Clackamas County Commissioners Go Virtual As Protests Escalate

OREGON CITY, OR — The Clackamas County Board of Commissioners was forced to move its meeting from in person to virtual last week after protests in the commissioner chambers started to escalate.

People in the audience at Thursday's session seemed to be most upset over masking and other restrictions related to stopping the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant.

The audience was unruly from the start.

Board Chair Tootie Smith quickly found herself having to use her gavel in an attempt to silence the crowd. She informed them that wearing a mask was required to be in the meeting. More than a dozen people in the audience were maskless.

"If you don't like it, you will be escorted out and, or, I will cancel this meeting, and we will not have it in person," she said. "I will not argue, I will cancel the meeting."

Smith was one of three commissioners — along with Paul Savas and Mark Shull — who attended the meeting in person. Commissioners Sonya Fischer and Martha Schrader were attending via Zoom.

The details of the meeting were first reported by the Oregonian.

Despite Smith's threat, the protests continued through her remarks. She was followed by County Public Health Director Paul Mason-Joyner, who gave an update on the county's COVID-19 struggles; he detailed cases, deaths and efforts to stop the spread.

During his presentation, the audience grew more hostile to what was being said.

After Mason-Joyner, Schrader thanked Smith for reminding people to wear masks. Before Smith became county chair, she was very demonstrative in opposing Gov. Kate Brown's mask and distancing rules, even at one point questioning the science behind it.

Smith has said that as board chair, she has an obligation to the law regardless of her personal feelings.

Schrader went on to talk about one of her grandchildren who had been diagnosed and about her concerns about the disease.

At that point, the crowd grew angrier.

"Let's not get hostile tonight," Schrader pleaded with them. "Let's just be kind to one another. Everybody is upset. It's a hard week. It's a hard two years."

Her pleas for civility were ignored, and the crowd seemed threatening to some commission staff.

Smith ended the meeting, slamming her gavel on the dais.

"We're going online. We're canceling the meeting."

As she pounded her gavel, people could be heard screaming things like, "Are you going to spew your propaganda all night?"

A little while later, the meeting resumed with the commissioners via Zoom.