Josephine County’s Emergency Management Department came under fire at the July 24 Board of Commissioners Weekly Business Session by someone in a position to know what should be done. Vanessa Ogier, former Grants Pass City Councilor and dispatcher for Oregon State Police, criticized the county’s response to several recent emergencies. Her reward for this was getting yelled at by Board Chair Andreas Blech as she was trying to finish up her speech at the three-minute mark signaling her time at the podium was up.

As Vanasa struggled to finish the last words of her statement, Blech called on a security officer to escort her out. Vanessa wasn’t the first one who ever went a bit over the allotted three minutes during the public comment section of the Board’s agenda. However, it was apparent she was saying something Blech wanted to shut down.

Vanessa: The Emergency Services Director has already failed in two separate real-world incidents just this year. During the March flood, there was minimal situational awareness communicated to the public. There was no centralized messaging, no call to sign up for Everbridge alert, no information updates on what areas were hardest affected, detours for road closures, and there was no dissemination of resource hotlines or online links for those affected. During the board shanty fire, the department relied entirely on reposting content from the Oregon Department of Forestry. They provided no authored public information, no evacuation zone mapping photos, no livestock support coordination, no promotion of the Everbridge alert system, and they disabled public feedback channels by turning off comments on their shared posts, making it impossible for the public to ask questions about the emergency online. The website updates on the Josephine County Emergency Management website lagged by nearly 24 hours. There were no public information briefings, no interagency updates, and no communication protocols followed under the national incident management system or the joint information system. This is not just poor performance; this is operational negligence. Because when the next incident occurs, whether it’s a fire, a flood, a windstorm, or an earthquake, there’s already a known failure of our response infrastructure. There will be no ability to deny these deficiencies.

So for our neighbors, here's what to do: establish a personal preparedness plan, create a 72-hour kit, to to-go bag, and create defensible space. Join local neighborhood groups digitally or in person for hyperlocal communication, sign up for Jackson County citizen alerts if you live in a bordering area, or if you work in Jackson County. Be sure to talk to your neighbors, share contingency plans, and know who will need help evacuating if that call does come. Follow official agencies like the Oregon Dept of Forestry, the United States Forest Service…..

This is when Blech interrupts, yelling, “Your time is up. Please have a seat!” As she was finishing up, Blech called security to escort her out…”Security, could you please have this lady removed from the podium?” Blech says the protocol for what he’s doing “is on the wall there.” As the security officer comes toward her, Vanessa turns and exits the building.

Vanessa isn’t the only one who has expressed concerns about Josephine County’s Emergency Management response to recent emergency incidents, but our Commissioners don’t want to hear that. They responded to Vanessa’s concerns by saying Emergency Director Michael Sellers was an incredible Director and they are amazed at all the stuff he knows.

Commissioner Chris Barnett disputed Vanessa’s account by saying he was personally out there giving updates on the recent Board Shanty fire, but he didn’t say where those updates appeared. Are we to look at Barnett’s Facebook “news” pages now for emergency information?

Is this what passes for protection of our lives and property in this county?