Wagner pressing McCabe on public openness

By Joel Aschbrenner / The Bulletin

Published: September 24. 2012 4:00AM PST

Walt Wagner

Crook County judge

For our complete coverage, visit www.bendbulletin.com/elections.
One position open

Walt Wagner, an Independent Party candidate for Crook County Judge, wants to make the county government more open.

Increasing transparency is the cornerstone of Wagner’s campaign to unseat Mike McCabe, a 20-year veteran of the county court who beat Wagner in 2008 when both ran as Republicans for the county’s top administrative position.

Wagner said his chief complaint is that the county does too little to alert people to meetings and county business, and too few people know how the county is being run.

For example, Wagner said, a county meeting earlier this month with U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., to discuss Merkley’s bill to remove water from the Prineville Reservoir was originally scheduled to be closed to the public. That was, Wagner said, until several groups found out about the meeting and demanded it be open.

McCabe was in the hospital at the time and said he did not know why the meeting with Merkley was not initially publicized.

McCabe said he disagrees with Wagner’s claim that the county is not transparent. The county sends out meeting notices to several hundred people — anyone who asks to receive them — and makes meeting agendas and minutes available to the public online and at the county courthouse.

“I don’t know how much more open you can get," he said. “We try to make everything as open as we can."

Reducing unemployment

In Crook County, which maintains the state’s highest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 14.1 percent, recruiting jobs is another key issue in the campaign.

McCabe points to the economic progress since he took office in 2009, specifically the development of data centers in Crook County.

Facebook has built one 300,000-square-foot server farm on the outskirts of Prineville and is working on a twin facility next door. Apple, meanwhile, has applied for applications to build two data centers that cover more than 500,000 square feet.

McCabe said he worked for more than three years helping to recruit the data centers, serving as a point person when the tech companies had questions for the county.

While the centers are expected to employ only a few dozen people when complete, they are creating hundreds of construction jobs in the meantime and bringing in contractors who eat at local restaurants, shop at local stores and stay in local motels, McCabe said.

“That’s a pretty big kick," he said.

Wagner isn’t convinced data centers are the silver bullet for Crook County.

“I think data centers make good partners in the community," he said. “But we have to look at how many people they actually hire."

Manufacturing jobs are what Crook County needs, Wagner said. While wood-product manufacturing is down, Prineville is the perfect place for a manufacturer of outdoor clothing and equipment, he said.

If elected, Wagner said he would visit companies and pitch them the idea of relocating or building in Prineville.

Backgrounds differ

McCabe, a lifelong Crook County resident, served as a county commissioner for 16 years before being elected judge in 2008. He previously worked as a rancher and a loan officer for Farm Credit Services.

Wagner’s career is more eclectic. He is a Navy veteran who spent 27 years with the Oregon State Police as a trooper, public information officer and the head of the state police training academy. He served as the chairman of the first Oregon State Games, ran a small farm in the Willamette Valley and even did some modeling for the outfitter Helly Hansen.

Previously Wagner ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate as a Republican and for the state House, once as a Republican and once as a Democrat.

In 2008, McCabe defeated Wagner by earning 63 percent of the vote in the Republican primary.

A unique position

The county judge is a unique position in that it serves as the head of the county’s legislative body and its top executive, said Scott Cooper, Crook County’s judge from 2000 to 2008.

The judge chairs the three-member county court alongside two elected commissioners and serves as the county administrator, managing day-to-day business.

While it’s cheaper to have a county judge rather than a full-time county administrator, the judge system has been abandoned by all but nine eastern Oregon counties because it puts so much responsibility on one person, Cooper said.

Prior to 2008, Crook County looked to get rid of the judge position in favor of a full-time county administrator but balked when the recession hit and revenues shrunk, Cooper said.

— Reporter: 541-633-2184, jaschbrenner@bendbulletin.com