Paul Savas chosen after 18 months on commission

A unanimous 5-0 vote last month advanced Clackamas County Commissioner Paul Savas to the position of vice chairman of the Board of County Commissioners.

Savas was elected to the commission in November 2010 and put his hat into the ring for the chairperson position during the May primary election but didn’t advance to the November general election. Current chairwoman Charlotte Lehan received 1,500 votes more than Savas.

The previous vice chairman was Jim Bernard, a former Milwaukie mayor who was placed in that position by a contentious 3-2 vote last January, when Bernard broke what would have been a tie by voting for himself.

Savas said the vice chairperson’s position usually rotates annually by a routine vote of the entire commission.

Now, however, Savas will serve for a year, and the changeovers will be at the end of June — conforming to the fiscal year instead of the calendar year.

Additional duties of the second position of leadership include serving as chairman in the absence of the elected chairperson or representing the commission when the chairperson cannot be present.

“There might be a few speaking engagements when the chair cannot make it,” Savas said, “and the vice chair steps in and represents the board.”

There also could be more of a role for Savas in setting the commission’s agenda — in cooperation with the chairperson, as the agenda is the chairperson’s responsibility.

Savas has been an active member of his Oak Grove community for more than 25 years. During that time, he has owned a small business, Savas Tuning Systems.

A couple of decades ago, as a resident of an unincorporated urban area of Clackamas County, he was concerned with the lack of public process in land-use applications. 

That led to his involvement in quite a few local and regional governing boards and committees, where he used his personal experiences to encourage the public’s involvement in decision making. 

He was then and is still concerned about transparency in local government. His attitudes and principles have not changed, he said, but have just moved to a higher level of governing.

Savas and his wife, Suzanne, live in Oak Grove and have two children.

For more information about Savas, visit clackamas.us/bcc/savas/about.html.