Next month, voters in Deschutes County will cast their ballots in a special election that will decide the fate of a handful of ballot measures and candidates competing in local district races. As it has done in past elections, the Source Weekly, an independently owned newspaper based in Bend, shared its endorsements for the election on May 16. But for the first time in its history, the paper published an editorial to weigh in on candidates vying for seats on the Deschutes library board, and why it thinks “there’s a good reason for all of us to be paying closer attention” to this particular race. Joining us now to explain what’s at stake is Nicole Vulcan, editor of the Source Weekly.
The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Voters in Deschutes County will cast their ballots in a special election next month. There are a handful of ballot measures and candidates for local district races. As it’s done in the past, the Source Weekly, an independently owned newspaper based in Bend, made endorsements for the May 16th election. But for the first time in its history, the paper published an editorial to weigh in on candidates vying for seats on the Deschutes Library Board, writing “there’s a good reason for all of us to be paying closer attention to these races.”
Nicole Vulcan is the editor of the Source Weekly. She joins us now to talk about this. Welcome to the show.
Nicole Vulcan: Thank you, Dave.
Miller: So at the center of this current election is a library bond that narrowly passed in 2020. What did voters approve back then?
Vulcan: Well, I pulled up some of the language of the bond just so we can get really clear here. In the voters pamphlet, voters read “the bond funds would pay for the design and construction of a central library that would provide a discovery center for children to learn and play, substantial space for an expanded book and materials collection, flexible community and small business spaces for learning, creativity and collaboration, space for larger programs and events, an efficient book material processing and distribution center to serve all of the libraries in Deschutes County.” It goes on to say they’re gonna expand the existing Redmond Library, and also repair and modernize the Sunriver, La Pine, Downtown, Bend, and East Bend libraries.
Miller: So there would be renovations or repairs in a number of branch libraries, an expansion in Redmond, and then a lot more work for a central library that would have all the amenities or abilities that you outlined at the beginning. What reasons did bond backers put forward in 2020? What were the arguments in favor of this ultimately successful bond?
Vulcan: I went back and looked at that in the voters pamphlet as well. There were 12 arguments in favor of passing this bond, and zero against. People said things like they love libraries, our population is exploding in size, we need more capacity. Things like that.
Miler: It’s been more than two years since that vote. What’s happened in terms of spending this money, making what you’ve just described a reality?
Vulcan: Well over in Redmond, where there once was the existing Redmond Library, there’s a pile of rubble that will soon be the larger new Redmond Library in downtown. That project is well under way.
In Bend, it’s been a little more complicated. When you have these major construction projects, they need to be approved by the City Council. In the case of the Central Library location, it was originally slated for a place that is in an expansion area for the city of Bend’s urban growth boundary. That meant that there was an area plan that was needed for that area, meaning we need to look at how we’re to put a sewer in and such. Not long before that, an elementary school was put pretty close to where that Robal Road location, the original central library location was to be sited. That elementary school went through its text and map amendments, City Council approved it, [and] it went on its way when. When the library brought the notion of Robal Road road location, which is kind of at the center of Deschutes County, at the crux of Highway 97 and Highway 20, really a very central location for the entire county in Bend, the city council said no. They said you don’t have the area plan, if you wanna do the area plan go ahead and pay for it, but we’re not gonna do this.
And that was a shock for a lot of people. I went back and looked at some of our reporting as far back as 2018. We were reporting on the fact that the library wanted to do these expansions and renovations, and that they wanted to build a large central library. So for a number of years, this discussion, with kind of some general price tags, was in the public eye. It was just a shock that the city council rejected this proposal. I think we were annoyed as an editorial board going through this process and seeing that happen, nobody wants that.
And now the library had to move on. They wanted to fulfill their obligation to the voters and to taxpayers and their patrons. So they’ve selected another location, which is on the pretty far east side of Bend.
Miller: That brings us to where we are right now. Why did you decide to weigh in on this race for a couple seats on this library board for the first time in the paper’s history.
Vulcan: I think we’re seeing nationally this trend we have seen in recent years of some folks not respecting the will of the voters, of trying to reverse what voters voted for. And we don’t want to see that trend persist here in Deschutes County, we think electeds should do what they promised to do. I think the language of the bond is pretty clear, voters wanted a central library with a lot of amenities.
Miller: So one of the candidates who’s been on the board for 25 years, Ray Miao, when we reached out to him for comment about this, he sent us a statement that I want to read part of. He says he’s not arguing against the will of the voters:”We will build a central library and book processing facility as required by the bond. I’ve always supported that. The bond, however, doesn’t state the size of a central library. That gives us a lot of flexibility. It doesn’t need to be a 100,000 square foot elaborate building costing at least $138 million. We could build a more modest central library and processing facility. Money saved could be used to build another community library to keep up with Bend’s growth.”
What do you think is wrong with the plan he’s putting forward?
Vulcan: Well, that’s not what his board, as a majority vote, has voted in favor of. I spoke with some of the other board members, they gave me background on this. I’ve spoken with Ray Miao in the past after the Robal Road vote, just to kind of get more background and try to understand.
The board itself voted in favor of a different direction. They explored the possibility of these small community libraries as opposed to building a larger model. In their fact finding, talking with library experts nationwide, they discovered that that small community library model is not the direction that was advised. So as a board, they voted no, we’re gonna go for this central library option instead. This was a kind of a five year plus process of exploring options.
I kind of have to take issue with the notion that the size was never floated. Right there in our December 2018 article, we talk about the fact that this central library, at that time, we quoted 95,000 square feet. I think that they’re saying 100,000 [square feet] now.
Miller: I wanna run one more sort of almost philosophical point by you that we got from Ray Miao. He basically said that library officials should pay attention to the closeness of the 2020 bond vote. He wrote this:”A win is a win. But what does a narrow margin tell us? It says that we will build a central library. It also says that a large percentage of the voters were conflicted about the bond. We need to find out why, and build firm community support.”
I’m curious what you make of that argument?
Vulcan: That’s a kind of part of another national trend. I think a majority is a majority. Sure, fewer people didn’t want this. I think we should listen to that. He’s presenting an argument that has been explored over a number of years through the board meetings. The rest of the board doesn’t agree with him. In terms of the new location for the Stevens Ranch library, the location of the proposed East Bend Library now, was a 4 to 1 vote in favor of the design that is currently in place.
Miller: Finally, I’m just curious what other races or measures you’re paying the most attention to locally in this election cycle?
Vulcan: Deschutes County is such a fascinating place. We’re really a purple county. Like a lot of Oregon, non affiliated voters outnumber both Republicans and Democrats. We’re always a mixed bag.
Some of the interesting things are going on in Redmond. There’s a number of candidates who are running on a parents’ rights platform for the Redmond School Board. I think that’s worth paying attention to. Here in Deschutes County we’ve got a fire levy on the ballot this year, we think that’s important in terms of the outrage that came over the state wildfire risk maps. One of the things that we learned just talking to insurance companies was that one of the things that they actually used to assess whether someone’s at fire risk is the effectiveness of your fire department. So we think that’s a reason to support that levy. Those are just a few things that we’re looking at.
Miller: Nicole Vulcan, thanks very much.
Vulcan: Thank you, Dave.
Miller: Nicole Vulcan is the editor of the Source Weekly in Bend.
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