A vote to recall Josephine County Commissioner John West appears to be passing by more than 25 points, and after losing a courtroom effort to nullify the election Wednesday, West said that he does not intend to pursue an appeal.

“I think I’m going to let it go and be,” West said when reached for comment by the Rogue Valley Times on Thursday afternoon.

West said that he will, however, continue pending litigation against the lead petitioner in the recall: former state Rep. Lily Morgan, who stepped down from her elected seat as a Republican lawmaker last year to become Gold Hill’s city manager. 

“That’s going all the way, that will not end,” West said about his lawsuit seeking $500,000 filed Dec. 4 against Morgan in Josephine County Circuit Court. He claimed that, “she broke the law and we’re going to prove it.”

“Everybody’s going to get their day in court,” West said.

According to unofficial numbers issued by the Josephine County Elections Office Wednesday in the Dec. 17 recall election, some 13,413 votes — 61.61% of the 21,424 votes counted — were in favor of recalling the commissioner. Updated results will be released Dec. 27, and the final results will be certified no later than Jan. 13, according to the Josephine County Clerk’s office.

The recall’s signature petition filed by Morgan — among other claims — called-out West for “ignoring the will of the people” and for actions that “affected the health and safety of the community” and “lost revenue, increased costs or haphazardly cut valued services.” West disputes the claims in his lawsuit against Morgan.

Morgan’s petition made granular claims that West made “bad faith negotiations” in the Pipe Fork property sale in Williams, and that he “ignored the will of the voters” by eliminating funding for Josephine County’s OSU Extension program, law enforcement and public health programs. Other claims in the petition include “threatening community safety” by reducing the county’s Firewise and emergency management programs and “eliminating property development fire standards.”

“These actions demonstrate a pattern of unethical and illegal behavior, severely damaging public trust and warranting immediate recall,” Morgan’s petition states.

Leading up to the recall campaign, West filed multiple civil lawsuits, including a complaint seeking an injunction against Josephine County Clerk Rhiannon Henkels. West claimed that the recall petition was not valid because the clerk verified only 744 of the 7,538 total signatures Morgan submitted on Oct. 28 and 31.

In a reply filed Dec. 4 by Josephine County’s lawyer, J. Aaron Landau of Eugene, the county stated that state law commands the use of Oregon’s “statistical sampling technique” to verify petitions contain the required number of signatures.

“Ms. Henkels did exactly that, and plaintiff’s contrary arguments are unfounded,” Landau stated.

Results of a Wednesday hearing regarding West’s case were not listed in Josephine County Circuit Court records, but the Grants Pass Daily Courier reported Thursday that Judge Robert S. Bain determined the case lacked merit and denied a request to nullify the election. 

In the suit against Morgan, first filed Dec. 4 with the help of West’s lawyer, Stephen J. Joncus of Happy Valley, West responds to each of the claims in the petition. Regarding the claim of “bad faith negotiations” related to the Pipe Fork property sale in Williams, West’s lawsuit claims that “Morgan knows that West was not a negotiator for the sale of Pipe Fork … that West could not act unilaterally with respect to the negotiations.

“It was the three members of the Josephine County Commission that voted to terminate negotiations with a prospective buyer,” West’s suit states, adding that “Morgan knows that negotiations were terminated for a good reason.”

He disputed the petition’s claim he “ignored the will of the voters” when he joined the rest of the commissioners in pulling funding passed by voters for the OSU Extension and 4-H program and claimed that the board scrutinizing how OSU spent their funding made them “good stewards of taxpayer money.”

West further argued that he “had no power to act unilaterally,” and that his decisions were made with the rest of the Board of Commissioners. His suit claims that Morgan’s allegations are false “and she knows that they are false.”

“The statutory protection for candidates running for office apply with equal force to office holders opposing a recall election,” the lawsuit states.

Aside from his pledge to continue pursuing the lawsuit against Morgan, West otherwise took a conciliatory tone in Thursday’s interview.

He thanked the voters and supporters who stood by him during the recall campaign during what he claimed were “lots of lies and misstatements.”

He said he wishes the incoming Josephine County commissioners the best as they work to address the county’s funding challenges. 

“I hope they can figure it out,” West said Thursday. He said that “my phone will always be on” if he can help in any way.

“There’s no hard feelings,” West said. “I just want what’s best for Josephine County.”