Friday's special Curry County Board of Commissioners meeting Jay Trost and Patrick Hollinger went on the offensive against the chief petitioners seeking to oust them from the Curry County Board of Commissioners. After spending about 45 minutes of a special meeting Friday touting their accomplishments, Trost and Hollinger went through each petition, taking issue with both the grievances they raise and the individuals raising them. Trost said he viewed the petition against him, filed by Curry County jail commander Lt. Jeremy Krohn, as opposition to the Board’s “not adhering to a mentality of status quo.” Commissioner Jay Trost “I understand change isn’t easy and that many of these individuals would rather us just not ask the hard questions,” Trost said. “In fact, taking the path of least resistance would be the safest route to take for our political reputations. However it is our responsibility to continue to seek answers to the most difficult questions in order to find long-term solutions.” Krohn says the petition to recall Trost is due to a “culture of fear” he says both employees and citizens feel as a result of the actions of the county director of operations, Ted Fitzgerald. A recall committee was created for both Trost and Hollinger, Krohn said. He put his name down as chief petitioner because he said he was “OK with taking on one of them.” “We had to have a person, somebody who was going to put their name on it, and everybody said no because they feared the retaliation that was going to come,” Krohn told Redwood Voice Community News on Monday. “I don’t have that fear.” “Curry County Commissioners Update” was the only item on Friday’s special agenda. The Board of Commissioners did not take public comment. Commissioner Patrick Hollinger “For workshops and special meetings, we generally don’t offer public comment. Only on general business meetings,” Trost told Redwood Voice. Brookings resident André Bay is the chief petitioner in the effort to recall Hollinger. Both Bay and Krohn filed their petitions with the Curry County Elections Office on July 28. The petitioners in the recall effort have until Oct. 27 to collect 1,902 signatures on each petition, according to Curry County Clerk Shelley Denney. If they collect enough signatures, Denney and her staff have 30 days to verify them. If the signatures check out, the commissioner at the center of the recall effort either has five days to resign or to submit a justification that will appear on a ballot, Denney told Redwood Voice. “And then we would have to hold an election within 35 days,” she said. Krohn said if the recall makes it to an election, it would occur in the first part of January. If Trost and Hollinger were recalled, their colleague, appointed commissioner Lynn Coker, would be “by himself — there would be no quorum.” “At that point it’s our understanding that the governor’s office would be notified of that,” Krohn said. “There would be some solicitation from her office to fill one of those positions so there could be a quorum, then [the Board of Commissioners] would be able to appoint a third person.” The recall effort against Trost and Hollinger comes after commissioners worked out a plan for staffing the sheriff’s office with Ward, Krohn and other high-ranking employees just before adopting the county’s 2025-26 budget on June 30. The budget hearings themselves came amid a nine-month long dispute between the sheriff and commissioners that ultimately prompted the Board to file a petition to seek a declaratory judgment against Ward. Trost said he and his colleagues took this action to seek better clarity on both parties’ roles and responsibilities as defined by Oregon state law. On Monday, Trost said the declaratory judgment is moving forward. Lt. Jeremy Krohn's petition to recall Curry County Commissioner Jay Trost “In July, we filed a motion to compel for discovery and that was granted as well as the request that the sheriff pay for all the fees associated with discovery,” he said via email. “Depositions are being scheduled this month. This case will potentially have major impacts statewide and I believe [it] to be one of the reasons this petition to recall Commissioner Hollinger and I was filed.” Krohn, however, denied this. “Everyone seems to think this is about the sheriff’s office and it’s not,” he said. “The trial for the declaratory judgment is Oct. 1. I don’t know how this stops that [trial] if we’re looking at potentially an election in January.” The recall effort also comes amidst an internal investigation into allegations of retaliation, harassment and gender discrimination levied against Fitzgerald by Curry County Assessor Kiley Wegner. In his petition against Hollinger, Bay references both the sheriff and the assessor stating that Hollinger “misrepresented evidence” to discredit Ward and supports Fitzgerald “who has interfered with the duties of independently elected officials.” Hollinger denied this claim, stating that it lacks any foundational basis. “The director of county operations acts upon the direction of county commissioners,” Hollinger said. “All parties have been transparent with their actions. Again, without any specific evidence from Mr. Bay, this is an intentionally false statement intended to mislead the public and defame my character along with the director of county operations’ character.” Hollinger said Bay’s statement about misrepresenting evidence related to the sheriff likely refers to his presentation of a question-answer session Oregon State Sheriff’s Association Executive Tim Svenson led at an Association of Oregon Counties training he attended. Bay also states that Hollinger supported a takeover of public lands and proposed defying Oregon’s sanctuary laws — “moves that could expose the county to serious legal consequences.” Bay’s statement regarding the alleged takeover of public lands likely stems from a Feb. 5 resolution by Hollinger to “invoke policing powers of the state to clear and thin undergrowth and to remove fire-damaged trees” on U.S. Forest Service and BLM land within Curry County. At that Feb. 5 meeting, which was held in Brookings, Hollinger and his colleagues faced mostly north county residents who opposed the resolution. Hollinger told them that he and his colleagues had hoped to be stewards for the public lands within Curry County, working with agencies that are supposed to be consulting with the county on an annual basis. On Friday, Hollinger said he has built “very good strong relationships” with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service, both locally and in Washington D.C. He said he’s working with those agencies on a contract that would benefit both parties, which would enable more thinning and ground clearing and more timber sales for Curry County. Hollinger also referenced Bay’s comments to the Board on Feb. 5. “Andre Bay’s public comment on Feb. 5, 2025 — and you [can] see it from the time is 21 minutes and 26 seconds to 23 minutes and 36 seconds — where he states a call to arms,” Hollinger said. “He calls literally to arms — ammunition, bodies, D9 dozers — to barricade lands from people coming out and for us to just go start cutting down trees, and he claims I’m the one who wants to take over public lands.” When reached for comment on Monday, Bay told Redwood Voice that his public comment at the commissioners’ Feb. 5 meeting in Brookings was his attempt at satire. “That was my best attempt at a Saturday Night Live skit,” he said, adding that he has also made a video out of Friday’s meeting. During the meeting, Hollinger continued his speculation about Bay’s petition. The commissioner said the allegation that he proposed defying Oregon’s sanctuary likely stems from a May 7 discussion he and his colleagues had about whether they should honor detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On Friday, Hollinger said the draft resolution he and his colleagues discussed came from Coos County and that it was never his intention to bring it to a vote. “The reason for bringing this up as stated in that meeting, and you could all go back and review the meeting, is we do have a known cartel presence within our county that traffics drugs and traffics humans,” Hollinger said. “Do we want that in our county? I would say no, we want our public to be safe.” Trost said Krohn’s statement that he “created a culture of fear” lacked sincerity and honesty and proceeded to describe a meeting he had with the jail commander regarding a $300,000 Jail-based Medications for Opioid Use, or JMOUD, grant. André Bay's petition to recall Curry County Commissioner Patrick Hollinger. According to Trost, Krohn had asked to speak with him anonymously about the Board’s reluctance to approve it, arriving at his office in civilian clothes by the back entrance. Trost said he told Krohn that the sheriff’s office shouldn’t have brought the grant application before commissioners “at the 11th hour” and the sheriff needed to attend meetings. “Krohn then stated that we will never get the stats that we are asking for because Ward doesn’t have them. I said I don’t understand how he can’t provide them,” Trost said. “[Krohn] said he isn’t sure, but patrol lacks accountability and structure. He said he struggles to supervise them in the jail and can’t wait for them to be back out on the road. He said that is why he ran for sheriff.” Krohn acknowledged reaching out to Trost about the JMOUD grant. This was about two days after former commissioner Brad Alcorn resigned, he said, and Hollinger had been vocal about opposing the grant. Krohn said he didn’t ask Trost to be anonymous because he feared retaliation from the sheriff, but rather there were people within the sheriff’s office who felt staff shouldn’t be talking with county commissioners at all. “I was afraid of people saying something at the sheriff’s office about that — how I was leaking information,” Krohn told Redwood Voice. “I was also afraid of staff … at the annex, particularly around his office, doing the same thing — that I’m some kind of mole leaking information.” On Friday, Trost mentioned his support of the declaratory judgment as one of “the only two true statements” in Krohn’s petition. The other is his support for an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Brookings for city police to patrol Harbor. Harbor is the largest unincorporated population center in Curry County, according to Trost. The Board of Commissioners is working with the City of Brookings to hire a half-time community resource officer in Harbor, though both parties would need to make sure their ordinances mesh. Trost said an agreement with Brookings would allow more county resources to be diverted to the central and northern areas. “I am confused as to why seeking alternative methods to increasing public safety is controversial,” Trost said, “especially from a petitioner that is in public safety.” Hollinger also pointed out that Krohn unsuccessfully ran against Ward for the sheriff position in 2024. Krohn said he felt that money spent on an intergovernmental agreement with Brookings could be used to hire more people for the entire county. When asked about Hollinger’s statement regarding his decision to run for sheriff against Ward, Krohn thought it was funny. “I didn’t run because he was doing a bad job. I didn’t run because he’s corrupt,” he said. “I thought I could do things differently. The community said no. They like how things are going and we’ve moved on.”