_{Thumbnail photo by Ken Lund via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons License}

Though tensions continued on Tuesday with Curry County’s newest commissioner telling John Ward that his constituents have been fearful for the past year, both sides were able to compromise on staffing for the sheriff’s office.

Both sides agreed to staff a lieutenant in the patrol division who would oversee four deputies, a forest deputy, a marine deputy and a community resource officer. There would also be a part-time civil service deputy working for the sheriff’s office as well as two sergeants working under jail commander Lt. Jeremy Krohn. 

The part-time civil service deputy would also handle animal control cases for the Board of Commissioners, according to Director of Operations Ted Fitzgerald.

A defiant Patrick Hollinger accused the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association (OSSA) and Curry County Sheriff John Ward of trying to intimidate and silence him “through the deliberate twisting of state law.”

The Curry County commissioner’s statement Wednesday comes after the sheriff’s association issued a letter stating that a presentation Hollinger gave at a May 20 Board of Commissioners meeting incorrectly implied that OSSA supported the commissioners in their ongoing conflict with Ward.

“This is an attempt to discredit an elected official advocating for accountability and transparency, which is all I have ever done,” Hollinger said. “Oregon law is intended to ensure justice and fairness. What we are witnessing is a deliberate distortion of the law intended to discredit an elected official and erode the public trust in those who are sworn to uphold it.”