Courthouse security issues linger
From our weekly issue dated February 03, 2010
Concerns about the security of Josephine County?s public buildings were discussed during the board of commissioners? Thursday, Jan. 28 meeting with legal staff.
Legal Counsel Steve Rich reported that a ?troubled? man who recently was released from a state facility has been spending much time at the courthouse in Grants Pass.
Rich said that once members of the public enter his office?s door, they have immediate and direct access to his staff.
?It?s an issue,? Rich said.
Persons entering the commissioners? office must pass through a security barrier before entering the board?s conference room and the offices of individual commissioners. That main office is located across the hallway from the legal staff.
Rich asked the commissioners to look into the possible installation of panic buttons in case of an emergency. He said that installation of a key pad for his office?s door would enable staff to have better control over who can enter and leave the room.
Otherwise, Rich said, he and his staff may have to lock the door as a default.
Commissioner Dave Toler, an Illinois Valley resident, suggested that Rich talk to the county?s facilities department about the problem. Chairman Dwight Ellis said that the matter could be discussed with Facilities Manager Rich Halladay during the board?s next meeting with all county managers.
A similar issue was brought up later during the Jan. 28 meeting.
Ellis stated that a violin case was brought into the Anne G. Basker Auditorium during a recent weekly business session. Some people had expressed concern about the case, Ellis said.
Those concerns prompted Ellis to confer with Undersheriff Don Fasching, a resident of Selma. Ellis said that Fasching suggested that a notice be posted in the auditorium that potentially suspicious items can be subjected to a search, and that anyone refusing can be kept out of the building.
Fasching offered to provide a reserve deputy for the meetings to conduct such searches, Ellis said.
Rich said that there is no prohibition in the law against instituting such a policy, but that searches can?t be discriminatory.
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