Metro candidates sharpen differences

Candidates debate at chamber forum

By Raymond Rendleman

The Clackamas Review, Jul 28, 2010

raymond rendleman / clackamas review

From left, Bob Stacey, former executive director of 1000 Friends of Oregon, moderator and Milwaukie City Councilor Greg Chaimov, and former Hillsboro Mayor Tom Hughes at a forum in Clackamas last week.

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The remaining Metro Council president candidates sharpened their differences while campaigning at the Clackamas Banquet Center in an often-heated debate about the future of growth in the tri-county region.

At a North Clackamas Chamber of Commerce breakfast forum last week, former Hillsboro mayor Tom Hughes and Bob Stacey, former executive director of 1000 Friends of Oregon, sparred over how much the unique governmental agency should encourage the acquisition of land into the Urban Growth Boundary for development. Among other important functions, the winner in November will mastermind the urban expansion in the county, especially in the areas surrounding Oregon City, where various land-use border disputes have raged for decades.

“I’m the guy who believes we should make our existing land supply work,” Stacey said, pointing out the millions of square feet of underused and vacant real estate. “We’re deferring that problem if we keep on going out to the boundaries for more land.”

Hughes shot back by arguing that Oregon’s above-average unemployment will only turn around with a real-estate infusion.

“We can’t afford to blow off the expansion land,” he said. “The concern that I have based on my experience growing jobs in Hillsboro is that we need a balanced approach... Bob has carefully and thoughtfully looked at the problem of job creation–I have actually been involved in that process.”

The event was moderated in a comedy-club fashion by attorney Greg Chaimov, a Milwaukie city councilor and chair-elect of the chamber board. Chaimov had the candidates introduce each another following the adage, “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”

While they emphasized their differing backgrounds and beliefs more than ever, both candidates resisted what they saw as a false dichotomy between jobs and environment.

“If you believe we have to give up on decades of planning for job growth, don’t put an X next to my name,” Stacey said.

Hughes also tried to cater to an environmental bent by calling urban and rural reserves Metro’s best decision, giving “assurance that farmers will be able to continue to farm for 50 years.”

In the Clackamas County vote in May, Hughes and Stacey were neck-and-neck, each attracting slightly more than 35 percent each. (Stacey scored big in Multnomah County with 37.9 percent, while Hughes swept Washington County with 46.6 percent.) A third, more moderate candidate, Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder, tallied only about a quarter of the vote in the primary.

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