Vote Rick Russell for Deschutes County Commission, Pos. 4

The race for Position 4 on the Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners has seen a lot of candidates come and go, but two competent people remain. If either gets over 50% of the votes in the May election, they’ll win the seat and no additional voting will be necessary for the November election.

Rick Russell, a former pastor and now the head of the nonprofit, Mountain View Community Development, has proven over the last several years that he has the ability to lead. He saw the issue of homelessness in Central Oregon as not one that should be pushed to the margins, but one that could be addressed with meaningful solutions. Thanks to his work, we’ve seen more people in our community move off the streets and into transitional housing. At the end of this year, the permanent supportive housing project he’s worked on will begin to break ground. This type of can-do spirit is what we need on the Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners, where up to now, we’ve seen too much hesitation and waiting for someone else to lead. When Russell says he wants to see the commission be more proactive and less reactive, we believe him. We’d like to see how he can port his experience in the nonprofit space into a seat on the newly expanded commission.

Opponent Chet Wamboldt has run for a number of elected positions now. Each time we’ve found him to be genial and well-prepared. But in this race, on a few fronts, we just don’t agree with his positions. On housing and homelessness, Wamboldt talked of wanting to focus on middle-income housing, and said he was in support of the high-barrier type of homelessness and addiction support programs. We feel that approach is too narrow — especially when compared to the work Russell has done on the ground to support those who simply aren’t ready or willing to enter high-barrier programs. Wamboldt was also in support of the district mapping proposal that splits Deschutes County voters into five separate voting blocs. Russell pointed out that “parochialism” like that can actually slow down the construction of affordable housing, when commissioners move to protect “their” turf from potentially contentious projects, like low-income housing developments or supportive housing. We like that type of systems thinking from Russell. With the county commission covering everything from public health to law enforcement to the landfill and land use, we think that’s a valuable skill.

With the new, five-person makeup of the County Commission, we believe Russell will emerge as among the strongest of the five. Vote Rick Russell for Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners, Pos. 4.