QuickTake:

Additionally, Springfield City Club and Lookout Eugene-Springfield plan forums to allow voters to get to know those running for local elected office.

Three candidates running for the Board of Lane County Commissioners are scheduled to make their election pitches at the Friday, April 10, meeting of the City Club of Eugene.

The meeting begins at noon at the WOW Hall, 291 W. Eighth Ave. Club meetings are open to the public and free to attend.

Friday’s meeting features candidates running for the District 1 and District 5 seats on the board, the core legislative and administrative body for county government. All candidates for the seats were invited to Friday’s meeting, but not all of them will be attending. 

Candidates will provide opening and closing statements and will answer questions from live and online audience members. KLCC’s Rebecca Hansen-White will moderate.

In District 1, which covers western Lane County, including Florence, Veneta and Junction City, candidate Thomas Hiura is challenging the incumbent, Ryan Ceniga. Hiura is a multimedia producer and small-business owner. He is the current president of the City Club of Eugene and also has served on Eugene’s Human Rights Commission.

Ceniga has a scheduling conflict and is unable to attend Friday’s meeting.

District 5 covers the eastern part of the county, including Cottage Grove, Creswell, Coburg, Oakridge, Lowell and Westfir, along with portions of southwest Eugene.

Three candidates are running for the seat, and two are scheduled to appear at the club meeting Friday: incumbent Heather Buch and Bob Zybach. A third candidate, Jake Pelroy, did not respond to the club’s invitation, club officials said in a news release.

Before her election to the board in 2019, Buch spent 15 years running a small real estate business that specialized in affordable housing. 

Zybach is a forest scientist and former reforestation contractor. He co-founded the Oregon Websites & Watershed Project, a nonprofit educational website. 

Friday’s program will be livestreamed on the City Club of Eugene’s YouTube channel. Club meetings are rebroadcast Mondays at 7 p.m. on KLCC, 89.7 FM, and are available later as episodes on the club’s podcast.

The club’s April 17 meeting will feature some of the Democratic candidates running for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District seat.

Springfield City Club candidate forum

The Springfield City Club is hosting a forum Thursday, April 16, featuring the three candidates for the Position 2 seat, which includes most of Springfield — incumbent David Loveall, Springfield Mayor Sean VanGordon and William Monsoor, a retired crisis clinician and military veteran. The free forum begins at noon at Roaring Rapids Pizza Co., 4006 Franklin Blvd..

Lookout Eugene-Springfield candidate forums 

Separate from the city club events, Lookout Eugene-Springfield is planning two candidate forums this month. Here are the details:

  • Lane County Board of Commissioners forum: 2 p.m. Monday, April 13, at the Wildish Community Theater, 630 Main St., Springfield.
  • Eugene City Council forum: 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, at the WOW Hall. 

Admission to both Lookout forums is free, but registration is encouraged. 

Mike McInally is a Pacific Northwest journalist with four decades of experience in Oregon and Montana, including stints as editor of the Corvallis Gazette-Times and the Albany Democrat-Herald.