Lisa Collier, seen here at Joseph City Park, is running for a seat on the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners in the Nov. 5, 2024 election. 

JOSEPH — Lisa Collier worries that residents of Wallowa County feel as if they don’t have a voice.

That’s among the reasons why she’s running for a seat on the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners: to listen to residents and to represent their voices, both in the halls of the county courthouse and in Salem.

It all starts with relationships, she said in a recent interview — and over a lifetime in the county, she said she’s built the relationships to be an effective and responsive commissioner.

“Having relationships with the citizens is a big deal,” said Collier, a longtime educator and the current mayor of Joseph. “It’s the foundation for being approachable, being available, having them being able to reach you, to find you. … It’s a team effort, and it goes both ways. I just can’t sit back and wait for them to come to me. I need to also go to them.”

Collier has been spending the last few months attending as many governmental meetings as she can throughout the county. She worries not so much about the meetings that draw big crowds, but the ones that are attended sparsely — or draw no members of the public at all.

She said she would work as a commissioner to get the word out to residents about issues pending before the board.

And she said she also would encourage people to speak out at those meetings.

“Your voice does matter,” she said. “Come and say what’s on your mind and be a part of the process.”

Collier said she’s already starting to reach out to contacts in state government. She said she had met the new director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Debbie Colbert, to talk about wolf management.

“I believe you cultivate those relationships in the same way that you do (with) the citizens. And if something is important and urgent, I have no problems jumping in my car and driving to Salem. They will already know my name and who I am and where I’m from, and that’s good.”

Housing matters 

As she campaigns, Collier said she often hears concerns about the shortage of workforce housing in Wallowa County. She said the housing issue is having an impact on both the public and private sector in the county, as businesses, schools and other entities struggle to find employees due to a lack of affordable housing.

As a commissioner, she said, her role in housing would be “keeping the conversation alive and being open to creative ideas,” such as the Wallowa County Education Service District’s work to remodel part of its building for apartments that can be used by newly hired educators who otherwise might not be able to work in the county’s schools.

“I’m not sure it’s the county commissioners’ job to, let’s say, put up an apartment complex,” she said. “But I think we are supposed to be good partners to meet the needs of the community.”

She added that working to balance the county’s short-term and long-term rentals could help ease the housing shortage — and could pay off for local businesses.

And she said that it would be important for a commissioner to work on “stimulating and promoting our small businesses, making sure that we’re making their lives easier, not harder, because they all already work really hard.”

If elected to the commission, Collier said she would want to work on reviewing county ordinances and updating them as necessary; as mayor of Joseph, she has helped launch a similar effort.

It can be slow work, she said, but it’s important: “We want to make sure that these rules, these ordinances, are the set of rules we want people to play by.”

County policies and ordinances need to reflect “our Wallowa County today instead of our Wallowa County 50 years ago,” she said.

Collier said she believes her passion for community, service and connecting with residents give her an edge over her opponent in the race, Devin Patton. And, she added, her leadership experience and work with governmental budgets are additional advantages.

Greater Idaho

A local ballot issue that passed in 2023 mandated that the commissioners meet twice each year for discussions about Greater Idaho, the movement that seeks to move Oregon’s border so that some Eastern Oregon counties align with Idaho.

Collier said she understands the frustration behind the movement — the sense that the voices of Eastern Oregon residents are ignored or disregarded by state leaders. The issue has been before county voters twice, and although the outcome was different in both elections, the margin was very narrow each time. Collier said she wouldn’t mind seeing the matter brought before county voters again.

The Greater Idaho movement, she said, “does not feel like it’s gaining traction. And to me, it does not feel realistic. There are a lot of moving parts that just aren’t moving. So I would like to see a revote after everyone has had a chance to do research, attend the meetings and educate themselves on the subject.”

But the better goal, she said, would be to work on the rural-urban divide. “And so how do we fix the communication? How do we improve our representation? Because that’s what we’re all upset about, right? … I live in Oregon because I love it, and so let’s fix that problem. That’s the root. Let’s go to the root, not run.”

Age: 44

Residence: Joseph

Occupation: 23 years in education; now working on a contract basis to coach teachers.

Experience: Serves now as the mayor of Joseph; has served on the Joseph City Council and the Wallowa County Budget Commission.

Family: Husband, J.R.; seven children, two of them still at home; four grandchildren.

Hobbies: Spending time with family and serving the community. “And sometimes those things go together, and we serve as a family, which is pretty amazing.” she said.