Maier

UMATILLA COUNTY — The owner of local general contracting company, Pat Maier, 73, has spent just about her entire life in small business.

In those 17 years of doing business throughout the county, Maier and her company, 1-A Construction & Fire, have had to navigate environmental regulations, public utility companies, property disputes and other challenges during her 17 years in business.

“I don’t think any of the other candidates has the background in business that I have,” she said. “If you’ve been in business for 17 years, you’ve been through the ups and the downs.”

Maier plans to use that experience of keeping a small business afloat and solving the problems that come her way to propel her into becoming the next Umatilla County commissioner.

“When I run into a problem, I have to tackle that problem and I have to solve that problem,” Maier says. “I believe in action. I believe in working for what I get. I believe in going to work and taking care of things.”

Maier is one of five candidates in the May 19 primary running for the only open seat on the county’s three-person board of commissioners. The seat is being vacated by Commissioner Bill Elfering at the end of the year after a pair of four-year terms in office. The primary’s top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in the November general election.

Maier hopes to represent a fresh addition to the county, which she says has been bogged down by too many “good ole boys” who have held elected positions, something she proudly proclaims she’s not part of.

Born and raised in Strong City, Kansas, Maier now resides in Hermiston and her background also includes serving as an administrator for Northwest Pipeline and as the former director of United Way of Umatilla and Morrow Counties. She also highlights that she’s worked in the health care and railroad industries, along with being a member of her neighborhood watch organizations.

As a commissioner, Maier wants to use her insight as a small business owner to help each corner of the county thrive economically.

“I would hope to work with every city in the county to help that city prosper. It’s very important that we have entrepreneurship everywhere we travel,” she says. “I’ve got ideas on how we can make their businesses more profitable. I look at it this way, if your businesses are more profitable, your city and your county are more profitable.”

To achieve her goal, Maier aims to connect individually and better understand each city so they can identify opportunities for growth, which is what she says she did back in Hermiston during the mid-1980s.

A dedicated student athlete when she was growing up, Maier says she’s an avid supporter of the area’s athletics, particularly its girls basketball programs. So when she saw an opportunity to put together an event in Hermiston decades ago, Maier says she organized the city’s first-ever girl’s basketball tournament.

According to Maier, the success of that tournament and other youth basketball tournaments today has continued to bring economic benefits to the city and its businesses.

“Every restaurant, every facility in Hermiston gains from those events,” she says.

Maier also says she’ll draw a strict line preventing the county from interfering in the potential profits of small businesses by competing with services of its own.

“Much of what commissioners do is take care of the taxpayer’s money. That’s what they’re there for,” she says. “They’re not there to go into business against small business. I don’t believe the county should be doing anything that a small business can be doing.”

But while she’s targeting economic development as a goal of her candidacy, Maier isn’t completely behind granting deferments and incentives to attract companies to the region.

“I don’t particularly care for the tax deferment programs,” she said. “I think for a short term it might not be a bad deal until they get up and moving. It allows quite a bit of funds initially that can be placed for infrastructure. But personally, I believe the infrastructure should be the business’ issue.”

Another tenet of Maier’s campaign is improving the county’s flood control infrastructure and protections after flooding has impacted the area each of the last two years.

“I’m already ahead of the game on that one,” she said. “I’m already working on a project at Camas Creek where we’ve been successful in eliminating a fine for a private party that worked after the flood last year.”

The fine was $500,000 from the Oregon Army Corps of Engineers for property owners in Ukiah, who were removing debris from the creek’s streambed that they believed contributed to the flooding.

“That’s not a fine, that’s a crippling event,” Maier says.

Upset with how she saw a government entity disrupting people’s lives and threatening them financially, Maier wrote multiple letters to the head of the Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C., along with President Donald Trump.

Though it took some persistence, the property owners were finally told they wouldn’t be fined.

“My husband calls me tenacious, and I’ve got a friend that says, ‘You’re just a bulldog,’” she says. “I don’t like the government giving you dictatorship because they’re not listening to the people. That’s what I do best. I’ll listen to you.”

Maier also believes the board of commissioners needs to be more transparent to the public, which she says could be done with a more accessible visual log of everything the commissioners are doing, especially when it comes to budgets and spending.

“Every single person in Umatilla County needs to understand where their tax dollars are being spent and how they’re being spent,” she says.

Maier currently boasts a personal endorsement from Suni Danforth, the chair of the Umatilla County Republican Party, which she believes she earned by being the conservative candidate in the race who’s ready to get to work for Umatilla County.

“I believe in conservatism, I believe in our way of life, and I believe in the everyday people,” she says. “I will work hard for the everyday person, and I am not in the pocket of anyone.”

This is the fourth in a series of stories in the candidates for Position 3 on the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners.

Patricia Maier

Age: 73

Residence: Hermiston

Birthplace: Strong City, Kansas

Years in Umatilla County: 48

Highest level of education: Studied business and accounting at Butler Community College (Kansas)

Occupation: Small business owner

Quote: “I believe in conservatism. I believe in our way of life, and I believe in the everyday people. “