Topographic map of Deschutes County.

Deschutes County commissioners on Monday picked the members of a committee responsible for creating a new district map to be placed on the ballot for voter approval in 2026.

Committee members are mostly set, except for the three seats assigned to be chosen by Commissioner Phil Chang, who said he will narrow down a list of five candidates by Wednesday morning. Commissioners Tony DeBone and Patti Adair announced their final selections during Monday’s board meeting.

That small difference is another wrinkle in a larger political battle as commissioners jockey over a districting process that could sway county elections for the new five-member board for years to come.

Commissioners would ultimately have to approve the district maps created by the committee before they head to the ballot.

Voters approved a 2024 ballot measure expanding the county commission from three to five members in the 2026 election. Districts, should they also be approved, wouldn’t take effect until the 2028 election.

Chang, the lone Democrat on the commission, has said the county should use a more meticulous process to ensure the district-drawing committee represents geographic and political diversity of Deschutes County. Adair and DeBone have shown little interest, instead opting for a simple formula of two votes each for themselves and three for Chang.

“The other two commissioners, they didn’t want to coordinate in advance,” Chang said during a phone call Tuesday. “They just wanted to say, ‘well, here’s my two,’ which leaves me the job of trying to balance out the committee.”

Chang on Tuesday was still finalizing his three appointments from a list of five candidates: Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler; Andrew Kaza, Redmond resident and a leader with the state’s Independent party; Bend resident Carol Loesche, president of the League of Women Voters in Deschutes County; Tumalo resident Jim Porter, former Bend Police Chief and board member for Central Oregon Community College; and Bryce Kellogg, an ecologist in Bend and board president with the Central Oregon Avalanche Association.

Adair tapped Phil Henderson, former Deschutes County Commissioner from Bend and Republican Party leader, and Matt Cyrus, of Sisters, a member of the county’s planning commission and fifth generation farmer and entrepreneur.

DeBone selected Bernie Brader, a community festival organizer in La Pine, and Ned Dempsey, a longtime civil engineer in Bend who was the primary consultant when the city built its first sewer system in the early 1980s.

The question remains if — and to what extent — political bias could shape districts that favor one party or another.

Chang said he was “disappointed” to see what he felt was a lack of political diversity in Adair’s picks.

“We’ll see whether they can rise to the occasion,” Chang said.

Henderson, a former chair of the county’s Republican party, said he wants to make sure people in rural areas get fair representation, given they don’t already have city elected officials for representation.

The committee could have representation from a prominent Democrat in Kebler. Democrat-dominated city councils across Deschutes County  backed the ballot measure to expand the county commission. Republicans cast the effort as a partisan drive to take control of the board.

Dempsey, one of Debone’s picks, said he learned not to pick political sides during his long career working as an engineer with local governments — and he’s taking the same approach for districting.

But he has unanswered questions about the process.

“How are they going to know when we succeed?” Dempsey said Monday. “I want to know what the commissioners’ overall goal is.”