Street roots., June 15, 2018, Page 8, Image 8

Rural Housing
Page 8
Street Roots • June 15-21, 2018
Small towns,
big money
Real estate interests, not
always local, dominate
politics in Oregon’s
coastal communities
P H O T O S B Y E M IL Y GREEN
E rin Skaar (left) organized Tillamook C ounty’s H ousing Task Force
and says the region needs a housing coordinator before it can
address its housing crisis. B u t real estate interests have stood in the
way. Lincoln County Commissioner Claire H all (right) standing
outside the county courthouse.
BY EMILY GREEN
S E N IO R S T A F F R E P O R T E R
n popular destinations along the Oregon
Coast, increased tourism and the ongoing
conversion of homes into vacation rentals
have contributed to an extreme housing
shortage. But as the housing market heats
up, real estate interests are putting their
money into elections and locals are finding
they can’t compete.
In Tillamook County, officials know that
before they can tackle their increasingly
desperate housing deficit, they need to come
up with the money to hire a countywide
I
h o u sin g co o rd in ato r.
____
This was the top recommendation from an
independent firm hired to examine the
area’s shortage in 2017. The complex and
demanding task of finding housing fixes is
not in any county employee’s skillset or job
description.
“Look around the
state and find a place
where they have a
The Oregon Msseelatlon of
housing department
Realtors is M a m SchweM's
with a person who
top doxior, contributing near­ holds that skillset, and
ly $ 3 0 ,0 0 0 of the $ 3 5 ,6 5 9
you will find housing
lie's raised« le a d in g np to the has been built,” said the
county’s housing task
prim ary, the five candidates
force organizer Erin
lie's running against raised
Skaar. “Go to a county
far less - between $0 and
or community where
$ 6 ,9 8 6 each«
you find that they do
not have a housing
expert, and you’ll see
that housing has not
been built.”
But in a county where positions in the
assessor’s office and maintenance had
already been eliminated for lack of money,
this new position calls for a new source of
funding.
Lucky for Tillamook County, the Oregon
Legislature had one year earlier cleared the
way for local jurisdictions to implement a 1
percent construction excise tax on new
building projects, with revenue from the tax
made available for affordable housing.
County commissioners determined the
tax could raise about $300,000 a year,
enough to hire a coordinator. They decided
to impose it.
But in a county with a red-hot coastal
housing market, that move was soon
challenged by area real estate interests.
Tillamook County Board of Realtors put
together a petition and collected enough
signatures to refer the tax to voters this past
November. The effort, led by local real
estate broker Adam Schwend, leveraged
funds from the Oregon Association of
Realtors to distribute two mailers, broadcast
radio spots and produce digital ads all aimed
at defeating the tax.
The campaign was successful in
convincing voters the tax would make the
h o u sin g crisis w o rse by fu r th e r d isco u rag in g
development in a county where building and
permit fees are already high. The tax was
defeated with 68 percent of the vote.
“I think we were the only community in
the whole state of Oregon where the
Realtors decided to take it out on the county
government and stop housing,” said
Tillamook County Commissioner Bill
Baertlein.
Now, as Baertlein considers other options
for addressing the region’s housing crisis,
Schwend is running for county
commissioner on a platform that emphasizes
collaboration with business interests to find
housing solutions. The Oregon Association
of Realtors is Schwend’s top donor,
contributing nearly $30,000 of the $35,659
he’s raised.
Leading up to the primary, the five
candidates he’s running against raised far
less - between $0 and $6,986 each.
“To me,” said Baertlein, “that is a
disgrace to have an outside influence come
in and try to influence an election. The local
people really didn’t make the choice there.
The Oregon state Realtors association did.”
Now as the county grapples with the
proliferation of vacation rentals, officials fear
any attempt at capping or regulating them
will be met with the same opposition and
deep pockets.
“You’ve got a very strong Realtor
presence here that says, ‘You know this is
what is driving our economy, and we’ve got
to have this, and if we can’t have vacation
rentals, your restaurant is not going to have
people to eat at it,” Skaar said.
Schwend will face-off against Mary Faith
Bell, a medical center communications
director and former journalist, in the
November election.
Further complicating local elections are
vacation rental owners who do not live in
Tillamook but often get involved in local
politics when their interests are at stake.
“When we have an issue like that, we get
inundated with people from Portland that
own the short-term rentals that are going to
have the influence, have the money, to
influence things,” Baertlein said.
The county also suspects that non­
residents are using their vacation rental
addresses to illegally register to vote in
Tillamook County, but the county doesn’t
have the means to determine how big of a
problem it is.
“You don’t know what you don’t know. But
it is an issue,” Baertlein said.
Tillamook’s neighboring county to the
south has seen similar outside meddling in
local politics.
In 2016, Lincoln County property owners
received mailers that urged “out of towners”
to “change their voter registration to Lincoln
County” in order to vote in an upcoming
election. On the ballot were three city
council candidates, all from the construction
trades, that the city’s mayor was backing.
That mayor, Don Williams, was elected in
2014 with the majority of his $23,500 in
campaign contributions coming from people
who own vacation rentals or have other real
estate interests in Lincoln City. Several live
outside of Oregon.
Most candidates running for small-town,
unpaid positions typically raise far less.
Lincoln County Commissioner Claire Hall,
who has held her salaried position for 14
years, said, “In four countywide campaigns,
the most I ever spent was $8,500.”
Williams’ wife, Debbie Williams, is the
registered agent and manager of Genesis
Family LLC, which owns three Lincoln City
vacation rentals.
This became a point of contention when,
in 2015, Williams failed to recuse himself
and instead supported the repeal of several
short-term rental zoning ordinances and
participated in discussions about extending
grace periods for short-term rental violations
- all while his wife was facing fines for those
same violations. The city council brought
ethics charges against Williams, however the
See BIG M O N E Y , p ag e 10