Central Oregon Community College’s director of student life is the latest candidate seeking election to the Bend City Council, which will have two open seats and its first elected mayor on the November ballot.

Andrew Davis, 34, said Wednesday that he’s running for City Council to serve the community where he was born and raised.

“We need people to get involved who care about the community,” Davis said. “I really like Bend, and I’m proud to call it home.”

He said he’s still working out what his priorities would be if he were elected, but he cares strongly about affordable housing and improving city infrastructure. Davis hasn’t run for elected office before, though he has served as vice chairman and secretary of the Orchard District Neighborhood Association.

Davis joined COCC in 2016. He previously worked at Oregon State University-Cascades for seven years in its student life department.

He said his day-to-day work involves a lot of working with people and facilitating discussion, skills he wants to bring to the City Council.

“Something that’s sort of spurred me on is that it feels like at a more national level, politics has gotten more combative,” Davis said. “I want to help facilitate a moderate conversation.”

Davis graduated from COCC and OSU-Cascades and has an MBA from Eastern Oregon University. He has three young children.

In 2002, he was one of 11 valedictorians from Mountain View High School and was asked to rewrite his speech because it focused too much on his belief in God, according to Bulletin archives.

Davis seeks the same City Council seat, position 5, as perennial candidate Ron “Rondo” Boozell.

Mayor Casey Roats is running for the other open council seat, position 6. City Councilor Barb Campbell, whose term also expires in 2019, has not yet announced whether she plans to seek re-election.

Five people — Mayor Pro Tem Sally Russell, Councilor Bill Moseley and Bend residents Charles Baer, Brian Douglass and Timothy Heckler — are running to become Bend’s first elected mayor. All council and mayoral candidates must collect at least 150 signatures from Bend voters to qualify for the ballot. Only Russell and Baer have turned in signatures thus far.

— Reporter: 541-633-2160; jshumway@bendbulletin.com