Gold
Hill’s
Royal Gasso
![](images/royal2New.jpg)
Under
Investigation
and Facing Charges
By
Edward Snook
Investigative Reporter
Gold
Hill, Oregon
- Gold Hill public works director “cuts his own throat.”
Readers
of the US~Observer know the antics of Gold Hill’s public works
director Royal Gasso from previous expository articles written about
this public employee with a prior conviction for trafficking Heroin.
This
reporter recently found out a multiple complaint has been filed against
Royal Gasso at the Oregon Government Standards and Practices Commission
(GSPC) in Salem.
This
is the same commission that recently found one former and two present
Gold Hill City Councilors guilty of holding an illegal meeting to facilitate
their crooked political agenda against Gold Hill Chief of Police Dean
Muchow. Royal Gasso has been one of their best henchmen for many years
to ensure his continued abuse of the system and taking the citizens
of Gold Hill for all he can.
During
the Thanksgiving holiday week-end Gasso was caught by the U.S. Forest
Service using a Gold Hill city vehicle for personal use. He was hunting
mushrooms in the Buckhorn Ridge area, about 45 miles from his home near
Grants Pass, Oregon. It was the day after Thanksgiving and a city holiday.
Naturally, Gasso had a wanted criminal with him. Gasso himself was still
on felony parole at the time for possession of heroin with intent to
deliver. “Birds of a feather.”
Gasso
told the Forest Service officer he was returning from the City of Brookings
to get information on a “bio-solids” project, and was taking
a “short cut” home. The area he was in was hardly a short-cut
and he had no permit to pick mushrooms.
Four
or five days later Gasso was interviewed by another Forest Service Officer.
Gasso’s first reaction to the officer was to yell at him and refuse
to be interviewed. He told the officer he was not going to “waste
his time talking to him.”
Royal
Gasso must have thought about the fact that he is compelled to advise
his parole officer when he has had an interview with law enforcement.
He then consented to be interviewed.
This
time Gasso lied again and said he was on his way to the coast for a
meeting in Brookings. That’s odd, Brookings was on holiday too.
It appears the only “bio-solids” Royal Gasso was spreading
was his own particular brand. I guess he doesn’t know if he’s
coming or going.
![](images/royal1-bw.jpg)
Royal Gasso
Gasso
rallied his three corrupt councilors, Jan Fish, Gus Wolf, and Donna
Silva and council heard only his side of the story. The council did
not have the U.S. Forest Service reports to know the depth of his lies.
The council voted to not take action unless a complaint was made.
Since
the US~Observer first ran this story about Royal Gasso we’ve had
several calls about him. This paper has obtained evidence he was driving
the city vehicle in the same area on the Fourth of July weekend in 2006.
He was also seen driving his city vehicle all over Grants Pass, even
going to a restaurant on Easter Sunday this year.
When
the newly elected council attempted to tell Gasso he needed to leave
the city vehicle in town and provide his own transportation to and from
work, Gasso threatened the council and lied and threatened to charge
the city for his transportation. They waited and reviewed his contract
with city attorney Steve Rich only to find out he’d lied again.
Royal
accused Police Chief Dean Muchow of “power grabbing” when
the city presented its new vehicle operations policy and got very angry
when the policy suggested the police keep track of the city employee’s
driving records. He even threatened to sue the city. Gee , I wonder
why?
99
Bottles of Beer on the Wall
On
May 2nd Royal Gasso stayed in Gold Hill for a budget meeting. He left
City Hall around 9:30 p.m. He was reportedly seen buying an “18”
pack of beer at the local market by some of the very people he was in
the meeting with at city hall.
At
around 10:30 that night he was seen weaving in and out of traffic on
the Grants Pass Parkway by Oregon State Police officer, Sgt. Fitzgerald.
Sgt. Fitzgerald watched as Gasso cut in front of a truck without signaling
and changed lanes many more times without signaling. Gasso was estimated
to be traveling about 55-57 miles per hour in a 45 zone.
Sgt.
Fitzgerald tried to stop Gasso by turning on his patrol lights but Gasso
continued for about another quarter of a mile. The trooper turned on
his spotlight into Gasso’s rear window. Gasso kept going.
At
the intersection of the Parkway and Hwy. 199 the trooper stated the
traffic signal had been full-red for several seconds when Gasso drove
through it like it wasn’t even there. He finally pulled over but
not before he hid a beer under his seat and a half-full beer behind
his seat. Gasso had hastily thrown his coat over the 18-pack on the
floorboard.
He
lied to the trooper about having drank that night but finally admitted
it before he was given field sobriety tests. He lied to the trooper
about having beer in the vehicle and refused the trooper a search of
the pick-up until the trooper said he was going to call the mayor of
Gold Hill, Dan Morris. The beer was found. Royal Gasso passed his field
sobriety tests overall. The city vehicle was impounded because the City
of Gold Hill wisely thought about the liability of the situation if
Gasso continued to drive like he’d been.
Royal
Gasso’s four citations included speeding, failure to yield, open
containers of alcohol in a motor vehicle and running the red light.
He paid to bail the city vehicle out of impound the next morning.
A
typical Medford Mail Tribune article ran a few days later which hardly
had a word of truth in it. Councilor Hobart “Gus” Wolf lied
for Royal Gasso, saying he’d only bought a “six-pack”,
“rolled through a stop-sign to find a safe place to pull over”
and that he changed lanes once without signaling. Gasso also attacked
the good people of Gold Hill by saying his “political opponents”
were trying to prevent him from using his city vehicle to commute to
work. Political opponents? Is he running for mayor now?
I
guess Royal Gasso forgot the entire stop was tape recorded, the beer
was photographed and a Grants Pass officer also witnessed the event
as a back-up officer for the State Trooper.
There’s
More
This
reporter obtained a copy of a citation Royal Gasso received on April
10th, 2007 in Lane County. He was driving 85 miles per hour in a 65mph
zone on Interstate 5, just south of Eugene. Gasso was in his own car
but it was on city business as he was going to a work-related conference.
That’s
five traffic tickets in less than a month. No wonder Mr. Gasso didn’t
want a driving policy for the city workers…
In
an interview with a former Gold Hill sewer plant worker it was reported
that Royal Gasso “drank nearly every day on the job, sometimes
as much as a six-pack during lunch.” When Gasso was in jail in
2000, for DUII and violating his parole, Councilor Gus Wolf and corrupt
councilor Donna Silva made sure he still got paid and had a job when
he got out. Gasso had public works employees picking him up at work
and taking him home again. Councilors Wolf and Silva made sure those
workers got overtime to take their boss to and from home, sticking it
to the taxpayers of Gold Hill.
The
GSPC Complaint Against
Royal Gasso
Besides
Gasso’s alleged personal use of a city vehicle there are other
complaints. He reportedly misappropriated funds to pay his criminal
friends from public works funds; no time sheet, no W-4 forms, no mailing
address or paperwork. No one even knows what they’ve supposedly
done. He has overspent the line item in public works to keep his buddy’s
pockets lined.
Gasso
reportedly gave away about 300 cubic yards, or about $3000-6000 worth
of the city’s soil to a contractor friend. The contractor, Creative
Land Design, made a lot of money hauling the dirt to a home being built
on the Rogue River in the county.
Could
This be
The End of
Royal Gasso?
Gold
Hill has a city policy. It is against that policy to have alcohol in
a city vehicle, open or not. Open containers of alcohol, by policy,
can result in immediate termination. It has a policy demanding safe
operation of city equipment, not lying to the police, not driving a
city vehicle with alcohol in your system, and many more Gasso has broken.
The
new, good members of Gold Hill’s City Council are still learning
and still developing the courage to deal with Gasso and his partners
in crime. It’s a good thing that Gasso is helping them along by
“cutting his own throat.”
A
fellow sewer mechanic employed by Medford, Mark Warwick, came to Gold
Hill’s City Council meeting on May 7th to attack the police and
tell the city how wrong they’d be if they got rid of Royal Gasso
because he has a lot of certifications. Oh really? I guess if Medford’s
city employees are caught driving a city vehicle with open beers, booze
in their system, running a red light, weaving through traffic and speeding,
it’s o.k. as long as they have enough certifications? I guess
Medford’s insurance company is different from Gold Hill’s?
Royal
Gasso makes sure all the public works vehicles are worked on at Bob
Barry’s auto shop in Gold Hill (Nationwide Auto). Readers will
remember Mr. Barry as the convicted drug manufacturer on felony probation
who was supported to take a council seat by corrupt councilors Gus Wolf,
Jan Fish, and Donna Silva.
Does
Gold Hill begin to get the picture?
How
much more will the taxpayers of Gold Hill stand?
It’s
time to urge the new city council to take action and save Gold Hill
from this criminal takeover.
If
the new improved city council cannot lead the city then perhaps it’s
too late.
Editor’s
Note: For more on the Gold Hill debacle please read the article “A
GAME PLAN TO DESTROY A CITY” by Gold Hill Chief of Police Dean
Muchow.
Also,
don't miss our next edition wherein we'll discuss lawsuits against the
City of Gold Hill.
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