Building a Better Future For Us
South Clatsop County needs a leader who understands our communities and will stand up for us. As a longtime resident and active member of South County, Rand Dufka is the right choice for Clatsop County Commission.
Vote Rand Dufka for Clatsop County Commissioner District #5
Clatsop County faces big challenges:
- A housing shortage;
- Not enough good jobs;
- Unaffordable and inaccessible health care;
- Public safety challenges;
- Aging roads and infrastructure.
It’s not enough for the government to identify these problems and talk about them.
We need concrete, workable solutions that have a real impact.
That requires leaders who understand our communities and what it takes for projects to succeed.
Priorities
Rand Dufka is someone who gets things done.
Whether it is building or maintaining homes, supporting his family, or preserving the livability of his community, he knows that people are counting on him to get the job done.
He’s graded on results, not effort.
He’ll bring the same approach to the work of the county: talking it through, setting a clear plan of action, and making sure the government delivers for us. Rand isn’t running to promote himself.
He is running to apply his decades of work with our community to make sure the county can better deliver for us.
Connecting Our Communities
It is critical that we provide ways for people to get where they need to go.
That is even more challenging during the high volume of traffic associated with summer visitors.
Rand is committed to ensuring the county is working with our communities to address congestion and provide better transit options for those who can’t rely on a vehicle to get around.
Housing Shortage
We have not kept up with the housing needs of our community, building new homes and preserving our housing stock as it ages.
Rand will apply his deep knowledge of home construction and housing upkeep to the work of the county in creating more housing.
That includes both how the county can be an effective partner in encouraging more housing construction, as well as ensuring that new housing is aligned with the ability of the community and local neighborhoods to support it.
Economic Security
Having a good paying job makes all the difference. It helps us get ahead, plan for the future, and enjoy life versus worrying if you can make it to the end of the month.
The county contributes to our economic security through supporting high-wage jobs in areas like forestry and health care, and working to grow our hospitality industry to boost wages.
The county also contributes to workforce training so people can get the skills they need to get a better job.
Rand is committed to applying his decades of experience in our local economy to helping the county be a full partner in creating economic security for Clatsop County residents.
Affordable, Accessible Health Care
Everyone should be able to see a doctor and access care when they need it.
The rising cost of health care and staffing shortages are a real challenge for our local communities. Rand will work to ensure that hospitals and local providers get the state and federal funding they need to serve us effectively.
He is also committed to working with local partners to train and recruit more health professionals to work in the county.
Additionally, Rand knows we have more work to do to ensure people with substance abuse challenges get access to treatment and recovery so they can get their lives back on track.
A Welcoming, Safe County
Visitors are a critical part of our economy, but also create challenges for local residents.
Rand is already working with state and county law enforcement to identify how to better manage the influx of people into south Clatsop County during the summer months to ensure everyone can enjoy our coastal communities safely.
As a county commissioner, he will work with our public safety professionals to address crime and prepare for disasters and other emergencies.
Rand Dufka
A long-time Arch Cape resident, Rand Dufka has spent the last two decades building and maintaining homes in our community. He is running for County Commissioner to ensure south County families have the same opportunities that his family did.
Rand grew up in Orlando, Florida and spent his formative years swimming competitively, surfing and playing soccer. Scholarships allowed Rand to attend Sanford Community College to earn an AA Degree. An opportunity to attend the University of Florida’s College of Architecture gained Rand the degree Bachelor of Landscape Architecture.
After graduating, he came to Oregon to work in landscape architecture. Naturally, being a surfer, Rand found the Oregon Coast and a world class surf break, falling in love with the northern Oregon coast.
The challenges we face and the role of the county is too critical for us to focus on our political divisions.
Community Connections
He moved to Arch Cape in 1989. Seeing the need to build and maintain homes on the coast, he became a general contractor.
Today he owns his own business, working with property owners in Manzanita, Arch Cape, and Cannon Beach to care for their homes. Over the years, Rand has contributed to our community through public service. He served as a volunteer firefighter/EMT for several years with the Cannon Beach Rural Fire Protection District.
More recently, he was appointed to two terms on the former Arch Cape Design Review Committee, ensuring that development does not conflict with the livability and character of local neighborhoods. Throughout that work, Rand was driven by a commitment to give back to the community that has supported him for over three decades.
Rand and his wife, Teresa, raised two children in Arch Cape. One now works with him in his business and the other is a graduate student at Northwestern University in Stage Design. His wife owns her own business, making organic, small-batch granola and granola bars.
In his free time, Rand’s life is full of surfing, boating, hiking and hunting the Coast Range. Having raised a family and supported his local community, Rand knows he can be an effective representative for the constituents of District 5 (South County).
FAQs
Straight answers about our commitment to transparent and responsive governance.
The Clatsop County Commission sets county policy and direction, hires and oversees the County Manager, and ensures the county’s financial stability. Commissioners advocate for their constituents, serve on local and regional boards, and evaluate outcomes to make sure county services meet community needs. Commissioners also serve as our liaison to organizations and associations around the state, helping us identify funding opportunities and innovative solutions.
I have been part of this community for a long time, both as a general contractor and a volunteer with the fire district and on the design review committee. There is a lot of critical work that needs to be done at the County and my skills working with our residents to find shared solutions is needed if we’re going to tackle some of the big challenges we face like the housing shortage, lack of access to affordable health care, and helping people struggling to get ahead.
First, I think it will be useful to have someone on the commission who has spent decades building and maintaining homes in the county. I understand what it takes to build more housing and how the county can be an effective partner in encouraging more development. I also can apply my experience on the local design review committee to help us ensure new housing is being effectively integrated into communities: if this is affordable housing with folks who will need services, are those services easily accessible from those locations?
How does housing work with the transportation infrastructure so we aren’t making it harder for people to get where they are going? In terms of policy, I think we should look at how we can secure more state and federal funds to support housing construction. We also need to look at how we preserve existing housing. Living in such a wet part of the state, homes take a beating. And if we can help maintain and preserve existing housing, or renovate it affordably, that is another way to address the shortage of housing.
Economic security begins with good jobs. That includes making sure we are supporting sustainable forestry that provides jobs in the woods and sustainable commercial and recreational fishing on the water. We also need to help grow our hospitality industry so people can earn higher wages. We can be doing more in terms of workforce training so that people can move into skilled positions and fill needed gaps in health care, construction, food processing, and other industries.
Like all of us, I support protecting clean water and air. Climate change is real and it is happening - we need to be focused on how we can prepare for more extreme weather, growing risk of wildfire, and other related risks. It is important to protect our oceans and waterways in ways that build consensus across our communities and don’t pit us against each other - same when it comes to sustainable use of our forests. I like to think that one of the things that makes Clatsop County great is that we are small enough that we can come together to find shared solutions on these issues.
I’m a registered Democrat, but I work well with Republicans, Independents, and others. The challenges we face and the role of the county is too critical for us to focus on our political divisions.
As a constituent, I spent plenty of time in Commissioner Lianne Thompson’s kitchen talking about what mattered to me and my neighbors, which is where my advocacy for this community began. I’ve raised my family here, run my own contracting business for decades, and built homes for people who’ve come to love the coast as much as we do.
Those experiences give me a deep understanding of Clatsop County: from the perspective of a resident, a small business owner, and even a visitor.
I believe in constant, two-way communication between commissioners and the people they serve. The commissioners work for the constituents. Their job is to listen, respond, and make Clatsop County a great place to live, work, and visit.
As your next Clatsop County Commissioner, I’ll stay focused on every part of my district, from Jewell to Arch Cape, from Hamlet to Seaside.