Voters to decide if MCC board expands to five seats

  • By: Amanda Newman  
  • Published: 2/5/2010 4:15:23 PM
  • Last Updated: 2/9/2010 10:59:14 AM
SALEM — Measures 66 and 67 passed a vote last week, putting to rest one of Oregon’s most heated recent debates ... but in Marion County, another controversial decision is just starting to heat up.
 
In May, county voters will decide whether to expand the Board of Commissioners to five positions, move to a “home rule” election process, and make the positions nonpartisan. The group backing the measure says it’s a natural and necessary move as Marion County grows and develops, but one commissioner says it would hinder their work and increase costs for the county.
 
“I think it would be very detrimental to how the county can best function. It’s a very, very poorly written initiative and there are a lot of ambiguities in it,” said Marion County Commissioner Patti Milne, citing potential constitutional issues and “flat out errors” in the way county government is represented in the measure. “Clearly, they don’t understand how county government functions.”
 
The board is currently made up of three Republicans scattered across Marion County: Milne lives in Woodburn, Sam Brentano in Sublimity and Janet Carlson in South Salem.
 
“The current form of government, we’ve had for about 150 years now,” said Rick Stucky, of Silverton, a former Salem City Council president and co-chief petitioner for the initiative measure.
 
“It’s just like any organization that remains stagnant over time, it becomes not as effective.”
 
The measure, brought forward by a group called Have a Voice Everyone (H.A.V.E.), would expand the board from its current three positions to five, which supporters say is more in line with counties of similar sizes.
 
The positions would become nonpartisan and would be elected by district.
 
One commissioner would come from each of the following areas: northern Marion County, including Woodburn, Silverton and Mt. Angel; eastern Marion County, including Stayton, Mill City, Detroit and parts of East Salem; southern Marion County, including Jefferson, Aumsville and parts of South Salem; the main segment of Salem; and Keizer.
 
All five districts would include a portion of Salem or its urban growth boundary because of the concentration of population in the Salem/Keizer area, according to Richard van Pelt, who helped develop the proposed districts.
 
Home rule “allows for flexibility within the county,” Stucky said, explaining H.A.V.E.’s position that the change would bring more even representation to all parts of the county. “It allows you to ... organize the county in a way that is individualized to the county. It allows for either county commissioners or the citizens to use the initiative process to make amendments to the charter.”
 
He said the measure includes a requirement to reevaluate and update the charter every 10 years, based on population shifts and other changes.
 
Milne disagreed with Stucky’s reasoning, saying that the two additional commissioners would come from the Salem area putting rural Marion County “at a disadvantage.” With the majority of the commissioners emanating from Salem, she said, rural issues would likely be overlooked.
 
Another problem, she added, could be district-elected officials fighting against each other to gain priority for their district concerns. “It’s not about the numbers; it’s about what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to break down the effectiveness of the representation at large.”
 
She said the current commissioners look at how all 20 cities in the county will be impacted before making a decision.
 
Stucky said increasing the board to five members would create a “richer environment” for those decisions. “With the county growing ... we think it’s necessary to have more people involved in decision making,” he said. “Because we’ve grown so much in terms of population and diversity and the types of issues, for the county to have a greater number of people involved in the decision making is important.”
 
Making the positions nonpartisan, he said, would take “a lot of the politics out of the issues of the campaign, so you (would) have people who are running on issues that have to do with the county, rather than people who are running on issues of the party.”
 
But Milne said she has talked to commissioners from other counties, such as Yamhill County, where the position is nonpartisan — they say that come election time, voters generally know what party the candidates belong to and cast their votes accordingly.
 
She added that while the current members of the board are partisan individually, “there is no partisanship in the daily work.”

And despite H.A.V.E.’s assurance on its Web site, www.haveavoiceeveryone.org, that increasing to five commissioners would be cost neutral, Milne said, “It would cost more money. Nobody’s going to believe that you can add two elected officials and it’s going to cost less.”
 
H.A.V.E. bases its financial impact estimate on reducing the board’s policy analysts from three to two (Lane County has five commissioners and two analysts, the group says); eliminating the county treasurer, an elected officer; and limiting two additional treasurer’s office positions to 1.5 FTE (full-time equivalent) employees.
 
“The petitioners have not had the experiences that we have,” Milne said. “When you read the initiative ... it’s really clear that they do not understand county government.”
 
She also took issue with the suggestion that not everyone has a voice.
 
“That is a very interesting criticism that these folks have put out there, and it’s very intriguing that they think there’s a group that’s left out,” Milne said, explaining that the board invites people to attend its meetings, reaches out to city government, and is always willing to talk to constituents one-on-one.
 
“I’m really kind of offended that they would think I’m not communicating with the citizens.”
 
Stucky said there’s a reason for H.A.V.E.’s name. “That’s part of the reason for the districting. By having commissioners elected by district, there’s more of a distinct representation of the people who are electing you,” he said. “Those people in (the district) have a person they can rely on to go to who is more familiar with the issues in their part of the county.”
 
For Milne, the bottom line is that the petitioners haven’t clearly “defined what isn’t working.”
 
“People really need to take advantage of opportunities to hear both sides of the issue. This has really been presented by a very disingenuous, narrow perspective,” she said.
 
“There are a number of ways that we can change county government without turning it on its head, and these people have not given a good reason why they should turn it on its head, at a huge taxpayer cost.”
 
But Stucky said it’s a matter of equal representation for all. “Right now, with only three (commissioners), two people can make a decision that impacts the entire county,” he said.

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local_boy from Salem
2/7/2010 5:19:46 PM

I think the new charter is a great idea. Most of Oregon's larger counties (Marion not included) have already adopted home rule charter. It is my understanding that the proposed charter closely follows the one used in Lane County. The new charter would create 5 single member commissioner districts and allow each district to elect its own commissioner. The proposed boundaries would provide a district for North County, a district for East County, a district for Keizer, and two districts for Salem.If the current model requiring 3 "at-large" commissioners is kept, we could find a day when all three commissioners come from the Salem area. Not an unreasonable assumption when the Salem Metro area continues to grow at a very rapid rate.The current system which requires candidates for commissioner to carry their campaigns to 200,000 plus voters makes it hard for anyone to run for commissioner. This amounts to incumbants insurance and results in Commissioners for life.
 
farmer from Turner
2/7/2010 9:02:43 PM

Kudos to Amanda Newman for her article on the proposed charter for Marion County. I plan to vote for it. We are the only county of our size that still has only 3 commissioners. Only two make up a quorum and often only two show up to vote. I agree much more with the statements of the HAVE people than I do with any of the arguments given by Commissioner Milne. Thank you for letting your readers know about this important issue.

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