Clatsop County commissioners and the challengers looking to unseat them in the May election outlined their strengths and differences last Tuesday night at a candidates’ forum at Clatsop Community College in Astoria.

Two of the region’s defining issues — housing and child care — came up during a discussion moderated by Chris Breitmeyer, the college president, in the Patriot Hall gymnasium.

Breitmeyer asked the candidates what projects they would promote to increase affordable housing.

The question came after a controversial project at Heritage Square in Astoria that would have provided workforce and supportive housing was nixed, amid a storm of criticism, after the cost to the city became clear. The Northwest Oregon Housing Authority recently unveiled an affordable housing project for seniors and the disabled next to the Owens-Adair Apartments in Astoria.

Commissioner Pamela Wev, who is running for a second, four-year term as the District 3 representative for Astoria on the Board of Commissioners, cited her support for two housing projects: Trillium House, a workforce housing project slated to break ground in Warrenton, and the proposed expansion at Owens-Adair.

Wev is the board’s delegate to the housing authority, which manages low-income housing in Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook counties.

Her challenger, Astoria resident Nathan Pinkstaff, said that in addition to cities and the county, developers should be brought into the conversation.

Pinkstaff, a deck mechanic for Tidewater Barge Lines, also said the 2019 county housing study should be updated to reflect the pandemic era.

Commissioner Lianne Thompson, who is running for a third term in South County’s District 5, said she has long advocated for modular housing.

Thompson pointed to a possible collaboration between the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association and the TallWood Design Institute to provide modular housing, made with mass plywood panels.

“I’ve been talking about this since 2010; I’m just going to keep talking about it,” Thompson said. “But, I tell ya, I think we’re getting to critical mass. I think it can happen.”

Her challenger, Steve Dillard, an innkeeper from Seaside, said local building codes hamper housing development — a belief shared by Pinkstaff.

Dillard said he spoke with a county employee who wanted to put duplexes on his property.

“The city of Astoria, with all the permits, with all the extra money, with all the engineering that had to go on — it was going to be too cost prohibitive to generate the kind of housing that he was hoping to do,” Dillard said.

Commissioner Mark Kujala, the board chairman, who is running unopposed for a second term in Warrenton’s District 1, pointed out that the county has put up surplus property in Astoria, Warrenton and Seaside for expressions of interest from cities and nonprofits.

Making the land available, he said, could lead to affordable housing projects. “That’s the first step,” he said.

When it comes to addressing the scarcity of child care on the North Coast, Thompson said the county’s role — as it is with other essential services — is to “convene people, bring the right people to the table, get the right data presented, and then find ways to implement those data into solutions that work in the community.”

The county has been hemorrhaging child care options, losing more than half of licensed child care slots since 2017, The Astorian has reported.

Thompson led the county’s child care work group before Kujala and Commissioner Courtney Bangs took over from her.

Wev said the county is likely to help with child care projects such as Astoria’s partnership with Bumble Art Studio to preserve day care options. Bumble is taking over the operations of Sprouts Learning Center, a city-run child care program that was set to close at the end June.

The county has dedicated federal American Rescue Plan Act money to expanding child care, Kujala said.

Pinkstaff said child care has been over-regulated. When his grandmother ran a day care, he said, “the regulations weren’t there that are there today.”

“I think we took away the parent’s right to know what’s best for their children,” he said.

Wev responded that she doesn’t think regulation is a bad thing.

“If I’ve learned anything in my career, it is that there are a lot of people … who have expertise in different areas that I don’t have, and therefore I think that those regulations are often very good,” she said.

Dillard said the county needs to, “when possible, incentivize private child care.”

The candidates’ forum was organized by the American Association of University Women Astoria Branch in partnership with the college, KMUN and The Astorian.