I am raising $5,000 to take Union County's records blockade to court. The pre-audit is finished: 150 findings, each machine-verified against Union County's own minutes and payment reports -- 132 as exact word-for-word quotes, the rest against the County's own payment lines. All of it is published free on this site. This campaign funds the records that answer the findings -- plus a bid-by-bid local-business and commissioner audit, access enforcement, and evidence-first reporting. Everything the fund wins gets published here, where you can find it.
Already built, already free
The records engine →
Ask 400 indexed leads anything about the county. Every answer cites its source document.
The budget, followed →
Seven years of county budgets, the documented contracts, and the disclosure gaps -- all sourced.
The connections, mapped →
20 documented roles across county government, the hospital and its foundation, and the legal apparatus.
The pre-audit is done
We mirrored 18 years of Board of Commissioners minutes and every monthly expenditure report the County has published since 2020 -- 996 documents -- and cross-checked them line by line. Every finding below was machine-verified against the source document.
150
findings machine-verified
996
County documents indexed
78
monthly expenditure reports
18
years of Board minutes
Grant paperwork vs. the checks
Board minutes award wolf-depredation grants to a company name that appears in zero County payment lines; every such award was paid to an individual who is also a major County construction contractor. One 2025 award was recommended at $34,289.38 and paid at $32,289.38 -- a $2,000 difference nothing in the record explains.
“Does not possess” vs. its own reports
The County answered a records request that it “does not possess” SWAT bank-account records, while its own monthly expenditure reports publish SWAT TEAM payment lines from mid-2023 through 2026.
A denial vs. the minutes
The County's July 2026 letter says “there was never a loan between Union County and UCEDC” for the golf course. Its own minutes record the purchase debt, a roughly $626,000 interest forgiveness in 2009, and years of lottery-fund transfers “to support Buffalo Peak Golf Course debt services.”
One morning, one meeting
On January 22, 2025 the Board designated an out-of-county official newspaper, voted to ask a court to test the voters' term limits, awarded a $1,132,810 hangar contract, and seated a commissioner on the grant-recommending committee -- with no public comment taken on the term-limits item.
Commissioner and local-business audit
A separate public-records request will build the bid-by-bid trail needed to answer that question without guessing.
Two questions already in the public record
Buffalo Peak cart-path work
Board award (Jul 2, 2025)
$34,188
Later County reports
$104,320.50
On July 2, 2025 the Board awarded Hampton Paving, LLC the ARPA cart-path repair project at $34,188 -- the lowest of three proposals, per the meeting minutes. The County's monthly reports then list Hampton Paving payments of $74,320.50 (August) and $30,000 (October) under ARPA contractual services -- $104,320.50 in total. The entries may include separate or expanded work. The contract, change orders, and invoices should show whether they do.
Airport hangars
Board award
$1,132,810
County reports through Jun 2026
$1,565,161.04
The payment category combines fuel-farm and hangar construction and may include authorized additional scope. The executed contract, amendments, and payment records should explain it.
The precedent case
Valor's April 23 request seeks project contracts, SWAT-account records, ARPA spending, Buffalo Peak finances, tax exemptions, and County check registers. On July 13, the County sent a July 10 response with production estimates rather than the requested records. Using the County's stated line items, every priced production would total approximately $5,184. The letter also identifies free or lower-cost alternatives for several categories and says the County does not possess records responsive to two SWAT-account subparts. Valor will use free sources first and narrow any paid production to the records most likely to answer the public questions.
For a separate request covering County-counsel contracts, invoices, payments, procurement records, and conflict disclosures, the County denied a public-interest fee waiver and demands an $802.50 deposit. It attributes $600 to $800 to legal review and redaction by unnamed contracted counsel.
“Union County does not grant fee waivers for public records requests.”
Oregon law says the opposite. A public body must consider waiving fees when disclosure primarily benefits the public (ORS 192.324(5)), an unreasonable refusal is reviewable like any records denial (ORS 192.324(6)), and because this denial came from elected officials the case goes straight to circuit court -- where the judge decides fresh, the burden is on the County, the case takes docket priority, and a prevailing requester is awarded costs and reasonable attorney fees (ORS 192.427, 192.431). This fund pays to bring that case and, if necessary, carry it up on appeal -- to strike the policy for Union County and set precedent for every Oregonian told the same thing.
This campaign is a public-access fund, not an admission that the fee is proper and not a request that donors accept a conclusion in advance.
The target list
Ranked by what matters most to the people paying for all of it. Each set answers a specific verified question from the pre-audit.
Initial campaign goal
This is a planning budget. Actual spending controls, and material shifts will be disclosed in the public campaign ledger.
$1,250
Production costs, focused follow-up requests, copies, and certified records when strategically appropriate.
$2,000
Filing, service, transcript, and qualified-counsel costs for the fee-waiver precedent case and any further access enforcement.
$900
OCR, redaction, secure source hosting, and reconciliation of contracts against County payments.
$550
Interviews, travel, copies, and reporting tied directly to the records obtained.
$300
Actual payment-processing costs and minor variance across direct project expenses.
A conservative audit verified at least 29 distinct public-records request families across 14 public bodies. At least 11 produced responsive records. Valor has petitioned the Attorney General, pursued court enforcement, and built public tools that make records and filings easier to inspect.
This campaign is not a promise about work Valor might do. It funds work already underway.
Review the County budget and contracts workGifts support Union County public-records access, enforcement, filing and service costs, source hosting, analysis, and follow-up reporting. If an immediate need is fully funded or becomes moot, remaining funds may support closely related public-records work. Any material reallocation will be disclosed publicly.
Valor Investigates is an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 41-4718382. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Donors receive no goods, services, or editorial control in exchange for a contribution.