‘I Think Either a Ball Got Dropped or Some Guidelines Didn’t Get Utilized:’ Lane County Confronts County Fair Controversy

More questions than answers remain following the conclusion of this year’s Lane County Fair where two protests occurred over the Lane County Republicans’ selling of “Alligator Alcatraz” t-shirts. 

It has been four days since DSM sent our list of follow-up questions to both Lane County Public Information Officer Devon Ashbridge and Lane Events Center/LCF Sales and Events Supervisor Kelly Mason—neither has responded. In that time, a Change.org petition was launched to prohibit commercial sales at political and religious booths and there were two Lane County Board of Commissioners meetings—one in the morning with public comment and a work session in the afternoon—where, expectedly, the LCF was a recurring topic.

Still Unanswered Questions

The follow-up questions to both representatives followed the two identical statements last week that included the line:

“According to the Oregon Constitution, as a public facility, the Lane Events Center is unable to restrict the use of the grounds – including items being sold – as long as the requirements of the standard rental agreement are met.”

The lack of response could be for any number of reasons; however, DSM reviewed the 2024 Edition of the Oregon Constitution, and absent from the document are the terms “public facility” and “public facilities.” For “public building,” there is only one unrelated reference to fire protection. 

DSM also directly asked if hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Goyim Defense League, and the Proud Boys would be permitted to have booths at the county fair. 

Public Comment

The controversy was not going to magically disappear when the LCF ended on Sunday as the public comment section during the Lane County Board of Commissioners’ morning meeting on July 29 showed. 

Several speakers—amongst others who commented about legal lots, the new Lane Stabilization Center, and complaints about the Navigation Center’s mere existence on River Road—were about the LCF. These included comments about the recently announced lawsuit against Lane County, the Lane County Mounted Sheriff’s Posse, the Lane County Fair Board, Iron Shield LLC, and four individuals as a result of the 2023 shooting at the fair. 

Comments about the Lane County Republicans’ booth were the most prevalent. 

Chloe Longworth, a representative of Trans Alliance of Lane County, described Alligator Alcatraz as “a concentration camp in the United States in America” where “people all over the country are being kidnapped and transferred.” In addition to decrying the promotion of the “horrible facility,” Longworth spoke about fair organizers prohibiting protesters from using chalk on the ground in front of the fair entrance. 

Another speaker, Eugene resident Sue Barnhart, said she hoped the county commissioners would “take the time to figure out how to change policies at Lane County so that it’s respectful of all people.” She added that “people have the right to express free speech, but that’s a little different than hate speech.”

Rose Wilde of Springfield-Eugene Showing Up for Racial Justice put it succinctly: “As Chloe described earlier, the fair management claimed these were protected under free speech First Amendment protections, but protesters’ speech was not.”

The County Commissioners 

It did not seem like the topic was going to return when the county commissioners regrouped for their afternoon work session until it did at the very end. 

Greg Rikoff, the director of Community Justice and Rehabilitation Services, filling-in for County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky, read a pre-crafted statement aloud. 

“A challenge that we routinely face with the Lane Event Center is that it is a public facility and we are limited in ways that we can restrict and use the grounds, including items to  be sold under free speech protections,” the statement said in part. “The booth spaces that are rented for the fair can be rented by a variety of organizations. These organizations choose to express their purpose or values in a variety of ways that do not necessarily reflect the endorsement of Lane County.”

Chalk use on the sidewalk outside of the fairgrounds was “not deemed to be problematic,” Rikhoff said from the statement. Regarding chalk use inside the fairgrounds:

“The aisles—the space between booths—are the equivalent of ‘fire lanes’ and our agreements with all of the vendors, all of those that are there, nothing outside the booth space. They can’t do the barking, the promoting, they can’t do signage because that area needs to be left as clear as possible for the movement of foot traffic and the chalk drawing is something that has come up.”

Then, County Commissioner for District 3 Laurie Trieger spoke. 

“I appreciate the remarks about Fair,” Trieger began. “I was going to bring that up personally as the liaison on the Fair Board and in my one-on-one with County counsel I want to have a little more conversation about that before I make any potential assignment.”

Soon after, Trieger, in briefly mentioning the fair’s prior controversies, revealed that there had been a developing plan in an attempt to avoid repeating those prior incidents. She said:

“I will note that this is not the first time we’ve had an issue with objectionable and hurtful merchandise being sold or presented on offer and getting a lot of community feedback. And I do appreciate, as always, our PIO being responsive; particularly after hours and on weekends and I understand that the letter of the law makes such things allowable but that does not make them right. And, because we’ve faced this before, we did start down a path with our Office of County Council and the Fair Board to create some parameters for vendors at our Lane Event Center, not exclusive to the Fair, but to any renters there about our expectations and how we ensure it aligns with this organization’s values and I think either a ball got dropped or some guidelines didn’t get utilized.” 

Trieger said that she would be meeting with the chief counsel soon and looked forward to next week’s Fair Board meeting. 

“I just want the community to know how much I appreciate folks having eyes out letting us know how hurtful and harmful it was and how unsafe and unwelcome so many people felt at our event this year because of it,” Trieger concluded. 

Before the work session ended, County Commissioner for District 2 David Loveall gave praise to the fair’s director, Corey Buller, and his security team. Additionally, Loveall said that EPD’s team, led by Lt. Mike Ware, “was incredible.”

“I was in contact with him most of the weekend via text and phone calls on site and they were responsive, courteous, aware, sensitive to different folks’ emotions without getting interfering and I thought they just—I don’t know how much better of a job they could have done,” he said. 

It is unknown if Loveall was aware that EPD’s attempt at creating a “free speech zone” on the cement driveway for protesters on July 26 was unsuccessful in keeping a confused driver in a Toyota Highlander from entering the “closed” space.