In his role as Justice of the Peace in Jackson County, Joe Charter will be based in Central Point, handling traffic court and municipal code violations throughout the county, with the exception of Medford and Ashland.

When I heard about the petitions to change the structure of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, I felt what Yogi Berra called that “déjà vu feeling all over again.”

Déjà vu is French for “already seen” — that feeling you have lived through the present situation before.

I reminded a friend that I was chief petitioner for structural change to the Board of Commissioners in September 1995, and that he had been opposed to the idea. When he disclaimed any memory, I set out to discover what it was I had proposed.

There are three proposals offered by the organizers behind www.jacksoncountyforall.org, which hopes to put all three on the November 2024 ballot by gathering 10,000 signatures for each measure from county voters: 1) Make the commissioners nonpartisan; 2) increase the number from three to five; and 3) divide current total salaries of the three commissioners five ways.

In this last respect, the proposal is more generous than mine in 1995 — Petition 8-95 — which was to limit commissioner salaries to a monthly stipend of $200 plus expenses. Essentially, it would have made these volunteer positions. It also would have increased the number of commissioners from three to seven, elected from districts, and required each to hold at least three town hall meetings in their districts each year.

The process of finding reactions to my proposal in September 1995 was more onerous than I expected, primarily because the Medford Mail Tribune archives are not available online for that period. It took more than an hour to search microfiche in the Jackson County library for two articles. Not like the instant response you get from a simple Google search. Local history isn’t lost, it’s just harder to find.

Once you know the right time period (each microfiche reel holds about a month of newspapers), then you have to scroll through until you find what you’re looking for. To capture the image of an article, there are several fiddly adjustments you have to make, and then try several test captures to get a legible copy.

My search resulted in a front-page article by Peter Wong with the subhead “Plan Would Put Seven Part-timers in Charge.” Wong is still a reporter with the Salem Bureau of the Portland Tribune, after 14 years with the Statesman Journal and 11 years with the Mail Tribune before that.

“I think a broader based board of non-politicians — citizen legislators — will be more responsive,” I was quoted as saying. At the time, commissioners were paid $43,000 annually. The president of the League of Women Voters was quoted as saying she was glad people were “trying to improve county government.”

Wong followed up with a nice profile a few days later.

“I think the opposition will be the status quo,” I said. Peering at the poor quality black-and-white photo of a young fella with dark hair reminded me of the sepia photos of my ancestors from the late 1880s.

The search through the newspaper from 28 years ago was like opening a time capsule.

The big news in Oregon was that Sen. Bob Packwood resigned from the Senate after serving 27 years amid allegations of sexual misconduct. The O.J. Simpson trial was in full swing. He was acquitted of the murder of Nichole Brown in October 1995.

Cal Ripkin Jr. surpassed Lou Gehrig’s record of playing in 2,130 consecutive baseball games, which had stood for 56 years, on Sept. 6, 1995. Ripkin extended the streak another three years. The Bosnian War in the former Yugoslavia was drawing to a close after more than three years.

Newspapers were different then. The classifieds ran six to eight pages daily, and about 20 pages on Sundays when real estate ads and open houses were featured. A Sunday paper would run up to six sections. Engagements, weddings and anniversaries were published.

Like the New Wave song “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles, Craigslist helped kill the classifieds. The internet became mainstream around 2000. Newspaper classified advertising peaked in 2000 at about $20 billion. According to Business Insider, classified ad revenue plunged by 77% in the next 12 years.

I’ve recently learned that Medford City Councilor Kevin Stine and others also filed an initiative petition in 2018 to increase the number of commissioners to five and make them nonpartisan.

As the French also say, “plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose” — the more things change, the more they stay the same.