Board yet to fill Brady’s seat

THE DALLES — With the sudden passing of Commissioner Phillip Brady on May 19, county leadership has been thrust into a decision-making process on how to fill the board’s third seat for the remaining months of Brady’s term.

The State of Oregon allows sitting county board members to determine their own procedure for filling a vacated seat, and at the July 1 county board meeting, Commission Chair Scott Hege and Commissioner Jeff Justesen opted to defer their decision until the following meeting on July 15.

Hanging over these choices is the short duration left in Brady’s first term and the single advancing primary candidate in November’s election. Brady leaves behind not only his current seat, but the lead in the May primary, making Mike Urness the sole candidate for this position on the November ballot.

Hege said he feels appointing a third commissioner is not urgent.

“I will say that in terms of how it’s going, it’s going fine. It’s clearly a little more work on both Jeff and I,” he said, noting that many of the board positions he and Justesen have taken on for Brady are roles that they’ve held in previous years.

At last month’s county board meeting June 17, County Administrator Tyler Stone introduced five viable pathways forward.

The Hybrid or Full-term Caretaker Approach

First, after a 14-day application window, the commissioners would appoint a temporary “caretaker” to fill the seat. This person would either resign upon the certification of the November election and the board would appoint the election winner to immediately replace the caretaker (Hybrid Caretaker), or resign at the end of Brady’s term and the election winner would begin at their regularly scheduled appointment time of Jan. 1 (Full-term Caretaker).

Stone noted that this option protects the board’s quorum and ability to meet, should another of the commissioners become unable to attend a meeting in the summer and fall. However, it requires more administrative costs with selecting and onboarding a new commissioner, only to repeat this onboarding labor with the newly elected commissioner a few months later. Hege acknowledged that some effort could be spared if a previous commissioner were to apply.

“Most of the past commissioners have all kind of raised their hand, said, ‘Hey, if you need me, I’m willing to step in,’ and that may be a viable option,” said he at the June 17 board meeting.

At the same time, Hege was hesitant to add a new person to the board solely for the sake of quorum. “To me, that maybe isn’t the best use of anything, money and everything else,” he said.

Justesen opined during the July 1 meeting that the timing for this option has potentially passed, saying “by time we direct staff, by time we get those [applications] back, by time we circulate them, it’s going to be even deeper into the term, and there’s six months left of this year.”

Leave vacant until election

In this third pathway, the board would pass a resolution declaring the seat vacant until voters choose a new board member in November, who would be immediately appointed following election certification.

This option risks potential deadlock if the two remaining commissioners disagree on a vote during a future meeting. Justesen also expressed concern that, if something were to happen to him or Hege, the county board would lose the power to nominate someone.

“The biggest battle in my mind is what kind of risk are we putting the county at?” he said at the June 17 meeting.

As for attendance, Hege said he wasn’t worried about missing a meeting or even clashing with Justesen over a vote. “In my almost 16 years on the commission, generally we’ve been pretty aligned, so I think generally we’re okay,” said Hege.

Immediate direct appointment by nomination

Like the hybrid and full-term caretaker approaches, this path would install a temporary commissioner to fulfill Brady’s term. Only, instead of an application window, the commissioners would nominate potential appointees during a public meeting, deliberate and then vote on one.

While this is the most expedient way to temporarily fill Position 3, hurdles may surface if current commissioners only voted for their own nominated candidate. It would also incur the same additional administrative costs of onboarding a temporary commissioner.

Direct appointment of advancing primary candidate

The fifth and final pathway involves skipping the nomination processes and immediately installing Urness, who earned 35% of the vote in May and was the only candidate to make the general election under Oregon law.

Appointing Urness would have significant influence in the November election, granting him the benefits of incumbency status and potentially impacting a write-in campaign. This option was not entertained during the meeting, signaling that the commissioners were potentially less inclined to consider the fifth pathway.