Wednesday, September 30, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
7
Chang seeks seat on Deschutes County Board of Commissioners
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
Phil Chang is bringing
the experience of a career
in public service to a seat
on the Deschutes Board of
County Commissioners. He
is challenging incumbent Phil
Henderson for Position #2.
Chang spent nine years
at the Central Oregon
Intergovernmental Council
(COIC), and helped create
the Deschutes Collaborative
Forest Project. He also served
as Senator Jeff Merkley9s
Central Oregon Field
Representative and man-
aged Oregon9s Federal Forest
Restoration Program.
He believes that his back-
ground working collabora-
tively with wide-ranging
and sometimes opposed
interest groups provides the
right experience for leading
Deschutes County through
challenges posed by growth,
the coronavirus pandemic and
the threat of wildfire.
HOUSING & GROWTH
<The broad challenge
across Deschutes County is
how do we add thousands of
new homes and have afford-
ability and keep traffic under
control and not gobble up
too much of the landscape,=
Chang said.
He noted that the City of
Sisters has nearly tripled in
population since 2000 and
that the county will play a
major role in helping the City
shape future growth through
its comprehensive-plan
update, currently in its begin-
ning stages. He thinks that by
diversifying the Sisters econ-
omy, Sisters can avoid becom-
ing a bedroom community for
the greater Central Oregon
region, with the loss of iden-
tity and traffic that that entails.
Chang opposes converting
marginal rural lands into zon-
ing that would allow for more
residential construction.
<I believe in orderly UGB
(urban growth boundary)
expansions,= he said.
<I would really encourage
the community of Sisters to
use land efficiently,< he said.
That could mean more
townhomes and condomini-
ums, which have lower land
costs.
<That is how we drive the
cost of housing down,= he
said, while acknowledging
that such housing may be <a
different pattern than people
are used to.=
LAW ENFORCEMENT
<I was really glad to see
that the sheriff9s office was
reorganizing its coverage of
Sisters,= Chang said.
Having its own cadre of
deputies, Chang believes, will
enhance relationships and
those are <an important part
of improving law enforcement
for the people of Deschutes
County.=
Chang does not support the
nationwide call to <defund the
police.=
<I don9t think that9s a very
helpful slogan or, taken at a
surface level, a helpful con-
cept,= he said.
He does, however, believe
that initiatives that are already
underway in Deschutes
County can relieve the bur-
den of law enforcement to
respond to mental-health
calls. He cites the Mobile
Crisis Assessment Team as
a good step in that direction,
where mental-health profes-
sionals can respond to some
calls. He believes that can
result in better outcomes.
Chang said he does not
advocate cuts in law enforce-
ment personnel, but he thinks
that additional mental-health
services could slow the need
for more law enforcement
hiring.
He also cites the opening
of a Stabilization Center for
those in mental-health crisis
as <a huge benefit to public
safety in the region.=
Chang is, however, critical
of the current commissioners9
level of funding support for
the Stabilization Center and
for behavioral-health services
generally. He asserts that the
commissioners made advo-
cates for the Stabilization
Center <go out with their tin
cup= to seek funding, which,
he argues, delayed its open-
ing, and he criticizes what he
identifies as an approximately
6 percent reduction in fund-
ing for county health services,
with the biggest hit to behav-
ioral health.
<That9s not the way to pri-
oritize a critical county ser-
vice,= he said.
Chang believes that the
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County should be providing
<foundational funding= for
such programs. He considers
such finding critical for long-
range planning, hiring for key
positions. That doesn9t mean
he thinks the County should
not be seeking grants.
<We need those external
funds,= he said. <There9s no
way that from the general
fund we could replace all
those federal and state funds.=
However, he says, <foun-
dational funding= is necessary
to leverage those grants.
<We9re starving our com-
munity of critical services that
could really improve people9s
lives, and could save us money
in the long run,= he said.
WILDFIRE
Chang9s background gives
him a keen interest in county
policy and action in the field
of wildfire prevention. He
believes that significant fed-
eral funding is required to
treat landscapes with mow-
ing, thinning and prescribed
fire on a massive scale.
<A County Commissioner
is in a unique place to advo-
cate for that kind of funding,=
he said.
Other factors are impor-
tant, too, he asserts.
<One of the things that
the County is grappling with
right now is building code
changes,= he said.
Stricter building code
requirements could help
<harden= homes against wild-
fire, but there is always a con-
cern about cost and impacts on
affordability. Change believes
that the County needs to take
a hard look at real data on the
question 4 especially in the
wake of the catastrophic fires
that destroyed whole commu-
nities west of the Cascades.
<It would be good to take
another look at that informa-
tion,= he said. <We need to
look at that with a more sober
eye.=
He notes that many build-
ers are already using more
fire-resistant siding and that
enhancing codes might not
be as burdensome as some
believe. He also thinks it may
be worth considering advo-
cating for a statewide fire
code, with variations based
on regional conditions, to
enforce a higher standard of
fire resistance.
COVID-19
Chang argues that, while
the County staff has done a
very good job in managing
COVID-19 issues, he feels
the commissioners have <not
led,= especially in advocating
for responsible public behav-
ior to stem the spread of the
coronavirus.
<I would want to do a bet-
ter job with that,= he said.
The pandemic has not had
the dire effect on budgets that
was initially anticipated. The
budgetary wildcard will be
property tax collections.
<COVID has really uneven
impacts,= Chang noted.
Some people are doing
fine, while other have lost jobs
or had their income slashed,
which could have a knock-on
effect on ability to pay taxes.
That raises questions for the
general fund and on the avail-
ability of state and federal
funding going forward.
But Chang anticipates
that Central Oregon9s growth
means that the general fund
budget of the county will con-
tinue to grow as well.
The pandemic has had an
effect on county staff. Chang
notes that the county9s envi-
ronmental-health specialists
are not only tasked with doing
restaurant inspections, they9re
also acting as de facto consul-
tants, helping both restaurant
owners and patrons determine
how to remain safe in the face
of COVID-19.
<They9re maxed out,=
he said. <They9re extremely
over-extended. We don9t
invest in those services and
we don9t allow Environmental
Health to charge adequate
fees so they can staff up and
do a better job.=
LANDFILL
Chang highlighted the
potential need for Deschutes
County to provide a new land-
fill in 2029, at an estimated
cost of $14 million.
PHOTO PROVIDED
Noting that approximately
25 percent of the waste that
hits the landfill is food, he
believes that aggressive waste
diversion efforts 4 encourag-
ing composting, etc. 4 could
delay the need for a new
landfill. He doesn9t think the
current commission has done
enough to develop waste
diversion.
GO NON-PARTISAN
Chang told The Nugget
that one of his priorities as a
County Commissioner would
be to convince his colleagues
to send to the voters a measure
to make the Deschutes County
Board of Commissioners a
non-partisan position.
<This is an incredibly
moderate, pragmatic and cen-
trist community,= he said.
He believes that partisan-
ship creates <barriers to entry=
for candidates, as <the most
partisan voters put forward
candidates in primaries.=
By making the position
non-partisan, Chang believes,
the election timeline would
be compressed, making it less
expensive to run for the office.
Eliminating the need to court
party support or raise exten-
sive funding would widen the
field, the candidate believes.
<You just need to be a
good candidate,= he said.
Chang believes what
makes him a good candidate
is a track record of working
with diverse groups to get
things done and a vision for
investing in services, argu-
ing that, <This is a good time
to be growing services to
meet the needs of a growing
community.=