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2 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW OSF season attendance down slightly because of wildfire smoke ... Invasive species tui chub discovered at Diamond Lake ... Volunteers try to protect iconic Haystack Rock ... OSF season attendance down slightly because of wildfire smoke ... Invasive species tui chub discovered at Diamond Lake ... Volunteers try to protect iconic Haystack Rock ... OUR VIEW Our View: Breidenthal has many questions to answer Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Nov. 1, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted Nov. 1, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Jackson County Commissioner Doug Breidenthal deserves his day in court — or, more accurate, his day before the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. But, based on information filed in a complaint against him, it's hard to imagine that he comes out of this unscathed. It is not unusual for complaints to be filed with the Ethics Commission about pubic officials; after all, they do make enemies along the way. But it is fairly remarkable when the government body they represent is the one filing the complaint. That's the case with Breidenthal, who was the subject of a 37-page complaint filed by county auditor Eric Spivak. The principal allegation against Breidenthal so far is that he accepted campaign contributions totaling $10,500 from a variety of business interests and associations without reporting those contributions to the county. Among the head-scratching aspects of Breidenthal's activities is that the funds were not for his Board of Commissioners campaign, but for a campaign for him to become an officer for a regional subcommittee of the National Association of Counties, called the Western Interstate Region (WIR). The first questions that come to mind are why would you need to raise campaign funds for an internal position on an association subcommittee and what in the heck would you spend that money on? And then it gets interesting, because it turns out that among the things he spent the money on were seafood, a bartender fee and a plane ticket for his wife, all associated with a WIR convention in Alaska. He also paid the airfare for an employee of the Association of Oregon Counties and donated $1,000 from the fund to the commissioner campaign of Rick Dyer, who was elected to the board in November 2014. There are other questions raised by the county, including whether the county also reimbursed Breidenthal for portions of the Alaska trip. This all amounts to fairly penny-ante stuff in the world of politics and funny money. But the bigger concern is that Breidenthal was accepting — and not reporting — donations from organizations that would certainly like to curry the county's favor, including the Cow Creek and Coquille tribes, which are locked in a battle over the Coquille's proposal for a Medford casino. Other organizations that contributed included a timber company, a trucking company and the local natural gas provider. There is no evidence of quid pro quo in the contributions, but there certainly is evidence of poor judgment on Breidenthal's part. He was known to play fast and loose with the facts in his campaign, purporting among other things that there was a precedent for the county to take over federal land, which was at best a wild exaggeration. Now he seems to be playing fast and loose with money, to the point that his own organization reported him. He says he's done nothing wrong, and suggested to the state that there was "retribution" involved in the allegations. So, the county auditor has it in for him? Meanwhile, the Association of Oregon Counties has some questions to answer as well, starting with why they allow members to set up fund-raising election campaigns for subcommittee posts — oh, and by the way, not do a very good job of monitoring the money brought in for those campaigns. It is a recipe for a slush fund, which is what it seems to have become in this case. Mostly, however, there are many questions to be answered by Breidenthal, who is running for re-election, before this is finished. The Ethics Commission should demand a full explanation, and so should the residents of Jackson County. MailTribune.com Writer Posted Nov. 1, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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