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Since Deschutes County was formed in 1916, three elected officials have served on its legislative body.

That could change in November, when voters will decide on whether or not to expand the Deschutes County Commission to five members.

A citizens’ initiative met an Aug. 7 deadline to gather enough signatures to appear on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.

“November was always the goal,” said John Heylin, a Bend business owner who launched the petition last year. “I didn’t know if we were actually going to hit it. We made it with time to spare.”

The petition passed the threshold of 6,581 signatures — calculated as a portion of the number of voters who participated in recent elections — after a surge of signatures in the past two months collected at farmers markets, concerts and festivals in Bend by Heylin and a few volunteers.

“Now I have to figure out how I’m going to sell this thing to people, which is a lot easier than standing out in 100-degree heat trying to get signatures,” he said.

Heylin said he’s not planning any social media or billboard campaigns because of a lack of funding. The petition’s political action committee, Represent Deschutes, has received about $850 in miscellaneous contributions from private citizens. Its largest expense has been printing signature sheets, Heylin said.

Heylin moved to Bend from Canyon, California, shortly before the pandemic. He co-owns Unofficial Logging Co., an ax-throwing bar in downtown Bend, and serves on several city committees, as well as the board of Bend YIMBY, a pro-housing group.

He believes the three-member County Commission is “inherently dysfunctional,” has led to bad decision-making, and that the growing county needs more representation.

His efforts gained support from Commissioner Phil Chang. He said the change is overdue in a county where the population has ballooned from 30,000 to more than 210,000 since 1970.

A five-member board would have a greater ability to avoid poor financial decision-making that has cost the county millions in recent years, Chang said.

“I would hope that with five brains instead of three we could make better decisions,” he said.

The ballot measure could also change the way commissioners interact with one another. Public meetings law forbids a majority of members of any decision-making board from meeting with one another in an unofficial capacity, even if just for a cup of coffee.

With a larger board, two members could pre-process issues in a more relaxed environment, leading to smoother decision-making, Chang said.

Commissioner Tony DeBone sees that as a downside. He said one-on-one meetings between officials could lead to predetermined decision-making, robbing the public meetings of deep discussion.

Chang disagrees.

“It’s complementary to and enhancing the public process that people witness,” he said.

DeBone and Commissioner Patti Adair, who hold the Republican majority on the commission, voted against placing the measure on the ballot themselves in 2023, requiring Heylin to pursue the thousands of signatures.

DeBone argued that two more commissioners would put an added burden on the county budget. The base salary for commissioners is $130,000 plus benefits and other expenses.

“If you believe in focused government — paving roads, responding to health needs, keeping your government in a narrow lane — if you believe in that, you probably don’t want to see five,” he said.

Deschutes County Republican Party Chair Scott Stuart, who encouraged voters to vote against the measure, cast the petition as a tactic by Democrats to gain control of the County Commission. He believes left-leaning candidates will have the upper hand in elections for the two new at-large seats, given registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 48,000 to 44,200 in Deschutes County.

Measure 9-173 would take a simple majority of yes votes to pass. The two new seats would be elected in 2026 for a two-year term and then serve four-year terms following the 2028 election.

Chang, a Democrat, said he believes the two new seats would lend themselves to “moderate, pragmatic problem solvers,” mostly because of another recent change to the structure of the County Commission — a 2022 ballot measure in Deschutes County that nixed partisan elections.

Under the new structure, candidates face off against the entire field during primary elections rather than other individuals in their own parties. Now, Chang said, candidates in primary elections will have to appeal to Deschutes County’s largest voting population — 55,000 unaffiliated voters who were previously excluded from voting in partisan primaries.

The recently-approved partisan change and the expanded board, along with creating geographic districts, were part of a proposed County Commission reform package voters shot down in 2006.

Heylin said his petition isn’t politically motivated.

“I don’t really care. I just think we need two more seats,” he said.

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Party affiliations will not be noted on upcoming Deschutes County Commission race