Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, July 21, 2021
RACE
...
Continued from A-1
Nicole Schlienger, project specialist
for Project Youth Plus, told of her diverse
background of Chinese and Jewish decent.
She told heartfelt truths about “racial slurs
and stereotypes.” Schlienger said, “It is hard
to be proud when people don’t want you to be
who you are.” She described in tears how her
mother had to go into hiding during COVID-
19 when people referred to the pandemic as
the “China Virus.” Her Chinese mother no
longer would go for walks in her neighborhood
because a nearby household started flying the
Confederate Flag and she feared for her safety.
One of her harsh realities has been finding
living accommodations during the current
housing crisis in Josephine County. Schlienger
is disabled on a fixed income and that made
it even harder when she needed to find low
income housing. Shockingly, she told the
audience that one of her barriers to housing has
been religion. “Religion is a barrier to finding
housing when you are of a minority religion.
You are not welcome.”
Vincent Aguilera, who has worked
closely with Grants Pass students for the
last 28 years, said, “I haven’t seen anything
change.” When he worked at a high school
doing security, he heard “lots of racial
comments” even from staff members. When
Hispanic students would bring the complaints
to administration, they were not believed over
the “Caucasian colleagues.” Vincent also
relayed stories of other staff members using
racial slurs toward him and described the
shame and stress of “swallowing it” in order to
keep his job.
So Health-E Director Annie Valtierra-
Sanchez concluded that conversations like
these are what our communities need. “How
do we work together to break the systems that
perpetuate racial injustices?” asked Valtierra-
Sanchez.
Dillinger said she would like to see more
elected officials attend events like these in the
future. “Like I always say, learn how to vote
and know who you are electing to represent
you!”
Page A-9
Annexations
and collective
bargaining at
county weekly
meeting
C J Schatza
IVN copy editor
The July 14 business
session of the Board of
Josephine County Com-
missioners saw three
properties annexed into
the Josephine Community
Library District by petition
of landowner.
Library Director Kate
Lasky spoke at the meet-
ing to voice her apprecia-
tion for the landowners
opting to join the district
in order to pay taxes sup-
porting library services.
She also explained the
process of being annexed
into the district.
“As the district was
formed in 2017,” Lasky
said, “it is noncontiguous
with the boundary of Jose-
phine County. Therefore,
individual property own-
ers have the opportunity
to add their property into
the district by choice. So,
we’re talking about folks
who are volunteering to
pay taxes to support the
library system, which I
think is pretty wonderful.
And they also have the
opportunity to vote on that
elected board.”
Lasky added that a
“substantial property,” the
Motel Del Rogue east of
Grants Pass near the Riv-
er’s Edge Restaurant, was
one of the three properties
petitioning for annexation.
“We’re very apprecia-
tive of all three petition-
ers,” Lasky concluded.
All three commission-
ers - Chair Dan DeYoung,
Vice Chair Herman Baer-
tschiger and Commission-
er Darin Fowler - voted to
approve the annexations.
Moving on to admin-
istrative actions, the board
considered the American
Federation of State, Coun-
ty and Municipal Employ-
ees (AFSCME) collective
bargaining agreement.
JoCo Human Re-
sources Director J.J.
Scofield approached the
podium to give the run-
down on the AFSCME,
saying, “What you have
before you is a three-year
contract with AFSCME,
which is our largest bar-
gaining unit. They have a
little over 200 members
within the county. It’s
pretty typical to have three
years with this particular
bargaining unit.
“The process, just for
the public to know, it is an
ongoing negotiation be-
tween the county and the
union. The union initiated
their voting to ratify this
contract yesterday. The
voting will be finalized on
Friday, and so now it’s in
front of the board for you
all to ratify.”
Getting into specif-
ics, Scofield discussed the
cost of living adjustments
set forth in the agreement
as well as administrative
changes.
DeYoung pointed out
that the agreement will
affect around 40% of the
county’s workforce.
Under the board’s
consent calendar, ap-
pointments were made to
the JoCo Charter Review
Commission. Before the
appointments were an-
nounced, Fowler noted
that three seats on the
commission were set aside
for Grants Pass residents
but there were no appli-
cants, so he asked meet-
ing attendees to spread
the word and maybe
throw their names in the
hat. Jean Ann Miles of
the Cave Junction City
Council, John Chambers,
Andreas Blech, Ken Be-
atty, Dorothy Better and
Michelle Binker were all
appointed at the July 14
session.
Reminder: Josephine
County no longer posts
recordings of board meet-
ings to YouTube. These
videos can be accessed
by going to the county’s
website: http://www.
co.josephine.or.us/Page.
asp?NavID=2310.