Document text
Densmore challenges Roberts for Jackson County commissioner By Vickie Aldous Oct 15, 2022 12:30 AM A A Jackson County Commissioner Colleen Roberts faces challenger Al Densmore. Jackson County Commissioner Colleen Roberts, a Republican, is seeking a third term and faces Independent challenger Al Densmore, who previously served as mayor and city councilor for Medford and as a representative in the Oregon Legislature. Roberts said her biggest priority is making sure the public can comment on issues that affect them. Densmore wants to change how people elect commissioners and make the position nonpartisan. Roberts said the state government often takes actions that impact people without getting public input. She pointed to the Oregon Legislature’s approval of a bill that included wildfire risk mapping. An initial map, which has since been withdrawn, labeled many rural parts of southwest Oregon as being at high risk from wildfire. State officials said insurance companies aren’t using the map to decide on coverage and insurance costs, but some rural property owners said their insurance bills went up. “We need to be engaged on the issue as the local government and the people of Jackson County need to have a voice as well,” Roberts said. “The people feel like they’ve been run over.” Densmore, who served in the Oregon Legislature in the 1970s, said Democrats and Republicans used to work together and decision-making was collaborative. “Our two-party, partisan system is getting in the way of solving some basic problems,” he said. Densmore wants the county commissioner post to be nonpartisan. He wants to boost the number of commissioners from three to five and have them elected by districts, rather than countywide. Those changes would require approval from voters. He thinks nonpartisan races would increase the number and quality of candidates who step forward to run. “I think if we had five districts, every part of the county would feel it’s represented,” Densmore said. Under the current three-commissioner system, two county commissioners can’t talk together about issues except when they’re in public meetings. If they do, the two create a quorum and violate public meeting laws. Densmore said he believes that hurts commissioners’ ability to collaborate and build relationships. Roberts said commissioners talk with each other about personal topics like their families, but they’re careful not to discuss issues that might come before them for deliberation. The current system stops commissioners from having discussions behind closed doors and making back-room deals, she said. Roberts said the county commissioner position is nonpartisan in some places, and that system seems to work fine in other counties. She said having candidates list their party affiliation in Jackson County helps voters understand where candidates stand. Roberts said she listens to all residents regardless of party. In the Voters’ Pamphlet, Densmore claimed county commissioners chose not to activate the citizen alert system out of concern that residents in the path of the 2020 Almeda Fire would panic. “That’s not true,” Roberts said. “County commissioners don’t make that choice.” The fast-moving fire started in Ashland, then destroyed thousands of homes and businesses as it swept through Talent, Phoenix and unincorporated Jackson County. Firefighters stopped it at Medford’s outskirts. A third-party review commissioned by the county found the city of Ashland followed its emergency operations plan and contacted the Jackson County Emergency Operations Center to request that alerts go out. Ashland residents got alerts at noon the day of the fire, but the cities of Talent and Phoenix didn’t contact the county to ask for alerts to go out to their residents. County staff members, listening to chaotic radio messages among first responders, feared issuing a broad alert would lead to clogged evacuation routes. The county didn’t send out an alert for the broad fire area until 4 p.m. Densmore said he doesn’t actually know whether county commissioners had any decision-making role that day, but as elected officials, he said they should have been involved in those decisions. “I freely acknowledge I don’t know what kind of role they played in that decision, but as far as I’m concerned, they are accountable,” he said. Asked about the feasibility of rounding up elected officials and asking them to make decisions about emergency alerts during disasters, Densmore said government staff members plus elected officials should be involved. On the issue of wildfires in general, Roberts said commissioners meet with agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Forestry to make sure everyone has the same goal to aggressively attack fire starts and suppress fires, rather than letting them burn. “We have as many lightning strikes as other places, but our agencies put them out. I’m so proud of them for that. They work with us,” she said. On budget issues, Roberts said she wants to continue making fiscally conservative decisions, especially in light of inflation and economically uncertain times. Jackson County is in strong financial shape, with $209 million in reserves budgeted for this fiscal year. Repeated studies have found the Jackson County Jail is too small for the population, but voters rejected a property tax funding proposal by an overwhelming margin in 2020. Roberts said the county needs to be frugal on the jail issue, noting the cost of operating a larger jail over time is much more than the initial cost of building a new facility. Densmore said the community needs an adequate jail and also more mental health care and addiction treatment. He thinks county commissioners weren’t active enough in promoting the jail funding proposal, leaving most of that work to Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler. “I feel like the commissioners need to reengage with the community on this issue and say, ‘What kind of balanced package will find success?’” Densmore said. On homelessness, Densmore said the city of Medford and nonprofit organizations are tackling the issue, but the county could do more. Roberts said the county financially supports services for homeless people, including services provided by nonprofits. She said commissioners lobby hard against state regulations that make building houses more expensive for everyone. With Jackson County in a multiyear drought, Densmore said, the community should seek state and federal funding to pipe the highest priority sections of local irrigation systems to prevent water loss from seepage and evaporation. He said conservation also has to be prioritized in the face of hotter weather from climate change. “We’re going to have to conserve and make sure our resources go as far as we can,” Densmore said. Roberts said cutting trees could increase local water supplies. “How much water is consumed by our overloaded forests and how much gets released when they’re managed?” Roberts asked. Thinning trees can increase water runoff, recharge groundwater and increase soil moisture. The trees left behind often use more water individually, but less water vapor evaporates from tree stands as a whole, according to a 2022 review of research published in Forest Ecology and Management. But clearcutting an old forest, then regularly harvesting the plantations of trees that regrow, leads to long-term reductions in stream flow, especially in the summer. An old forest appears to use less water than a regrowing forest full of young trees, according to decades of Oregon State University research on plots in the Oregon Coast Range. Roberts noted county commissioners lobbied for more state funding to tackle illegal marijuana grows, which often use water illegally. Commissioners’ efforts helped lead to an increase in state funding for the local watermaster’s office, which regulates and investigates water use, plus law enforcement and code enforcement. Roberts said she opposes Klamath River dam removals. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @VickieAldous.