Bend Don’t Break: Phil Chang, Deschutes County Commissioner

In this episode of Bend Don’t Break, Aaron Switzer sits down with Phil Chang, Deschutes County Commissioner, to explore a pivotal moment for local leadership as the county prepares to welcome a new wave of commissioners. Phil reflects on his role stepping into senior leadership, the outcomes of the recent election, and how Deschutes County’s political landscape is shifting alongside its rapid growth. He shares candid insights into the challenges of governing in an environment where national narratives increasingly shape local decision making.

Together, Aaron and Phil dive into the region’s most pressing issues, including housing, land use, behavioral health, and homelessness, along with the importance of evidence driven policymaking and stronger collaboration between the county, cities, and community partners. Phil outlines his vision for a more pragmatic and solutions oriented approach to governance, emphasizing the need to support innovative staff, cut through ideological gridlock, and focus on outcomes that move the community forward. Tune in for a thoughtful conversation about leadership, accountability, and the future of Central Oregon.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to the Ben Don't Break Podcast. We are powered by the STORS, Ben's locally owned media company and weekly newspaper. This podcast is our eddy in the rushing waters of local journalism. We are glad that you're taking some of your time to listen to us chat with the people who shape our local community. Support us through our member program at BenStorts.com.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Remax Key Properties, a family-owned, full-service real estate brokerage specializing in residential, luxury, commercial, new construction, and ranch and land properties. Their new state-of-the-art facility at 42 Greenwood Avenue is a modern collaborative space and the new home of the Bin Don't Break Podcast Recording Studio.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

I'm Erin Sweitzer, publisher of The Source and producer of this fine event. For those of you listening, we do not have a video of this uh podcast uh for today with Phil Chang, Deschutes County Commissioner, because Megan Burton decided to go to her sister's wedding and uh throw this whole podcast into a tizzy. But uh weddings have to happen. So Phil Chang is here, Deschutes County Commissioner. He has served on the Board of County Commissioners for Deschutes County since January 2021. He has made Bend his home for 22 years and raised his son here. He has worked for 30 years to help rural communities build sustainable economies where workers can combine making a living with being good stewards of the environment. For three and a half years, Phil promoted our local community needs and federal funding and polity decisions as U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley's Central Oregon Field Representative. Phil holds a BA from Columbia University and an MS in environmental science, policy, and management from UC Berkeley. Phil, thanks for being here. I think this is your third timer as a podcast. That sounds right. Yeah. I think only Keith Wikowski has you beat by uh by one more.

SPEAKER_04 2:00

Well, thanks for having me in. There's always lots to talk about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

So um, Phil, you will be uh after this last election, you'll be becoming the uh senior commissioner on a uh on a commission board that's now gonna be expanding by two people. You got a lot of rookies coming on to the to the commission. I mean people with public service, but some of them with no public service, and uh, you know, they're gonna they're gonna need to learn the ropes from somebody. So I think your workload's about to to increase.

SPEAKER_04 2:30

It uh that would be my guess. It's gonna be really exciting. Yeah um it's gonna be really exciting for the county overall on boarding uh four new commissioners in January. Uh it's gonna be really exciting for me to um try to create a different dynamic on our board of commissioners uh than what I've experienced in the last five years. Um I I think right now uh we're sort of thin on analysis and you know data and evidence. Um well I I I wouldn't say that the process is thin. The staff presents us good data and analysis and evidence about you know we should be doing this, and the evidence says this. Um, but uh oftentimes at this point the the board reacts, the majority of the board, in my opinion, it reacts uh from an ideological place.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Right, or emotional.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

Yeah. I mean, don't tell me how to fix uh addiction in our community. I know. Right. Um so it uh I will hope that we can uh we can kind of create a new dynamic where we are all pragmatically trying to solve problems, where um we believe in evidence and good analysis, uh, and we can have thoughtful deliberations that aren't just um loaded with ideology and uh that get us stuck uh as we try to address you know really important concerns for our community.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Yeah. When you um, I mean, it's been all over the news, and I don't think anybody who pays attention to county politics is unaware that the um, even though the county is a nonpartisan position, uh let's say more progressive ideology held sway in this election. And um, to a pretty high degree, I mean, some of those races were new people were far out in front of incumbents, which I found a little surprising. Yeah. Um what was your thought in looking at the election as far as like how the county moved? Was it surprising to you?

SPEAKER_04 4:54

Um you know, uh uh about that one particular race, the the DeBone Collins race. I I feel like um one of the things that was happening there is that incumbency works for you uh for a while. Yeah. Um, you know, like I I know that when I ran for re-election in 2024, just being the incumbent, you know, doing the job that people thought was okay, earned me thousands of votes.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Right.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

Um, so I think incumbent incumbency can really work for you as long as people think you're doing a a decent job. Um, but the double-edged sword is that when when people don't feel that you are solving important problems that you're talking about, then um then incumbency really does not work for you.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Yeah, I mean, sometimes you can have, I mean, I think it's fair to say, a very emotional electric just uh come forward and just be like, throw the bums out, all of them, yeah, top to bottom. We need we need to start over. And um, you know, there I I feel like there could have been some of that that happened.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Yeah, I I I I definitely feel like there may be some anti-incumbent kind of sentiment. Yeah. Uh this this uh 2026 election cycle. Yeah. Um, but I also I do think that, you know, to to to your point, I I do think that uh um the the candidates who uh uh secured over 50% of the vote in the May elections, they do represent more progressive um policy perspectives. And uh I think that that is also a reflection of our changing community. Yes. You know, uh you know, I've lived here actually I've lived here 23 years now. Um so I you know I've lived here 23 years. When I first uh arrived in this community, there were a bunch of reasonable, pragmatic, moderate Republicans who basically held all the elected offices.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

And um, I thought that a lot of them did a good job. You know, I you know they were they were people who were open to you know good analysis and evidence and and you know presentation of uh potential solutions, um, and were able to kind of you know not get so stuck in an ideological partisan position. Um, I do feel like uh the partisan extremes have gotten greater uh within local government in in um in recent years. And um as a result, it it's been on it's been odd for me to watch the elected officials on the county commission get more and more extreme right wing as the population of the county has gotten more and more purple over time.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

That was surprising to me too.

SPEAKER_04 7:53

I think so we we sort of like split off in two different directions, and I I think now it's coming back together.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

Sometimes, I mean, I know from the endorsement interviews that we do as we pull all these candidates, and because we're seeing so many candidates and we're talking to so many people, you do get a flavor for um you get a flavor for what the parties are shooting for. And sometimes I do think uh, and I think this is the it comes through to county elections. What's always surprised me, they'll they'll talk national talking points in county commission races. I can have things like you know, social issues that are of national importance being talked about. And I I try to go like knock knock knock land use. Are we gonna are you gonna circle back? Are you gonna stay on like same-sex marriage and some of these other trigger items? And and it feels like that has that has translated over into the politics themselves.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

Yeah, yeah. No, I uh absolutely there's um national partisan division, the identities that have connected themselves to the different parties. Uh, it is I I think oftentimes a real barrier to doing good work at the local level on issues that don't have to be partisan. Um, and then sometimes there's things that there's national partisan stuff that uh really does have impacts at the local level.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 9:21

And people can't even see it. Like the other day, we there were two items on our agenda related to you know that tied back to Medicaid. Oh, you know, like how do we take care of these people who are going to be, you know, thousands of people in our community were cast off of Medicaid when those new eligibility requirements and and work requirements and reporting requirements kick in uh next year. Uh and you know, on the one hand, I had uh, you know, Commissioner Dare saying, um, oh, you know, like we need to take care of of rural people. There's so many people in our community who are on Medicaid. And then when it got to um, oh, well, uh, you know, the uh HR1, the big beautiful bill, so-called, you know, is casting all these people off. Right. And all we get in return is this little rural health transformation program, you know, like basically, you know, 200 million dollars for the state of Oregon when we're losing like a billion, right, more than a billion a year. Right. Um, she she defended it.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:33

So it's kind of like, didn't you just say you are so concerned about rural people who are on on Medicaid, and you know, 25% of our county population is is probably on Medicaid right now. Um, and most, you know, the the concentration is even higher in the rural parts of the county. Right, right. Uh so there's there's yeah, you know, the the the national partisan politics, I think, can really trip people up.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

Yeah, I I have been waiting for this robust debate amongst around these kind of issues because it to me it cuts not only does it cut go across party lines, it's actually more um detrimental to conservatives than if it's a conservative measure. And and and I do imagine it puts people like uh Patty or other conservatives who got I mean she's gonna she's campaigning for District 5. I mean, that's yeah, she's gonna be shaking hands with a lot of people who are losing Medicaid. And yeah, um yeah, I mean and it is a it's a brutal position to be in, I think.

SPEAKER_04 11:38

Right. I mean Cliff Bence, you know, Congressional District 2 covers a decent chunk of Deschutes County. Uh the the it is one of the highest uh concentrations of Medicaid, you know, percentage-wise uh in the population of any district congressional district in the United States. Right. Yeah. Um but you know, he um he bought completely supportive gutting gutting Medicaid.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Yeah. What do you um I mean now that you've you just witnessed another campaign and this is my own personal intrigue, you know, these all this chatter and social media conversation and stuff that seems to be pushing pushing these ideological lines further apart. And yeah, uh how do you combat can you combat that? Do you feel like there are the tides turning, getting better, getting worse?

SPEAKER_04 12:28

Yeah. I I I don't know. I mean, I I I I am you know where people get their information, who they trust, uh uh you know, is is shifting so rapidly, you know, um, you know, kind of traditional media um just does not have the same attention or wattage or or influence that uh that it once did. I I I don't know what the answer is to that. Yeah. Um I I do feel at the local level, uh, you can do things like go door to door to people's ass. But you know, even for for county commission race at the at the at the um you know, uh at the county level at large positions, you know, it's 210,000 people. It's pretty hard. It's a lot of doors. It's pretty hard to visit all those doors. Um, but I I and more coming. Yeah, I do know that you know, some of the some of the candidates you'll uh you know, I I I the the winners, you know, Rick Russell, uh Jamie Collins. I'm pretty confident that those guys, and you know, and and with some volunteer support, they knock 10,000 doors. Um wow. So I mean, maybe that is enough to kind of move the needle. Yeah, move.

SPEAKER_03 13:47

Well, they those those people they're talking to talk to other people, and you, you know, you get a you get a snowball effect of like, he's not such a bad guy after all. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:55

Yeah. No, I I I think that when people meet you face to face, um, they can smell BS, they can smell inauthenticity. Yeah. And they can smell authenticity and they can see, you know, they can recognize straight shooters, yeah. Um, who want to talk to them about the things that they're really worried about?

SPEAKER_03 14:16

Yeah. Um, with you know, training for new counselors aside, uh, or whatever that role is gonna look like for you, what are the things that you see for a new council that are exciting? What is what is it that you look forward to other than the dynamic?

SPEAKER_04 14:34

Yeah, I mean, you know, on on the policy front, um, I am so excited to have um more thoughtful conversations about housing and land use. Yeah. You know, uh, for so long, the focus of the majority on the board of commissioners has been on um uh facilitating as much um low density luxury rural residential development as possible. Um, and you know, I, in my opinion, trying to flout the Oregon Landies planning system. Um I am really excited for us to be able to talk about, you know, if the county wants to help produce housing that our community needs, um, our job is first and foremost to work with cities on urban growth boundary expansions. Right. Where where workforce and affordable housing actually gets built. Right. Um so I mean, I know the city's working on a UG, or is yeah, they're working on it, but they're in the early stages and and sisters is almost is you know, is is you know, in the final, yeah, you know, in the final home stretch uh on theirs. Um, you know, it's it's possible that that uh we will get to uh vote uh the the board of of commissioners will get to vote on the sisters UGB um you know before Tony and Patty are out of office. Oh okay. Um but the the Ben UGB that's definitely um that will be in the you know um I I don't know if that'll be the 2030 or 2030.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

Yeah, something.

SPEAKER_04 16:09

I don't know if uh, you know, I I don't know if if if I'll see if I'll see that before the end of my current term.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_04 16:16

Um but but yeah, uh land use and and and land use and housing uh is something I'm I'm I'm really excited to work on with with new commissioners. Um behavioral health. Yes, I I know that you that you care deeply about yeah, and I and that so I was gonna turn to that next.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

So I appreciate. I mean, I know you have such great staff at the county level, and um and and I've obviously talked to a bunch of them on this podcast, and they're they've got headwinds, but yeah, well, the county plays such an important role, and and personally I've just felt like that area of the county has just been adrift. Um and now you have more wattage, more commissioners who can spend a little more, hopefully a little more time on those kind of things.

SPEAKER_04 17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

What does that mean for for the county from a commission level?

SPEAKER_04 17:06

I'll like I'll I'll start from the place that you just mentioned. We have uh we have amazing staff, um, you know, visionary, innovative people um who work for the county for county health services, county behavioral health. And you know, for a long time, I have been of the opinion if we uh if the board of commissioners just doesn't get in their way, um, but they can do great things. Yeah. Um, and and kind of the way that I I would describe the current dynamic is um county staff has great ideas, they figure out somebody else to pay for it, and then they bring it to us on the silver platter, and you know, maybe we'll let them do it. You know, you know, things like uh, but even things like the stabilization center, you know, the county had the concept that you know, county staff had the plan that ultimately was implemented for years before before they had got to do it. Right. Right. Um, because you know, um the commissioners wanted to micromanage that and yeah, you know, meddle in the design of the building and you know, the water feature and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

Um I shouldn't be laughing.

SPEAKER_04 18:21

But if we could go from a dynamic of, you know, hey county staff, you got a good idea. Uh, you can present it to us, you can find all the money you need, and maybe we'll let you do it. If we can go from there to um, hey, we recognize that we are leaders in the state of Oregon doing all kinds of innovative things. Um, and uh you are going to have the backing of your board of commissioners, uh, advocating to state legislators for funding, um, advocating for, you know, important thing, you know, uh kind of really what what sound like really dry things, but um reduced administrative burden. Right. Like so if a clinician can spend five percent more time with you know with clients and patients and five percent less time filling out redundant paperwork, yeah. Um or water features or looking at um You know, I I I'm I'm uh I'm really excited to to see uh where we can take some of this work um with uh with more commissioners who are backing our great staff.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

Um what are some things as you look forward that you go you're concerned about? What are some worries that five new commissioners are not?

SPEAKER_04 19:42

I mean, just I at the at the at the broad scale, one of the issues that um commissioner elect uh Jamie Collins has has raised, made part of his campaign platform energy.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

So I mean we we saw what happened on the pine, you know, with the turning down the data center. Yeah, I feel like people's people's antenna are up, you know, as far as energy use and absolutely they're engaged.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

Yeah, no, I mean we have um right now for the population that we have for the industry that we have weedy, we have barely enough electricity. Yeah, I mean, and you go by some of the like Pacific Power infrastructure and you hear it like buzzing, and and it's you know, I've talked to people I have not heard that, and then I've talked to people and they're like, yeah, like it is, you know, it's maxed out, and yes, and um, you know, I'm afraid that that uh it's gonna like catch on fire, right? Right. Um, so we we do not have enough power supply, we do not have adequate transmission infrastructure um for the growth that is in our future and um you know, and adding data centers in the in the state of Oregon. And you know, I'm uh the that that Le Pine proposal, if there is any place in Deschutes County where a small data center um could fit, it's probably in Le Pine. Um if I get to choose what kind of data center, I would not choose a cryptocurrency data center, though. Um but but you know, the idea that like there might be a small data center proposal that does fit in Le Pine someday, you know, if there's adequate energy that comes online, um I I'm I'm not I'm not closed to it.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

But I I know that that for a lot of I I mean, I know one of the biggest fears about data centers, and and it makes sense, is that they come in and they get such an enormous number of tax breaks and energy breaks. And I mean, is there a way that data centers can come in and pay their way and then some? Because it seems like that would be the solution. Yeah. Why can't these guys supply additional power if they're coming?

SPEAKER_04 21:56

I I uh I that's exactly where I would I would go. This discussion we have, you know, data centers get from local governments approvals um to do you know something that is large scale potentially energy and water intensive.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

Right.

SPEAKER_04 22:15

Um, and uh communities have the opportunity to demand conditions or you know, demand certain kinds of community benefits in exchange for um letting the data center be there. Right. Um and we're seeing communities across the United States saying no um right now. So I I think the it's gonna be increasingly the conditions will be increasingly favorable for communities that say, yes, but we want this, this, and this. Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

Um well they're not they're they're I don't I know it's in in their best interest to strong arm local government, but they're not poor. No, they're coming from a place of profit, right? You know, and I I look at the stock market with regard to crypto and AI, and and that's not the place that's going red.

SPEAKER_04 23:05

No, it's not, it's not. So I yeah, I I mean I I think it'd be great for us to get appropriate community benefits out of those things. Yeah. Also, I mean renewable energy projects. I mean, uh, we have seen in in the last year or so proposals to take a 3,000 acre chunk of Deschutes County um federal lands, right? Um, and put that under you know, 700 megawatts of of solar photovoltaic voltaic uh panels. I mean, 3,000 acres is a lot.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

That's a lot. And could that help solve some of the energy problems or is that a drop in the bucket?

SPEAKER_04 23:42

Um just 700 megawatts would would help a lot. Yeah. I mean, depending on who who wins the bid for the power. Right. Yeah. Um, you know, because it's always about there's a lot of you know, rural communities that are complaining about like, well, you know, you build this huge project in our community and then you sell the power into California, or you right, you know, you put it on the grid and it's going away. Yeah. Um, and I mean that is just a product of our market-based economy, right? That's that's the way electricity generation works. Right. Um, but I uh if there are ways that we could get uh energy developers to, you know, if if they if they're gonna give us money in lieu of taxes, like maybe we could say, hey, you're gonna give us X million dollars to invest in a microgrid project in Red Gray so that you know we have some resiliency uh in case of you know massive wildfire that destroys a bunch of transmission infrastructure, something like that.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Yeah, one other thing for uh new county, we'll call it uh as it's as it's rolling in, um, is coordination, coordination between on homelessness and more of that stuff between the city. It's it's fair to say that has been uh, if not frictious, fractious. Uh and and it's it's resulted in a lot of miscommunication and kind of a slower roll than uh maybe would be ideal.

SPEAKER_04 25:16

Yeah. No, I mean, uh I want to note that that we have made progress. Right. You know, we we've provided some wraparound services, we provided some shelter and transitional housing. Our point in time that count numbers are nine down 19% this this year for the region, which is awesome. Um, but uh I would say that uh the county uh could do a lot more than it has been. Yeah. And it could be uh a better partner than it has been. And um, you know, we we we we could see it, you know, in like the the Redmond City Council. You know, three, four years ago, the Redmond City Council is just like, nope, no shelter, not helping with anything. You know, the you know it's rooted in a in this uh belief that you know homeless people are not from here, they're all addicts, they don't want to work, you know.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

They need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

SPEAKER_04 26:12

This hateful characterization and but the way to fix them is to kick them out of public lands and probably lock them up in jail. Um, but I I do believe that uh, you know, uh like I'm gonna call out uh commissioner electric Rick Russell right now. You know, Rick is has been right on the front lines of solving homelessness.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

Yeah, that was one of the most appealing things about his campaign. It would jump off the page when he would speak to the issues and endorsement interviews, et cetera.

SPEAKER_04 26:41

Yeah. And so to have uh a person like that on our board of commissioners helping to to lead, helping to build the partnerships uh with the cities and and nonprofits, um, it is gonna be uh really exciting. Yeah. And and then the hard part is gonna be how do we how do we pay for the things that we want to do that we know work but which require some investment.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

Yeah. Phil, we are at the conclusion of our time unbelievably again. I I think you're the smooth one of the smoothest interviews that I do. Uh anything that I did not bring up that listeners should uh know of as we embark on this new era.

SPEAKER_04 27:20

Uh no, I uh as we covered, I I think we're going to see some a really different approach and some some great forward motion from the county on housing, land use, homelessness, behavioral health, yeah, all kinds of things that people really care about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

That whole measure to get more folks on uh it's been characterized in social media as political. And my my feeling is that as the county has grown and the responsibilities have grown, and as I've watched three people try to tackle these issues, and you don't ever want to sit down with three people. That just that number is just such a terrible dynamic. And being but all that aside, like there's so much more that commissioners can do. And there's I mean, being able to divvy up the board responsibilities and who's doing what and where there's focus and having a fifth eye. And I mean, I I believe the democratic process held in Deschutes County, and and we'll we'll see what happens. But I'm I'm very excited about the change. I think it's it's a very cool thing to see Deschutes County evolve in this fashion. And uh I hope the next term goes well.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

Thank you so much. Yeah, I I I do too, and I'm very hopeful and um I feel a lot of pressure to make sure we do it right.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

You're the senior now. You're the you're the class of of whatever. So classic 2021. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Um, well, this has been the Ben Don't Break podcast. Uh, I really appreciate you sitting down with us, Phil, and uh and taking some time. I know it's these are crazy days.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

Thank you so much for the time today, Aaron.

SPEAKER_03 28:58

If you like what you heard, go to bensource.com, become a member, uh, donate and support, support us so that we can continue to have these uh important conversations and entertaining conversations for me. I hope for you listeners as well. Thanks. You've been listening to the Ben Don't Break podcast powered by the Source Weekly. To read, hear, and see more of what we do, go to Bensource.com.