Candidates for the Deschutes County Commission engaged in a typical display of back-and-forth ideas Thursday night as they debated what they thought was the proper direction for the county’s future.

Two commissioner positions are up for election this year: Position 1 and Position 3. The first is currently occupied by Republican Tony DeBone, who is seeking a fourth term on the commission, and he is being challenged by nurse and Democrat Oliver Tatom. The third position is occupied by Republican Patti Adair, who is seeking a second term. Democratic challenger Morgan Schmidt is a pastor and the founder of Pandemic Partners, a grassroots organization offering community support.

At a televised debate hosted by KTVZ, candidates bounced from topic to topic. They began with affordable housing and homelessness, shifted to psilocybin regulations, and they touched on the possibility of a nonpartisan governing body.

On housing, all four candidates agreed that it was among one of the biggest issues this election cycle. But they disagree along party lines on how to increase affordable housing stock.

DeBone refuted the idea that he advocates for rural sprawl. Instead, he advocated for growth management and feeding an evolving economy to promote growth within cities.

Both Tatom and Schmidt mentioned the difficulty of retaining a workforce amid a housing shortage.

“We’re losing people because it is simply too expensive to stay,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said she envisions collaboration with cities, maintaining open lands and creating more deed-restricted housing on county land as a way to supplement affordable housing options.

On psilocybin, Adair and DeBone voted this summer in favor of offering voters in unincorporated parts of the county the opportunity to opt out of psilocybin services.

After voters approved ballot Measure 109 in 2020, Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin therapy with the hallucinogenic drug, which has shown to be an effective treatment for anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, depression and addiction. But municipalities could vote to opt out. The issue is on the ballot on Nov. 8 in Deschutes County and several other locations.

“A lot of rules are still a bit unknown,” Adair said.

She argued she requires more clarity on the Oregon Health Authority’s rules, and county residents can still access psilocybin within Bend city limits.

Simultaneous to the candidates’ discussion of psilocybin, residents from various parts of Deschutes County testified before the county planning commission on the same matter. Several emphasized the importance of natural, rural spaces in the effectiveness of psilocybin therapy.

While Adair and DeBone say psilocybin services are primarily a land use issue, Schmidt and Tatom say it’s much more than that — especially for people looking for mental health services, Schmidt said.

Also on the ballot in November is a measure asking voters if the County Commission seats and elections should be nonpartisan.

“When it comes to partisan seats, I like the idea that you know where somebody is coming from,” DeBone said, who signed the petition to offer the issue to voters.

Schmidt and Tatom argued that the seat and election should be nonpartisan because unaffiliated voters are left out of the primary process.

“However, I’m not sure that it will actually lead to a less partisan or less polarized board of commissioners,” Tatom said. “I think we can look at recent history on our Bend City Council or today on our Redmond City Council to see that polarization continues to infect our local governments even when there aren’t partisan letters next to their names on the ballot.”

The four candidates will appear together again at a debate hosted by the League of Women Voters and Bend City Club at 6:30 on Thursday, Oct. 20, at the County Services Building. The debate is free and open to the public, and it will be recorded and posted online for later viewing.

Election Day is Nov. 8, and the deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, Oct. 18.