In the month of April, the Eugene Chamber of Commerce’s Local Government Affairs Council welcomed several candidates running for various offices. This is a concise summary of those candidate presentations. None of these represent an endorsement from the Eugene Chamber, but are instead presented to provide further information about the candidates. These particular offices are non-partisan and are mostly likely to be decided in the Primary election on May 15th, as long as one candidate receives over 50% of the vote.           

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Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) candidates Val Hoyle and Lou Ogden

​There are only 4 states in the country with an elected Labor Commissioner, who oversees workplace rules, civil rights of workers, fair housing, and certification of apprenticeship programs.  BOLI enforces wage and hour rules, establishes prevailing wage, and ensures non-discrimination of housing and of the workplace.  When the Legislature passes laws, BOLI writes the administrative rules and determines how the law is applied.
Three candidates will appear on the ballot for Labor Commissioner in May, we welcomed two, Val Hoyle and Lou Ogden.

Val Hoyle

Val Hoyle is a resident of Eugene and served in the Oregon Legislature as both a Representative in the Oregon House representing West Eugene and Junction City, and as House Majority Leader.  Hoyle has been a union member, a small business owner, a public servant and has spent 25 years working in the private sector focusing on retail sales and international trade.
Val Hoyle believes a well-paying job is the best form of support. She believes her strength is her ability to bring stakeholders from both sides together in working toward common goals and has a strong track record and reputation in doing such.  She has strong relationships with Republicans, Democrats, Labor Unions and the Business Community alike and numerous endorsements that reflect such.
Val would like to implement a customer service culture at the Department and is also very focused on career and technical education (CTE) and believes more work can be done in the high schools to train workers in areas in which there is a skills gap.

Lou Ogden

Lou Ogden has spent the past 24 years as Mayor of Tualatin and is a member of his Tualatin Chamber of Commerce.  Under Ogden’s leadership, the City of Tualatin has prospered and he’s running for Labor Commissioner to bring strong leadership to the role and to the entire state.  His focus will be to prioritize a strong economy so that businesses can grow and believes government and business can form a strong partnership in doing so.  Lou states that the best thing government can do is get out of the way of business, so long as workers are protected.
Lou would like to bring business, labor, and education together and feels that BOLI should consider models within administrative rule that can create opportunities, citing the minimum wage as an example.  If elected, Lou would focus on reducing the bureaucracy of BOLI, as he believes compliance to prove that a business is following the law is onerous.
Lou supports “right to work”, although Oregon is not a “right to work” state.  The Labor Commissioner does not set that policy.
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City Council Ward 5 Candidates Mike Clark and Christopher Dean

​Current Eugene City Councilor Mike Clark and opponent Christopher Dean came before the Local Government Affairs Council on May 20th.  They are the only two candidates on the ballot of this non-partisan race.

Mike Clark

​Incumbent Mike Clark:  Mike is currently serving in his 12th year on Eugene City Council and is running for re-election because he feels strongly that there is a lot of work to be done on so many critical issues the city is facing.  Mike believes his experience is a key component in shaping several key decisions to be made in the next few years.  Professionally Mike is a mortgage broker with 2 teenagers who feels he best represents the values of people in ward 5.  His many years of experience in working with his Council colleagues, gives him an significant advantage in that he knows how best to work with the members of Council.  While he find that often the City Council has the same outcome in mind, their path to getting there can be varied and he believes his technique in getting everyone to the same destination is effective and advantageous to his constituents.
Mike is very concerned with the housing challenges we’re facing but rejects the notion that the problem is with the supply of low income housing.  He would like to focus on rebalancing the market and incentivizing development projects and removing some of the other cost barriers to building in Eugene.  Mike supports expanding the UGB as necessary and believes that we will not build ourselves out of this housing crisis by funding more subsidized housing units.  He is been outspoken on his opposition to the construction excise tax and supported a recent Council decision to move forward to identify and remove other barriers to building, prior to any implementation of a CET.
On the topic of downtown, Mike has a track record of working with community members and colleagues to find solutions but acknowledges a cultural battle between values. While he believes we need more housing in downtown, he sees downtown’s future as more of a technology hub and believes the center of activity will shift to the EWEB Riverfront and 5th Street Market areas, which are closest to the river.

Christopher Dean

​Challenger Christopher Dean moved to Eugene from Canada in 2005 and is now a US citizen.  He works as a Realtor in the area and is President-Elect of the Eugene Association of Realtors. Christopher is running for City Council because he believes a change in leadership is needed.  Christopher acknowledges that he’s the more progressive of the two candidates and believes Eugene’s shift in culture as a more progressive community, make him the best choice in representing the constituents of ward 5.  Christopher is very concerned with the housing crisis, but unlike his opponent, is very supportive of a construction excise tax.  On the topic of downtown, he believes we need more housing like condos and apartments and is supportive of more diversity of housing options as well as incentives such as MUPTE and reduced SDCs for downtown.
On the topic of how he would balance the needs of ward 5 with the needs of the rest of the city, Christopher feels that we need to come together more on issues we can agree on, rather than south vs. north Eugene values that are polarizing the city.  Christopher believes that affordable housing can be done effectively and leans on his wife as his most trusted advisor.
Christopher is outspoken about criticism for his opponent and believes that after 12 years of doing things the same way, it is time for a change in leadership and a change in the approach to solving priorities such as community homelessness, housing, traffic safety, the environment and transportation.

City Council Ward 3 Candidates Alan Zelenka, Hugh Patterson and Thomas Bruno

​There are 3 candidates who have filed to run for City Council’s ward 4 position including incumbent Alan Zelenka and his two opponents, Hugh Patterson and Thomas Bruno.

Alan Zelenka

Current Ward 3 City Councilor Alan Zelenka is an energy consultant with many years of experience in government.  He’s served on City Council since 2007 but has also served the city on a number of Committees and Commissions over the years.  Alan has a track record of success on countless initiatives and believes that experience matters when it comes to this election.  He’s primary issues include homelessness, affordable and missing middle housing, public safety, a clean and safe environment, and insuring that government’s rule is helping to create jobs and ensuring infrastructure to support a thriving business community.
Alan believes he has worked effectively with the City Manager and staff through the years in the decision-making process to balance the policy with the financial stewardship that is his responsibility as a member of Council.  He cites a number of initiatives that have had significant positive outcomes including bringing high speed fiber to downtown and starting the transition of making downtown more safe and welcoming. He expressed pride in the progress that has been made in downtown, but that there is still more to do and would like to figure out how to deal with transient or traveler populations, how to increase housing, activate storefronts and parks, and generally bring more people into downtown to live, work, and visit.
When asked what the Chamber could do better, he requested that we expand the definition of what’s great for business, to include topics like parks, roads, and the environment and tie those to a thriving business community.

Hugh Patterson 

​Hugh Patterson first visited Eugene in 2005 and subsequently moved to Eugene in 2012.  He admits to being the youngest of his opponents and is running to bring more diversity to the City Council.  He’s supportive of more transparency and believes more information should be available to citizens, which is one of the reasons he supports the elected auditor ballot measure.  Hugh has a strong focus on environmental issues and believes Eugene could do more to “work green”, including bringing solar energy downtown.  He believes there is a balance needed between interests of city livability and growth and economic prosperity and believes he has the skills needed to build bridges across communities where there will always be friction.
Hugh is a data-driven decision maker who would like to see good metrics to making good decisions where government is directing, not micromanaging.
On the topic of the construction excise tax, Hugh does not support a CET, and doesn’t see how taxing a problem gives us a solution.  He supports a package of solutions to lower costs to housing, but doesn’t necessarily believe missing middle housing is the solution.
The topic of solar came up several times as a strong focus of Hugh’s campaign.  He would like to see more solar in downtown and believes it is a solution to a number of the city’s issues, in that energy costs would be reduced and we would be more environmentally sound.

Thomas Bruno

​Tom Bruno is also a candidate running for Eugene City Council in ward 3.   He’s a retired engineer and military combat arms officer who admits that the impetus for running for office was the Capital Hill Planned Unit Development (PUD) process, of which he is adamantly opposed.  Tom is the current co-chair of the Laurel Hill Neighborhood Association and feel that the City Council should operate like a Board of Directors, assisting staff to gather data and work with financial resources to bring solutions to the city.
Tom acknowledges many of the same challenges facing Eugene as his opponents, but believes the solution can be achieved by forming a $35million trust, which he feels he can be resourceful in setting-up.  Tom feels that the City is under-utilizing the student population and would like to see more manufacturers and industry in the downtown core, citing Volkswagon as an example.  Tom believes that he can bring creative ideas and solutions to City Council, something that is currently missing.  He would like to see a museum as well as a major bank in downtown and is very supportive of high fiber in the downtown core.