Kathleen Cathey, Union County commissioner candidate, would focus on fentanyl crisis, mental health

LA GRANDE — Kathleen Cathey believes her 35 years of public service and her love of Union County make her uniquely qualified to run for county commissioner.

Cathey, a candidate for Position 3 on the Union County Board of Commissioners, has served as a field representative for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden for the last 18 years. She covers 11 counties in Eastern Oregon, including Union County — where she lives. Now, she would like to more intensely serve the residents of Union County.

“I have been thinking about this for a number of years,” she said.

Cathey said that over the years she has been encouraged to run for commissioner. If elected, she believes that her years of public service would serve her well.

“I have been able to do some really good things, largely because I have relationships and connections from over the years,” she said.

Top issues

Issues she would focus on as a county commissioner include the fentanyl crisis, mental health and workforce housing. Affordable child care also emerged as an important issue for Cathey during the election.

“I feel like there are a lot of places in Eastern Oregon that are doing good things that could be implemented locally and find success,” she said.

The candidate said she is pleased with the recent moves by the legislature to address substance abuse and addiction in the state. Cathey believes that accountability and incentives are important to addressing the crisis. She added that sometimes people need to go to jail to get the help they need.

“Right now our mental health and addictions treatment programs are fragmented,” Cathey said.

Locally, she would like to see more connection between law enforcement and programs, as well as more conversations between the groups who handle mental health within the county.

If elected, Cathey believes that she could help facilitate these connections given the conversations she’s had and the relationships she’s built during her time as a Wyden staffer.

The candidate applauds the work current county commissioner Matt Scarfo has done with healthcare and mental health in the county. She would like to see more options available locally for people in need.

“We have a desperate need for detox, we have a desperate need for crisis beds, we need some residential programs,” Cathey said. “If you find someone who is ready for recovery … we can’t say to them: ‘You need to wait a month and we’ll figure this out’ because you just have those windows.”

She added that Union County might be able to replicate what other Eastern Oregon counties are doing. Cathay pointed to Rivers Edge Acute Center for Healing — REACH — as an example, which is a psychiatric care facility that recently opened in Hermiston.

The candidate recognizes that the ability to maintain staffing levels can pose a challenge for community counseling solutions, as well as other professions. However, she believes the solution might lie in addressing two of the other issues she sees within the county: workforce housing and child care.

Cathey believes there is a need for more workforce housing within Union County. There may be government resources available to help bring in the necessary infrastructure — like utilities, water, sewer and streets — to build those homes.

She added that there are “a number of underutilized programs” for first time homebuyers, such as the ones offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development or Community Connection of Northeast Oregon. Cathey said an important step is helping connect people to programs that already exist.

The candidate recognizes that there has been a big focus on La Grande when it comes to housing, but she would like to explore what can be done to help all the communities within the county bring more housing online, such as housing studies and inventories.

“Another big part of it is bringing homes onto the property tax rolls, so that we’re stabilized in communities,” Cathey said.

She pointed to John Day as an example of an Eastern Oregon community that might be a good model. In John Day when someone builds a house they don’t have to pay property taxes for a set number of years, she said, which helps to incentivize the construction. Then after the “property tax holiday” those houses get brought onto the property tax role.

“So it helped stabilize the community, helped stabilize the tax base and helped people get into home,” Cathey said.

The candidate also believes that child care — and the cost burden to families — is an important topic that needs to be addressed. The issue first came to her attention through local Facebook groups dedicated to mothers.

She found that there were many moms who would like to go back to work, but doing so didn’t make financial sense for their families when considering the cost of child care. Cathey is concerned about the ripple effects for these families.

She said that these mothers are “not getting the raises, not building up retirement savings, not building a track record and resume. Those are real costs.”

These decisions also impact employers and the workforce, she said. However, local employers may be a part of the solution. One example of this, Cathey said, is Good Shepherd Hospital in Hermiston. The hospital initially spent $2 million to create a child care center for its employees and continues to spend around $600,000 annually on the program.

The candidate said that the program can actually help the hospital save money. By creating a more stable workforce, the hospital doesn’t have to rely on traveling nurses and doctors, which can be a cost savings.

Cathey is one of nine candidates for Position 3 on the Union County Board of Commissioners. The candidates are seeking to succeed Donna Beverage who is completing her eighth year as commissioner and cannot run for reelection because of term limits Union County voters approved several years ago.