My writings on that first year,
or so, may not be in chronological order; these things all occurred, but
sometimes in close proximity to each other and I may have them out of
sequence. It doesn’t change what
happened, but I don’t want you to think that if I put it out of order and you
‘find out’ about it that there was any falsehood intended.
As spring went on we had to
divide our attention to other duties of the Office with only cursory overview of
the Rajneesh.
Their population enlarged as the
weather changed to a less hospitable climate; with it activity, but for the most
part it was uneventful.
Our deputies served papers
without interference. As the weeks went
on, though, we did have some interesting situations arise, and we will discuss
those in more detail, later.
The Rajneesh had a few people at
all County Commission meetings. That
wasn’t a problem, but it did put a damper on one thing.
On the first meeting of the
month the Department Heads were invited in to give a brief overview of what is
happening in their agencies.
I looked forward to this when I
heard about it. I wanted to hear how things were going with them and what they
were doing as I just didn’t know all the intricacies of County Government.
That first meeting I brought in
a list of the things we were doing in the Office, trends in crime, etc.
What I heard, from the others
though, were things like, ‘everything is normal,’ ‘just the same things going
on,’ ‘nothing new,’ etc. The presence of
the Rajneesh was hampering our open communication – not because we were trying
to hide anything, but they would challenge some of the decisions.
Someone came up with the idea of
a monthly meeting of the Department Heads and ONE commissioner in one of our
meeting rooms. It wasn’t open to the
public and it was a relaxed and enjoyable experience.
We were able to hear what was
happening and we were able to assist each other when we had issues or things
that were bothering us.
The meetings were not
mandatory. When the Department Head
wasn’t available he/she would sent his second in command or just not be
represented.
As a result I learned a lot
about the county’s operation. I
appreciated the cooperation between the departments and the affirmation of
everyone’s desire to do the best they could for the citizens.
One of the county committees I
was on, as Sheriff, was the Wage and Classification committee. It was assigned the task of reviewing job
descriptions and determining what wage scale they should be assigned.
I can’t remember how many of us
were on the committee, I want to say somewhere around eight department heads
formed the committee.
Several years prior to my
election, the county had requested a review, by a consultant, of all jobs in the
county, make a job description on each job and assign a wage scale.
The county then received the
formulas to help decide, through this committee, how any new jobs were to be
evaluated and given a wage scale.
Like any large employer Wasco
County had several positions that were similar in nature no matter what
department the person worked in; but there were also many jobs that were so
dissimilar in nature that they required the committee to review and make
decisions on them.
In addition to this process the
employees had joined unions and the negotiated wages were the ones that were in
effect. For those departments that did
not have union representation those wages of similar positions – example, clerks
– would prevail.
There were many things to
consider, type of job, stress from the job, type of stress, what authority the
employee in that job had to make decisions, education and training required,
similar positions in other departments within the county, etc. A numerical value would be assigned to each
of them.
We would then go to a table that
was pertinent to that position (a management position was not judged the same as
a non-management position and because of the type of work we did law enforcement
was separate from others.)
A Department Head could ask for
a review of his department’s wages, usually either because he had a new position
that wasn’t listed before, or he had assigned more duties to the position and
believed it should be evaluated.
After reading the description
and listening to the department head’s explanations we would independently
assign the values to the position and then discuss them. Very seldom were we off more than a point or
two from each other. The method was
scientific, but allowed for anomalies and it was easily applied.
Once the position was evaluated
the information would be given to the County Commissioners to approve or
disapprove. Sometimes the committee
would recommend that the position not be allowed for that department – but that
was rare. And not always was the
department manager happy with the wage scale given to the position.
However, I have to say that the
formula worked very well, I was amazed at how accurate we could be in our
recommendations.
Most of the job descriptions for
the Sheriff’s Office were accurate except for the position of Corrections’
Manager.
I could not believe what I
read. The sole, the only, job duty
listed, was that he knows where all the furnace equipment in the court house was
and how to operate it.
There was nothing about
supervision, nothing about running a jail; just he knows how the furnaces
work.
1 Kings 13:14-19
And went after the man of God, and found him sitting
under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from
Judah? And he said, I am.
15 Then he said unto him,
Come home with me, and eat bread.
16 And he said, I may not
return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water
with thee in this place:
17 For it was said to me by
the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no
bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou
camest.
18 He said unto him, I am a
prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the
Lord, saying, Bring him back
with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied
unto him.
19 So he went back with
him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank
water.
Here was a man close to
God. A man God had sent to proclaim His
purity and to proclaim the destruction of an altar to a golden calf - which was
destroyed.
God’s Word to him was clear, do
your duty and leave; don’t go the same way, don’t eat or drink water in this
place.
He knew what God wanted of
him. It was clear and unambiguous.
Yet, a man, professing also to
be a man of God said that God had spoken to him through an angel and the first man
was to come back to the village with him. ‘But
he lied unto him’
The man went back with him, ate
and drank and slept in his home and then started back on his journey the next
day.
As a result of his disobedience
God sent a lion to kill him:
Verses 23 and 24 And it came
to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for
him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought
back.
24 And when he was gone, a
lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and
the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the
carcase.
A man of God, stricken because
of his disobedience to God; because he listened to someone else who claimed that
he was a messenger of God and God told him to have this man come back with
him.
The story is one of historical
significance to the Jewish people, but it is also a lesson for all of us.
People lie. People will try to take us away from the Word
of God, even when the Word is clear and concise.
The man could not have clearer
orders than he received from God, yet, he allowed another man to tell him that
‘he,’ also being a man of God, was
told by God to bring him back.
The first person did not check
with God to be sure his orders had been changed, he took another man’s word for
it; AND that man lied.
It was a deliberate lie and it
was clearly against the Word of God the first man had received. He did not ask God if his mission had
changed, he took the other person’s word that ‘he’ had been given the change of
orders for him.
There was no excuse, he didn’t
check with God and he suffered a violent death because of his disobedience.
Mathew
7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves.
Jesus and His disciples warned
us, the writers of the Old Testament warned us, satan is going to bring false
teachers into our lives. They are going
to look like they are with God, but they are not and they will do all they can
to lead us astray.
Some will do it for
self-gratification which could be power, authority over others, money, pride of
having followers and other things, maybe all of them; things that drives them to
teach against the Word of God.
They are clever, they are
devious, but none-the-less, WE are the ones responsible for our own
Salvation. WE must insure that who we
are listening to, who we follow, is listening to GOD.
We can verify their teachings by
knowing the Word of God. A quote of a
verse or two may support their false teachings – but when you look at the
context, or place it against the clear and precise meaning of the Word, it must
measure up.
If it doesn’t we must challenge
the teachings.
Far too many Christians receive
teachings and messages without thinking them through. Without reading other verses to see if what
they are being taught matches up with what God says.
We want to believe that every
message from the pulpit is ordained of God; we want to believe that every
teacher has a pure heart and wishes only to teach the truth of God’s Word.
And most do, they want to lead
people in the way of the Lord. If they
state something that isn’t true they are willing to listen and accept
correction.
But we cannot depend on their
word alone, it must line up with the Word of God.
We, as the Children of God, as
the Bride of Christ not only have that ability to discern the spirits of those
that teach us, but have an obligation to be sure they are teaching God’s Word
correctly.
1 John
4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone
out into the world.
Hebrews
5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that
are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil.
God is not going to leave us
dangling in confusion; He has sent His Holy Spirit to guide us, we but have to
lean on Him.
John
16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of
himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you
things to come.
Satan does all he can to tear us
away from God with sweet sounds, fine words and ideas; but when we look at these
through the eyes of the Holy Spirit we can readily see their deceptive purposes
and we can walk away from them.
Our heart’s desire is to praise
and serve God. Let us not be led astray
by those that are ‘wolves in sheep clothing.’
Later, Art :-)
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