Four candidates are running for the same seat on the Deschutes County Commission in the May 21 primary.

The Bulletin asked the same questions of each candidate to get a sense for their perspectives and priorities ahead of the primary.

The following has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Phil Chang

Age: 54

Background: Chang, the incumbent, was first elected in 2020 as a Democrat. Prior to serving on the commission, he worked in the natural resources field on water, forest and wildlife stewardship.

What makes you the best candidate for the job, and what sets you apart from your opponents?

I am very focused on certain issues, which I think are the highest priorities for our community. The pillars of my campaign platform are building more housing without sacrificing our rural environment, expanding mental health and addiction treatment services and increasing our drought and wildfire resilience.

These are things that either I had substantial expertise in before or have developed some expertise in as of now. And by expertise, I also mean just knowing who to ask, knowing who the experts are. And I’ve been able to accomplish some significant things in those areas, and I’d like to continue that work.

People have have poked at me quite a lot about, “Well, you don’t seem to get along with your fellow commissioners.” And, you know, one of my best responses to that is, you know, I am often the critical second vote on some of the most important things that we get done.

What do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing the commission in the next five years, and how will you seek to address those challenges?

Growth management. I would say the creation of the deflection programs that are coming out of House Bill 4002, the Measure 110 reform package, which is basically the county’s job. Related, but not completely overlapping with that is, you know, addressing our increasing incidents of mental illness in our community. And the other two pieces of my campaign platform are drought and wildfire resiliency.

With growth management, the county’s role in producing housing is kind of peripheral within the state land use planning system. Most housing is supposed to go inside incorporated cities. My fellow commissioners, really, really believe in low density rural residential development, and they would like to rezone exclusive farm use-zone land and they’d like to allow more destination resorts. And I say that A, that’s not the housing that we need. We need housing that’s attainable and affordable to our local workforce. And the B, it’s also a pattern of development that just consumes our farm, forest and high desert land.

The deflection program is going to be the key to the Measure 110 reform package actually helping to reduce rates of addiction in our community. I see my job, early on, as kind of trying to manage political pressures that are being placed on this group so that they can do their work, and they can do it right.

What is currently missing from the commission or the county that you’d like to add if elected?

I would say all the things I just described are my highest priorities. One pet project that I will only get to move along if I get elected to a second term is a new county park with a campground on the north side of the city of Bend.

One of the big problems with county parks is that a county park that is only open for day use is a money sink. County parks with campgrounds have a much better opportunity to either be revenue neutral or even revenue positive. And, you know, we have so much dispersed camping on our federal lands right outside the city of Bend. I think a developed campground in a nice spot that has plumbing, toilets, water, maybe even electrical hook-ups, wifi — I think it has a role to play in drawing some of the van life component out of our federal lands. Then it would make it easier to know where our homeless folks are and, you know, to do outreach and support them or send law enforcement to work with them as necessary.

Brian Huntamer

Age: 73

Background: Huntamer is a U.S. Army veteran who has had a long career in construction, mostly as a general contractor. He said he is also a licensed real estate broker and a drug and alcohol counselor.

What makes you the best candidate for the job, and what sets you apart from your opponents?

Well, I’m definitely the one that has the most real life experiences. I’ve worked in the mental health field, and I have a great ability to empathize with people.

I also know that within Deschutes County, there are a lot of people — most people — that have the things that are most important to them. For instance, in La Pine, we were at the senior center. Of course, their issues were of seniors, and it had to do with health care. There were also people down there saying ‘We’re really tired of trying to get a permit to build something, but our septic systems are failing.’ Those issues that are unique to a particular area in the county, I think they really need to be listened to, you know. If you’re over in Sisters, let’s say, you’re not going to have a groundwater problem.

So I’m really concerned about public safety. I know people are, are in fear a lot, you know.

Residents need to be be informed of what is going on in their neighborhood, who’s moving in next door. And they don’t need to be the last to know. They need to be the first to know, right? It’s very important that you do not allow a sex offender use shelter to come into a residential area where they’re right next to kids and schools and things like that.

What do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing the commission in the next five years, and how will you seek to address those challenges?

The issue of the children and teens, they’re in a national crisis and a local crisis. And I think that we need to really address those issues. I mean, they’re our future. Having a home, a safe home and a place to be safe and a place for them to express themselves and not have to worry about what their peers are gonna think about it, or anybody else is gonna think about it, is important.

Housing needs are really important, also. I don’t know which one is the most important, least important. I think it all depends upon who is it affecting. You know, what are the reasons? What is their situation? But if someone earnestly needs a place to live, let’s say they’re homeless, you know, I’m all for helping them out and doing what we can. Let’s find them programs. But at the same time, I think there needs to be clarity on what is the definition of homeless.

What is currently missing from the commission or the county that you’d like to add if elected?

I think it really goes back to really listening to the people with empathy, understanding what it’s like to be in their shoes. I mean, that’s what I bring to the table because I’ve been in all of these spots.

I don’t think we’ve talked about adding two more commissioners to be able to handle it. I disagree. I don’t think it’s necessary if the three work together.

Rob Imhoff

Age: 50

Background: Imhoff has owned and operated a subcontracting business for the past 22 years. He has also been a youth pastor and youth sports coach.

What makes you the best candidate for the job, and what sets you apart from your opponents?

I have built many relationships within the construction industry, working on many of the largest projects in Central Oregon. I have also been coaching youth sports all the way up to the varsity high school level for all of my children. I have served on boards of directors and advisory committees during my tenures.

I have had to balance the budget of my own company, as well as my time as a pastor of a fairly large church, so working with others to be efficient and accountable in our spending is something I have had a lot of experience with. I am a husband, father, and grandfather and we are all life-long born and raised Oregonians.

What do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing the commission in the next five years, and how will you seek to address those challenges?

Homelessness. I have witnessed addiction and mental health contributing to this loss in housing and stability. I will seek to take a truly compassionate approach, that has both accountability, metrics, and a hand-up path out of this often hopeless circumstance. I would argue that throwing additional resources, namely funding, has only fed and grown this issue, so we need to take a different approach if we are going to see any long-term success.

Housing. We have a very capable and skilled workforce, but need to grow this sector, and housing for them, in order to address our shortage in workforce and single-family housing that is affordable. We need to commit to tireless efforts to bring all solutions and partners to the table to chart a path forward that is founded in good land stewardship practices, while still allowing for the growth and opportunity for each person to realize their dream of a place to call home.

Local Resource Management and Control. It is frustrating that 80% of our Deschutes County land is public, yet often our voice as a county is muted or dismissed, as the state or federal managing agencies are taking the lead with our resource, land, and wildlife management. I will work to give more voice to the will and desires of the residents of Deschutes County, as we are all the ones left with the consequences of these decisions, and are ultimately the ones tasked with financing many of these projects through our tax dollars.

What is currently missing from the commission or the county that you’d like to add if elected?

My initial focus will be looking at our budget line items for any unnecessary or redundant expenses, and then look for intentional partnership opportunities, within the private sector, our sheriff’s office, and our great team of county employees, to develop strategies designed to combat homelessness, drug abuse and addiction, and insufficient workforce housing. We can start this by restructuring or removing any restrictive, penalizing, and unnecessary fees, which likely inhibit our ability to address the infrastructure needs, to meet the inevitable and consistent population growth we are experiencing in our county.

Judy Trego

Age: 61

Background: Trego currently works for the Sisters Chamber of Commerce. She has run for public office numerous times, most recently state House District 54 in 2022, and she has worked on multiple political campaigns. Trego also sits on the county’s budget committee.

What makes you the best candidate for the job, and what sets you apart from your opponents?

I have business, community and government experience. So that definitely sets me apart from the others. I’m also uniquely qualified. I have the skills and the temperament to do the job.

What do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing the commission in the next five years, and how will you seek to address those challenges?

The biggest challenge right now is going to be the budget and looking at ways to reduce costs and increase revenues for shared services, meaning state and county, state mandated services and lobbying on behalf of the county to partner with the state on shared services for funding for projects that the county needs.

The issues that, obviously, the community are dealing with is the homeless situation and the cost of housing. And so that is impacting our livability in the community.

So if you have a single parent raising children, working in the community, and they’re homeless, we need to get them into housing right away. And also prevention. The first piece is to prevent people from becoming homeless by providing services and funding and if they need their rent paid for a month or down payment assistance. So that’s the prevention piece. And then there is this chronic piece that people talk about that is harder to address. Because what I’ve heard is some of the chronically homeless don’t want to go into shelters. You know, and so working with them with wraparound services is really important.

The other area is obviously the cost of housing. And what the folks in the community that I’ve talked to have said is they’re upset because we hear the need for workforce and affordable housing, but all the community sees going up is $800,000 homes. And so where can we improve the amount of affordable and workforce housing units that we need? There are ways to address it. The county does own land, so the county can provide land at a reduced cost to altruistic developers who are looking to build workforce and affordable housing. We can also reduce SDCs (system development charges) and permit fees in order to draw down the costs cost of development and make it pencil for our developers.

What is currently missing from the commission or the county that you’d like to add if elected?

My concern about the county is I have not seen the county in 30 years be in the condition it is today. So I believe that the board of county commissioners is becoming a debate club versus getting things done. I know that my opponent, who’s in there now, really, I think, has a hard time getting things accomplished with the current county commissioners. And so I think I am in a much better position to be able to work with those two county commissioners.

I’ve worked across the aisle the 30 years of my entire career, and I have been able to accomplish things working with the Democrats and Republicans and independents that benefit community. And so I do see that that is a missing piece. I think the ability to work together and spend less time debating and more time getting things done is something that I would advocate for.