2022 Candidate Questionnaires – Board of County Commissioners, District 5

April 15, 2022

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The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce strongly encourages engagement between elected officials and chamber members as a way to inform and to be informed on issues of interest and impact to the chamber community. Local non-partisan elections are a great opportunity to deepen our understanding of each other.

While the Chamber will not be making any candidate endorsements, we seek to inform our members and voters by engaging in dialogue with those interested in serving and representing our community.

We invited each candidate running for office on the 2022 primary election ballot (opposed or unopposed) to submit their response to the following questions in writing. These questions have been formed with Springfield’s diverse group of business in mind, with issues of interest and impact on our business community and our local economy of most importance. Responses we received are published below.

Candidate Information
Full Name: Heather Buch
Position Running for: Lane County Commissioner – District 5
Campaign Email: Heather@HeatherBuch.com
Campaign Website (if applicable): HeatherBuch.com
Endorsements (if applicable):
AFSCME Local 2831 (Lane County Employees)
Lane Professional Firefighters Local 851
Eugene Association of REALTORS
Lane County Central Labor Chapter (Oregon AFL-CIO)
Lane-Coos-Curry-Douglas Building Trades Council
Teamsters Council 37
IBEW Local 280UA Local 290
Ironworkers Local 29
Northwest Carpenters Union
SMART Local 16 – Sheet Metal Workers
United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555
Many Rivers Group of the Sierra Club Oregon Chapter
Oregon League of Conservation Voters
Ron Wyden – U.S. Senator
Jeff Merkley – U.S. Senator
Peter DeFazio – U.S. Congressman
Val Hoyle – Oregon Labor Commissioner
Joe Berney – Lane County Commissioner
Laurie Trieger – Lane County Commissioner
Floyd Prozanski – State Senator, SD 4
Lee Beyer – State Senator, SD 6
James Manning – State Senator, SD 7
Paul Holvey – State Representative, HD 8
Marty Wilde – State Representative, HD 11
John Lively – State Representative, HD 12
Julie Fahey – State Representative, HD 14
Ray Smith – Coburg Mayor
Jeff Gowing – Cottage Grove Mayor
Kathy Holston – Oakridge Mayor
Lucy Vinis – Eugene Mayor
Don Bennett – Lowell Mayor
Melody Cornelius – Westfir Mayor
Plus many more at www.HeatherBuch.com

Personal/Background

1. What should the business community know about you, your background, and your
understanding of issues impacting their success?

I am currently Lane County Commissioner for District 5 (Coburg, Creswell, Cottage Grove, parts
of Eugene, and East Lane County). I am also a mother, military spouse, and housing advocate. I
was born and raised here in Lane County, growing up in rural Lane County. I spent my
professional career running a small real estate business for 15 years, specializing in affordable
housing. I also worked as Special Projects Director for St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane
County, our county’s largest nonprofit human services organization. There, I helped local
families access affordable housing. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time deeply involved in
creating connections with often forgotten and vulnerable communities around the county. This
experience has put me in touch with various community groups such as rotaries, veterans’
support groups, food and nutrition agencies, state agencies and many more where we had
worked together to provide habitable and thriving living conditions.
Local Business, Economic Development, Community Issues

2. What current or future issues of impact or interest to business and economic development
will you champion and why? (no more than two please)

(i.e. Housing, Infrastructure Improvements, Main Street Safety Project, Climate Action, Taxes,
Workforce and Education, Land Use, Indoor Track, Sports, and Event Facility)
How would you define a successful outcome of one or all of those issues?
Although I support several efforts to boost our local economy, my priorities include affordable
housing at all levels through the implementation of the county’s Affordable Housing Action Plan
and small business development by investing in technology infrastructure and expanding
partnerships with Lane Workforce, Oregon RAIN and community‐based organizations such as
Huerto de la Familia.

We have large amounts of federal investments coming to the state, such as from the recent
transportation and infrastructure bill (IIJA), and I am committed to ensuring Lane County is
competitive in applying for that funding which would bring good paying jobs to our area. A
decent portion of this funding that I have championed is access to affordable and reliable
broadband, a fundamental need to grow our economy and expand opportunity in rural
communities.
Success would bring both urban and rural expansion of small businesses within the county and
an increase in home ownership opportunities.

3. What do you see as the best way to engage the business community in local government?

The county currently engages the business community in a variety of ways such as through our
economic development department, support of Lane Workforce, and allocation of resources to
business support groups and revolving loan funds. I see the best and most meaningful
engagement surrounding economic policy collaborations.

A recent example of this is when we worked with numerous trades and contractors to
implement our Community Benefits Bidding Process ensuring living wages, healthcare benefits,
apprenticeships, and a diversified workforce. I look forward to future collaborations like this in
future policy work and I continue to make myself available to the chambers throughout my
district.

Public Policy for Investment, Spending, Taxes, and Fees

Much like question #2 above, I see opportunities to improve the quality of life for all residents
in Lane County by addressing the needs of the unsheltered while also improving housing
options at all levels through the implementation of our Affordable Housing Action Plan.
Additionally, ever since the Holiday Farm Fire I have been fully embedded in the recovery of the
McKenzie valley and emergency response resiliency. It is vitally important to our entire county
to continue to support these efforts. I’m proud to have brought in $33 million for the McKenzie
region and emergency response equipment as well as waive over $1M in permit fees.
Also, feeling safe in our communities is critical to a thriving community. That means we need to
continue to invest in public safety. Recently we have been able to add twelve new sheriff
positions, invest $17.5 million in upgrades to our jail system and I personally advocated for $5
million from the state legislature to upgrade and add to our emergency communication tower
sites.

All three of these opportunities enhance our economy and will bring further investment to Lane
County. I look forward to building off this progress.

5. The State of Oregon currently has a robust regulatory framework for businesses as well as
tax burden that has increased over the past 3 years. How do you account for this in future
policy decisions, and what do you see as solutions for preventing the need for further
regulatory and tax expansion?
I represent a largely rural area that is often critical of taxes for a variety of reasons. Therefore, it
is important to me to look at every funding possibility prior to asking for resources. I believe the
county does this well and a prime example is the addition of a dozen sheriff staff without raising
taxes.

General

Anything else you’d like to add?

Candidate Information

Full Name: Kyle Blain

Position Running for: East Lane County Commissioner District 5

Campaign Email: kyle@kyleblain.com

Campaign Website (if applicable): www.kyleblain.com

Endorsements (if applicable): State Representative Cedric Hayden, State Rep Jessica George, Former Lane County Sheriff Byron Trapp, Former East Lane County Commissioner Gary Williams, Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich, Eugene City Councilor Mike Clark, Lane County Association Local 626, Lane County Farm Bureau, Taxpayers Association of Oregon, Oregon Small Business Association PAC, Oregon Sportsmen Association, Lane County Peace Officers Association, Timber Unity PAC, Associated Loggers of Oregon, Thin Blue Line Coalition.

Personal/Background

1. What should the business community know about you, your background, and your understanding of issues impacting their success?

I come from a blue-collar family of builders who have spent years wading through the County’s expensive planning and building process. I grew up in Lane County working with my dad swinging a hammer. I then moved into Timberland Management and research and development with a sawmill creating new innovative products that are used throughout the US.

In the real estate world, I know how to help others achieve their dreams of home ownership. I am a real estate lender focusing on residential & commercial development.

When I was a kid I would ride the river trails and play basketball under Washington Jefferson Street Bridge. As a father of 4 I would not allow my kids to do that today. Our city parks and trails are not safe, we have a public safety crisis, a homeless and mental health crisis. $50mm have been spent on the homeless and where is our return on that investment? Homelessness is now a micro economy with no end game and no expected results.

We have to prioritize and restore funding for our Sheriff’s Office & Prosecutors by trimming pet projects and excessive office budgets and focus on our Federal Timberlands which are meant to bring revenue into our Sheriff’s Department and help maintain our roads. We currently have anywhere from 3 to 4 Sheriff’s Deputies on the road at any given time in a County the size of Connecticut. You know who feels it the most…our rural communities.

I have been on the Coburg City Council the past 4 years which has given me a lot of practical experience running a City. Not a single business closed due to the Covid lockdowns. We created 3 new neighborhoods and are working on bringing 107 acres of employment lands into the City of Coburg which will create local jobs.

I will work to provide affordable housing, remove barriers and regulations that make building time consuming and expensive. I will work to increase the supply of buildable lands and make it easier for rural citizens to build on their own land. Lane County can be More Secure and Less Expensive for Families

Local Business, Economic Development, Community Issues

2. What current or future issues of impact or interest to business and economic development will you champion and why? (no more than two please) (i.e. Housing, Infrastructure Improvements, Main Street Safety Project, Climate Action, Taxes, Workforce and Education, Land Use, Indoor Track, Sports, and Event Facility)

Public Safety for local businesses has impacted many business owners in a negative way. I will help to restore funding for Law Enforcement, jails, and our court system.

We are in a housing shortage; I will focus on increasing our housing stock and look at every angle to reduce housing costs. The current leadership has taken actions making it harder for people to build in this county residential and commercial, from the updated Flood Plan to reducing time to build on rural home permits. In order to attract more employers and employees to our communities we need to offer a multitude of housing options from multi family, townhomes and single-family residences. We need 16,400+ housing units to make up for our under build in Lane County.

How would you define a successful outcome of one or all of those issues?

Keeping our local businesses open, bringing in more businesses, making it easier to develop or redevelop commercial and residential properties. Limit the heavy-handed regulations on building, increase buildable lands and increase our planning departments output.

Limit current pet projects and use those funds to get more deputies on the road, get back into the Association of O&C Counties in order to utilize our federal timber land receipts which has historically paid for our public safety, and road maintenance.

3. What do you see as the best way to engage the business community in local government?

Build relationships with or business leaders and community leaders, listen and work to adjust the common issues that make it more difficult and expensive for businesses to work here. Work toward easing regulations that make it more difficult for businesses to invest into our communities, especially in rural areas.

Public Policy for Investment, Spending, Taxes, and Fees

4. Where do you see opportunities to improve the quality of life, place, and commerce in Springfield and Lane County? What current or future investments can help build a thriving business community? Please offer up to three examples. Springfield has done a great job in the downtown core of attracting businesses. I’d like to see that continue throughout lane county, which again comes back to useable land and easing heavy handed regulations to reduce the time and costs for future development.

Glenwood for example is ripe of redevelopment but it’s currently very difficult to get any major development done due to the unique nature of the zoning, code and properties. A conference center with restaurants and small businesses that will bring people in is what we need in that area. This happens with a business-friendly mindset at the City and County levels. Working to create opportunities not deter them. That could happen through tax incentives, streamlining the planning and permit process into one, saves time and money.

I would work to create a private public partnership to our drug and mental health crisis. This partnership would create new businesses, new developments and a lot of local jobs while getting the people off our streets and into facilities that will give them the help they need.

Our employment lands need to be utilized; this is where I would work to create zoning that works for businesses looking for a city to invest in. I would work with the business community to address their concerns on zoning regulations in different areas of our city. If light industrial is what is needed, then we need to adjust and create those locations. This brings in tax revenue, jobs, ancillary businesses and spendy throughout our community.

First and foremost, we must be more efficient with the tax dollars we receive, not vote for pay increases for commissioners or fund other pet projects. We must prioritize services. For a long-term answer, I think it goes back to timber. We have transferred the tax burden from timber (positive economic activity) to the citizens. We have to realize that in order to provide the services everyone wants we have to create more economic activity that would intern bring in more tax revenue. For example, the county just went out for a vote to fund a new county courthouse, the current courthouse was paid for by timber receipts.

General

Anything else you’d like to add?

I was born and raised in Lane County, I have 4 children growing up here and I want to leave this county better than I found it. Right now, that isn’t happening it has deteriorated over the years and that must change. That is why I am running, we need new leadership, common sense decision making and people who will listen to the community as a whole not just a small faction.