Buch, Pelroy in runoff to serve large, rural Lane County commissioner district

Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch is running for a third four-year term and faces Jake Pelroy, a consultant and former legislative staffer, in the November race for the East Lane District 5 seat. 

In the May election, Pelroy and Buch were the top two vote-getters in a three-way contest that included Bob Zybach. No one gained more than half of all votes cast, so Buch and Pelroy advanced to a runoff election in November. 

The district includes portions of west Eugene and the cities of Cottage Grove, Creswell, Oakridge, Lowell, Westfir, Coburg and vast rural regions, including the McKenzie valley. The Holiday Farm Fire in 2020 devastated communities in the valley, and residents still are rebuilding houses and businesses.

County commissioners are full-time elected officials. They set and vote on policies and ordinances involving many issues, including waste management, housing, economic development, health and human services and land use. 

Commissioners don’t pass ordinances within city limits, but their work on regional issues like Short Mountain Landfill, the county’s planned stabilization center and health clinics impacts the lives of people in both urban and unincorporated rural areas of Lane County. 

Commissioners set the county’s budget, which totals about $128 million in the general fund, deciding how to spend available funding and where to make cuts in lean times. 

County commissioners are nonpartisan and are paid an annual salary of $114,026.

Lookout Eugene-Springfield interviewed both candidates.

Here’s what they had to say.  

Jake Pelroy

Pelroy operates a consulting firm, Pelroy & Associates, which provides guidance on public affairs and campaigns, often for Republican or conservative candidates.

He was a legislative staffer for former state Sen. Bill Hansell, a Republican from Athena. As a Marine, Pelroy was deployed to the Middle East and worked in intelligence.

Pelroy said the county’s land-use and permit process needs to improve so builders can construct projects more quickly. 

“I talked to a guy last night who moved from the San Francisco Bay area,” Pelory said. “He’s in the construction remodel business, and he says it’s harder to build things in Lane County than it is in the Bay Area.”

Pelroy said when construction takes a long time to get started, it “stops improvements on property, which stops additional taxes from coming to the county.” 

“It also stops economic growth and it stops nonprofits from expanding and stops private landowners from building,” Pelroy said. 

Pelroy said he’s also concerned about the slow pace of rebuilding and recovery from the Holiday Farm Fire.

Pelroy said his approach is to be accessible to people. He said his background of working with the Legislature and as an intelligence analyst in the Marine Corps is good preparation on two fronts. He can help advance the county’s priorities at the Legislature and he understands the value of analyzing all the information available.

“It is the job of a commissioner to pull in as much information as possible,” Pelroy said. “I feel like there’s been a lot of decisions that have been made at the county where commissioners have made decisions based on half-information or on information that’s only coming from one side or the other.”

One example, Pelroy said, is the CleanLane project, a proposed recycling project which has faced repeated setbacks and challenges. 

“I want our waste management system in Lane County to be sustainable,” Pelroy said. “I don’t want the (garbage) rate to increase all the time because then we get illegal dumping and burning.”

Some area haulers oppose the project and formed an organization, which Pelroy’s company provides publicity for.

One of those haulers is Sanipac, a hauler affiliated with Texas-based Waste Connections that takes much of its waste to the company’s landfill in Jackson County. Lane County has offered a lower rate to Sanipac to bring its trash — and the associated fees — back to the county’s Short Mountain Landfill.

If elected, Pelroy said, he will focus on commissioner work full-time rather than his company.

Pelroy said his other goals include improving public safety and continuing to push for as much funding as possible through timber revenues.

Pelroy’s campaign reported nearly $122,000 cash on hand as of Wednesday, Oct. 7. So far this year, he’s spent about $400,000 to get elected. Pelroy’s top contributors include $66,000 from Community Action Network; $57,656 from Kathleen Jones-McCann; and another $50,000 from limited liability companies that list Jones-McCann as a manager: Weiser River Paradise and Gerking Ranch.

Community Action Network is a Eugene-based political committee based that gets donations from timber, construction and fuel companies like Sierra Pacific Industries, Wildish Land Co., Goshen Forest Products and Swanson Brothers Lumber Co.

Heather Buch 

Before she became a commissioner, Buch ran a real estate business and worked on affordable housing projects with St. Vincent DePaul Society of Lane County, a nonprofit organization.

As a commissioner, she said, she’s focused on healthcare access, wildfire recovery from the Holiday Farm Fire and public safety.

Specifically, Buch said she’s focused on the county’s efforts to finish the Lane stabilization center, which would treat people in mental health and addiction crises, freeing up space in hospital emergency departments for patients with other needs.

As for the Holiday Farm Fire recovery, Buch said: “Obviously, we want to see rebuilding occur as fast as possible after a devastating event like that.”

Each person’s rebuilding path is different and depends on factors like insurance claims or the availability of insurance, she said. Another factor she cited: the pace of state funding from the “slow administration” of Oregon Housing and Community Services, a state agency charged with administering state dollars set aside for fire recovery. 

“Different people have different paces of rebuilding, and sometimes it depends on if they were insured,” Buch said. “Some were not. Many were not, which slowed down recovery. But also, I’ve been very proud of my advocacy of fire victims upriver.”

That work includes funding for a community center, a clinic and a firehouse, Buch said.

Asked about land use and permit timelines, Buch said the county’s made some “meaningful progress,” and added there’s “still room for improvement.”

County data show building permit processing timelines have dropped from a high of 52 days on average to 33 days in 2025. The average for 2026 is 19 days, as of Oct. 7 data. 

Buch, currently the board’s vice chair, chaired the five-member board in 2020. That same year, global and regional disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Holiday Farm Fire hit the county hard, especially in her district.

She said she believes that her experience on the commission “really matters.”

“I feel like I’ve demonstrated and been a part of our rural communities and advocated for them on a variety of different subjects that the county works on, from wastewater to housing to business investment,” Buch said.

Buch’s campaign reported nearly $153,000 cash on hand as of Wednesday, Oct. 7. She spent about $286,000 in 2026 on her campaign. Top donors include the Democratic Party of Lane County, which has provided $21,113 of in-kind donations for canvassing services; Tom Bowerman ($15,000), who helped form the McKenzie River Trust; and former legislator Philip Barnhart and his wife, Florence Barnhart, who have each given $12,000. 

Heather Buch

Age: 50
Residence: Spencer Creek area
Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Seattle University, 2002.
Occupation: County commissioner, former real estate business owner and special projects director at St. Vincent DePaul Society of Lane County.
Prior elected experience: Elected as county commissioner in 2018 and 2022.
Family status: Married, one daughter

Jake Pelroy

Age: 41 
Residence: Eugene
Education: Bachelor’s degree in general social science, specializing in applied economics, business and society, University of Oregon, 2014.
Occupation: Owner, Pelroy & Associates, a firm that provides advice on campaigns and public affairs. Also owns KDP Properties, a vacation rental business.
Prior elected experience: None
Family status: Married, two sons