Two candidates running for Jackson County commissioner in the Nov. 5 election offer different views on how to solve the region’s most pressing issues.

Democrat Denise Krause, a director on the Rogue Valley Transportation District board, is running against Republican Randy Sparacino, who is currently Medford’s mayor.

Sparacino retired as Medford police chief in 2019 after a career in law enforcement that began in 1994. He is endorsed by Jackson County Commissioner Dave Dotterrer, who previously announced he is stepping down.

Sparacino, who grew up in Southern Oregon and ran a small business before his law enforcement career, has served on many local government committees and commissions.

Krause grew up in Kansas after being adopted by parents who were Republicans and owned several newspapers.

At age 23, she found her fourth-generation Oregon birth family and eventually moved out to the region to be closer to them. She now lives in rural Ashland.

Krause works as a consultant at Health Data Analytics LLC and was the chief petitioner in the Jackson County for All campaign, which had three ballot measures in the May primary.

The ballot measure to cut Jackson County commissioners salaries to $75,000 received overwhelming support from voters, but was invalidated because the two other measures, which would have increased the size of the commissioner board from three to five and also made the position nonpartisan, both failed.

Krause said she vows to take a reduced salary of $75,000, roughly half of the other two commissioners, if elected.

“And, I’ll be working twice as hard, and I’m used to making less than that,” she said.

Sparacino said he’s still on the fence about whether he would take a reduced salary, noting he’s not running for commissioner for the money.

“I’ll kind of play it by ear and see what happens if I get elected,” he said.

Sparacino said the three priorities for him as commissioner would be public safety, the economy and affordable housing, an issue that has impacted the homeless crisis locally.

He’s been working on a committee that is focused on finding ways to build a new jail to replace the existing jail. In 2020, voters rejected a tax to build a larger jail that would have reduced the number of inmates released early and also would have reduced the increasing numbers of no-shows in court. “We’re looking at all aspects of how to make the jail a more affordable price tag,” he said. “The jail is a difficult issue.”

Sparacino said he thinks a pod-style jail could be designed to make it expandable as the county grows.

He said a new jail is all the more necessary now that Measure 110, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs, has been repealed requiring more jail space and more treatment programs. Without an adequate jail, it makes it more difficult for police, the courts and addiction treatment services to do their job.

“It’s all connected,” Sparacino said. “If you don’t have a safe community, you don’t have a successful community.”

Likewise, the county needs to find ways to better streamline the development process, which he thinks is currently “too slow.”

“We need to improve housing affordability,” he said. “It needs to be less onerous to build a house.”

He said more affordable housing would also alleviate the homeless crisis.

Sparacino also said the county needs to find more ways to encourage small business and reduce onerous regulations.

“We need to make sure we’re not adding more regulations,” he said.

Krause said the county hasn’t adequately addressed homelessness, the high price of housing, mental health, the lack of treatment facilities, building a new jail, the public defender crisis and issues with the county animal shelter.

She said the county has only offered an expensive solution for a new jail, which was previously rejected by voters.

The county is again pursuing ideas that would dramatically increase property taxes, she said.

“The reality is, people aren’t going to vote for a tax increase of that magnitude,” Krause said.

She said the county’s solution for the jail, as well as the animal shelter, is to devise an expensive plan that would ultimately be rejected by voters.

Krause said she would push for more modest proposals for the jail or the animal shelter that would reduce the economic burden on taxpayers.

An animal shelter that meets the needs of the community without raising taxes is one of her goals. As a volunteer at the current animal shelter, Krause said the facility is woefully inadequate.

She criticized the current commission for operating largely behind closed doors and not reaching out to the public enough to get a clearer idea of what the community would support with a new jail or animal shelter.

“I am the fiscal conservative in this race,” she said. “I am evidently more fiscally conservative than anyone on the commission.”

Krause said she grew up in a farming community and understands how people struggle to make ends meet.

She said the county also makes a lot of assumptions about why people are homeless, but she said there needs to be more effort on improving mental health services.

Deschutes County used COVID-relief money to strengthen mental health service and create affordable housing, Krause said.

Jackson County used $40 million from COVID-relief to build a pandemic response center, which can also be used as a recreational facility.

“They’re only calling it that to justify our public relief effort,” Krause said.