by Mary Geddry
On New Year’s Eve, interim county roadmaster and county commissioner, Kevin Stufflebean terminated almost 60% of the county road maintenance crew. Done without any warning to the crew the layoffs leave a staff of only 14 to maintain 600 miles of road at the commencement of the high maintenance storm season.During a meeting with the road crew at the Owen Building, Stufflebean, flanked by County Counsel, Jackie Haggerty and Human Resources Director, Steve Allen handed out termination notices along with spreadsheets comparing the last ten years’ costs and five year projectionsfor the road department. Stufflebean explained that while
there was sufficient money to continue to pay a road crew, already pared down over the years, his new priority was ‘asphalt’ and he has budgeted for a $1M of asphalt per year for the next five years.

As stunned workers began to absorb the information several pointed out that the county had just let go all the personnel trained to lay asphalt.
Stufflebean assured everyone an analysis had been done showing the remaining crew were adequate to maintain safe roads in Coos County.
Commissioner Nikki Whitty and outgoing Commissioner John Griffith voted unanimously during a closed executive session to terminate 22 jobs having never seen the ‘analysis’ ensuring public safety. In fact, when this reporter asked Whitty, Friday, immediately following the swearing in ceremony, why she had voted to terminate 22 family
wage jobs she couldn’t remember what she had looked at to make her decision only two days earlier. When pressed, Whitty asserted that, “Sharon and Kevin and the other two management personnel over there have mapped out how they are going to continue to do the job.”

No one in the commissioners’ office has seen Stufflebean’s plan or analysis. For that matter, neither has Sharon Shinnick at the road department butbelieves it exists because she has, “heard it referred to often.” Nevertheless, Whitty’s confidence in this analysis, sight unseen, was strong enough to jeopardize the safety of the citizens of Coos County and sacrifice the livelihood of twenty- two families without any analysis or review of her own.

Larry Van Elsberg, former Coos County roadmaster, however, does not share her faith. Van Elsberg points out that only 10 of the remaining 14 crew actually work on the roads and writes, “It seems that the elected officials who made this decision, have chosen to disregard public safetyand the impacts it will have to our county roadsystem.” The roadmaster position vacated by Van Elsberg is still offered by the county, yet despite more than a dozen reported applicants, some with over 30 years experience, not a single interview has been held. Instead, Stufflebean with little or no practical experience and with the full blessing of the board appointed himself interim roadmaster.

Elected in 2006, Stufflebean was appointed liaison to the road department and according to road workers so began a period of tension and divisiveness
throughout the department with Van Elsberg choosing to resign three months later. While Stufflebean does not receive the $59K roadmaster salary,theoretically saving the county money, he has created a new $48K position, Transportation Operations Manager, filled by ten-year road worker, Shawn Migas. The Transportation Operations Manager is the second highest paying position in the department after roadmaster and has authority overmore senior road employees. Migas is one of the two managers, who along with Shinnick, Whitty claims have mapped out how the department can operate with only ten road workers. Terminating the 22 employees effective January 20, rather than waiting until their contract expires, July 1 is projected to save the county $284K but this will only be true if the remaining crew can handle the heavy maintenance of the typical storm season. Can ten people unplug culverts 30 miles apart or clear slides and tree branches at six different locations scattered around 600 miles of road, safely and quickly?

So far, all efforts to obtain a copy of the analysis that ‘maps’ out how this can be done as Whitty claims have failed and was not made a part of the county press release. Nor could Whitty under persistent grilling by road crew workers, Friday, explain her own decision instead deferring questions repeatedly to “Kevin” who is out of the office until Wednesday. Many road workers questioned the commissioners’ decision to vote on this matter in advance of newly elected Bob Main taking office. Whitty claimed responsibility fearing Main, not having enough background information, “would vote NO”. Not withstanding that Whitty herself appears to have had no more information than was released to the press, her unilateral choice to exclude Main is even more confusing because she claims the interim roadmaster did not require board approval to terminate employment. “…Kevin didn’t have to bring that to the board of commissioners because the department head, which he technically is, has the authority to do that. But I was glad that he kept us in the loop, “ said Whitty. Nevertheless there was a rush for an unnecessary vote, in closed session, to terminate 22 employees and avoid putting the decision, “… on Bob’s back.” Bob Main does not appreciate being excluded from the decision no matter the reasons, and does not believe the information provided to the board was adequate to make such a sweeping decision. Stufflebean asserts that only 15 of the layoffs were road crew and believes the remaining personnel have already proven themselves in storms citing the December 3 storm as proof that minimal personnel can handle the roads. “The county has a call list of contractors if emergency help is required,” and, he said, “…I can’t keep fifty guys on payroll waiting for a storm”.

The liaison between department heads and the commission is meant to allow departmental issues to be brought before the board and provide a system of checks and balances. Consequently, it is not typical for the liaison and the department head to be one and the same person. This did not go unnoticed by disgruntled road workers who pointed out the obvious conflict of interest in allowing a single board member to run a department without appropriate checks and balances. As bad as this and previous layoffs at the county are for the workers and their families the oft cited reason of a failing local economy will only get worse, not better at the loss of more family wage jobs. At a time when the Presidentelect is pushing a huge job creation program that includespublic works to help rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, Coos County appears to be punishing the monkey by letting the organ grinder go. The cavalier fashion in which the board appears to treat the public funds they are entrusted with shepherding is scary enough but it should be noted that the decision to lay everyone off was made before the vote in executive session.

Layoff slips were prepared well in advance of both the vote and the New Year’s Eve meeting at the Owen Building.