A Juntura rancher misused his position at a public road district to improve access to his property, according to the state ethics commission.
Mark Joyce, a director of the Juntura Road District, recently agreed to pay a $1,500 fine for violating state ethics laws over several years.
The agreement settles an investigation opened a year ago by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.
The investigation found that Joyce was involved in spending public money on Grasshopper Road, which serves a cattle ranch he owns with his brother, Malheur County Judge Dan Joyce.
Mark Joyce didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. The county judge said he left ranch operations to his brother and didn’t know the road work was being done.
The ethics commission recently released records of its investigation after a public records request from the Enterprise.
The Juntura Road District is one of four such districts in Malheur County, independent government bodies with an elected board and funded in part by property taxes. The county also allocates money to the districts for road work.
The ethics commission opened its investigation after a one-time board member complained about Mark Joyce’s actions. Terry Butler is a lifelong Juntura resident and also has done contract work for the road district.
Butler said that in summer 2023, local people were complaining that the condition of roads in the district’s care was getting worse.
“The roads got so rough you couldn’t get up and down them,” Butler said.
Dan Pozzi, now a road district board member, said local residents were upset that the only road maintenance that seemed to be getting done by the district was on Grasshopper Road.
“They weren’t taking care of the road district to start with,” Pozzi said.
Butler said he was moved to act when the road district resources again were devoted to Grasshopper Road.
Pozzi said the road is owned by the federal government and isn’t one the road district is expected to maintain. The ethics commission investigation confirmed that, and Joyce through his attorney confirmed the road belongs to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The gravel road starts off U.S. 20 east of Juntura and winds north into the hills. It goes past Malheur Ranch, established in 2009 by Mark and Dan Joyce.
Butler said road district money was again being spent on the road in 2023, when he called a meeting with Mark Joyce. He said he confronted him about diverting road district resources to tend the road.
“I told him, ‘Here’s the deal. You pull all equipment and shut that down today. If you don’t, I’m going to turn you in,’” Butler recalled.
Butler was familiar with work on the road because he had been hired once to do some of it. The district’s work, he said, didn’t extend beyond the Joyce ranch.
He said Mark Joyce subsequently accused him of lying, so he went ahead with the ethics complaint.
Joyce’s attorney, Shawna Peterson of Ontario, told the commission that Butler’s complaint was “frivolous and petty.” Peterson also serves as executive director of the Malheur County Development Corp., work funded by Malheur County in part with the support of Joyce’s brother, the county judge.
In its investigation, the ethics commission found that Mark Joyce had voted with the road district board to approve one contract payment in June 2020 for $6,298 and a second one that October for $9,960 for work on the road going by his ranch.
He participated in other road board discussions about the road on 2021 and 2022, the ethics commission records show. In 2021, the board approved paying a contractor for hauling the equivalent of 100 dump truck loads of gravel for Grasshopper Road work.
Board minutes from March 2022 show that Joyce “has created a list of areas needing improvement. First on the list is finishing the Grasshopper Road.”
Pozzi said work done on Grasshopper was “far above and beyond” the standard for the road district.
The ethics commission’s preliminary review found that “Mr. Joyce’s decisions and actions in this case consist of voting to use district funds and road equipment to make road improvements” and this allowed “easier access to his cattle and potentially less wear and tear on his vehicles.”
The commission concluded that Joyce avoided personal expenses for repairing Grasshopper Road or his vehicles.
Those actions violated two provisions of Oregon ethics laws, the commission said in its agreement with Joyce.
Public officials are prohibited from using their office to personal benefit. The commission found that Joyce acted in ways that benefitted him and the ranch he owns with his brother.
The ethics law also requires public officials to declare when they have a conflict of interest in a matter before a government agency. Joyce “failed to disclose these conflicts of interest at multiple meetings.”
The commission agreement said Joyce faced a penalty of up to $10,000 for the two violations.
The commission rarely imposes the maximum penalty and agreed to accept $1,500 from Joyce to settle his case.
Joyce remains on the board, along with his nephew, Nathan Joyce, and Pozzi.
Pozzi said the board has tightened operations in the road district.
“We have fixed a lot of our roads up,” Pozzi said. “Prior to me, nothing was really happening.”
Butler agrees there has been change.
“I just wanted to get our roads fixed,” he said, adding that district roads “have gotten better and better ever since.”
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