Chang defends disputed parolee shelter, later expresses dismay at again being passed over in chair selection

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – There wasn’t much friction at the Deschutes County commissioners’ last meeting of the year Wednesday morning, but a visitor raised a recent controversy toward the start, and there was  some predictable board disharmony toward the end, when it came time to choose the board chair and vice chair for 2024.

While county voters have approved making the positions non-partisan (and may be asked to expand the board to five members, if a petition drive succeeds), it’s well-known that 2023 Chair Tony DeBone and colleague Patti Adair are conservative Republicans and Commissioner Phil Chang, who is seeking a second term next year, is a progressive Democrat.

At the start of the meeting, DeBone got not responses when he asked for anyone interested there or watching online who wished to speak to the board at the “citizen input” spot, when people can address the board on items not on the agenda.

But after they started a land-use hearing, Ryan Rudnick spoke up online, saying he missed the start of the meeting and asking if he could address the commissioners, so DeBone paused the hearing and he was given time to speak.

Rudnick lives near and owns a rental triplex next-door to one on SE Wilson Avenue that has drawn a spotlight and in six days over 500 names on an online petition after the county approved its purchase for transitional housing of Adult Parole and Probation clients, including registered sex offenders and other parolees.

Rudnick said the grant agreement to open the facility requires it be more than 1,000 feet from schools or parks, but that the chosen location is “barely 600 feet away” from Kiwanis Park.

“We keep hearing from the county that it’s no big deal, that recidivism rates are near zero,” he said. “The message to us is we just need to deal with it.” If that’s true, he said, the county should not indemnify itself in the contract and “officially accept any liability for any damages, crimes or injuries” that arise.

“We urge you to delay until the community can fully be heard,” Rudnick said.

Chang said he’s taken training about child abuse at the KIDS Center and that it’s important to note that the courts, not the county who decides who should be released on parole, that “courts decide who is a good candidate for reintegration into the community.”

“There’s a lot of emphasis (by opponents) on concerns about child abuse and child sexual abuse,” Chang said, but “almost all cases of child sex abuse are committed by people who are close family relations – family friends, people who work with children. Child abuse and child sexual abuse are not crimes committed by strangers.”

Later, when that last agenda item arrived, about choosing a chair and vice chair for 2024, Adair told DeBone, “Thank you for serving this year,” followed by a long, somewhat pregnant pause. She also noted that the timing of agenda items is an “imperfect science” and that she’d expected “a lot more” than one person to show up to speak about the triplex issue.

DeBone also said he wanted to discuss who would represent the county on the Coordinated Houseless Response Office Board. Chang said committee assignments usually are discussed during the annual goals and objectives session.

Adair said she believed the chair and vice chair selection are usually done in January, not December.

(DeBone said later that since he's been in office, "we always select the next year's chairperson before the end of the year, so the first agenda items of the year have the appropriate signature blocks" on the documents.)

So with time to proceed, they did.

“I would support Commissioner Adair as chair next year,” DeBone said.

Clearly irked, though not surprised, Chang – often (though not always) on the losing end of 2-to-1 votes-- spoke up, because … why not?

“I would just like to emphasize that for decades, the Board of Commissioners had a precedent and tradition of rotating the chair role among the three commissioners,” he said. “And in the last three years, we have abandoned that. And I think it’s important for everybody to just be real explicit about that.”

“In past years, the blame has actually been placed on me, saying that I was unfit to serve in the chair role,” Chang continued. “I think it’s really important for everyone to just understand the real explanation is that now we have moved to a principle of the ideological majority of the board selecting among themselves who's going to be the chair in the next year.”

“And if that’s the way we’re gonna do it, then let’s just be real clear and honest about it,” he added.

Chang’s two colleagues did not engage with him on that point, but DeBone then asked Adair if she'd accept his nomination, and made the motion. "I need to second it?" Adair said, and she did, The two voted to have Adair serve as chair and oversee the meetings for the coming year.

Chang, of course, voted no.

When DeBone proposed nominating Chang to serve as vice chair, Chang quickly made clear he’d have none of it.

“Vice chair is a meaningless title,” he said. “I’m not interested in serving as vice-chair.”

So DeBone agreed to do so, on yet another 2-to-1 vote.