I am raising $5,000 for the next stage of Union County public-records work: targeted production, fee review or enforcement where warranted, and publication. The pre-audit contains 150 machine-verified findings -- 132 exact quotations and 18 payment-line or near-match findings. The local evidence corpus now holds 1,016 source files, including 995 files mirrored from the County site, and 17,051 parsed payment lines. This public site currently presents the source corpus and selected findings, not every internal audit record.
Already built, already free
The records engine →
Ask 284 indexed leads anything about the county. Answers cite the supporting lead and expose verification links where available.
The budget, followed →
Nine fiscal 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 legal-service records.
The pre-audit is done
We mirrored 456 Board agendas, 454 Board minutes, and all 79 monthly expenditure reports the County had published for January 2020 through July 2026 as of August 9. The local evidence corpus contains 1,016 source files. Every finding below was machine-checked against an identified source, with 132 exact quotations and 18 payment-line or near-match findings.
150
findings machine-verified
1,016
local evidence source files
79
monthly expenditure reports
2008–26
Board-record span
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 says it does not possess requested pre-2022 SWAT bank-account records. Public minutes, the FY2021-22 audit, and later monthly payment lines document SWAT activity, but do not establish that the County now possesses those older banking records. The open question is whether the records were never created, were retained elsewhere, or were disposed of under an applicable schedule.
The lender matters
The County's July 2026 letter says there was no Buffalo Peak loan between Union County and UCEDC. The reviewed minutes do not contradict that narrow statement: they describe a State of Oregon/Business Oregon loan, later restructuring and interest forgiveness, plus lottery-fund transfers for golf-course debt service. The underlying state loan file is needed to trace the obligation accurately.
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.
District Attorney review completed
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 April 22 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.”
Valor petitioned the Union County District Attorney on July 31. In an August 6 order, District Attorney Kelsie McDaniel agreed that the County's categorical no-waiver sentence was not the correct legal standard. She nevertheless denied the April 22 challenge after finding that the Board had considered that individual request and reached a decision within the legally permissible range.
The order deferred review of the April 23 request as unripe. It accepted the County's position that no final fee-waiver decision had been made and noted that Valor had not responded to the County's proposed free or lower-cost alternatives and narrowing options. The order did not decide any claimed exemption, privilege, redaction, or substantive withholding issue.
The order describes circuit-court review as a possible next remedy and states that notice of an intent to seek review was due within seven days. As of August 9, 2026, this page does not represent that a circuit-court case has been filed. The project budget reserves money for access enforcement if it is pursued and warranted.
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 any warranted fee-waiver or public-records action.
$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.
For this project, Valor preserved the July 31 District Attorney petition and the August 6 written order, mirrored 995 County-site files, and reconciled 79 monthly reports into 17,051 payment lines. The public pages expose source paths and identify where a finding is verified, qualified, or still unresolved.
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.