes.
The petitioners protest and there is a hearing on the matter.
It was at this hearing that Mr. Marquis' wife, Cindy Price flipped the Clatsop County Board of County Commissioner's chairman off. She then attacked one of the county employees in the parking lot, screeching at them for being disloyal to her husband. The Daily Astorian didn't report any of this.
The Daily Astorian did not show this judgment, either. It did not report that the judge crossed out almost three lines of the judgment before signing it, removing all reference to whether or not the petition met the requires of being constitutional.
The only thing that the Daily Astorian reported was that the County Clerk had overstepped her bounds in refusing to allow the petition to proceed.
But that isn't how the Head of the State Elections Division saw it.
John Lindback, Director of Oregon State Elections Division is not happy with the judges ruling and will advise the rest of the state's county clerks accordingly:
The Daily Astorian REFUSED to let its readers and the voters of the county know any of this had taken place.
Other district attorneys throughout the state send in condolences and warnings. They are tired of all the in fighting this has caused in their association. At the very end of the campaign John Foote finally relents and writes a letter for Joshua Marquis stating that if the ballot measure doesn't pass that Marquis will be one of the lowest paid DA's in the state, to counter the opposition to 4-123's claim that should it pass Marquis would be the highest SALARIED District Attorney in the state. District Attorney's throughout the state are hesitant for the public to become to aware of the pay discrepencies. In actuality, it would appear that a DA like Foote, who serves Multnomah County with a population of over 400,000 and turns in a very well done performance based budget, would be tired of carrying the burden of DA's like Marquis who continually make trouble for their counties by refusing to help with the budgeting process while demanding the same pay.
Opponents to measure 4-123 constantly kept pointing out the difference between "pay" and "salary". One being a voluntary amount the county could negotiate based on the services a district attorney was providing a county and the other being a mandated amount, legally enforceable.
District Attorney's the state over have been very uncomfortable with this type of distinction and kept wanting to refer to both, together, as just "pay". The problem being that with the passage of the ballot measure it wouldn't be "just pay" for our county. We would be the only county in the state legally obligated to pay a district attorney at all plus legally obligated to pay a district attorney a set amount based on a judge's salary.
Mr. Marquis lies right here. He says that no public records have been generated by him on the subject of a possible charter amendment. He is lying to a county staff member who is talking to a district attorney while trying to do her job to get public records. Mr. Marquis knows his email from just over one month earlier. He knows full well he wrote to Commissioner Patrick using County resources, he comments to Commissioner Patrick that he thinks county staff are reading his emails. Yet, he lies to Andrea Kennet here. The Daily Astorian refused to publish this information.
In fighting the Ballot Measure a local attorney filed a public information request for all documents regarding reference to a stipend or an amendment to the charter. Mr. Marquis has told the public he complied with Mr. Zafiratos' request completely. Look at the emails below to see how long it took for him to comply and how hard he fought it. And then look WHY he fought it and the lies he told. Many would call this unethical behavior, unbecoming an officer of the court and a District Attorney for the State of Oregon.
Here Marquis lies to Pete Shepherd, the Deputry Attorney General.
This email says the request would include all emails, letters and memos which reference either of the subjects (stipend and possible charter amendment).
He emphasizes that he wrote no emails to the "county" on that subject, but also adds nor have any public records been generated by him on that subjected. Short term memory loss or blatant lying?
Now, he is beginning to worry. Mr. Marquis wants to clarify that he means e-mails that he wrote to Scott or Jeff or other county staff.
He doesn't want generalized browsing through his email because his office is also a law office. He reminds them that Scott and Leslie are witnesses in an upcoming criminal case. much of that info is not public record. And how much of that info is in an email????
This email does not sound like someone working with the county compliance officer.
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The Daily Astorian refused to run ads for the Citizens for Clatsop County Charter Integrity, first claiming that the content of the ads couldn't be verified and then when the documentation was offered editor Patrick Webb claimed that the Daily Astorian doesn't run opinion ads. Really? Here is the ad the Daily Astorian ran for the District Attorney and an opinion ad run by the Committee to Retain an Independent District Attorney:
The Ad that the Daily Astorian refused to run for the Citizens for Clatsop County Charter Integrity:
