Incumbents and challengers for the three commissioner positions in Lane County met for a forum in the Prince Lucian Campbell auditorium. The ten candidates traded subtle insults while the almost 70 audience members interrupted with clapping, booing, and laughing.
The most contentious moment of the evening came when candidate Sid Leiken said the state isn’t logging enough. A man with a ponytail and long beaded necklaces burst into loud, sarcastic laughter, and Leiken responded, “Where’s the respect? That’s okay, I’ve been heckled worse than that.”
Candidates agreed on some matters, like increasing public safety, deemphasizing logging in favor of other types of economic growth, and trying to alleviate homelessness. However, they clashed on funding issues, what the county should do to help the homeless and how much and what type of logging should be done.
Five full-time, paid county commissioners legislate and administer Lane County government. Two current commissioners weren’t at the event because no one is running for their spot. There were three incumbents and seven challengers at the forum.
Jay Bozievich is the incumbent for the west Lane district, challenged by Dawn Lesley. Lesley said she was angry about “partisan bickering” within county government, and mentioned that she was following Bozievich’s recent legal trouble and his coworker’s corruption charges. She said Bozievich’s “extreme politics don’t represent this moderate district.” Lesley also complained about 911 calls going unanswered, and said the “public safety crisis” could be solved by auditing the county to reduce government waste. Bozievich stressed what he said were his successes giving grants to help farmers, helping expand tourism with the county, and alleviating homelessness.
Sid Leiken is the incumbent Springfield commissioner. Sheri Moore and Charmaine Rehg are also running for that seat. Leiken served on the board of National Christian University (NCU), and has “extensive private sector” experience. He empasized that economic development and environmental protection go hand in hand, and said his dry cleaning business was one of the first to go green.
“I’m a hardworking unpaid volunteer because I care,” Moore Said. She rattled off over a dozen arts, community, and government groups she participates in. She also mentioned the partisan climate in the county and talked about how she wants to “restore honesty and respect to Lane County” and encourage agriculture and the health care sector. Rehg is the vice president of the Washburn Homeowners Society and used to work at a methadone clinic. She wants to find new ways of brining money to the community rather than “this knee-jerk Wyden/DeFazio reaction to cut more trees.”
Kevin Matthews and Jack Schoolcraft are both vying for the east Lane spot now occupied by Faye Stewart. Stewart grew up working on his dad’s logging business and is a fourth generation Lane County resident. He wants to increase jail capacity and hire more deputies so that all crimes will be prosecuted.
Matthews has been a small business owner for 20 years, as well as a ranch hand and educator. He said that “to build trust you have to be trustworthy” and criticized the “conservative majority” in the county that wants to “go back to the past” in the timber industry. Schoolcraft is a UO alum and a Vietnam veteran who is a craftsman and writes sci-fi novels. He wants to limit government salaries and end county hires from outside the area, because non-locals who leave declining cities to work in Lane County are just “rats fleeing a sinking ship.”
Also running for the east Lane spot are Jose Ortal and Joann Ernst, who didn’t attend the forum.
The forum, which ran from 7-9 pm Wednesday evening, was hosted by the College Republicans and moderated by Camille Lieruance, an Emerald reporter.