Two Deschutes County commissioners oppose concept of expanding the board

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Monday, 2/3 of the Deschutes County Commissioners said "no" to the idea of expanding the board.

Conservative Commissioners Patti Adair and Tony DeBone are not in favor of asking voters if they should expand the board of Commissioners to 5 seats.

Democrat, Phil Chang says Deschutes County has more than 200,000 community members and is growing - they need more help. 

On the other side, DeBone, who is a Republican, believes it's simply not necessary.

Since 1971 Deschutes County has had 3 Commissioners. At that time, the population was just a little more than 33,000.

There'll now be a citizen petition committee, who'll get together and organize, gathering the required 8800 valid signatures, to get the question on the ballad which is: should the Commission expand the board from three to 5 seats?

Commissioner Chang says, this process should happen sometime next year.