The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners could see several new faces depending on the results of two upcoming elections.
Three candidates are vying for separate seats on the five-member board in the May primary. Only one of them — current Board Chair Mark Kujala, trying for a third term — is an incumbent. Current District 3 Commissioner Pamela Wev and District 5 Commissioner Leanne Thompson told KMUN they will not seek reelection.
Instead, retired Costco executive and political newcomer Mike Brosius is running for the District 3 seat centered on Astoria.
Arch Cape-based contractor Rand Dufka is running for the District 5 seat, which covers a large expanse that begins in Seaside then stretches down the coast to the Tillamook County border then east to the border with Columbia County. Dufka previously served on the now-dissolved Arch Cape Design Review Committee. This will be his first time running for office.
So far the three men are unchallenged, but filing remains open through March 10.
Meanwhile, District 4 Commissioner Courtney Bangs is running for Senate District 16 in November, hoping to replace outgoing state Sen. Suzanne Weber, a Tillamook Republican, who is barred from seeking reelection. Weber has already endorsed Bangs.
If Bangs is successful, the remaining county commissioners will need to fill her vacant seat. Her term expires at the end of 2028.
The three candidates in the running now for county commissioner share similar concerns about economic development in Clatsop County, pointing to the need to diversify an economy that has long relied on timber and fishing but that now leans heavily on tourism.
Kujala previously served as mayor of Warrenton. He was elected as county commissioner in 2018 and won reelection in 2022. In his role as executive director of the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation, he has spearheaded fundraising efforts for the hospital’s $300 million expansion project in Astoria.
In an interview with KMUN, Kujala highlighted Oregon’s roadmap to prosperity, a strategic multi-year plan focused on boosting and reinvigorating the state’s economy. The roadmap came out of Gov. Tina Kotek’s office in December. Among other things, the roadmap discusses the need to reduce barriers to investment and growth in Oregon.
For Kujala, that means tangible change around permitting for development on the rural Oregon coast. He has in mind key properties in Clatsop County such as the 162-acre North Coast Business Park, located in Warrenton on the east side of Highway 101 south of Alternate Highway 101. The business park is home to big box stores like Costco and Walmart among others.
“We say, hey, OK: If the state is really interested in this, we don’t want it to just be for a certain part of the state,” Kujala said. “We want it to be rural areas too and rural counties deserve that.”
He and other local leaders see huge potential for development at the business park.
Last year, the county transferred approximately 130 acres of county-owned undeveloped land in the business park to North Coast Industrial LLC. That company’s manager is John Nygaard, a member of a prominent local timber family. He is also involved with operations at the Nygaard family’s Warrenton Fiber Company.
Kujala feels the role of county commissioner has evolved during his time on the board. He told KMUN it is clear the county does have influence at the state and federal levels. Commissioners have worked to build relationships with state and federal leaders as well as local businesses and nonprofits.
“I think we are primed now to be able to lean on those as we go to the state,” Kujala said. “Funding is certainly at a premium for everyone, but I think we’ve positioned ourselves in a really good way. So I want to continue to see that and I want to continue to just get everyone together.”
During his time on the commission, Kujala successfully lobbied for $1 million in federal money that will help address infrastructure needs in the county’s emergency dispatch system as the county looks to consolidate those operations.
For Kujala, the county board of commissioners has an opportunity to be a facilitator for the cities and community groups across the county.
Brosius agrees, saying the county should be a conduit, bringing everything together. But he feels there could be more focus in the approach.
With his years at Costco and his community involvement in Oregon, the District 3 candidate comes with a lot of connections — and has been building more in Clatsop County since he moved to Astoria full time roughly four years ago.
Brosius sees a need to push for a more solid vision of what the county wants to be in the next 20 or even 30 years. The business park property in Warrenton is on his mind, too.
“Economic diversity is vital,” Brosius said, adding that it is essential that whatever is done at the business park is thought through with the “right developer and…the right mix of what’s going to go into that space because once it’s there, it’s there.”
Brosius argues that he has the business expertise to challenge what course is taken there — and elsewhere in the county — and consider the overall plan and goals.
“I think that’s what’s traditionally missing in government in general — is they have no North Star,” he said. “They don’t know where they want to be in 20 or 30 years because all they’re trying to figure out is what’s the next six months or two years or the election cycle going to be.”
If elected, Brosius wants to champion the creation and support of what he terms “living wage careers” in the county. He sees particular potential in the maritime industry, healthcare and, possibly, manufacturing where he sees an opportunity to address one of his other concerns: housing.
He said he would be interested in looking at ways to bring an emerging style of manufactured homes to the county, opening the door to homeownership to more people.
In Astoria, Brosius is involved with a number of community boards and organizations, including nonprofit boards at Clatsop Community College, CMH and the Liberty Theatre.
Last year, he was an applicant for the Ward 4 seat on the Astoria City Council, which was vacant after former Councilor Vance Lump moved out of the area. He was a top contender for that seat, but city councilors appointed Joshua Conklin instead.
In the District 5 race, Rand Dufka, a contractor and longtime Arch Cape resident, said he was talked into running by Thompson.
Dufka feels Thompson has done a lot for South County during her time on the county commission. He would like to see her work and initiatives continue. But Dufka says South County continues to face a number of challenges, one of them is county law enforcement and the degree to which it relies on timber revenue.
“Every year it gets less and less so it’s becoming an incredible challenge for the county to be able to provide the services that the residents require,” he said.
Dufka owns Arch Cape Construction and all of his work is in Clatsop County. He argues this gives him insight into challenges businesses face in the county. He also believes businesses need to take an active role in developing housing for employees.
He opposed a proposal in 2023 to build a workforce housing project in Arch Cape, which was tied to an initiative by Clatsop County to offer up surplus properties for needed projects like housing, child care and social services. Dufka said this particular housing project would have been located away from key amenities.
“There’s no laundry, there’s no grocery, there’s no gas station,” he said. “There are no services in Arch Cape.”
“I think that housing should be located in areas that have those specific related services within easy reach of the housing,” he added.
Dufka is also interested in the county helping to facilitate more gun safety education.
A gun owner and hunter, Dufka worries that emphasis on proper gun safety — how to handle firearms and respect them — has dwindled even as gun ownership continues on an upward trend nationally.
But overall, Dufka says his top priority is to make sure South County continues to have representation.
“I just want to be a conduit for the constituents of South County,” he said. “That’s basically why I’m doing this.”
Ballots will begin to go out for the May 19 primary in late April.