City Council Candidate: David McClain, Ward 2

Lebanon Local asked each City Council candidate running on the November ballot the same questions and received response via email or phone call.

Years in Lebanon: I have lived in Lebanon for over 32 years. Having relatives in and around Lebanon has given me history here my whole life.

Education: Domino’s Pizza Regional Startup & Training Executive – many classes related to finance and business. Linn-Benton & Chemeketa Community colleges: Computer Technology/Business coursework. Santa Rosa Junior College: Real Estate licensure courses and Business courses. Graduated Dayton Oregon High School. Flight school in Albany.

Professional Background/Work Experience:

My professional and work experience background is primarily aligned around business operations: 1. Owned four Domino’s Pizza franchises in Northern Calif. I specialized in high volume. 2. Hired by Domino’s Corporate to design, market and train regional startups in a high volume capacity. 3. Owned a large working farm in Douglas County – cow/calf operation, alfalfa and grass hay. Sold the farm and moved to Lebanon to be closer to family 32 years ago. 4. Founder and Secretary McClain Family Corporation, we oversee personal and client properties around Lebanon and Linn County as well as maintenance, improvements and repairs on those properties. It is a small construction business and has allowed me to interact with a lot of people in and around Lebanon.

Political Experience/Affiliations: This is a non-partisan election so my objective is to serve the best interests of all constituents in Ward II and all the citizens of Lebanon. A position that honesty and integrity matters.

Other Community Involvement: I have been on the Planning Commission since 2015. Many people like to blame the Planning Commission and City Council for out-of-control growth in Lebanon, but as explained below much of our problems arise from state level policies related to the zoning takeover of small municipalities throughout rural Oregon. As a resident here for over 30 years I have seen the traffic issues worsen, fire and police protections struggle, schools changing, and crime growing.
Lebanon is experiencing growing pains and I am right there with you on these issues.

Family: Married, adult children and grandchildren, most of whom live in the area. My wife and l between us have seven kids, 23 grandkids and six great-grandkids, most of whom live close in the area. I have a vested interest in how Lebanon turns out in the next few decades. I have skin in the game, you could say. They are family oriented and involved in the community to a certain degree at all levels.

 

Why do you want to serve on City Council?

I have lived in Lebanon for over 32 years, it is a great town and I love it here. I have been on the Planning Commission since 2015. In that position, I have had a front-row seat observing the rapid changes occurring in Lebanon – mostly in the last five years. Unfortunately, much of what we see happening in our town is being forced on us by the “State” and this has not been positive for Lebanon taxpayers or our quality of life.

Having worked with many iterations of the City Council over the years, the current group (with one exception) is doing a good job of ensuring transparency, keeping the public informed, putting issues to the people and staving off state/federal mandates the best they can. I think my Planning Commission experience, business and real estate background – even my farming days – provide the breadth of experience to become a welcome voice-of-the-people and addition to the Lebanon City Council.

 

Please describe your view of the proper role of government and how your philosophy of government would impact how you carry out your responsibilities in leading the city.

I think Henry David Thoreau sums up my position pretty closely, “That government is best which governs least.” Most of us over the age of 50 remember a Lebanon that seemed to function just fine with far less problems, less crime, better academic standards but half the budget, half the bureaucrats and half the taxes we pay today, and nowhere near the traffic issues we have now. Using that philosophy as a guide, we need to examine and identify the causes for the explosive expansion of government and government services and how to slow it down and decrease the budget wherever we can.

Some questions I will ask: How much taxpayer money will this project or service take? How many people will actually benefit from a project that extracts funds from all 20,000 citizens. Will it benefit all 20,000 or just a few? If it doesn’t benefit all 20,000 of us then why should we pay for it? Can the private sector and free market accomplish this project or services and leave government and taxpayers out of it? Having a well-functioning government is essential to our safety and prosperity. I am not anti-government but I do understand the importance of a government that works for us all and is funded appropriately. I still believe we should be able to elect officials that, when elected, we can go about our lives and let them do the job they were elected to do. I have always had a live and let live attitude when it comes to people, unless warranted, treating everyone you meet with dignity and respect has always been a philosophy of mine, no matter who, what, where or how they got here.

 

What are the three most important issues/challenges you believe Lebanon should address in the next four years? How would you address these?

  1. Consequences of uncontrolled population growth and development of the multi-unit apartment complexes. In 2019, Oregon’s one-party government passed House Bill (HB) 2001. This was a first in the nation law, essentially dampening construction on single-family housing statewide. Many people suggest this is an existential threat which is destroying rural Oregon as we know it and a mechanism to integrate illegal migrants throughout the state via “farmworker housing” – at taxpayer expense. The law requires that any city with a population over 10,000 must allow development of multi-unit complexes where formerly only single-family detached homes were allowed by local planners. The law also made it illegal to create local provisions that would cause “unreasonable cost and delay” in the construction of such housing. That is why we on the Planning Commission and City Council had to “approve” these developments or be faced-down by the state and developer’s legal teams. As many people in Lebanon will attest, the consequences have been a disaster to our quality of life.

There are many secondary effects of this housing bill which many feel are intentional: First, developers prefer to build apartment complexes because they maximize dollars and minimize cost and the rents continue forever. Every month, that money leaves Lebanon to management headquarters in places like Portland, Salem or San Francisco and that money goes to work there instead of here.

Second, property tax revenues for 50 apartment units on one acre of land is far less than 50 single family homes on ¼ acre each. Single family home property taxes are the economic engine of small towns, as housing supply decreases, housing values increase, increasing property taxes further and taxing people out of their homes. This also makes them less affordable to obtain and young adults become trapped in apartments where rents are as high as a mortgage so they can never save enough for a down payment. I would love to see our kids have the same opportunities we had; the American dream is changing from buying a home to being able to buy a car. Many of the apartments are built cheaply, and lack amenities like pools, play areas and smoking gazebos – people are already hanging out on the street to smoke and socialize. It is a direction I do not want us to go in. In just a few short years units will likely fall into disrepair and begin to resemble the Soviet­ style khrushchevka (project) housing.

This is a huge issue with so much more to be said than can be outlined here. Again, transparency is huge to me. I do not think someone building three-story apartments should be sitting on the City Council, or asking for a tax exemption to place more of the tax burden on homeowners. One thing that caught my eye near where I live is a yard sign by one of my opponents that said “re-elect.” I thought how can you be re-elected if you were never elected in the first place. Honesty matters.

  1. Tax burdens and consequences for Lebanon residents. Linn County pays some of the highest taxes in the state and Lebanon pays the highest taxes in Linn County. Many Lebanon residents have 22 separate taxes applied to their property. We also have some of the highest water rates in the nation. Taxes and fees are pushing fixed income people right out of their homes and into those high-priced apartments; it is also crippling the financial security and well-being of many others.

I would like to work with the council and others such as a consulting team from the Government Finance Officers Association and/or others to do a comprehensive evaluation of all Lebanon taxes, bureaucratic staff and their salaries and positions, urban renewal bonds and other programs to see which can be reduced to reasonable levels if they are not serving the needs of all the people. Most citizens are taxed-out and need relief – not more bonds, levies and fees. When our local government entities come up short, they always look to the taxpayers instead of looking to make the changes that we must make.

Many people around the state are also beginning to talk about another property tax revolt – strictly as a means to back government off. One of my opponents is suggesting we do not have enough parks and other taxpayer funded things to do and we should spend more taxpayer dollars on things like that. The message I am advocating is cut our taxes and we will then have the money to do with what we want – I’m going to go with the folks on this one.

  1. Increasing crime issues. Lebanon’s population has expanded by more than 5,000 in just a few years. Additionally, Oregon is a national leader in decriminalizing drugs, enabling homelessness and not holding people accountable for crimes or their actions. We have seen an increase in violent crime, domestic assaults and petty theft here in Lebanon, some associated with multiple calls to the new multi-unit complexes. We have the public safety officers almost staffed at full capacity. We need to continue to assist and retain them. There is also a lot that can be done through intergovernmental service sharing agreements with surrounding municipalities that we can look into. I do not think we will ever have the Mayberry life here again, but we can sure strive for it. A well-staffed, trained and funded police department would be a priority for me.

 

What goals do you hope to achieve while serving on the council?

I think I have outlined plenty of projects to work toward and achieve as outlined in the above and below sections. However, any personal goals are irrelevant without the collaboration, cooperation, transparency and support of the public and the boardsmanship necessary to gain the support of fellow council members. These are key elements to developing, unifying and achieving any goal.

 

The city is facing some financial challenges right now as the budget foresees a multimillion deficit in the coming years. What do you believe would be the best course for fixing this problem?

It would be irresponsible and presumptuous of me to suggest some course of action for an $85 million dollar budget that is put together by a finance team and budget committee working over a period of months. It will be a focus area of mine to spend the time and do the due diligence to fully understand all elements of the budget and be informed enough on expenditures, revenues and capital projects to make intelligent comments, have input and recommendations for changes based on knowledge and not opinion.

Some basic comments I have heard from elected officials is that in the 1990s the state passed laws providing state employee retirement fund contributions (PERS) to be 100% funded by taxpayers, and the employees no longer were required to contribute anything to their own retirement. This was great for employees but not so good for the taxpayers. The subsequent explosion of the public sector bureaucracy and the amounts of their total compensation packages is costing the taxpayers significantly. I suspect much of the multimillion dollar deficit is due to deferred unpaid pension liability which can be pushed out for years. It is unfair to taxpayers when public sector unions negotiate salary and compensation packages and the taxpayers are not fairly represented.

 

A lot of city government revolves around funding – budgets and taxation. In general, how do you view the city’s performance in these areas?

Again, it would be irresponsible and presumptuous to provide a general opinion of how an $85 million dollar budget put together by a finance team and budget committee, that has been working over a period of months. I know they are doing the best they can with the knowledge, resources, time and training available to them. I am anxious to get on the council and get more involved in this process. It will be a focus area of mine to spend the time and do the due diligence to fully understand all elements of the budget and be informed enough on expenditures and revenues to make intelligent comments, inputs and recommendations for changes, based on knowledge and not on opinion.

 

The city, like many others, faces challenges related to homelessness. What policies do you propose to address this issue, keeping in mind both compassion for those in need and the interests of residents and businesses?

This is a huge multifaceted issue beyond the scope of answering here. Many studies have been done and I would start by reviewing those documents to see what the way ahead might be or has or has not been tried. From my general perception, things seem to have gotten slightly better around Lebanon and things also seemed better, before Covid, when the national economy was on a better footing – hopefully, we can get back there and that will help.

Some general things I am interested in looking into is the basic causes and enabling of the problem and who is making money off homeless issues and what are they doing to solve these problems? Many homeless are enabled by the State because of drug decriminalization, lax drug enforcement and no criminal prosecutions.

Many receive social security disability benefits, the Oregon Health Plan, food stamp cards, housing vouchers, food and other assistance from various agencies. We need to evaluate each unique individual’s circumstance and provide incentives that move people out of homelessness instead of just supporting them in homelessness.

 

Why should voters consider electing you? How would you make a difference on the City Council?

I think Lebanon voters and taxpayers understand that I will always put the best interest of them and taxpayers of Lebanon first. We need to dismiss councilors who use their council position to push their personal activist and economic agendas. We all need to stand together to push-back against a very aggressive state trying to centralize power and control over every aspect of our lives here in Lebanon.

I hope to have outlined enough on my policy positions and provided enough insights above so people will know where I stand and the direction I will be coming from on issues that lie ahead. I humbly ask for your vote.