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Hotline set up to report on officials By Dani Dodge The Southern Oregon Militia has set up a whistleblower hotline for Jackson County employees to call to report abuses or wrongdoing by county officials. At Wednesday�s meeting of the county commissioners, militia spokesman Carl Worden, announced the hotline, which is nicknamed after airport secretary Dawn Neff, a whistleblower whose complaints launched an investigation of problems at the Medford airport. "There�s an awful lot of people out there that don�t report incidents, because they�ve seen what happened to Dawn Neff ," Worden said. "You either go along with the county or get hammered, and that�s not healthy for anybody." After making complaints about airport problems, Neff said, she was harassed out of her job. Her allegations resulted in the militia filing a complaint with the state Government Standards and Practices Commission. The commission concluded that airport supervisors had committed three ethics violations. County administrator Sue Slack said she hopes employees who have concerns about the county will come to county officials first to find solutions, but she said she didn�t have a problem with the hotline. "It would be my preference that someone bring an issue directly to us so we can deal with it as directly and quickly as possible � but if they want to tell someone else, that�s fine," Slack said. "I feel like we have a very good ability to investigate things brought up to us." She noted that an early county investigation of Neff�s concerns came to the largely the same conclusions as the ethics commission. But Worden said he�s talked to employees who feel that they aren�t well represented by the county or their unions. He said the militia will check out concerns phoned to them; if they have merit, the militia will take them either to the county or to the state. "We want people to feel comfortable enough to report these things and know they won�t lose their jobs," Worden said. "As for the hotline � I hope to God it�s never used," said Ralph Bowman, the commander of the Southern Oregon Militia. "But if it is, you�ll hear from us." The "Neff line" at 541-826-9469 will be answered from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The militia also set up an e-mail address, [email protected] Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA