While Ballot Measure 4-123 has failed in Clatsop County Oregon many counties are struggling with the issue of supplemental pay for a district attorney who also acts as a head of a county department.
In our small county with a population of just over 36,000 people word of mouth carries almost as much weight as the local daily newspaper, which in this instance was a markedly good thing. The local paper carried heavily biased reporting on only one side of the issue, printing material that bordered on libelous. By the end of the election lawsuits were threatened all around.
Where does justice and politics collide, where do state and local governments converge and seperate? Who decides who pays for what and who is responsible to whom? And, ultimately, who pays the price when everyone refuses to find common ground?
In our case, as round two warms up and those who lost on the ballot measure prepare to recall the county commissioners who took away the stipend of the man who refused to follow the budgetary proceedures as set forth for the rest of the county departments, this conflict looks as if we are far from a resolution.
It can only be hoped that those who care about our county, those who live here, work here, have family here, raised their children and grandchildren here, will demand that this come to end. Our county needs to close this chapter and get on with a productive future.
These pages contain the oppostition to Ballot Measure 4-123's side. You will not find them in the stories of the reporter who followed the issue for the Daily Astorian. After hours of interviewing anyone opposing Ballot Measure 4-123 maybe one sentence would get in the paper, or nothing. The bias of the local paper was so slanted that the paper refused to run ads in opposition to ballot measure 4-123. See Ad Controversy.
The Huffington Post
Top News and Opinion
David Fiege
November 12, 2007
So it looks like one good thing happened this little-noticed election day. Comeuppance for Oregon prosecutor Joshua Marquis, the staunch death penalty defender who has argued over the years that innocent people basically never get convicted and that even DNA exonerations don't mean someone is actually innocent. Though the final tally is still unofficial, it seems that the residents of Clatsop County have defeated a ballot measure Mr. Marquis supported which would have changed the law in order to make him one of the highest paying DA's in the state.
That's right, a single-issue ballot initiative. The issue: His salary.
The hysterical history of the proposal tells you everything you need to know about Joshua Marquis and provides a pretty window into the particular mindset of a rabid prosecutor. Marquis, a small town DA with an big city ego ingratiated himself to media outlets around the country by seeming willing to defend almost any prosecutorial excess. This burgeoning national profile helped Marquis win re-election. But having national aspirations can also lead one to ignore the home fires, and after repeatedly failing to turn in required performance evaluations and being dogged by suggestions that he is "abusive to staff" his own county commissioners eventually voted to stop paying him the stipend they traditionally awarded him on top of his state salary.
Now most people when they have their pay cut feel stung and many with some spine might either resign or come in to their bosses and say "hey, clearly you're unhappy, so let's figure out how to make this better." But no. A guy who was trying to become president of the National Association of District Attorney's isn't gonna just get the message. (Marquis recently lost that presidential election, presumably because even a group of prosecutors doesn't want someone quite as rabid as he is leading them). So what did Marquis do? The end around.
Marquis supported an effort to gather thousands of signatures in order to make a law saying that he should get more money. Instead of making peace with his commissioners, or trying to understand why they might be unhappy with his antics, he arrogantly believed the voters would just authorize a pay raise. This, as much as anything else Marquis has written or said provides genuine insight into his view of what the law is and how it is to be used. The law, he seems to think, is an instrument of his own personal advancement, and it is to be used for precisely those purposes. It isn't hard to see why that's a dangerous attitude in a prosecutor.
Thank heavens, the citizens of Clatsop County thought different.
The recourse that the Citizens for Clatsop County Charter Integrity had was using the smaller newspapers, the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette, which published once a week, the radio station KAST, and through a website www.charterintegrity.org and then the online forums and the blog community came to our rescue. It is especially through these venues that the word got out that there were two sides to this issue with facts and documentation to back up the opposition's side.
First reporting on the emails linking the District Attorney directly to the formation of the committee that circulated the petition to mandate him a salary in addition to the one provided by the state was Northcoastoregon.com. Then Clatsop County Matters and its open forum Dried Salmon began publishing a series of counter editorials, directly challenging the Daily Astorian's slanted reporting and biased editorials. Bloggers were not far behind with Astoria Rust (and its open forum), Astorianna Sez, and Not An Attorney giving their input often on the current situation. Finally, KAST's Coastwatch open forum also provided a place for people to talk fully and frankly with one another and elected officials about the issue.
Perhaps through these venues the Daily Astorian can learn journalistic integrity. It is hoped so, the paper, its owner, publisher and editors owe it to our community.
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