I spent 28 years working for the county — the last 10 as sheriff — and saw many county commissioners during that time; some good, some not so good. And I’m well aware that the job is daunting. Just look at the individual commissioners and see the long list of committees and such they sit on and variety of issues they have to have some familiarity about.
It’s a tough job, no doubt about it, but it’s also a job they run for and compete to get, so that shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
I really don’t know Commissioner Bobby Jackson very well. I met him at my brother’s once, and saw him at my mom’s — both social settings. As far as I can tell, he’s a nice enough guy.
But it appears to me he may be in over his head on the Twin Transit matter.
Back when Commissioner Jackson decided to run, he called and asked to meet with me. I agreed and we set up to meet at the Rib Eye restaurant. However, he arrived early, and at my place of employment instead.
I concluded listening apparently wasn’t a strong suit, nor was respecting my employer’s time.
He asked for an endorsement but I really wasn’t familiar enough with him to consider it.
I really didn’t pay much attention after his election until the Twin Transit sales tax initiative was on the ballot. Then I read his comments and heard him and his Twin Transit manager on KELA occasionally talk about it.
I thought his rhetoric about the benefits of expanded bus service were exaggerated at best. I’m sure there would be benefits to some folks of course, but the economic improvements this expanded service would provide seemed too much like snake oil to me.
He pushed pretty hard on the idea that failing to pass the new tax would mean the loss of bus service in East County, which turned out to be not true.
I’ve said before that I don’t fault him directly for not knowing that, but his manager is paid to know those things and should have known better. After the initiative failed, it came out that some people, including the manager of the East County bus service, knew better yet said nothing to correct him.
But it was the complaint about using tax dollars to promote the initiative where it got interesting and where my initial impression about him not listening proved true.
As I recall, Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer warned him via email he thought the materials went too far, and beyond informing to promoting. If I recall Commissioner Jackson’s response was that the advice was unsolicited so he didn’t listen to it.
Escorting the former manager — who’d been ordered to stay away from the Twin Transit building during an investigation, (during business hours) — showed poor judgment on his part and has unnecessarily resulted in a tort claim against the county.
After the vote, he also is reported in The Chronicle to have said the approval to expand bus service countywide was already approved in an earlier meeting. Others, including a deputy prosecutor, have reportedly said this is not correct.
Finally, I happened to catch the morning radio show on KELA where Commissioner Jackson makes an occasional appearance and talks about the county and local issues. I didn’t hear the whole thing, but he had to know he’d get calls on this and what I did hear made him sound unprepared and dismissive.
To his credit, he’s resigned from the Twin Transit board now but I wonder what he’s learned from this. In my experience, the best commissioners I worked with were reasoned, careful with their words, and listened to people — like the county attorney — when they spoke.
He may well recover from this if he does that, but in my opinion he missed all those marks handling Twin Transit and has work to do.
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John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis, and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@gmail.com.
