Central Oregon Bitterbrush Broads • Entered by Mary Fleischmann on November 17, 2024
Work on petition for additional county commissioners on ballot
September 27, 2024 – November 5, 2024
Participants and Hours
| Pre Planning hours | 1.75 |
| Post Admin hours | 4.75 |
| Activity Hours | 21.75 |
| Participants | 1 |
| Total Hours | 28.25 |
Key Issue: Multiple apply
Activity Type: Advocacy (rallies, lobbying, meeting decision makers, letters/calls/emails)
Short Description of Activity
Working with members of the community to get signatures to add two additional county commissioners on the November ballot after the current 2 county commissioners refused to take action.
Reflection/Evaluation
We successfully got the vote out and it passed that folks want the additional county commissioners who will be up for election in 2026. The issues at hand have been consistenly 2 against 1 with issues, specifically when it comes to protection of lands, water, and issues that are environmentally sound. The voters have spoken. Afterwards the current commissioners, who did not expect this to pass now want to make decisions of how this will go forward. The current push is that the newly elected commissioners should be responsible to make decisions regarding commissioners at large or by districts. There are some very strict state guidelines of how that happens, but two of the commissioners want to outline what that should be. I personally have attended dozens of meetings where the same two vote against things like an inventory of our mule deer population or protections of mule deer. Another example is the exclusion of Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs being involved with a destination resort that the commissioners want to see happen, despite state guide lines regarding distances for these resorts to the city of Bend.