County board bristles at issue.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

Is it right for a Lane County commissioner to run for another elective office while being paid to do the county's business?

That question recently sparked a dust-up on the county board, pitting one longtime ally against another. It also prompted an accusation of retaliation over the county's controversial failed income tax proposal.

"It's backroom politics at its worst," Commissioner Bill Fleenor lamented. "I'm very concerned that we're going to go down a path that is going to blacken both eyes now."

Commissioner Bill Dwyer started the dispute rolling by saying he wants board members to be committed to their jobs, and to resign before they run for other elected office, similar to a rule in Multnomah County.

Dwyer said he wants voters to decide whether Lane County should have such a rule, but that any such vote is at least a year away. Nevertheless, commissioners Fleenor and Peter Sorenson quickly criticized Dwyer.

"It's a dumb and expensive idea," Sorenson said.

"A complete, total and utter waste of taxpayers' money and resources," Fleenor added.

Commissioners make an annual salary of almost $73,000, plus retirement benefits. Dwyer, who won a third four-year term last November, said board members owe it to the public to serve out each term, or to quit if they want to run for another office.

"You need to decide what it is that you want to be," Dwyer said. "The taxpayer should not subsidize your aspirations for higher office."

Dwyer, who represents Springfield, said he's been interested in the rule for years but only recently gained board majority support to put the issue before voters. Commissioners Faye Stewart and Bobby Green are willing to put the issue to voters, Dwyer said.

But Sorenson and Fleenor said Dwyer is retaliating for their opposition in February to the controversial county income tax proposal.

Dwyer, Stewart and Green enacted a first-ever county income tax and voters then overturned it.

Sorenson, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006 while serving on the county board, clashed publicly with Dwyer on the night that the board enacted the tax. The next day, Dwyer asked the county legal department to research the job restriction concept.

Dwyer rejected the charge of retaliation, saying the timing was coincidental but that the exchange with Sorenson reminded him to pursue the rule. He suggested that Fleenor and Sorenson might be protecting career ambitions beyond the county board.

"Methinks thou dost protest too much," Dwyer said.

Since the adoption of a citizens' petition in 1982, Multnomah County has required elected officials to resign if they file for another office before Jan. 1 in the final year of a term, a Multnomah County spokesman said.

Ted Wheeler, board chairman in Multnomah County, said the rule brings trade-offs.

The county benefits because board members tend not to seek other offices mid-term, he said. But it also costs taxpayers money in the form of special elections to fill a seat when a commissioner decides mid-term to seek another office.

Dwyer and Sorenson have often formed a liberal-leaning voting bloc on the board. But Dwyer took Sorenson to task over his failed bid for governor: Sorenson has been a capable commissioner for 10 years, Dwyer said, but his work on county business suffered during his campaign.

Sorenson defended his performance, arguing that his exposure to statewide issues and contacts during the campaign improves his service to the county.

Forcing county commissioners to resign if they file for election to another office would reduce the talent pool for commissioner jobs and those jobs commissioners might be interested in moving into, Fleenor and Sorenson said.

Dwyer's proposal "was basically a direct vendetta on the position that Commissioner Fleenor and I took on the tax issue," Sorenson said. "Nobody else wants to do this but Bill Dwyer."

Citing as examples former county commissioners Peter DeFazio, now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the late Bob Straub, a former governor, Fleenor and Sorenson said talented candidates wouldn't run for county government if they would later have to give the job up to seek another, and county commissioners would be deterred from seeking a higher post because they would not want to lose their current job.

"Why would we penalize someone who has the potential to rise to the next level?" Fleenor asked.

DeFazio, who served on the county board from 1983 to 1986, said there's little reason to block commissioners from campaigning for other offices "as long as they're doing their (county) job," DeFazio said.

Voters can always recall negligent commissioners, he added.