PENDLETON — Umatilla County commissioner candidates in their latest public forum again focused on how Ballot Measure 110 is causing a slew of problems in the county.

The Umatilla County Board of Realtors hosted the forum Tuesday night, Oct. 11, at the Pendleton Center for the Arts. Dozens of people filled the center’s space to hear what the four candidates running for the county board had to say.

Susan Bower of Pendleton and Cindy Timmons of Milton-Freewater are contending for the open Position 1 seat on the board, while Commissioner John Shafer faces a challenge from HollyJo Beers, both of Pendleton, for Position 2.

Jerry Baker, chairman of the Umatilla County Board of Realtors Political Action Committee, started off asking candidates about their backgrounds, how they view the job of commissioner and what they perceive to be the biggest issues facing Umatilla County.

Ballot Measure 110 was immediately at the center of discussion, with all four candidates agreeing it represents the greatest danger to Umatilla County and uniformly expressed interest in advocating for its repeal.

“Ballot Measure 110 decriminalized drugs in the state of Oregon. It’s a three-pronged problem we have, with Ballot Measure 110 and the decriminalization of drugs people are coming to Oregon,” Shafer said. “Why are you in Oregon? They say, you guys decriminalized drugs and I can’t get in trouble here for using drugs, so here I am. What they didn’t come here with was a house, they didn’t have a house when they moved here.”

Bower said she just spent the previous evening with a sheriff’s deputy.

“I spent the night driving with him as he was doing his job. Every single call, every single call, was drug-related,” she said. I know we have a drug problem, but when you’re sitting in a car with a sheriff, it takes it to a whole other level. I feel bad for people, I worry people have lost their purpose, their hope.”

While all the candidates agreed on the severity of the problems Measure 110 creates in the county, Bower advocated for a faith-based advisory committee to help tackle the matter.

“I learned about this in Hermiston,” she said. “They have a faith-based advisory committee that’s made up of a number of people from a variety of churches, all denominations, none of that matters. All people are willing to get involved and talk to people.”

Shafer with Timmons focused more on emphasizing mental health care. Shafer suggested the introduction of acute mental health services in Pendleton to build on the mental and behavioral health services of Community Counseling Solutions, the county’s provider for those services. Timmons said the county needs greater acknowledgement of mental health issues and some patience.

“Folks, we’re coming out of a two-year pandemic,” she said. “We’ve all been impacted by being locked down for two years, we’ve worn masks, it’s very obvious. Mental health, if you have a scanner in your home you’re constantly hearing about people overdosing. They’re self-medicating.”

When it came to the topic of improving the quality of life for Umatilla County residents, HollyJo Beers broke from the focus on Measure 110 and mental health.

“I believe in smaller government, I believe in less taxes,” she said. “I’m pretty conservative in my views. I don’t think the sheriff’s office has enough funding. Three of my kids are involved in corrections. Two of them work in prisons, one for the county sheriff. They’re all involved in this drug thing or that drug thing. I have a lot of people complaining that you can call for help and there’s no help available, sometimes you have to wait two hours. We need to look into funding the sheriff’s office because there isn’t enough coverage.”

Beers said taxes are too high in Umatilla, and expressed that salaries are too high.

“The commissioner’s actually make darn good money,” she said. “I think we should have more supporting help for citizens instead of building more offices and government buildings. Those things mean higher taxes and people are in crisis right now.”

Even discussions about how candidates would balance a budget resulted in further discussion of Measure 110.

“In government work, there is always a greater demand than there are resources,” Bower said. “Planning ahead is extremely important, strategic planning three to five years out is important. The first that I would do would not be to cut a budget, I would call (Gov.) Kate Brown and I would let her know that there was a promise with Measure 110 of millions of dollars that was going to come through and be available. It’s not come fast enough, and it’s not come fully.”

The candidates ended the evening discussing whether there should be strict requirements to run for commissioner and how they would handle donations and special interests. The four uniformly expressed they could not be bought, with Bower and Timmons emphasizing their Christian faith as a guiding moral compass for public service.

While the Realtor board hosted the forum, there were no housing-specific questions for the candidates.

Election Day is Nov. 8. The last day to register to vote is Tuesday, Oct. 18. Visit sos.oregon.gov/voting-elections for more information and to check your voter registration.