Incoming Clackamas County Chair Craig Roberts talks priorities

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Craig Roberts, the longtime sheriff in Clackamas County, is the incoming Clackamas County chair after he defeated outspoken incumbent Republican Tootie Smith by a wide margin in November.

A Democrat, Roberts was sheriff in Clackamas County for 16 years from 2005 through 2020. Born and raised in Clackamas County, Roberts has four decades of law enforcement experience he will bring to his new position.

In an appearance on Eye on Northwest Politics, Roberts said he has things prioritized when he takes over in January.

"Top of my list really starts out by being a good listener," he said. "And that's with our local leaders, city mayors, city council members, our regional partners and citizens in our community to make sure I'm listening. And then also really creating a plan to kind of address these concerns that that I've heard along the way."

These major concerns include affordable housing, struggling businesses, as well as code enforcement issues. Additionally, the current Clackamas County budget is not sustainable, especially in light of the $300 million-plus cost of a new courthouse. With jobs already cut at that courthouse, Roberts said he has been meeting with the county administrator and others to delve into the overall financial wellness of the county.

"My hope has always been to bring together some other smart financial folks and help us take a look and provide some transparency about the total cost of that courthouse and what are the impacts," he noted. "So I'm just on, I would say, the infancy stages of getting all this information from the county administrator. He's stepped up and been supplying all the financial information that I've asked for and I'm hoping to get my arms around that."

Not long after House Bill 4002 passed, Clackamas County launched its deflection program. As chair, Roberts hopes to take what he learned about drug and alcohol treatment as sheriff and translate it to aspects of the deflection program.

"What we learned through the course of doing treatment for a number of years through community corrections is that we can't fix individual's problems in 18 to 24 days. This is oftentimes 18 to 24 months," he noted. "And it takes transition into clean and sober living and accountability measures along the way. So I really believe that we need to kind of step back, take a look at the system as a whole, bring a lot of these folks together and talk about how each one of these systems play in and the county has done some work on that."

Another big issue in Clackamas County is ODOT's planned expansion of I-205, with tolling on the Abernethy Bridge between West Linn and Oregon City. Governor Tina Kotek has put a pause on tolling until 2026. However the cost of the Abernethy Bridge Project has now increased from $600 million to $672 million. Roberts noted he also "took a pause" when he saw the cost increase, stating communities and businesses continue to be opposed to tolling.

"I applaud the Governor for putting a hold on it and I believe they're looking at other funding avenues and that is going to come up for discussion," he said. "So my position is tolling isn't going to work for our communities and really stand by that and hope that we can come up with some other funding strategies to cover those costs."

Watch the full interview in the video above.