Benton County voters will decide two locally contested races in this year’s May 21st primary, one for Oregon State representative and the other, which this debate style discussion examines, for Benton County Commissioner.
The Board of Commissioners in Benton County is made up of three elected officials that oversee all county operations. Unlike the separation of powers at the state and federal levels, the commissioners act as executives, legislators, and as an official panel.
Voters will decide on two of the commissionerships in November, but for the primary, only one party has a single contested race.
The two candidates seeking the Democratic nomination in that race are Gabe Shepherd, currently representing Ward 4 on the Corvallis City Council, and Liz Irish, currently a member of the County’s planning commission.
We met with the two candidates on April 16 for a debate style discussion, which is part of the Advocate Editorial Board’s process to decide which candidate we’ll endorse. Questions came from a mix of participants at the Corvallis Advocate, City Club of Corvallis and the public, as they responded to our invitation to submit questions on the Advocate’s website. Advocate publisher, Steven J. Schultz, moderated the discussion.
The questions fell into five broad categories: Benton County mental health and County staffing, homelessness, housing, the landfill north of Corvallis and leadership skills.
By a toss of the coin, we started with Gabe Shepherd.
Advocate: First question, Mr. Shepherd, mental health and staffing. Currently, there’s concern that the county’s new crisis center starts without full staffing, and it is the common view that there aren’t enough qualified mental health workers, regionally or even nationally, to go around. As an outsider looking in, what would you encourage the health department to do for recruiting? And really, by extension, knowing that we have a broadly tight labor market, what would you look to try to do in terms of helping the county to recruit in a competitive environment and retain staff? Mr. Shepherd, two minutes, please.
Gabe Shepherd: Thank you. Steve. Uh, hello. Um, yeah. So talking about mental health. I, um, I am a huge supporter of government workers. I myself am a government worker for the city of Albany. Uh, and I know that there can often be, uh, better paying jobs just around the corner for your average worker who is interested in public service. I think that in order to recruit good and qualified staff for a mental health crisis center and other mental health services in the county, we need to really make sure that we are paying competitive rates, uh, and that we are supporting our staff. Well, um, I think that, like you said, this is this is a national crisis that we’re experiencing a lack of mental health workers. So I think that, um, you’ll hear me say this word a lot today, but partnerships. So I think that encouraging, uh, incentives at the state level with partnering with state legislators, partnering with, um, the governor and other offices, uh, to incentivize and encourage people to get into this field, uh, that we really need new and fresh people, uh, fresh people in and people who are willing to, uh, people who are willing to serve their local communities in a government capacity.
Advocate:Thank you, Mr. Shepherd. I’ll move over to you, Ms. Irish. Two minutes.
Liz Irish: Uh, I think this is a complex issue that hits on a lot of issues. Um, a lot of contributing issues. The first thing, uh, it’s my understanding, after talking to mental health officials with the county that happened was the state mandated a certain level of care and pushed all of the counties into higher mode at the same time, which forced every county in the state of Oregon to compete for the same workers. Um, they could have probably staggered that and helped us out on that whole hiring process, but they didn’t do that. So that’s one of the issues that we have right now, is we’re competing with every county to fill all the open positions that are required. Um, the second issue is affordability of our area. Um, it’s not only public employees that are living outside of the area and commuting into Benton County, but it is also, um, corporate and non-profit and all of our service workers as well that can’t afford to live here. And that’s a huge issue. Um, I don’t know that we can compensate a public worker enough pay to make up for that. Um, I do agree we need to have adequate pay for our mental health workers. They take on a lot. They shoulder a lot. Um, but we’re looking at the average, um, income for somebody to live in Benton County at 140,000 currently. Uh, I’m not sure Benton County can carry that load. Um, and then the second thing is that’s actually very good is the state has, uh, partnered with a bunch of universities. Um, University of Oregon, particularly to offer two year certificates to get more people into the profession, to just kind of expedite more counselors and more people to help. And that will take a couple of years, obviously, to start getting those people in place. But I think we’ve recognized that we have a shortage. And so there is some push, uh, on the college level to get quicker, uh, degrees and people out into the field faster. Um, so that will benefit all of us in the end.
Advocate:Thank you. And then as a follow up question, knowing that there is real competition out there in terms of folks – and that the state has created that kind of constriction, as you were referring to. Uh, one questioner asked, would it be possible to explore contracting with private, for profit, or non-profit organizations? We have in town Samaritan Health, for instance, but others as well. Uh, would you be willing to explore that? Could I get about 30 seconds from each of you? I’ll start with you, Mr. Shepherd.
Gabe Shepherd: Yeah. I mean. This is I mean, it’s a good question. And the answer is essentially there’s very few avenues that aren’t worth exploring at least, um, surface level exploration. Uh, I get concerned when we start talking about, um, partnering with private companies, um, to do government work, uh, for, for this kind of stuff. It just, um, there are some there’s some issues that can come along with that. But to examine and take a look at any, anything we can do to solve an issue, you know, I have no issues, uh, looking at that.
Advocate:Okay. And then, um, Miss Irish.
Liz Irish: As a mother of a young adult with bipolar and our challenges in the private health care system to get adequate counseling, I don’t think Samaritans in a position to help anybody out. I think they’re barely holding their own in the private sector. So while it seems on its face as a quick a great, quick response, I think you’ll find that they’re kind of swimming in their own, um, employee shortage currently.
Advocate:And then in general, there are problems staffing everything from groundskeepers, administrative help all the way to executive. What can the county do county do to be competitive, attracting staff, uh, given the environment and how expensive it is to live here, could I get about 30 to 60 seconds from you, Mr. Shepherd?
Gabe Shepherd: Yeah, well, I’ll start again with pay. You know, that’s the that’s one of the main things that people are going to be looking at when they’re evaluating their government jobs and where they want to look, where they want to live. Yes, we live in one of the most expensive counties in the state, and we live in one of the most expensive areas. Corvallis is one of the least affordable cities in the state, but the council has done a lot of good work over the last few years to make make movements on that and increase our housing stock. So I think that when we’re and again, this is a national issue about, um, finding enough people to work your local government jobs. Um, and I think that one of the, one of the top things that we need to look at again and again and again is pay and compensation for government workers.
Advocate:Ms. Irish.
Liz Irish: Um, again, I don’t think we can give, uh, compensation enough to make our area affordable. We aren’t one of the most expensive. Corvallis is the least affordable city in the state of Oregon. We’re the second least affordable county in the state of Oregon. Um, we cannot make it affordable by giving people raises. We have to tackle housing directly, and we have to be aggressively attacking it. And I would say the biggest population in and the biggest employer, the city of Corvallis, has done little to nothing to fix that over the last few years. So I think we have a lot of communities outside Corvallis that are really interested in helping Adair Village, uh, and Philomath. And I think we’re going to have to lean on those partners to really accomplish the housing needs and bridge that gap so we can make it affordable here.
Advocate:And then, rebuttals from either of you. Uh 30 seconds. Mr. Shepherd.
Gabe Shepherd: Yeah. And I do want to say that the city of Corvallis has done a lot over the last few years to increase our housing stock, uh, and reduce the amount of red tape that the people have to go to to develop housing in the state. As miss Iris said earlier, that these kind of things take time. But just this last year, the council and I was a vote for it and, and introduced uh, tax, uh tax exemptions and uh, to help incentivize growth. We just had hang on.
Advocate:: Can you explain for viewers what MUFTI and D are.
Gabe Shepherd: Yes. Mufti multi-unit property tax exemption. And D is low income uh, property tax exemption okay. Yeah. Uh, and we implemented those, uh, and just this last council meeting just yesterday, we had a, we had a report on how much housing has been built in the city over the last few years. And while and while it’s not as much as many of the people on the council, including myself, want to see, it is an increasing trend and we are reducing the oversight and overhead for people to be able to develop and increase our housing stock in the city.
Advocate:: Response, Ms. Irish.
Liz Irish: Yeah, that we can do so much better than we have. Uh, I was part of the housing policy for the city of Albany. Um, Governor Kotek came down and congratulated Mayor Johnson on the amount of building that they’re doing. Um, we attempted, uh, Mayor Johnson and I to meet with the mayor of Corvallis and help him out on that, and he he brushed us aside. Uh, I don’t think Corvallis has done what they can do. Um, and I don’t think they’re willing to do what they can do. Uh, and I’m not exactly sure why. And I don’t know that anybody has been able to pin it down. I just met with some women as the League of Women Voters on their housing, and they said, we don’t understand. We keep asking the question, why aren’t we building? And we never get an answer. So now they’re talking to other cities that are doing it because they can’t get their own city to answer.
Advocate:: Ms. Irish, who was mayor at the time when you approached the Mayor.
Liz Irish: Mayor Maughan.
Advocate:Okay, moving along to another staffing related question, and this is just from one particular viewer, but it struck us as an interesting idea. Could the county consider high school apprenticeship programs? Uh, that would then train folks to come in and work, perhaps while they’re going to university. So these would be for jobs that don’t need a degree, such as groundskeeping or administrative assistant or this kind of thing. Data entry. Um, just 30 seconds from each of you, uh, Mr. Shepherd.
Gabe Shepherd: Again this this falls under the category of, um, you know, all all options are worth exploring. I think, uh, you know, I do like the idea of involving high schoolers in training programs. You know, I’m a big supporter of, uh, of people getting into apprenticeship programs and those kind of things. Not everybody has to or should go to college. Um, it’s it’s not for everybody. And there are people who can get into the labor market and make more money than if they went through college and accumulated debt. Uh, so I, I’m all in favor of those things. I feel like that’s more of a, a school. That would be something to do in partnership with the Corvallis School Board or some of our other school boards in the county. Um, and I have the support of many of our local school board members, uh, and I’d be happy to meet with them and talk about those kind of things, if that’s if that’s a item worth considering.
Advocate:: Liz. It seems like an interesting idea. Uh, what do you think of it? The idea that there’d be apprenticeships for high school students and that they could perhaps join the county even before they’ve left high school.
Liz Irish: I think it’s a great idea. Um, I have not dived into partnerships with the county itself. I don’t see why that couldn’t happen, but I’m currently working with Guardian and a couple other, uh, organizations to create a mentorship program, uh, for construction and other labors that we are in a tragic, uh, shortfall of. We just have no, not enough people to build the housing that we need. If we had the funding for it today. Um, and so we have so many layers of difficulty piled against us that, um, Guardian and I came together and, and we talked about, um, reaching out to Linn-benton Community College to, to actually come together with the schools and do a training program coupled with unions. So that is actually in effect. And I think that would probably be the most effective approach to doing it. Those are real living wages. Um, and those are real jobs that are needed today.
Advocate:: So, we’re going to move over to homeless now for this one. We will be starting with Liz Irish. Uh, first and foremost, looking at the current map, totality of services available in the area, like low and high barrier shelters, uh, transitional, subsidized and temporary housing, wraparound services, and really everything and anything that the area is doing in terms of preventing or addressing homelessness in the area. What do you think the county is doing well, and what do you think can be improved, and and how would you hope to proceed or motivate the county to proceed? Uh, and then to you, Ms. Irish.
Liz Irish: I’m working to create an expungement clinic, and I, I sat with Judge Blake at the community court, and, um, in that process, I discovered that we have a shortcoming with the county where we’re able to address people when they’re in crisis. Uh, almost immediately. Um, but we then tell those people in crisis, congratulations, you’re in crisis. But it’ll be 3 to 6 months before we have a health care provider to care for you. Um, and that is a huge issue if we have people at their worst mental health breakdown moments without anybody to help them to, to bring them out of their crisis, um, we’re really failing at a real basic level. Um, and so I hope that we can reorganize some of our priorities and make that a priority quickly. The other thing we have a challenge with when it comes to transitional housing is dual diagnosis. So if you are suffering from a mental illness and you have a drug addiction, um, there’s currently no housing options for you. Um, and that is a problem. And I, I think that, um, if we don’t have anywhere to take people, uh, we can’t really expect them not to be sleeping in tents on the street. Um, so I would like to see a lot more low barrier, um, and dual diagnosis options.
Advocate:: And then moving over to Mr. Shepherd.
Gabe Shepherd: Yeah. Thank you. Um, so the question, what is the county doing and what could the county be doing better? Um.
Advocate:: And how would you motivate the county in the direction you’re thinking? Yes.
Gabe Shepherd: So, you know, the county has a lot of roles to play, um, in houselessness, uh, and helping those who are unhoused. The county is a partner with the city of Corvallis on the Hope board. Um, and a few other, uh, a few other things. But I think that the county really needs to step up its game when it comes to partnerships with nonprofits. Um, there is not a lot of, um, you know, our nonprofits right now are at capacity. Uh, they are it’s even unsure if how much more funding, uh, that we give them without letting them build out their capacity, how much that funding would actually be helpful. I think one of our, uh, one of the things we need to see, and I think the county can take a really big leadership role in this, is helping our nonprofits build their capacity to help serve the people who need their services. Um, and I agree that we need a lot more low barrier shelters. We need a lot more transitional shelters. Um, the city of Corvallis has spent, uh, has donated and or put money towards these kind of things. And there’s even more in the works. And I think the county needs to be a more active partner in that, in that work than they are currently.
Advocate:: For context, and either of you could answer this, but I’ll ask you both to answer. But, how many homeless folks do you suspect are living in the area? Uh, I’ll start with you, Liz.
Liz Irish: Um, we know how many homeless folks are living in our area because we keep track of them. Um, there is a little bit of a check system. We have a migration between three counties, uh, uh, Lincoln County, uh, Benton County and Linn County. And that list contains about 6000 individuals.
Advocate:: And how many of them are specific, do you believe, to Benton County?
Liz Irish: I think they’re all specific to Benton County, but they’re transient. So depending on services, depending on weather, depending on circumstances, uh, that is a consistent 6000 that kind of move at any given time between the three counties.
Advocate:: Okay. And then, um, where are you getting the number from?
Liz Irish: I’m getting this from Brad Smith. He created a database for all the homeless shelters, um, to start.
Advocate:: And Brad is.
Liz Irish: Um. I’m Bixby Northwest. Uh, he works closely with, uh, many of the shelters, and they know him very well.
Advocate:: Great. Thanks. Uh, Mr. Shepherd. Um, so, Gabe, do you have a sense that that number is correct?
Gabe Shepherd: I just want to say I’ve never heard of this number specifically or anything like this. The closest thing that we talk about in our government circles is the Pitt count. Um, point in time count. That happens annually, and it’s not terribly accurate. Um, because it is at a moment how many people are living, uh, living in a certain area. Uh, and we have a lot of volunteers. It’s a big effort every calendar year to go out and count people. Um, but that’s what federal funding and funding is based off of. Is that Pitt count? So, um, while there might be other people out there with estimates or anything like that, that’s the official number. Um, and I don’t have that number.
Advocate:: Yeah, right. I don’t have that number, do you?
Gabe Shepherd: I don’t have that number on hand, but that’s a it’s it would be easy, an easy one to find out. Um, but we are constantly told that it is an underestimate of how many people are actually out living and homeless in our communities.
Advocate:: Right. And I will say from a public standpoint, numbers are quoted all the time from various sources. It’s kind of hard to get your head around what is in fact, the actual number. But I did want viewers to get some context. Um, let’s go ahead and move over to affordable housing. It is highly related, obviously, to homelessness and apparently to staffing as well. But it is not the same thing. Affordable housing is an animal unto itself. We’ll be starting with Gabe on this one. Um, so, Gabe, what do you believe the county’s role is in terms of either attracting affordable housing developments or building those developments itself? Also, there’s a perception that regulations are part of the problem getting projects started. There’s, um, been the idea floated that maybe at a certain threshold certain service fees, um, development fees should be waived for affordable housing with those dollars, then moved over to the up market, uh, to subsidize the down market. Two minutes on your sense of what the county can be doing, um, going forward.
Gabe Shepherd: So affordable housing is one of the most important things facing our county right now. Um, and the lack thereof, the county’s role in it. Um, I think that the county is a great place, is a great body to be a convener, to bring people and partners to the table and say, where can we cite housing that people can afford? So it’s not incumbent upon Corvallis to just infill a dare village to just explode in size, and Philomath to just become a bedroom community. You know, we need to be able to have these conversations and sit, uh, sit at a table together and have that talk when we talk about waiving fees, um, sometimes it sounds like a really great thing. Um, but there are issues that come with that. When you waive development fees. These fees are so that we can develop out our infrastructure, uh, to be able to accommodate new housing and new places. Um, you know, these fees cover paving of roads, uh, the installation of water, sewer, those kind of things. So, you know, we can talk about waiving them, but it comes at a cost to the taxpayer at a later date. Um, and I think that the county, um, the county’s role in affordable housing is really a role of partnership. Partnership, partnering with cities who have a lot more direct control. However, the county does have direct control over being able to put small Adu type housing on, on our rural lands. And I think that the, um, I think they need to ease some restrictions for that to be able to afford, um, workforce housing out on farmland, on out, on some farm lands and mother in law houses out in our rural areas.
Advocate:: And then, in fairness to the person that submitted the question, I think what their sense was, the idea that you could waive fees on one end of the market and increase fees for the other end of the market. So, if somebody built in the 3000 square foot to 4000 square foot range, a house that’s going to be in the, you know, $800,000 or $900,000 range versus somebody who’s trying to build affordable housing. Folks that are buying in that larger range would pay some additional fees. Is that an idea, that for you, would have appeal or not?
Gabe Shepherd: I think you’d have appeal. My concern would be the legality of it. Um, I’m not sure where, you know, that’s that’s why we that’s why local governments have lawyers. Uh, because they can. They’ll be the ones who can tell you. Well, well, if we do it this way, it’s technically discrimination against those who are building this type of housing, and we can’t do it. But it’s something that’s really I. I think that’s a great idea worth. Worth at least asking the lawyers about.
Advocate:: And then I’ll move over to you, Liz. Housing, what can the county do? Um. Two minutes.
Liz Irish: So we’ve done tiered SDC’s. That’s what the question is alluding to. Tiered SDC’s are happening right now in Albany and have been there for some time. So, if you’re building an ADU, you’re not paying the same SDC’s as a 5000 square foot house. We don’t have to subsidize it in order to make that happen. And we can still have the money for our infrastructure. So we don’t need lawyers to tell us. We don’t need to speculate. We don’t need to guess. That is in real time happening in the city of Albany, right next door. Um, as far as putting mother in law houses and existing buildings on protected forest and farmlands, I think that you’re going to have to have a conversation with the state about that. That’s not something that the county can decide. Um, and we have all kinds of options we just haven’t done here regionally. I would also like to add, we’ve already established through Benton County and a subcommittee of housing, uh, a partnership with all of the cities surrounding us and counties surrounding us. We have the state, we have the nonprofits, we have, um, developers, buyers. We already have all those partnerships regionally established, and we’re working with them currently.
Advocate:: And I guess following up on some of your answer, when you say all sorts of options that we’re not looking at, could you name a couple of options?
Liz Irish: Well, currently, uh, the state just passed a housing bill, uh, 1537. And that allowed, uh, loans to municipalities for infrastructure. Uh, there’s 0% interest loans. And if a project qualifies, uh, and that would be affordable housing and low income housing. Um, that can be a zero interest loan that’s paid back with the tax revenues, um, from those projects that would never have been built in order to get them built. Um, the schools, I clarified because I was concerned about the schools not getting their tax amount, but the schools will be getting, uh, the taxes. You could also pass that on to the developer for them to pay later as well. So it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing item. So there are things on the table now to make that happen. And I think we just have to give the state time to execute those from that bill that just passed.
Advocate:: And then, Mr. Shepherd and, Ms. Irish, I’m going to give you each 30 seconds to close out this subject or rebut. I’ll start with you, Gabe.
Gabe Shepherd: Um, I do want to briefly talk about tiered sdcs. Yes. That is a way that we’re talking about, you know, how we’re going to recoup those costs. But we were talking about affordability versus, uh, just regular development, not the size of housing, which is what tiered sdcs are about. Um, and I do want to ask Miss Irish if it’s all right to talk about her work on for housing policy for the city of Albany, because we’re talking I’ve heard in a few of her speeches and on her voters pamphlet statement that she talks about her work on the housing implementation plan for the city of Albany. But her name is nowhere on the document. And I’ve asked people around, uh, you know, what what her involvement with was, was with that. And I haven’t heard an answer, so.
Advocate:: Then, Ms. Irish, you can respond to that or, uh, rebut however you see fit.
Liz Irish: So tiered SDC’s, your right, are based on square footage, but it would help affordable housing because affordable housing is smaller. So I mean, we can split hairs about this, but it’s the same thing essentially. And as far as housing policy, I worked with the Mayor Johnson on that. And I have lots of names of lots of individuals, including community development Director Matt, uh, who, uh, sat with me through many of meetings and could tell you that I was part of that.
Gabe Shepherd: If I may rebut that.
Advocate:: I will give you 15 seconds.
Gabe Shepherd: You know, I work for the city of Albany. I was in the building when a lot of those meetings were happening. Um, and I would encourage the just anybody who’s interested to actually ask, um, uh, Matthew Rutgers and the city of Albany how the involvement in in that process. So thank you.
Advocate:: Then Ms. Irish.
Liz Irish: Think that that’s really nice. You’re a clerk, you’re not working for community development. And anybody can talk to Mayor Johnson about that. And he’d be happy to tell you my role.
Gabe Shepherd: So I’m not talking about the elected mayor, I’m talking about.
Advocate:: So I’m going to cut this off. And what I’m going to say is, I guess I’m going to ask you a little bit of a different question. I’m going to give you each about 45 seconds to a minute on this dream project. What do you propose to get the county moving on affordable housing? And I’m going add there is a voice of frustration amongst some of us that have looked at this long term. There’s always discussion. Years ago, and I forget what panel we were hosting, but somebody said, “well, yeah, Corvallis has an affordable housing plan. It’s called Linn County. But that of course creates a lot of infrastructure and a lot of commuting that maybe we don’t want to have happen from a sustainability standpoint.” Um, so dream project to get affordable workforce housing that somebody can afford on, say, a $50,000 or $60,000 salary. So workforce housing, I’m going to ask Liz to start, 45 seconds to 60 seconds, somewhere in there.
Liz Irish: So in order currently under how this housing situation sits right now, if we were to do this tomorrow, the only way we would be able to get somebody into housing that makes 50,000 would be a land, a land trust. Um, and that would take for those of you who don’t know, we’ve done them in Sonoma. We’ve done them for colleges and professors at different university towns where you have a nonprofit that owns the land, and then you just purchase the house itself. Um, and you purchase the land on 99 year leases. They’re old. They’ve been around forever. That would be probably, uh, the best way to approach that if you needed instant gratification. Otherwise, I don’t see a I don’t see a future in the near future where somebody’s making $50,000 a year, can afford to buy anywhere in Benton County currently rent. With rent? Possibly, but that’s going up as well. That’s a that’s a supply and demand issue, just like housing. Um, with the university and the number of students and the people who want to live here, I just see people who can buy at this level downsizing to afford this level. And so you have a bunch of people competing. So if you just built a bunch of houses and apartments, it’s going to be flooded with all of the income levels, unless you do some deed restriction and some really creative thinking, it’s going to it’s going to take the village to fix this problem. It’s not going to be just Corvallis or the county.
Advocate:: And then, Gabe, I’m going to move over to you. And, you know, actually, I allowed Liz to take a minute and a half. So I’m going to allow you to do the same thing. Dream project, something you think you can get to happen. You can move the county to do it. What would you do, affordable housing?
Gabe Shepherd: And you know, I think that this goes back to the, the, the central theme that I’ve been talking about, which is partnerships. I think it’s working with, uh, with our local cities to make sure that, um, that there’s not as much red tape, that there is an easy process for people to be able to build housing that is actually subsidized and that’s actually affordable. Um, and I appreciate what you said, Steve. Not everything is about purchasing a four bedroom or a two bedroom family house. Some people want to live their life as a renter. Some people want to live their life, uh, renting or living in a town townhouse. So the entire spectrum of housing is what’s needed to be able to be built and be affordable. I really do support the state’s middle housing initiative, and that’s something that the city of Corvallis was already on top of before other cities, like the city of Albany got forced into it, uh, was that we were ready to be able to allow for these types of middle housing townhouses, uh, cottage clusters, things like that, to be able to be built in our localities to increase the housing stock locally. And I think that the, um, you know, Oregon State University has been, uh, has oscillated back and forth between good partner or bad partner. Uh, right now we’re in a really good space with them as great partners to be able to. They know there’s a housing crunch locally, and they’re planning on netting about 1500, uh, student specific units within the next few years. And I don’t think it’s going to stop there.
Advocate:: Okay. And then we’re going to move over to the landfill. This one we will start with, uh, Liz. We have had so many questions about the landfill. They flow into a few different categories. And I guess the real question that folks have, is number one, do you believe that the landfill has been, fully compliant with its obligations towards human health, their impacts on human health, and their impacts on the environment? Do you believe that the DEQ and EPA has adequately monitored the landfill? Um, do you believe the landfill should be closed or not? Uh, how would you do that? Do you believe that, uh, expansion is a reasonable path forward and under what terms? Is there any way that the county can take over monitoring? Uh, and perhaps, bill the landfill for the monitoring? Maybe that would be based on some sort of surcharge on dumping fees? Um, there’s been just a tremendous number of questions on this. Uh, but I can only give you two minutes. So. Liz.
Liz Irish: I was giggling because I was like, oh my gosh, there’s no way I can cover every one of those. So I’ll do my best. Um, currently I’m a planning commissioner, so I can’t give you my opinion. Personal opinion about closing or not closing. I wish I could, and I know people want that from me because there’s been a lot of accusations of about where I stand on it. Um, my job is a planning commissioner is to be neutral and to hear the criteria and make judgments off the criteria given to me. Um, I don’t think we have done, throughout the history of this landfill, adequate monitoring of the landfill. Um, Adair Air Force Base started this landfill. Um, and it, you know, environmental laws over time have come up and, and and and caught up with us in a sense that, uh, um, there was a lot of things that just weren’t taken care of, like in the 80s, the 70s and the 80s that we would consider super important today. Um, I also know that we’ve defunded a lot of the, um, or a few of the programs that monitor, uh, things like landfills, for example. Uh, the DEQ has a noise monitoring policy that they’ve defunded, and there currently isn’t any funding at the DEQ. So if the landfill is extraordinarily noisy, there’s no way to enforce that. That’s a state mandate. Uh, and currently there is no funding at the county level, uh, to have that particular issue mandated. So my guess would be after going through Benton County talks trash and looking at the history and the conditional use permits of the past, and sitting with the legal subcommittee, um, that there’s a whole lot more we could do to make the public feel safe and, uh, feel better about the landfill. Um, but unfortunately, uh, I can’t really comment on any future stuff, and I wasn’t part of the last cop that conditional use permit that came through, um, and, uh, about closing or opening, which I haven’t heard to be a consideration currently.
Advocate:: And then I’ll follow up a little bit with you on this. Um, do you believe that a conditional use permit for expansion could include a monitoring structure and fees, um, to the operator, including fluidity that the fees are attached to what will be growing cost over a course of years? Uh, do you think that that would be something that is allowed, is permissible? Uh, legally? One and two. Also, could this be practical?
Liz Irish: We chatted about that, uh, quite often in BCTT. Um, and I, I think that that’s a reasonable direction to go in. Uh, on legality. I can’t speak to that. I’m not an attorney. Um, but I’m sure that that will come up during the SMP. The sustainable materials management plan. That’s really what that group. And they’re looking for volunteers currently to be on it, uh, is like, okay, we know where we’re at today. Let’s look to the future. And what do we want to happen in regards to the landfill. And I think that that group is going to do a better job of identifying that. And I look forward to the information they come up with.
Advocate:: When you say BCCT, could you explain for folks what that is?
Liz Irish: Benton County talks trash.
Advocate:: Thanks. Okay. And then I’m going to move to, uh, Mr. Shepherd. Um, Liz had around, uh, 2.5 minutes there when I followed up with her. So I’m going to give you two and a half if you need it.
Gabe Shepherd: All right. Thank you. Yeah. Well, uh, one of the things that I’ll agree with my opponent on is that there’s there are limits to what we can say legally about how what we’d support and what we’d oppose, because that could invalidate a future vote as a county commissioner, uh, by showing bias. So these are just some legal requirements that come along with the, the nature of land use. But there are lots of things we can talk about, like the deep, like the deeply concerning environmental impact of having residents live near a landfill. Uh, and, uh, the, the proximity of that landfill to the water table and the concerns about, uh, the leaking of chemicals from that landfill into the water table, uh, that a lot of people draw their drinking water from. Uh, I, I have seen pictures of the methane cloud, uh, that comes, that is emitted by our local landfill. And it is incredible. It is the amount of methane this landfill emits, um, in comparison to comparable landfills or, sorry, landfills or even larger landfills. Uh, it’s it’s disproportionate. How how much this landfill pollutes. Um, I have real concerns about the environmental impact of this landfill on our local, uh, on our local residents. And I’ve been out there quite a lot to Adair Village to Soap Creek, the area around there.
And people don’t feel like they’re being heard by their local government, and people don’t feel like the county is seriously engaging them in their concerns. Um, so I, you know, like I said, there’s a limit to what I can talk about. But I do think that, um, self regulating is not a good idea for private industry. Uh, just in general, we can laugh about it with Boeing because Boeing, Boeing planes have been self-regulating. And now, you know, doors are dropping out of the sky. Um, and our local landfills have been self regulating and self reporting the amount of leaks that they allegedly have. And recently, uh, I think it, uh, you know, our environmental the EPA went through counted a lot more leaks than, um, than the, than the Republic services self-reported. So I really do have these kind of concerns about the environmental impact of this landfill on our, on our area. Uh, and I’m not entirely convinced that, um, what we have been told, which is that having a landfill locally, uh, benefits our local ratepayers. Um, I believe that I, you know, I haven’t heard convincing evidence that that’s the case.
Advocate:: And then I, you know, I will follow up with you, Gabe. And also Liz, does the county have the authority to regulate any business, whether it’s a chemical plant or manufacturer of some sort? And then, yeah, a landfill? Does the county have the ability to regulate and even close down, perhaps, a chemical plant or other emitter, for its impacts on the community. Uh, Gabe, I’ll start with you.
Gabe Shepherd: I’m not going to speculate about the county’s legal authority to shut down private businesses. Um, I, I know that the county has a lot of there’s a lot of authority that’s that is invested in our local governments. Uh, and, uh, but I’m not going to speculate about whether or not they can shut it down or, or, you know, regulate it in certain ways. That’s something that I’d want to make an informed decision about and talk to a legal authority on that.
Advocate:: Okay. And then, uh, Liz, you as well.
Liz Irish: Yeah, I agree with Gabe on this. I think it’s more complicated than that. When we have Superfund sites, that sort of thing. You see the federal government come in right when there’s proof that there is some kind of massive contamination happening. It’s not as easy as, um, you know, the planning commission or community development, uh, saying we think you’re not complying, so therefore we’re shutting you down. I just haven’t seen that authority come through. And I didn’t hear that through the legal subcommittee.
Advocate:: Um, I think we’ve done as well as we can in this area. And I need to tell you that the next area, leadership, I’ll be starting with Gabe. We always get some questions about leadership, but not like we have this time. Um, overwhelming number. What we’re seeing is that there is quite a bit of concern out there about our area’s electeds, and if and how they are leading. In the instance of the county, folks pointed specifically to citizen advisory boards and work groups and seminars and Q&A sessions – and one questioner put it into specific relief in a way that we really heard it – they felt more like the county was invested in handling them than hearing them. You’re seeing this in context of the landfill. You saw it in context of the Justice Systems Improvement Project, uh, when all of that was being formed up a couple of years ago. There is real frustration out there. and folks are feeling their elected county leaders are simply out of touch with, uh, with voters in the, in the county. They’re frustrated and they are looking for a breath of fresh air. Could you, Gabe, articulate how, how you’ll be a different kind of leader for the county? Or alternatively, why you think maybe that the voters don’t quite have the full story? And then how would you work with the other commissioners and the staff at the county and other municipalities? And in, in terms of even state leadership, uh, as you’re lobbying to get things done, that is different than what the electorate is currently seeing. Two minutes. All right.
Gabe Shepherd: Well, I’ll start by, um, I’ll start by saying how I’ll be different than the current county commissioners. So, you know, anyone can go to my website and see my endorsements list, and they’ll notice that none of the incumbent county commissioners are on there. And that’s because I believe that I’m going to be trying to do something different. Um, I have committed to a town hall in every city, every community, every year. So I’m going to be out among, you know, out with the people in Adair. I’m going to be up in North Albany. I’m going to be out in Kings Valley, and I’m going to be listening to what people have to say about their county government. And this is one of the things that earned me the endorsement of former Congressman Peter DeFazio, because this is the type of governance that I think is the way that it should be done and the way it should specifically be done in Oregon. I also want to move county meetings to have at least one meeting a month after traditional work hours, so the general public can engage with their elected leadership, which is something that’s really difficult to do when meetings are during a workday.
As for partnering with other outside organizations, you can also see on my endorsement list, I have support from current and former city councilors from Corvallis, Albany, Philomath and Monroe, as well as state legislators. So these like building these relationships and making sure that our local people are heard and that their views are carried to other, other organizations. Uh, that’s something I, I am exceedingly ready to do. Um, you know, I’ve been a city councilor for four years. I’m starting my fourth year on the Corvallis City Council. I have that elected leaders leadership experience, and I’m ready to commit full time to a full time job of being the representative of the people and being out with the general public of of Benton County. This is this is one of the reasons why I’m running is that’s the type of job and that’s the type of person I want to be. Um, and I agree, I think that the people of the county, when I’m out talking to people, that’s the number one thing I hear is that they feel disconnected from the county government, from the current county commissioners, and from how the county government has been operating over the last few years.
Advocate:: And then I will move over to you Liz. Two minutes about the frustration that folks are feeling towards county staff and electeds? That they feel county staff are out of touch with with their constituents. Liz.
Liz Irish: Um, I think that, uh, it’s really interesting, um, that Gabe is trying to separate him from himself, from that whole feeling. I mean, he is an elected official in Corvallis. Uh, and I would I would venture to say Corvallis is part of that frustration. Um, I am I have not been an elected official. I’ve worked behind the scenes for many elected officials, and I like to call myself a professional meddler. I just go out and I help and I interact, and I do things like work on expungement clinics and, uh, with grading to come up with a mentorship program. Uh, not because I’m an elected official because that’s what I do. Um, the reason, um, that. Gabe didn’t have a great answer for how many homeless there are in our community is because he doesn’t have a great relationship with the organizations, the houseless organizations that we have currently. Um, I would challenge, uh, that he will be the fresh face of positive interaction and transparency coming to the county. The reason that the county commissioners, all three of them endorsed me is because I get things done. Everything I do, I actually get it done. I work hard, I work tirelessly, I’m not an elected official. And, um, I have what it takes to actually follow through in a, in a in a really thorough fashion. Um, I have many of, uh, endorsements from elected officials that I’ve worked with. Um, all of which support me completely and totally. Um, but Gabe’s amount of endorsements just show how long he has been a politician, and I haven’t. That’s simply all that is.
Advocate:: I’m going to allow, uh, 30 second rebuttal from each of you. Uh, starting with you, Gabe.
Gabe Shepherd: Yeah. So saying I’ve been a politician for a long time is an interesting statement. Um, I will say that I find it telling that my opponent spent most of her time talking about how she’d be a fresh face. Um, poking holes in or what she thought were holes in my statement about how I would be a fresh face. Um, yes. There are a lot of frustrations with the city of Corvallis that comes with being an elected official, and that comes with experience sitting down and having people tell you to your face while you’re while you’re doing something wrong. Uh, people who have real serious issues and passion, uh, with what’s going on and then doing your best to help them. Um, and I have for years. Uh, you know, I’m not a typical politician. I’m just. I have a degree in industrial engineering, and I left that. I left that, uh, life to be in public service because that’s something I’m very passionate about. And, um. Yeah, I guess I’ll end it there.
Advocate:: I allowed Mr. Shepherd. Uh, one full minute. Liz, I’m going to allow you the same.
Liz Irish: So I have a lot of lived experiences that are outside of politics. I’ve suffered trauma. I know what it’s like to have trauma. I have mental illness and addiction that has run through my family, and I have a special understanding for the homeless community because my family was homeless at one point. Um, I think that is what I bring is real life, lived experience and empathy and understanding for how the system works and how people are treated. Um, and the commissioners know that. Mayor Johnson knows that. And, um. I have also owned businesses and, uh, been the boss of many employees. Um, we currently have 600 employees, uh, at Benton County, and that is going to be a real job to manage. Um, and I am currently the only candidate that’s ever managed any human beings in the capacity of work. Um, and so I think that’s what I bring to the table.
Advocate:: Okay. I’m going to move over to the environment, but we’re going to do it very quickly. Um, it was another area that we received, actually a little more, um, question than we often get. Questions really came in three areas. What can the county do in terms of its operations to reduce its environmental impact? Um, how can the county help local businesses and residents to reduce their impact? And can the county have an impact beyond its borders? I’m going to go ahead and start with, um, start with Gabe on this, one full minute, really 1.5 minutes somewhere in there would be good. Yeah.
Gabe Shepherd: So I think the county has the opportunity to be a leader in the state, on environment, on the environment and combating climate change right now. The county’s climate action plan is two pages, and it is seriously internally focused. If we want to talk about politician plans like this is this is very much a local government plan. It is just about the operations of the county. I want to see this become a community plan. I want it I want to reevaluate what the climate Action Plan is right now for the county and bring people into that process and hear from people where out in the county, we can we can help them out. You know, the counties has the opportunity to be a great partner in lots of different things, including helping people make sure that their wells don’t run dry out and outside of Monroe, and that we have these escape routes for fire. I think that there’s opportunities to help local businesses. Yes, the county has a lot of, um, the county has a lot of opportunities to be a really good partner on on the environment. I have the support of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, one of the most premier like environmentally focused groups in the state. They know that I’m very that I care about the environment, and that is a passion of mine. And one of the reasons I ran for office in the first place when I was back in 2020, when I ran for Corvallis City Council. The council’s the Corvallis Council has done a lot of good work, and I think I can transfer some of that work to the county government.
Advocate:And then Liz.
Liz Irish: I agree with Gabe on this issue. I think that the county has just done really the bare minimum when it comes to any kind of climate action plan, and they’ve only looked within, um, I think they can still do more even yet within the county and how they’re managing from letting people telecommute a little bit more. Um, we also have many of our employees, uh, like residents commuting into the county. Housing will help with that. We’ll have less, uh, commuters from long distances. Um, and that has a positive environmental impact. Um, there are, uh, so many things we can do to partner with our agencies, including, uh, our existing landfill, to make the environment better. I think that this is going to be a community wide project to just kind of say, what else can we do to recycle, improve, uh, our usage and encourage our neighbors who are really the massive, massive contributors to the landfill? Uh, about their levels of consumption and use. This is a societal issue. We are a capitalistic society. And I really think that the only way we’re going to significantly tackle, uh, the environmental issues is to adjust our way of thinking as a county, as a country. Um, and that’s how we have to move forward.
Advocate:: Thank you. I’m going to kind of lightning round one or two questions. Then we’re going to move to closing. We had a lot of questions about JSIP and its defeat at the polls, but we also had a lot of questions about getting a new jail sometime in the future.. Apparently, the current one is not adequate in the eyes of many residents. And, um, what would be the plan going forward? It’s been defeated, I think four times. Uh, currently, there’s a plan to save some money and hope that voters can be approached to maybe pay for half of it at some point in the future. I’ll start with you, Liz. Um. The jail.
Liz Irish: Uh, the jail is inadequate. Uh, the jail is one of the smallest jails, uh, in the state. It is not safe. Uh, it is wore out. It is tired and it’s old. Um, and we’re, uh, sending many of our inmates to other parts of the state because we just don’t have the capacity to care for the inmates we have. Um, I think that we are going to have to come back to the voters at some point. But before we do that, we’re going to have to earn some trust. Um, I also know that we can do better with congressional spending packages and requests from the state for funding as well. Um, as a county, we have not done a great job, um, with federal funding and under the current, uh, speaker of the House on the federal level, uh, they have really pushed forward a lot of justice spending. Uh, they have not on education and, um, and health care, but they have on justice. And I think we can go there for that.
Advocate:: Mr. Shepherd. Uh, the jail.
Gabe Shepherd: Yeah, I agree that our local jail is inadequate and that it needs to be expanded, and that at some point we will likely need to talk to the voters again about, um, about that funding. I will say that I had, though, I voted for it and I endorsed the measure. I also publicly expressed concerns about the last bond. Um, and those concerns proved to be true with a 57% fail, uh, fail vote. And I really think the county lost a lot of trust in people. I was actually out there, um, talking to people about the bond, because that’s my role as chair of the Benton County Democrats. As I’m out there, uh, and talking about the things that are that our party endorsed, including the bond. And I heard from so many people just how how they felt like they were being lied to and misled. And I think that goes back to a fresh new voice in our, in our county, um, someone who will actually go and listen to the people and engage with people about how we can fund our local justice center and fund our criminal justice system here in Benton County, in a progressive and good way.
Advocate:: And then we’ll move to closing. There’s no way to cover it all in an hour. Uh, League of Women voters will likely also do a debate. I also believe there’s a debate online, I believe, available from the Chamber of Commerce. So there’s a lot of material out there. And, of course, you can go to the websites for each of these candidates and ask them questions directly. Um, we started with Gabe Shepherd. So, first closing will go to Liz, one minute. Why should folks vote for you?
Liz Irish: Uh, Gabe likes to say he’s the fresh new face, but he’s been around for a while. I would say that he’s not. If you really want a fresh new face, it would be somebody who’s not an elected official, hasn’t been an elected official, and who’s been knee deep in helping the county and helping individuals and helping other cities come through their problems when they weren’t elected officials, not because they were obligated, but because I actually care. Um, and so I look forward to serving the county and being transparent and approachable as I’ve always been. And I’m super excited to continue to tackle these issues, uh, because it’s going to take all of us to lock arms and come through some of these really difficult discussions, like landfills and housing.
Advocate:: Mr. Shepherd, up to 60 seconds. Why vote for you?
Gabe Shepherd: Thank you. Steve. Um, I’m going to be a progressive voice on the county commission, something that I think the county is lacking right now. I’m going to focus on affordable housing, on climate action, and seriously on public engagement and making sure that the general public is heard. You can hear a lot about what I stand for and yes, the long list of people who support me. And that’s because of the work that I’ve done, uh, here in our county, here in our city, in Corvallis and across the state. Um, you can go to my website, Gabe shepherd.com and see who supports me and how you can get involved. And I really hope I can earn your vote. Um, because, you know, there’s a lot of things that happen around here that are really important to, to the general public. And I’ve made a lot of progress on things that our, our public cares about, including ranked choice voting, affordable housing, uh, health care, all these type of things. As a city councilor, I’ve been an advocate for a while. Uh, and yeah, that means I’m experienced. So I really hope I can earn your vote and earn your support.
Advocate:: Thank you Mr. Shepherd and Ms. Irish. Thank you for the hour. And to our viewers, thank you for your interest. Ballots will be arriving in mailboxes soon, and they need to be dropped or postmarked by May 21st.
The Advocate used a third-party service to transcribe the video, and we’ve made minimal edits to the transcript for clarity and accuracy.
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