For most voters in Deschutes County, the County Commissioner position is not something to spend a lot of time worrying about. However, it’s one of the most powerful elected positions in the region. Commissioners play an oversight role for public health—which has never been more meaningful than during the pandemic. They also oversee the sheriff’s department, community justice, solid waste, fairgrounds and roads. We consider this vote the most important one in Deschutes County. We hope you’ll vote for change.
It’s become exhausting to watch the incumbent, Phil Henderson, continue to lob costly and misguided appeals at the state because he has a “vision” for Central Oregon that spreads out, rather than up. In his attempt to turn nonprime farmlands into developable land he has made our county a laughingstock at the state level. His vision is simply another word for sprawl, and for anyone with the misfortune to sit in the ever-slowing tide of traffic moving up and down Hwy. 97, Henderson’s vision is a nightmare.
Henderson’s inability to focus his energies on the possible has resulted in a laundry list of missed opportunities. He continues to spend countless county hours fighting marijuana businesses, regardless of the sea change in public opinion on the matter. He voted against the Bend Area Core special taxing district which gives a much-needed boost to redevelopment and had the temerity to reject a proposal from Bend-LaPine Schools to put a trained public health professional specialist in the high schools to prevent suicide and addiction.
Phil Chang is a strong contrast, with a vision for the County grounded in current realities. His background in natural resources and as a renewable energy specialist will be a strong addition to the makeup of the commission. Foremost, he is a proponent of infill, which could drastically reduce the cost of growth and should allow the County to get back to the possible rather than tilting at development windmills. Chang has proposed donating parcels of land in the county to build affordable housing—a refreshing sign, because that’s possible under existing land use law.
Perhaps more importantly, Chang speaks to the mental health crisis the County faces. When the County lost Tammy Baney as a commissioner, it lost its greatest champion of mental health services. As we look to recover from the pandemic and the enormous fallout from sequestration for our community’s weakest members, we’ll need someone like Chang who recognizes that funding will need to shift to those struggling to recover. Vote Phil Chang for Deschutes County Commissioner.
This article appears in Oct 21-28, 2020.
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Regarding Phil Henderson and Marijuana Measure 9-134 which wants to allow more Marijuana production in Rural Deschutes County:
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You say in your article above that there was a “sea of change in public opinion” regarding Marijuana, implying that more people approve of it now. The opposite is true. Let me explain:
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When Deschutes County opted in to allow Marijuana to be grown on the precious farmland surrounding Bend, the people who live on that farmland voted AGAINST allowing this “crop” to be grown next to them. The measure only passed because the city of Bend had more votes. The people living in Rural Deschutes County now want this even less. Why?
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1) Oregon has produced enough Marijuana for the next 6 years in 2019 alone, according to OLCC accounting. We need no more. It has a shelf life of 1 year.
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2) Phil Henderson heard the complaints of the neighbors of these “farms” and, instead of “spending countless county hours fighting Marijuana businesses” as you allege, he, and the rest of the Commissioners, said that they will let the voters decide, hence we now have Measure 9-134.
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Why do the farmers and ranchers not want pot grows in their communities:
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1) Many wells have run dry around these “farms”. It costs 2,000 – 20,000 to deepen a well or dig a new one, which is not fair to the neighbors. A Marijuana greenhouse, depending on size, uses as much as 50 to 150 houses of well water. That is just not ok, especially not in a desert (we live in the High Desert and are in the 4th year of drought).
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2) The farmland that these Marijuana grows sit on goes to waste and weeds. The growers are not interested in maintaining a hayfield or growing some other crop around their greenhouse (growing hay is a lot of work and expense), they only care about what they grow in their greenhouse. So the land dries out, weeds grow, it becomes ugly and the soil suffers.
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3) Property values suffer. Buyers of the small acreages around Bend are usually young families that want to raise their children in a healthy, natural way, with 4H, a vegetable garden, some chickens or goats, or even a horse or two. They DO NOT want to live next to one of these “grows”.
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So, Phil Henserson SAVED the taxpayers lots of money by NOT spending any more county time on the matter. He LISTENED to the concerns of the public and acted accordingly.
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A concerned rural Deschutes County resident