Incumbent Hall, newcomer McCown capture LCC seats.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

Both age and youth were served Tuesday when incumbent Roger Hall won his fifth consecutive term on the Lane Community College board and newcomer Tony McCown won his first public election.

Hall, 67, beat Florence magazine publisher Rob Spooner for the Position 6 at-large seat on the seven-member panel. McCown, 24, beat union organizer Stefan Ostrach for the Position 2 seat representing north Eugene, Coburg and Junction City.

Hall claimed 58 percent of the vote to Spooner's 42 percent. It was third defeat for Spooner, 60, who also ran for the LCC board in 2003 and 2005.

McCown captured 60 percent of the vote to beat Ostrach, 60, in the two-person race.

Two other candidates were unopposed. Eugene attorney and former LCC board member Robert Ackerman will fill the at-large Position 7 seat; retired teacher Pat Albright will fill the Position 5 seat representing downtown and south Eugene.

McCown said the chance to have some new blood on the college board might have been a big factor in his lopsided win.

"I think it's a fresh voice, bringing a new perspective," he said.

"Every organization and every group, no matter how successful, can use new perspectives to bring it to life, and I think voters recognize that."

Although McCown won election as the LCC student body president when he was there in 2004, this was his first swing at a general election. But he said his earlier experience, which included an ex-officio role with the board, will help him hit the ground running.

The $8.8 million shortfall LCC faces in its 2007-08 budget will be water under the bridge by the time McCown takes office in January, but the overarching financial issues are likely to remain.

The first thing he wants to do is push for a review of a board policy that calls for annual tuition increases tied to inflation.

McCown believes those increases, which have helped to almost double the rate of five years ago, play a big role in stagnant enrollment.

"I think a decent study of that would probably show it's due to the sharp increase in tuition," he said.

Although McCown won't take part in deciding the spending cuts needed for next year's college budget, he's still on the hook for even harder decisions. As a member of the Lane County Budget Committee he'll have to deal with the fallout from Tuesday's defeat of a county income tax that would have replaced the loss of federal timber payments.

Ostrach, chairman of the LCC Budget Committee, said wouldn't try to guess what was in voters' minds and congratulated McCown on the win.

"I think it will be good to have someone young on the board," he said. "I intend on finishing my term on the budget committee and look forward to working with him and the rest of the board."

Hall was not at home Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. He previously said the college needs to do what it can to increase its revenue by attracting more students, increasing foreign enrollment and looking for new ways make money, such as providing education services in other countries.

But he also said the state needs to change its attitude about higher education and fund it at a level that will allow colleges to maintain quality programs at an affordable price.

"I don't expect things to change much until the state views higher education as an investment rather than an expense," he said in an interview last month.

Spooner said running for a countywide seat from Florence was no handicap but he thought it was difficult getting the message out to people and trying to raise awareness about the issues facing the college. Spooner has faulted the board for not acting sooner to stem the red ink at the college and use more part-time instructors to expand class offerings and bring in more revenue.

"They didn't hear my message very much," he said Tuesday night. "I don't think a lot of people were particularly well up to date on issues."

As for whether he might make fourth try for the board, Spooner wasn't ready to say never. "That's a long time off," he said.