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.

Sue Kupillas was a Jackson County commissioner for four terms from 1988 to 2004, a total of 16 years. During that time, she served with Hank Henry, Jeff Golden, Rick Holt, Jack Walker and Dave Gilmour. I sat down with her on a Friday at a busy Dunbar Farms tasting room.

As commissioner, her legacy was implementing urban renewal in White City and helping turn the community around. She took a city planning class in college at the University of Idaho, where she majored in art and architecture.

At the time, White City was “front page news” with numerous problems.

“I’d gone door to door … and listened to people,” Kupillas said. “I had a genuine interest in turning that community around.”

Kupillas was on the Eagle Point School Board. Bill Jones was the White City Elementary principal and reported to her the turnover of students in the school on a monthly basis. By Christmastime, there was 50% turnover.

“Fifty percent of the kids left, and 50 percent new kids came in,” she said.

Kupillas says White City was the first elementary school in the state with a school counselor. “We had daily emergencies … critical situations,” she said. “I didn’t want to go in and tell people … ‘OK, this is what we’re going to do.’”

Instead, she sat down with active parents identified by Jones and “people I sat in bleachers with at all the games” as a parent.

“I said, ‘We’re going to visualize what you want your city to look like.'” She asked people to provide facilitators for the meetings.

“What the people envisioned in their community, I could figure out how to make it happen. They were their ideas, and they had ownership.”

After five years of meeting every other week, the citizens eventually said, “We can do this, we don’t have to ask Sue.’ And it was like my kid had grown up.’”

“We developed some real leadership in people who had never even been to a meeting before. That was a real exercise in democracy,” said Kupillas. A “one stop” Human Services facility, including community policing, was part of the plan.

Kupillas also convinced local builders to build traditional stick-built housing instead of more trailer parks in White City. All of the units were sold before they were built.

Kuplillas was instrumental in keeping the White City VA Rehabilitation Center & Clinics from being closed.

When plans were announced to close the facility, Kupillas sought a meeting in Washington, D.C., with the secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “I didn’t believe in mucking around with the lower level … My job gave me permission to go right to the top,” she said.

Kupillas was able to get the hearing to be scheduled at the Medford Armory instead of outside the county. It was standing room-only. Kupillas was the first to speak after VA staff.

She told herself to “say something they’ll remember.” She said that the VA should not only keep the facility open, but it should expand it. Kupillas said 900 veterans stood up and cheered. “My mother (who was in the audience) was real impressed,” Kupillas said with a grin.

The hearing changed the direction of the decision. “They have expanded it. It’s not only important to the veterans, it’s important to our whole community. Our community never has valued it (as much) as they should.”

Other issues Kupillas headed up as commissioner included teen pregnancy prevention, rewriting the county’s comprehensive land-use plan, GIS mapping, and code enforcement, which “did not make me popular” she says. She also spearheaded fundraising for the Kids Unlimited gym with Tom Cole.

Kupillas is one of three “Godmothers” of the Women’s Leadership Conference of Southern Oregon, along with businesswomen Patsy Smullin and Lyn Hennion. She is the winner of the 2017 Governor’s Gold award for Civic Leadership.

After leaving the Board of Commissioners, she was executive director of the nonprofit Communities For Healthy Forests from 2004 to 2016. “I testified 15 times in Congress,” she says.

She recommends reading “America’s Ancient Forests” by Dr. Tom Bonnicksen (2000) and is also reading “Sisters in Law” (2015) about Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Bonnicksen’s book emphasizes the importance of fires set by both lightning and Native Americans, which he says maintained the openness of pre-settlement forests.

“Native Americans managed those forests because they had to open them up to browse animals,” says Kupillas.

She was on the Southern Oregon University Foundation Board for 17 years and recently finished a two-year term as president. Currently, most of her time is devoted to watercolors. “I want my life to be simple, uncomplicated and free of controversy,” she says.

Paint brushes instead of politics.