Welcome to my web site.

I have served Benton County as an elected official for 13 years, first as a member of the Corvallis 509J School Board and, for eleven years as your county commissioner.  I am asking you to grant me another term because I want to continue to serve you.  Three years ago I listed several things I wanted to accomplish in my present term.  Here is the score card.

Benton County’s organizational structure.  We’ve made progress.  We are in the beginning stages of reorganization of several departments and we have hired an experienced county chief operating officer who joins us March 1.  By continuing to streamline and update our organizational structure we will improve customer service and reduce operating costs.

Improve the county’s compensation plan.  We have adopted a new, competitive compensation plan that better aligns us with the job market in which we compete.

Improve our communication with you.  We now have a system of frequent news releases, community meetings and quarterly newsletters and other media outlets.  We are reworking our web page to make it more friendly and easier to use.  And we continue to work to make it more interactive. We will continue to work on enhancing our communication with you and yours with us.

Begin construction of the downtown city/county office building we planned with Corvallis several years ago.  These plans were delayed with the purchase of the building housing the U. S. Forest Service.  I voted against that acquisition because we had done no planning for it.  Despite the purchase, we are putting the final touches upon a long-term strategic space plan.  While a downtown city/county building is not imminent, they are still within the long-term plan.

Revenue stability.  We cannot do this on our own; we can only help our state and federal lawmakers in their efforts to bring predictable, sustainable revenue to Benton County.  Property tax dollars we receive are the smallest part of our budget and the most flexible.  The majority of our revenue comes from our state and federal governments.  To stabilize revenues counties and cities receive, we need to fix state finances without increasing your taxes.  I will continue, as I have in the past, to work with the Association of Oregon Counties, our legislators, and our Congressional delegation to stabilize state and federal funding in order to stabilize county funding.

These are difficult and uncertain times for our residents.  I recognize that and will work to bring certainty to the services we offer you without further burdening you financially.  As always, we will operate within a balanced budget.

Jay