The Clackamas County Board of Commissioners is currently operating with only four commissioners instead of their usual five. This follows an Oregon Department of Justice indictment of Clackamas County Commissioner Melissa Fireside.
On March 7, Fireside resigned from office after being indicted for eight felony counts. Although her fellow commissioners voted unanimously to suspend her pay, she has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include first-degree aggravated theft, first-degree theft, first-degree forgery, computer theft and identity theft.
These charges were raised only four months after Fireside won the November 2024 election and three months into her term.
The Oregon Department of Justice announced its charges against Fireside on March 5. She allegedly accessed a Rivermark Community Credit Union account belonging to her mother’s 83-year-old boyfriend and withdrew $29,000, using that money to repay a loan from Rep. April Dobson.
Fireside denies these charges but has resigned nonetheless. Her campaign site is no longer accessible, and she has been removed from the Board of County Commissioners’ website.
To fill the new vacancy, the Clackamas County Commissioner’s office opened Fireside’s former position to applications.
In Fireside’s absence, one application in particular was filed by former commissioner Mark Shull, who lost to Fireside in the 2024 election. Shull was elected as a commissioner in 2021 but was urged to resign that year after making xenophobic comments on social media. He refused, however, and served out the remainder of his term until 2024.
Applications for the position closed on April 9, and the Board of County Commissioners will be conducting public interviews of the top five candidates on May 16. Written public comment will be accepted until 6 p.m. on that day. The Board will then make its final decision on May 19 and appoint a new commissioner.
Fireside’s indictment does not only impact herself; her resignation also complicates the Board’s operation, as well as the lives of the people she represents. Among other responsibilities, commissioners set county policies and establish departmental budgets. With fewer than the normal number of commissioners, affiliated processes may take longer than usual to complete, and the commissioners will need to appoint a replacement for Fireside, leaving less time to create policies that benefit the public.
