Harvey urges Baker County voters to reject county administrator measure

Bill Harvey wants Baker County voters to keep the county’s current government structure, saying the May ballot measure would add cost and dilute the accountability that comes with an elected commission chair. In a county with an estimated 16,658 residents, almost unchanged from the 2020 census count of 16,668, Harvey argues the change would solve a problem that does not exist.

The measure grew out of a Sept. 8, 2025 special meeting, when commissioners voted 3-0 to send the proposal to voters. If approved, it would create a county administrator appointed by the board, make all three commissioner seats equal and take effect Jan. 1, 2027. The final ballot title filed March 5 asks, “Shall County government move to County Administrator form of government?” A yes vote would restructure county government; a no vote would keep the current system, in which two commissioners serve part time and one full-time commissioner serves as board chair and county administrator.

Harvey said that arrangement already works. He called making the chair half time and adding an administrator “not advisable,” “not necessary” and a source of “unnecessary bureaucracy.” He also warned of unnecessary hiring expense. Harvey has lived in Baker County for more than 54 years, started his working life at Safeway and then moved into construction, where he says he has worked for more than 45 years. He owns Bill Harvey Custom Builder, Inc. and, with his wife, Lorrie, has managed Rock Creek Developments, LLC, for 35 years. Harvey says that background, along with eight years as Baker County commission chairman from 2015 through 2022 and 12 years on the Baker County Planning Commission, gave him a close view of what county government needs and what it does not.

The debate has split along lines of structure and efficiency. Commissioners Michelle Kaseberg and Christina Witham supported equalizing the duties of all three commissioners, while Shane Alderson argued voters should decide. Alderson later withdrew from the commission chair race, but his position had already highlighted the broader question facing Baker County: whether to preserve an elected chair with executive authority or move daily management to a hired administrator.

County documents suggest the answer matters most in places where decisions are already tightly linked to local land use and public assets. At a March 25 town hall at the Baker County Fairgrounds Event Center, commissioners heard public comment about possible uses of the Hughes Lane property in Baker City. A 2023 PARC Resources business plan described the 70-acre site and said community interviewees were enthusiastic about a multipurpose sports and event facility. Harvey said the county bought the land with unanimous support from prior commissioners and the Baker County Economic Development Board, and that its purpose was to promote economic development. For him, the choice on the ballot is not about reform for its own sake. It is about whether Baker County keeps elected power concentrated where voters placed it, or hands more day-to-day authority to a new administrator.