Berschauer: Vote No - Official is keeping her commitments

Lindsay Berschauer took office as a Yamhill County commissioner in January 2021, after prevailing in a nonpartisan, two-way race. She had previously served as an appointed member of the county’s budget committee. Long active in Republican Party politics, first in the Portland metro area and later in Yamhill County, she made her living as a political consultant before assuming the paid, full-time county post. She is facing a recall showdown in mail balloting culminating March 22.

When I ran for county commissioner, I knew that many difficult decisions would come before the board. Not only were we facing a pandemic with ever-changing rules and restrictions, but local issues like the fate of the Yamhelas-Westsider Trail.

I felt county residents deserved a commissioner who was clear about the values and principles that inform her decisions.

My belief is that if an elected official isn’t willing to risk being ‘un-elected’ over making the right choice, then that person has no business in public office.

Unfortunately, it’s rare that we see this kind of leadership and accountability in government.

I made several promises to taxpayers during my campaign, and I’ve kept those promises.

Before I took office, Oregon was hit with massive wildfires that crept into parts of the Willamette Valley, namely Marion and Clackamas counties. I spent days at the fairgrounds, with countless other Yamhill County residents, triaging horses and livestock and feeding and clothing human refugees who had been forced from their homes.

The fairgrounds never turned anyone away. And it sustained considerable operational expenses in the process.

I promised to do what I could to shore up the fairgrounds budget. After I was sworn in, I helped ensure the county allocated tens of thousands of dollars to the fairgrounds, and committed my entire commissioner discretionary fund. Promise kept.

Housing assistance is a critical need, one that every commissioner has focused on. When I found out about the incredible work that Turtledove Shelters was doing in McMinnville to build mobile shelters for houseless individuals, not only did I personally donate materials, but I also committed my commissioner discretionary fund to help them build new units.

I’m currently hoping to assist the director in finding a transitional parking system to accommodate these mobile shelters and connect individuals with both faith-based and county services. Promise kept.

The pandemic and subsequent shutdowns that affected schools, small businesses and public services tested my strong values about the upholding of individual rights and freedoms.

I have voted 23 times against mandatory vaccination and masking policies, economic shutdowns that destroy small businesses and the firing of county workers based on their personal medical choices.

It is my belief the governor’s resort to emergency powers violated the civil rights of Yamhill County residents, and I worked tirelessly to resist that. As a result, Yamhill County did not terminate any employee. At the county, we strongly upheld medical and religious exemptions. Promise kept.

When I ran for office, I stated that I would opt out of the Public Employees Retirement System. It is my belief politicians don’t belong in a system designed as a benefit for front-line public employees. I opted out of PERS within the first month of taking office. Promise kept.

The Yamhelas-Westsider Trail has been a controversial topic for many years and its fate has arguably contributed to this recall effort against me.

Recreational trails are not allowed to cut through land zoned for exclusive farm use without special permits, but instead of pursuing those permits responsibly, the county decided to start building parts of the trail before obtaining the required land use approval. It was a proverbial cart-before-the-horse act.

When I won my election, after having stating my opposition to the trail as it was currently proposed, the pressure to rush the project through caused reckless and irresponsible behavior on the part of the county. That behavior resulted in paying affected farmers’ legal fees and ultimately repaying grant money awarded by the Oregon Department of Transportation.

I was very disturbed to learn the county had indicated on its grant applications that one future use of this trail corridor might be for light-rail commuter train service, something that costs Portland Metro taxpayers more than $250 million per mile to construct. If county voters had been made aware of that, the discussion around the trail would have been very different.

It is not a comfortable position to be in when one has to right a wrong, but I stand by my decision to stop the bleeding of taxpayer money and withdraw the land use application. It was a harsh lesson for the county to learn, but my promise to uphold private property rights and protect taxpayers from wasteful spending was clear when I ran.

While I believe in the recall process afforded to Oregon voters, I do not believe in a recall effort based on false accusations and personal attacks. I urge you to look past the inflamed rhetoric of these groups, analyze my record and vote no on the recall.