Election 2024: Lane County Commission candidate Q&A with Trieger, Widdicombe

This is part of a series of stories on the candidates running in the May 21 primary election, with question-and-answer articles scheduled to be published each day through the rest of April. Ballots must be mailed to voters by May 1.

The elections for the Lane County Board of Commissioners are approaching with ballots due May 21. Two candidates have registered to run for District 3 on the board — incumbent Laurie Trieger and Grace Widdicombe.

Lane County Commissioner District 3 is officially labeled "South Eugene" and approximately covers Eugene's Amazon, Downtown, Fairmont, Friendly, Far West, Harlow, Jefferson Westside, Southeast Eugene, Southwest Hills, South University and West University neighborhoods and the University of Oregon. With two candidates on the ballot for the district, May’s primary election outcome will decide which candidate runs uncontested in the November general election.

The Register-Guard asked each of the candidates a series of questions and asked them for biographical information. Here are the candidate's answers, word for word. Candidates are listed alphabetically.

Biographical Information

Laurie Trieger

Occupation: County Commissioner, District 3, Current Board Chair

Experience: Incumbent. Governor’s appointee to Oregon’s Opioid Settlement Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Board and member of The National Association of Counties Health Policy Committee, among other assignments. Prior to taking office I served on Lane County’s Budget Committee, The Lane County Equity & Access Board and 4J Equity Committee, as some examples of public service. Professional background includes 25 years of nonprofit leadership at local organizations including FOOD for Lane County, Mount Pisgah Arboretum, and Sponsors Inc., along with decades of community organizing, advocacy, and volunteerism.

Grace Widdicombe

Grace Widdicombe graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in business. Through the years, she has invested in many courses in real estate, negotiating, and business.

Grace spent most of her career in commissioned sales, from selling computer learning in the 90s to industrial lubricants and chemicals in the first decade of this century.

Grace is now a successful entrepreneur. During the great recession in 2010, she recognized an opportunity to invest in neighborhoods by learning how to purchase and renovate abandoned homes.

In 2017 Grace founded Oregon Real Estate Investors’ Association and she teaches and mentors people on how to invest in single family homes, fix them up to qualify for first-time homeownership. As a leader, Grace is concerned with the lack of housing in Lane County, and our lack of workforce.

Questions

What relevant experience do/would you bring to the board of commissioners?

Trieger: Having lived, and raised a family, in this district for 37 years I understand my constituents’ needs. I’ve been actively engaged as a volunteer, community organizer, policy advocate, and nonprofit professional working on the ground for the people. I am values-driven, thoughtful, strategic, compassionate, and dedicated.

I am a Governor’s appointee to the statewide Opioid Settlement Prevention, Treatment andRecovery Board. I serve as Board Chair and was Vice Chair for two years prior.

Effective leadership requires courage and focus. I take my role as a leader seriously. I value honesty, good governance, and ensuring transparency in decision making.

Widdicombe: My leadership experience as a board member and as the president of boards for non-profit organizations and for for-profit organizations provides me with tools to work well with others, to find solutions and strategize to build pathways to better planning, better training and more transparency in the works of the board of commissioners.  I’ll use my background to keep people informed of what is going on in the community, which will help build trust in the leadership of the county. Bringing my background in marketing, sales, real estate and community building will strengthen the board of commissioners.

According to a January presentation to the board of commissioners, Lane County employment is still below pre-pandemic levels. What policies or strategies do you plan to pursue to bring back those jobs?

Trieger: I’m working with community and elected leaders to address workforce shortages across sectors with a strong focus on behavioral health and addiction treatment services. We need to innovate and act quickly to create more apprenticeship-model programs and remove regulatory and policy barriers for health care professionals of all kinds so they can more easily practice in our community.

I leverage my trusted relationships with state and local partners, including unions, to build the fairly compensated and skilled workforce needed to meet the demands of the future in healthcare, and for the housing and clean energy infrastructure projects coming our way.

Widdicombe: It’s not a lack of jobs that is the issue, it is the lack of labor force that is the issue. Per the report unemployment is low, at 2.8%. Per my economics course in college, the percentage that we strive for is 4% unemployment, which provides a stronger labor pool for employers to pull from. My plan is to get vocational education back into our high schools and encourage students to learn trade skills. I’ll work with Lane ESD and the school districts to get training courses available; courses like welding, mechanical repairs, drafting, nursing and more.

What strategies or policies do you support to reduce homelessness in Lane County?

Trieger: Overall we need more housing for all stages of life. Next, focus on prevention like rent and utility assistance, and other supports to keep people in their homes. When people do lose housing, get them re-housed as quickly as possible.

Access to affordable health care is also important. It helps many people stay well enough to work, and reduces chances of lost housing due to crushing medical debt.

I support building more permanent units with wraparound services for high-need individuals andwill continue advancing our Behavioral Health Stabilization Center project and advocating for moreaddiction treatment and recovery services.

Widdicombe: I have been working in housing for the past ten plus years. Not only do I provide first-time home buyers with houses that qualify for FHA financing, but also teach other people how to do the same. As commissioner I will work with the county to write laws that allow governments to seize houses that have been condemned and left rotting.  This needs to happen or we stand the risk of becoming known as a community experiencing blight. We have thousands of houses that have been condemned for code violations which need to be fixed up and sold to home buyers.

What strategies or policies do you support to increase housing affordability and/or supply in Lane County?

Trieger: Creating and/or improving critical infrastructure such as water, broadband and communications systems, and other basic services is key. These foundational projects are required to build at scale and meet housing production goals. They’re the best way to progress at the rate needed to make a real difference and have significant positive impact.

I work hard to secure state and federal aid to support these projects, and lobby for resources to help with resilience in the face of increasing wildfires and other climate chaos-induced disasters.

I support creating denser infill in our cities and providing assistance to first-time home buyers.

Widdicombe: I will work with the county staff and commissioners to get policies and procedures corrected so that landowners can build houses on their property. Governor Tina Kotek has set ambitious goals for housing production, yet our current commission has failed to participate in the housing reforms necessary to reach them. I will change that! Building permit reform will be first on my agenda. Our building permits are too expensive, too hard to get and too confusing for people to jump through the hoops.

What new or current county environmental protection strategies or policies would you support? Are there any current policies you think go too far?

Trieger: I always weigh the impact of county initiatives on our environment; whether those projects relate to land use, waste management, housing production, transportation, county operations, or anything else. We only have one planet and it’s in the public's interest to protect it.

In my first term I secured funding for clean water restoration in areas devastated by wildfires. I am committed to reducing the county’s carbon footprint including marshaling resources for a state-of-the art Mixed Waste Processing facility. I was proud to adopt the county’s first ever Bicycle Master Plan, and to lead on our historic investment in parks funding.

Widdicombe: The commissioners voted (3 to 2) to have Lane County build an integrated material and energy recovery facility for $150,000,000. That is preposterous! Lane County already does an excellent job at recycling. Our citizens are adapted to sorting and recycling. We have non-profit organizations that collect materials from computers to old doors and more. The IMERF will cause our trash haulers to haul more miles, use more fuel and pay more in tipping fees. The taxpayers don’t want to pay for it, and they don’t want their disposal rates to increase due to the county increasing the haulers’ tipping fees.

Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard. He can be reached over email at atorres@registerguard.com or on X @alanfryetorres.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Lane County elections: Candidates Laurie Trieger, Grace Widdicombe