With two seats on the Washington County Board of Commissioners up for grabs, the candidates for each race responded to constituents’ burning questions at the Beaverton Voters’ Forum.
On Wednesday, May 1, candidates Nafisa Fai, Peter Huhtala, Jenny Kamprath and Jason Snider responded to community-submitted questions about transportation, election integrity, development and more. Eric Schmidt, a veteran in the Portland media landscape and League of Women Voters steering committee member, moderated the forum.
An audience of 121 people attended the event in person, and 400 more live streamed the event. More than 100 questions were submitted online ahead of the forum, and questions were also taken live during the event.
A recording of the forum can be found on the TCVTV YouTube channel and it will also be replayed until the election in Spanish and English on TVCTV channels 28 and 30.
Though each candidate only faces one challenger in their respective race — Fai and Kamprath face off for District 1, and Huhtala and Snider are in the race for District 3 — all four were asked the same questions.
Here are the highlights for the evening:
Potential redevelopment of RedTail Golf Course
The Washington County candidates were queried on their thoughts about RedTail Golf Course, which has been eyed by the Portland Diamond Project for potential redevelopment into a Major League Baseball stadium.
Fai, Kamprath and Snider had concerns about the traffic issues the development could cause.
“I certainly am excited about the potential economic development opportunities, but I think it really poses a lot of challenges for transportation, logistics and really impacting the communities both of Tigard and Beaverton and Portland,” Snider said.
“We do not have roads that are capable right now to maintain the traffic congestions that currently exist in that neighborhood and those roads, as well as baseball fans,” Fai said.
Huhtala said he sees potential for the location to be a nature preserve in the future.
Election integrity
Another submitted question asked the candidates for their thoughts on Washington County’s election system, and if any changes need to be made to the process.
Fai, Huhtala and Snider all spoke in favor of vote-by-mail systems.
“Well, I’m an enthusiastic supporter of Oregon’s vote-by-mail system which Washington County Elections implements in our county. I think it should be the standard throughout the entire country,” Snider said. “And the fact that it’s not and that people in many states don’t receive a voters pamphlet that has any information about what they’re voting on, is absolutely disgusting to me from a democracy perspective.”
“I can guarantee you this, and I would say this if I wasn’t a sitting commissioner: Your ballots are in great hands,” Fai said. “Do not buy into the misinformation and disinformation, your ballots are safe.”
Kamprath disagreed.
“I am not comfortable with the election system here. I think that we need same-day voting, paper ballots and hand counting. I think, nationwide, fraud and all kinds of monkey business going on with mail-in ballots,” Kamprath said. “We also have a voting season instead of voting day, which also creates problems.”
Public health
The Washington County Board of Commissioners, among other responsibilities, serves as the county’s public health authority. The candidates were asked if the county’s public health system is handling current stressors adequately, and how it should finance improvements.
Snider said he’d like to see more of a focus on mental health in children and teens.
“I would specifically point out youth mental health specifically as the area that when I’m listening and interacting in the community is the biggest issue that is not addressed,” Snider said. “I don’t think the county, with its primary responsibility around mental health, is doing nearly enough to coordinate. My priority there would be to have them coordinating with the cities and the school districts in a much more active way.”
Huhtala said there are long-run savings to be had when mental health issues are treated earlier in someone’s life rather than later on, and the county should focus on that as well as tackling drug and addiction problems.
“Taking care of the mental health of our children in middle school, high school saves a whole heck of a lot of money over taking care of the problems that arise as untreated adults,” Huhtala said. “We should focus on that, absolutely, as well as moving in on these narcotics.”
Fai said it’s important to recognize that these are services for which the county shares responsibility.
“Yes, as always, more can be done. Behavioral health issues, these are real issues, and it’s impacting our residents,” Fai said. “Washington County, we are the mental health authority as well as the public health authority, but this is a shared service as well. So it really comes down to resources and also connecting with your state legislators and your state representative to fund behavioral health appropriately, to have those courageous conversations to streamline the system.”
Kamprath focused on addiction issues.
“There’s a big issue with drug addiction and homelessness, which I have dealt with personally. You have to join the two, then separate the two. A lot of drug addiction looks like mental health issues,” Kamprath said. “I think there needs to be mandatory detox for people who are picked up for drug issues because people on drugs can’t even think straight until they’re detoxed, so then you can separate them out from those with mental health. It’s a problem. It’s a complex problem.”
Public transportation
Another question asked candidates how Washington County can reduce community reliance on personal automobiles.
Huhtala said one of his biggest priorities is advocating for environmentally friendly public transportation.
“We can’t continue creating infrastructure that increases global warming,” Huhtala said. “We’ve got to make decisions that take it back.”
Snider said it’s important to think about designing transit-oriented communities when conversations about public transportation arise. He added that he thinks Washington County is less well-served by TriMet than Multnomah County.
Kamprath said she doesn’t see being able to forgo personal vehicles in the near future for the county.
“Washington County is a big county; a lot of people don’t live near mass transportation. It’s not available in most areas of Washington County,” Kamprath said. “I think trying to reduce automobile traffic and all that goes with it is a long way off for Washington County.”
Fai said transit studies will help identify “low-hanging fruit” with regard to transportation needs that can be more easily implemented while larger plans to increase public transit access are developed.
Urban growth boundary expansion
Candidates were asked for their thoughts on urban growth boundary expansion.
“The purpose of the urban growth boundary is to make sure that there’s enough buildable land for housing out a certain period of time, 20-30 years, and for industrial development, while also preserving as much farmland and natural resources as possible,” Snider said. “That is its purpose, and I’m supportive of expanding it when that needs to happen for those purposes, and when it doesn’t need to happen I’m not supportive of it.”
Huhtala spoke on the importance of preserving farmland and said the county should find ways to better utilize the urban spaces it already has.
“One thing we need to do more of is focus in the urban areas, where we can loosen up the zoning requirements so we can build more on larger lots in town,” Huhtala said.
Kamprath said the boundary needs to be expanded to allow for more housing to be built and bring down housing costs.
Fai said there’s a reason for statewide planning goals, and we need to follow them.
“I am not for expanding the UGB growth for the sake of expanding,” Fai said. “We need to protect our farmland, we need to follow the statewide goals, and we also need to make sure we balance the need for housing.”
Clean Water Services
Finally, candidates gave their takes about what they see as the biggest issue facing Clean Water services, as county commissioners serve on its board of directors.
“One huge issue is dealing with the chemicals that seem to be appearing everywhere, the forever chemicals,” Huhtala said.
Snider said he thinks the biggest issues are with funding and the organizational structure.
“There’s a couple of different issues that are really squarely facing Clean Water Services. One is the aging infrastructure of their systems and how to pay for replacement, maintenance, etc.,” Snider said. “There’s also some significant governance questions that I think have arisen in the last few months that are really important about what Clean Water Services role is in the community, and they’ve got their hands and a lot more things than probably the current governance structure is acceptable for. That sounds probably like a lot of technical speak, but this is actually a really important oversight and governance question, as I mentioned, that needs to be addressed to keep the organization compliant and the county compliant.”
Fai said the current board is looking at Clean Water Services governance structure to decide if there is a better way for it to be operated.
Kamprath said her concern is about long term maintenance, but she thinks the organization is doing a good job.
“We’re not going to stop growing out here, and we need to maintain what we’ve got,” Kamprath said.
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