Deschutes County commissioners vote 2-1 to provide funding for new Redmond manged homeless camp
Barney Lerten
Board plans no public interviews of five candidates for interim sheriff before selection
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — At their first meeting in weeks, Deschutes County commissioners approved two expenditures related to homelessness Monday afternoon, but not without a split vote and some familiar debates as they wrestled with the challenging issues.
First, commissioners voted 2-1 to approve spending up to $250,000 a year for at least the next two years to partner with the city of Redmond on a long-discussed managed camp to be built on the city’s eastside. Commissioners Patti Adair and Phil Chang voted yes, while Commission Chairman Tony DeBone was opposed.
A land exchange between the county and the Oregon Department of State Lands has been on hold for years, due to the need to remove homeless who are camping on the parcel.
A work group of city and county staff, along with Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch, City Councilor Cat Zwicker, Adair and Chang, has been meeting to provide input on the design and operations.
An intergovernmental agreement says the “County will make good faith efforts to budget up to $250,000 per year, for not less than two years for Managed Camp operational costs.”
The location for the planned 36-space managed camp is a county-owned parcel north of Redmond Airport and north of the Oasis Village camp along Highway 126.
The Redmond City Council is scheduled to approve the city-county intergovernmental agreement on the consent agenda of Tuesday evening’s council meeting.
Fitch talked with commissioners Monday about the continuing challenges the region faces in homelessness in the wake of recent Forest Service and BLM land closures.
“A lot of areas are being closed to the homeless, for a variety of reasons,” he said.
There was a bit of Catch-22 in the familiar discussion, with some details not in place yet. Zwicker said the city will go out to formal bids for a contractor to flesh out those details, including supplies and services.
Chang said after two fires last week tied to homeless issues, “people are on pins and needles. I know a lot of people really do want to help.”
But DeBone said he doesn’t support that funding future operations of the camp largely depends on future actions by the governor and Legislature. While he voted no, DeBone said afterward it had been a “good, thoughtful discussion.”
Commissioners also voted 3-0 to fund an added hour of security patrols in the East Redmond area, until Dec. 1, at $82.50 an hour, which if continued would cost about $30,000 a year. A current county contract with a private security company ends in July of next year.
DeBone explained later to KTVZ News, “Instead of just making a presence where the future road is going and the land swap, we asked them to be seen on the whole east side of Redmond, where people are unsanctioned long-term camping.”
Commissioners did not take to a vote a staff-provided option to also add more security patrols at Juniper Ridge north of Bend, where over 200 homeless have moved in recent months to the city-county-approved Temporary Safe Stay Area. The county already funds two hours of security patrols a day (costing $165 a day) on county-owned land at Juniper Ridge, while the city does the same on its land.
Commissioners also made known their choices for a seven-member advisory panel that will help draw up district zoning for the expanded five-member county commission voters approved last year, taking effect next year.
DeBone and Adair each are making two appointments, while Chang will make three. He listed five choices Monday, including Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler, but said he will narrow it to his three picks by Wednesday’s planned vote on the committee members.
Another closely watched matter was not on the agenda – the board’s impending selection of an interim sheriff before current Sheriff Kent van der Kamp’s retirement takes effect July 31.
Five applicants are in the field, and commissioners said they will meet individually with the candidates before a special meeting planned for next Tuesday, July 29 to make the appointment.
DeBone later explained that he plans to provide his colleagues with “two prioritized names. Commissioner Chang asked for us to invite all five to a board meeting so he could ask questions in public. We determined that we are not going to meet in a public meeting as a group.”