3 decades of service: Mark Bennett reflects on career as Baker County official, commissioner

Jan. 2—Mark Bennett swapped a commute that epitomized stop-and-go traffic for one where sometimes, when the ice was bad, he just hoped he'd be able to stop before plunging over a precipice.

He exchanged skyscrapers for mountains, stoplights for the switchbacks of a tortuous pass.

And instead of watching the bumpers of other cars for an hour or so each morning, he saw cougars and bears and elk among many other animals.

More than 30 years later, Bennett still marvels at the differences between these two journeys that, coincidentally, both lasted about 80 minutes.

While living in Northern California, Bennett spent about that long behind the wheel while driving fewer than 20 miles to Sacramento, where he worked as deputy chief of law enforcement with the governor's office of emergency services.

For the past three decades, though, Bennett's commute has been the 52 miles from his cattle ranch near Unity to the Baker County Courthouse in Baker City.

The route takes him over Dooley Mountain on one of Oregon's curviest stretches of highway.

A highway where snow and ice are common for about half the year, but guardrails are conspicuous by their absence.

Yet even after so many hundreds of trips across the treacherous terrain, and some frightening moments when his rig was sliding, Bennett doesn't lament his decision to move to Baker County.

"I really think I'm blessed," he said on Thursday, Dec. 29, a few days before his 30-year career with the county concluded.

During that period Bennett, 70, has had multiple staff positions, including planning director and emergency management director.

For the past nine and a half years, Bennett has served as one of the county's three commissioners. He was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2013, then elected to four-year terms in 2014 and again in 2018.

"I am just so proud to be part of the team that is the county," Bennett said.

Moving to Baker

Bennett was living near Sacramento and working in the governor's office in the late 1980s when his family bought a ranch near Hereford, in the Burnt River Valley of southern Baker County.

In 1990, Bennett decided to take an early retirement from his state job and move north to a different ranch his family had purchased east of Unity.

Around that time, budget cuts had forced the county sheriff's office to lay off the deputy stationed at Unity.

Sheriff Terry Speelman asked Bennett, with his law enforcement background, to take on the job, albeit as a vounteer.

Bennett agreed.

And he's been serving the county, in some capacity, ever since.

About three years later, Speelman suggested to Steve Bogart, then the County Judge (the position known today as chairman of the Baker County Board of Commissioners) that Bogart hire Bennett as the county's emergency management director.

On the second day of 1993, Bennett accompanied Bogart to Halfway, where they helped fill sandbags during a flood.

Later in the 1990s Bennett worked with Speelman to start the county's 911 dispatch center.

County commission chairman Brian Cole hired Bennett as the county's planning director, and in the early 2000s Bennett served in that and two other positions — emergency management director and manager for the National Guard armory project.

Bennett also filled in for about a year as the county's administrator around 2004, a position that no longer exists.

He continued to work in the dual role of planning and emergency management director until 2013, when he was appointed to replace commissioner Carl Stiff, who retired.

Bennett said his various duties in county government laid a solid foundation for his subsequent service as a commissioner.

After being appointed, he said he decided to run for election.

"I was pretty excited for some different opportunities," Bennett said. "I've always admired people who run for office. You really put yourself out there."

He wasn't totally unfamiliar with elected office, to be sure.

Bennett served for 21 years on the Burnt River School District board.

But until 2014 he hadn't sought a countywide electoral office.

Shifting from being a county employee, who answered to the board of commissioners, to being a commissioner representing the county's more than 16,000 residents, was, Bennett concedes, a "big transition."

Instead of deferring to commissioners on questions involving county policy, Bennett was now responsible for helping to answer those questions.

Bennett said his decision to run for a four-year term as commissioner was made easier in part because he had confidence in the county officials who replaced him — Holly Kerns as planning director and Jason Yencopal as emergency management director.

He had worked with both for several years.

Bennett said his decision to seek election was also influenced by discussions with people he describes as mentors, including former commissioners Bogart, Howard Britton, Tim Kerns and Fred Warner Jr.

Ultimately, Bennett said he concluded that he could continue to serve the county as a commissioner.

"If I'm not helping the people and helping the county, I don't want to be doing it," he said.

Almost a decade as commissioner

Bennett said his decision to run for election as a commissioner had wider effects.

His wife, Patti, had to take on a much greater burden in running the couple's ranch. They were at the time working on complicated issues such as negotiating a conservation easement that ensures the property will remain as a ranch in perpetuity.

Over the past several years Bennett has worked with fellow commissioners Bill Harvey, the chairman and only full-time commissioner, and Bruce Nichols.

Bennett said he agreed to become the county's lead in seeking financial aid from the state and federal governments.

That role became particularly important starting in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Bennett served as the county's incident commander during the pandemic, helping to lead the county's lobbying campaign with the state to reduce the effects on local businesses, schools and residents of state-imposed restrictions.

He said he's proud of that work.

Bennett said Baker County was a leader among Oregon's 36 counties in arguing for flexibility in pandemic restrictions that reflect the vast differences between rural counties such as Baker and the much more populous counties in the Portland metro area.

"We tried to make life better here," he said. "That's my excitement."

Although Bennett said he's gratified to be retiring at a time when the county's budget is in solid shape, fortified by $6.5 million in federal COVID-19 aid over the next two years, he said he also regrets not being able to accomplish other goals.

At the top of the list, he said, is extending high-speed broadband internet service throughout the county, and adding housing for residents in the workforce.

Bennett said he's glad that Shane Alderson, who is replacing Harvey as commission chairman (Harvey also decided not to seek another term), plans to focus on workforce housing during his four-year term.

In any case, Bennett said he will continue to seek to make Baker County a better place.

He and Patti recently donated rock to the county to be crushed and spread on roads around Unity.

And Bennett said he will be "ready to help if I can."

"My philosophy has always been to try to serve the people and protect the landscape," he said. "This is a beautiful place to live."

Bennett said he and Patti plan to travel more frequently and to spend more time with their grandchildren.

Bennett hopes to hone his flyfishing technique.

And of course there are those hair-raising journeys over Dooley Mountain in a blizzard to, well, if not look forward to, at least anticipate.