“Did you call the sheriff’s office on me?”
The public had just been let into the Alfalfa Fire District special meeting on May 22 when Justin Alderman, the co-founder and managing editor of the Prineville Review, fired off questions. They came rat-a-tat-style at AFD board member Mark Laucks.
“Mr. Laucks, is it true you contacted the sheriff?”
Laucks shuffled freshly printed meeting agendas to pass out to the half dozen attendees, which included a few reporters.
“No comment,” Laucks said over his shoulder, in response to Alderman’s questions.
Those questions about the sheriff referred to an incident after an AFD business meeting on April 8. Outside the firehouse, Alderman was interviewing a member of the public when Laucks and another official told him to leave. When Alderman refused, a Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived to intercept him. The deputy told Alderman to leave unless he wanted to be arrested.
Earlier that day, the fire district board passed Policy 2026-4, which stated that in the interest of public safety, attendees must immediately vacate the district’s property after a meeting. A recent thorn in the side of many a local government official, Alderman says he believed the policy was designed to keep him from asking critical questions.
On behalf of the fire district, Madras-based attorney Jered Reid notified Alderman of a formal notice of trespass on April 27, owing to the April 8 incident.
By May 13, however, a federal judge had enjoined them from enforcing the trespass and voiding the policy.
Alderman was back in the building, once again peppering the board with questions.
Only two board members, Laucks and Carolyn Chase, were physically present at the May 22 meeting. Chief LaVallee wasn’t present for reasons unknown. Laucks fiddled with a monitor’s Zoom settings while testing whether the rest of the four-person board were audible. Alderman offered I.T. advice.
“Buddy, please stand down while I get the Zoom started,” Laucks said.
As the meeting began, attorney Reid, sitting at the board table, recommended the board completely rescind Policy 2026-4. He also advised the board in how to properly administer a meeting.
“Motion approved to adjust the agenda,” Laucks said.
“No. You just made the motion,” Reid interrupted. “Now you say, ‘All those in favor in of adjusting our agenda, say aye,’”
Laucks reiterated the directive, and the Board members granted their ayes. In the back of the room, Alderman rolled his eyes.
Cut from a different cloth
At first glance, Alderman looks the part of an everyday rural Central Oregonian: square-toe boots, short-sleeve collared shirt and slacks — a combo that can easily transition from public meeting to a pontoon outing. He wears his brown hair short and his beard in a manicured stubble. He sports a metal military ID bracelet and bug-eyed sunglasses popular with cops in the ‘90s.
He’s also an equestrian and the owner of two American Paint Horses. Originally from the Willamette Valley, Alderman moved to Prineville in 2023. He’s been visiting Central Oregon since he was a kid; his grandparents once owned a ranch outside Sisters. Alderman loves the high desert weather. He and a business partner founded the Prineville Review to provide consistent reporting on Prineville City Hall, Crook County and small-district governance, he said.
“These news tips came streaming in and it became clear that some new topics weren’t being covered by the current outlets,” Alderman said.
While he can talk profusely about Public Meetings law, Alderman’s walk is what distinguishes him. As he explained, tensions at the AFD had been rising since 2024, when Alderman’s reporting in the Prineville Review began raising uncomfortable questions and reporting unsettling revelations, including:
Did the AFD misuse district funds and resources when it promoted a “Yes” vote for the tax levy on the Deschutes County primary election ballot? The Oregon Secretary of State’s Elections Division is investigating, the Prineville Review reported.
Did AFD Chief Chad LaVallee break laws surrounding nepotism and conflicts of interest by hiring his wife, who became the district’s only other paid employee? (She later resigned.) The Prineville Review has the scoop on the Oregon Government Ethics Commission’s investigation into the matter.
Did LaVallee illegally tax residents by annexing Juniper Acres into its district, which resulted in upset residents, a state and county investigation, and obligatory refund checks sent in the mail? Yup. Read all about it at The Prineville Review.
Alderman is a no-nonsense guy. Having joined the Army National Guard in 2008 and graduating from military police academy the following year, he served in the Oregon National Guard until 2014. He later worked as a tech executive, mostly in health care software, he said.
Alderman, 36, says his passion for journalism began in high school. He invested personal savings to launch the Prineville Review, and the free online publication only began running advertisements in March. Alderman gained renown in Oregon’s tight-knit journalism community when Willamette Week published a profile of him and his work, then at the equestrian publication, NW Horse Report.
Asked what gives him the compunction to kick up so much dust, Alderman grew pensive. He talked about his late military friends.
“My friends didn’t die for a government that doesn’t function the way it’s supposed to,” he said. “The bedrock of transparency ensures journalists can do their jobs and the public make informed decisions about the people who represent them.”
To say Alderman talks a lot is an understatement. Friendly, yet ardent, when holding forth on any myriad of local issues, Alderman speaks in fully formed paragraphs. When he digresses, he notes the digression and, shortly later, returns to whichever central theme is anchoring the conversation — although conversation might not be the right word. Alderman’s catchphrase might be, “And let me give you an example,” which he personalizes by addressing the listener by their first name and leaning in a bit, like he’s letting them in on an open secret.
Often, those revelations are open secrets, or secrets Alderman has just made public — or is about to — through his investigative reporting — some of which he publishes in partnership with KTVZ.
Not to mention details of his near arrest on April 8 for lingering after a public meeting.
“The deputy didn’t seem well informed of the situation, so I didn’t push it,” Alderman later said. “Even though I was a military police officer, I’ve never been in handcuffs.”
Attorney Reid did not respond to an email requesting LaVallee and other AFD board members be made available for comment.
After the April 8 dustup that almost got him arrested, Alderman went home. He tried to work things out with Reid, who represented the board and LaVallee. On April 27 and then on May 12, he filed two civil complaints against the AFD. In a federal complaint, Alderman alleged retaliation and violation of his First and 14th Amendment rights. In the complaint filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court, Alderman alleged violations of public meetings law for the district’s alleged failure to post complete agendas or provide sufficient public notice thereof.
“Challenging these blatantly unconstitutional actions can be extensive, especially when it requires legal counsel. Some government officials expect that people, even journalists, can’t fight back,” Alderman said. “But the Oregon legislature formed an ethics commission. Now there is a new tool to bring grievance to the public body. If necessary, that grievance can be escalated to a formal complaint, made to the ethics commission.”
There Alderman goes again, with those paragraph-long missives.
When he arrived at the May 22 special meeting at the AFD, tensions were still smoldering. The District’s tax levy had failed in the Deschutes County Primary Election by nearly 80%. The levies of two other fire districts, Cloverdale and Sister-Camp Sherman, meanwhile, had enjoyed broad voter support. A federal judge had handed the AFD a temporary restraining order on May 13, meaning the District’s trespass notice and Policy 2026-4 were invalid.
“There’s been a lack of transparency and lack of super basic governance at the Alfalfa Fire District,” Alderman said. “Many small special districts have no problem complying. But we’re not talking about little technicalities with Alfalfa. A lot of these issues are the fundamental, core parts of Oregon Public Meetings Law requirements.”
Where there’s smoke…
The Alfalfa Fire District covers about 64 square miles, populated by about 1,240 residents in eastern Deschutes County and a sliver of western Crook County. The fire district also administers emergency medical services before Bend Fire & Rescue paramedics can arrive. AFD employs one full-time firefighter, a part-time chief, 10 volunteer firefighters and a paid, seasonal firefighter. Alfalfa is about 16 miles northeast of Bend; the most direct route to the unincorporated hamlet goes east on Highway 20, banking left onto Powell Butte Highway, which winds around the recently installed, double-lane roundabouts and twists along rolling, juniper-dotted ranch land.
Under Chief LaVallee’s tenure, the AFD failed to file annual financial reports for fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024, the Prineville Review reported in November 2025, the first of a dozen articles that have centered on the taxing district. The Secretary of State’s Audits Division threatened to recommend dissolution proceedings to the Deschutes County Commission if AFD didn’t comply. Subsequent reporting by the Prineville Review showed that LaVallee submitted the 2022 annual financial report without board approval, which is standard practice for local governments in Oregon.
On May 26, several days after he questioned AFD Board Member Laucks, Alderman attended a full-day hearing at U.S. District Court in Eugene regarding the alleged infringement of Alderman’s First Amendment rights. Current Board Member Dustin Piggott and former Board President Nate Starr, who is no longer an AFD official, represented themselves. Laucks and LaVallee didn’t show, despite having been court-ordered to do so, Alderman noted in a June 2 editorial. The judge beefed up the temporary restraining order into a longer preliminary injunction until there is a final ruling on the underlying complaint. Since AFD rescinded the policy on May 22, this will also be moot.
In short, AFD can’t bar certain people from their meetings, no matter how troubling their questions might be.
The public meetings law violation complaint, which Alderman filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court, winds toward a default judgement in Alderman’s favor, unless AFD submits a response by June 12. If the court finds willful disregard of public meetings law, those involved will have to reimburse the district for legal fees, which would save Alfalfa residents that burden.
Friends in high places
On a recent afternoon in late May, Alderman met a reporter at the Sandwich Factory in Prineville. The woman working the register greeted him warmly, asking what he’d been up to. Over sandwiches, Alderman talked about his horses. The early afternoon sun blanched the Crook County administrative building across the street. After lunch, Alderman invited me to pop over and meet some officials.
“Let’s go say hi to some folks,” he said. “C’mon, I’ll introduce you.”
After bounding up the stairs, Alderman wheeled around the hallways with a lived-in familiarity, poking his head into various department offices. Since founding the Prineville Review, Alderman has taken the County to task for conflicts of interest, onerous records fees and timely publication of upcoming meeting agendas.
“Is the mayor in?” he asked a secretary.
“Not today,” she said, cheerily. “Try coming back Monday.”
Alderman tried the office of County Manager Will Van Vactor, who heard his query from down the hall and invited him and his guest to visit in his office.
“Justin, good to see you,” Van Vactor said, grinning and leaning back in his chair. He wore a rhinestone Western shirt, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Van Vactor’s square-toed boots matched Alderman’s. “So, what’s up?”
Alderman told the county manager that a natural resource subcommittee hadn’t been posting their agendas in a timely manner, which was one of the first focal points of the Prineville Review’s coverage of public meeting transparency in 2024.
“Twenty-four hours isn’t enough time,” Alderman said.
Van Vactor furrowed his brow, swiveled his chair to face his desktop, and began clacking. He jotted notes down on a legal pad. He said there are so many subcommittee meetings that it’s hard for him to track the late notices. He assured Alderman he’d send an email to shore up the discrepancy.
I couldn’t help but ask Van Vactor: Does everyone out here find Justin super annoying?
The resultant laughter lasted a tick longer than civility might warrant.
Van Vactor explained that, as an attorney by trade, he welcomed Alderman’s attention to detail and procedure. His office had even been the subject of Alderman’s critique. Since November 2024, Alderman publicized a contentious back-and-forth regarding a Crook County commissioner’s conflicted dealings and a subsequent dispute over public records and related fees. Ultimately, Oregon’s Public Record Advocate’s review of the issue ultimately landed Van Vactor the authority to resolve the Prineville Review’s outstanding record requests, Alderman reported.
Van Vactor and Alderman made some small talk before the investigator trundled down the stairs to the County Clerk’s office.
County Clerk Cheryl Seely lifted the bullet-proof glass teller window that separated them and shot a smile at Alderman and shook our hands. I asked Seely to sum up Alderman in a word or two.
“Ooh, two words just wouldn’t be enough,” Seely said with a chuckle. She said her office and Alderman now enjoy a smooth working relationship.
“If someone makes a record request, I like to get it to them within a day or two,” Seely said. “Otherwise, other things will come in and if I put it off, I might forget about it. Transparency is important.”
Outside the Crook County Administrative Building, an American flag waved high on a flagpole. A gas-fueled flame danced above a memorial for fallen soldiers.
Alderman said he regretted having to spend so much time reporting on transparency rather than on local government’s decisions and impacts.
“Those in elected office, even at the smallest road and water districts, hold significant power to alter people’s lives,” Alderman said. “If we can’t easily access records or review meetings, then that lack of transparency becomes the story.”
[Correction: In the original version of this story, two dates were misstated. Chief LaValle personally told Alderman to leave AFD property on April 9, not April 8. Additionally, Alderman filed his federal complaint against AFD on May 12, not April 27, when he also filed a complaint in Deschutes County Circuit Court. The Source regrets the errors.]
This article appears in the Source June 11, 2026.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
