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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
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OUR VIEW
Election underscores urban-rural divide
T
he urban-rural divide is not just a
“divide.” It is a widening chasm,
one whose fissures were under-
scored by this month’s election results.
Large cities and suburbs sup-
ported Democrats. Rural areas went
Republican. The results were that
Democrats took over the U.S. House
and Republicans expanded control of
the Senate.
Those results were backed up
by research. Based on a survey of
more than 115,000 voters and 20,000
non-voters, The Associated Press
reported, “Nationally, urban and subur-
ban voters preferred Democratic over
Republican candidates, while voters in
small towns and rural places favored
Republicans.”
There were exceptions, of course.
However, the same split generally held
true in Oregon, where the geographi-
cally largest part of the state was on the
losing side of the governor’s race and
high-profile ballot measures concerning
immigration and abortion. Democrats
also gained supermajorities in the
Legislature, in part by ousting suburban
Republicans.
In Washington state, urban areas
ensured passage of statewide ballot
measures that restricted firearms and
E.J. Harris/East Oregonian
A voter drops off a ballot Nov. 6 in Pendleton.
enabled more criminal prosecutions of
police officers who use deadly force.
Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell was
overwhelming re-elected by Western
Washington and Eastern Washington’s
Whitman County.
But with the exception of King and
Jefferson counties, the state’s vot-
ers overwhelmingly defeated a pro-
posed carbon fee, which should give
the Oregon Legislature pause as it con-
siders a state carbon cap-and-invest
program.
In Oregon, Republican Knute
Buehler prevailed in 29 of Oregon’s 36
counties but lost by a substantial mar-
gin to incumbent Democratic Gov. Kate
Brown. In several rural counties, Brown
didn’t crack 20 percent of the vote.
What does this mean for the rural
Northwest? For politicians, they must
be wary of treating statewide vote totals
as mandates. If they assume other-
wise, they will increase the urban-rural
chasm.
For residents, they figure out how
better to convey their story to urban-
ites: That they live in rural America out
of choice, not because they are eco-
nomic or geographic victims of circum-
stances. That they value the land and
water because they interact with natu-
ral resources every day. That although
they hold fewer degrees in higher edu-
cation, according to state and national
data, those statistics are irrelevant as far
as rural residents’ intelligence, ingenu-
ity and aptitude for solving problems.
And that without the daily toil of
rural Americans, urbanites would not
have the food, electricity, water and nat-
ural resources they take for granted.
This challenge is not new. Rural
Americans have been telling their story
for generations. But the 2018 election
results give increased urgency.
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Where does Clatsop County go from here?
What we thought years
ago needs refreshing
A
s you read this, we’ve already learned
the results of the November general
election. Most of us are glad it’s over,
whether we “won” or “lost.” Politics is a
game of winners and losers, and it’s like con-
tact sports, a kind of mixed martial arts.
What comes after the political battles is the
governing — finding the courage and gener-
osity to consider the common
good, the common ground,
and an equitable distribution
of costs and benefits through
public policies and programs.
Like the rest of our
culture, politics has become
a game of constant, nev-
LIANNE
THOMPSON er-ending warfare. We never
get to the governing part, the
part where we put down our
weapons and put our heads together in a pos-
itive way. We need to stop butting heads and
start using more of our heads for their brains,
to generate and execute solutions.
It’s not that we’re doing everything wrong.
We are definitely doing things right. But
there’s a body of challenges that we’re not
addressing effectively as a team. We can do
better.
But we need a process. And we need to
be willing to be capable, which means we’re
willing to try, make mistakes, learn from
them, and then try again.
I think we can learn from the last 20 years’
experience with volunteer commissioners, as
provided under the home rule charter in effect
in Clatsop County.
Taxpayers work hard to earn the money
that government spends to provide services
for the public. Without a dedicated elected
governing body that can spend the time and
effort to understand what it takes to earn the
money and how to wisely spend that money,
there is no effective public accountability.
In my experience, volunteer commission-
ers are usually part-time, especially if they
have to earn a living doing some other job.
They may be too eager to accept “advice”
from a lobbyist or a bureaucrat, neither of
whom is elected by the public or accountable
to the public.
However well-meaning or self-serving the
advice, how is a part-time elected official to
weigh and sift the truth to arrive at the best
path to the common good? How are transpar-
ency and accountability served, except with
dedicated and capable elected public officials?
Dedicated and capable elected public
officials need to do planning and evaluation,
I think, and they need to do it strategically.
Other Clatsop County boards of commission-
ers have done real and substantive strategic
planning.
In 2011, in an open competitive bidding
process, my firm won a contract to provide
strategic planning facilitation to the sitting
board of commissioners in Clatsop County.
As a result of that strategic planning, the
board committed to follow a new form of
clear and empowering accountability and
developed board rules to implement the new
way of operating.
That included a series of listening sessions
in 2014. Vision 2030 community input
sessions were held in seven locations all over
Clatsop County, and people showed up to
voice their vision.
What was supposed to happen after that
was a statement of the board’s mission and
measures of effectiveness in achieving prog-
ress toward achieving that mission. It didn’t
happen. It needs to happen, now more than
ever.
If a volunteer board cannot achieve the
statement of mission that expresses the will of
the people in this county and the dimensions
along which it should evaluate its employee,
the county manager, we’re in trouble.
I do see trouble. I see the churn of both
elected and appointed leaders, the Clatsop
County commissioners and the county man-
ager. Our rate of turnover is alarming. It’s a
waste of time, talent, and treasure. It’s costly
in money spent and opportunities lost.
We can and must do better. I hope the new
board that takes office in January 2019 will
do better.
Where do we go from here? Back to listen-
ing to the people, and then moving forward to
refine and define the county’s mission, what
kind of difference we want to make and how
we intend to make that difference, for our-
selves and for the county manager — whom
we both hire and hold accountable.
And it is, I think, the board’s job to hold
the county manager accountable for results
achieved in realizing the county’s mission.
The voters, the people, elect their represen-
tatives on the governing body and hold those
representatives accountable.
If staff isn’t held accountable to the mem-
bers of the governing body, there is no other
way to do it. Voters certainly have no other
direct impact than their votes.
But the board of county commissioners
can, should, and must be accountable to the
people. The best way I see to do that is to
listen again to the people. What we thought
years ago needs refreshing. The housing
and opioid crises are much worse now, for
example.
After listening to the people, the board
should define and refine community input into
a compelling mission. Then comes another
interesting part — translating the mission
into focus areas, such as housing, economic
development, community physical and mental
health, public safety, and the arts.
From those focus areas come logical
action steps, with analysis and planning
to evaluate needs, methods, and results or
outcomes.
The details remain to be worked out. But
the operative word here is “worked.” The
time has passed for a board that does not
perform the essential work of thoughtfully
proceeding to answer the question, “Where do
we go from here?”
Lianne Thompson represents District 5 —
South County — on the Clatsop County Board
of Commissioners.