Controversial commissioner fights for seat.

Byline: Winston Ross The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 10/13/2004): Incumbent Coos County Commissioner John Griffith helped lead an effort to sue the federal government over which areas should be designated as critical habitat for the endangered Western snowy plover. A story about candidates for commissioner that appeared on Page D1 in Tuesday's Register-Guard misstated the focus of the lawsuit. Also, other commissioners, as well as Griffith, oversaw construction of the county-funded natural gas pipeline and negotiations with the county's largest union.

COQUILLE - It was an e-mail read 'round the state.

Coos County Commissioner John Griffith was writing to then-Gov. John Kitzhaber's staff and fellow members of the Ocean Policy Advisory Commission, grappling with the difficult question of whether to establish state marine reserves - huge swaths of the ocean declared off-limits to fishing. The way he did it provides insight into why some constituents fiercely support Griffith while others, including Bandon Mayor Joe Whitsett, his opponent for county commissioner in the November election, are eager to see him brought down.

Griffith's precise wording for the governor can't be reprinted in a family newspaper, but the sentiment was that the commission's work mattered little, since Kitzhaber was likely to "shove" the creation of such reserves in a certain place, regardless of what the public wanted or the science suggested.

`I work really hard, and insist on facts,' Griffith says about the e-mail, which he hoped would dare the governor into not creating marine reserves. `I'd like to see the physical sciences and then the social sciences applied to the question. They wanted (marine reserves) as a leap of faith. I've got real people making real livings down here.'

Kitzhaber promptly fired Griffith from the advisory commission, setting the stage for a heated battle in the state Senate. Griffith's south coast allies cheered his fiery attempt to protect fishing and tourism interests. They persuaded Kitzhaber's successor, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, to reappoint him to the advisory commission earlier this year.

But Senate Democrats, under pressure from conservationists who argued Griffith's work on the commission was only obstructive, fought it. Even after Griffith agreed to serve as a nonvoting member, the Senate rules committee deadlocked, holding up his appointment and those of 57 other nominees to statewide commissions and boards, with the matter to be taken up again in November.

Thus, the 54-year-old surfer and blunt-speaking Republican boosted a growing reputation as one of the most controversial local politicians in Oregon, despite his assertion to the contrary.

`Other people make controversies,' Griffith says. `I just do my job.'

His confrontational style has surfaced on other issues as well:

Griffith convinced his fellow county commissioners to become plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's designation of the Western snowy plover as an endangered species. The suit, which disputed the government's distinction of the coastal plover as separate from inland counterparts, forced the agency to review that decision.

As chairman of the board of county commissioners, Griffith oversaw the county's taxpayer-funded natural gas pipeline project, which faced widespread opposition after it was proposed to voters in 1999 and later became mired in cost overruns, lawsuits and scrutiny from state and federal regulators, who this fall issued some of the largest fines against the project ever levied in Oregon.

Griffith also led negotiations with the largest of the county's six unions earlier this year, which came hours within a strike vote. The gravelly voiced Whitsett blames Griffith's `antagonistic, noncompromising, `my way or the highway' approach to labor negotiations.'

Whitsett, 53, was born in Myrtle Point but grew up in several areas of the south coast. He went to Willamette University in Salem but quit after three years, when he attended night school to become a respiratory therapist.

Whitsett's first elected office was to Bandon's top job in 2002. He says he's accomplished much during the past two years.

`I brought jobs to Bandon. We passed a planned unit development ordinance to accommodate the huge numbers of housing built around here,' Whitsett said.

He also helped bring Chetco Federal Credit Union to town, persuaded the city to provide startup funding for Crossroads music, and appealed to the owners of a local restaurant not only to stay open but to expand their operations from 16 employees to 31.

`I have decades of business operations, management and budget experience,' he said. `This is the first job John has ever had in which he was personally responsible for management of a budget and a business.'

In turn, Griffith criticizes Whitsett for not taking the time to learn more about county procedures.

Born in Albany, New York, Griffith grew up in La Jolla, Calif., before moving to Oregon in 1968 to attend Lewis in Clark College. He dropped out before earning a degree, but later returned to school at Southwest Oregon Community College.

In 1972, he moved to Coos Bay and worked as a logger and warehouseman until 1988, when he landed his first newspaper job, at the Coos Bay World. After a year there, Griffith became a correspondent at the Oregonian, a job he held for the next decade.

In 1999, inspired to get involved after what he'd learned about government as a reporter, Griffith ran for commissioner and won.

`We're a natural resources-based economy and lifestyle here, and so much has been taken from this community by the misapplication of law and logic,' Griffith said. "We do forestry, fishing, farming, tourism, the mainstays and foundations of this economy without doing harm to the environment. So we should be able to keep doing them.'

This adamant stance has earned the admiration of frustrated fishing and timber industry leaders along the coast, who complain that conservationists hurt their ability to provide jobs and do so with only educated guesses about how much restriction is necessary to protect the environment.

Griffith touts the pipeline project as an economic boon to the county, despite problems with its construction. He says he convinced the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay from trading a valuable 125 acres of land on the bay's North Spit to the Bureau of Land Management. And he touts implementation of a $2.5 million emergency communication radio system that will improve emergency services in the county.

`He's smart, he reads, he took the time to become knowledgeable of our industry,' said Sharon Waterman, a timber, cattle and sheep rancher in Bandon. `We know what happens without people like John Griffith. We would be a lot worse off than we are.'

Still, as far as his involvement in statewide issues, some see Griffith as a person who simply likes to disrupt reasonable discourse.

`He takes extreme positions that are not backed by science. He takes pot shots from the sidelines,' said Fran Recht, conservation chairwoman of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition. `He represents an extreme faction of his county. Most Oregonians are not extremists.'

Winston Ross can be reached at [phone] or rgcoast@ oregonfast.net.

COOS COUNTY COMMISSION

Name: John Griffith

Age: 56

Family: Wife, son, two daughters

Education: Some college

Civic/political experience: Coos County commissioner

Work experience: Correspondent, The Oregonian, logger, warehouseman

Contact: [phone], Ext. 248

Name: Joe Whitsett

Age: 53

Family: Wife, two stepsons, one stepdaughter 

Education: Some college

Civic/political experience: Mayor, city of Bandon,

Work experience: Human resources consultant, respiratory therapist, seaman

Contact: [phone]