Grant Wilkins settles in as Gilliam County Commissioner

Grant Wilkins has been juggling a lot of things in the past couple of months.

In May, Wilkins won the primary election for Gilliam County Commissioner #2. Just weeks before the primary, a recall election ousted Pat Shannon from office.

Wilkins knew that he'd be pushed to start his term before January of 2024. This came to fruition when he was appointed to the role in mid-June.

As a Control Operator with Portland General Electric, where he has worked for the last 24 years, Wilkins most recently worked at the Coyote Springs Power Plant, a 249-megawatt natural gas-fired plant near Boardman. When we caught up with Grant, he was coming off a three-night stretch and had just finished county court.

In addition to working for PGE, Grant and his wife Tiffany also own Big River Pizza. The building was deteriorating and the couple saw that the Arlington community and visitors desperately needed a place to gather. Over the past four years, they have fixed the building up, put in air conditioning, overhauled the kitchen, and created one of the best restaurants in the region. While both Grant and Tiffany have been busy with other jobs, they also employed numerous people. They also built the building up with the intention of selling it. The business and property are now up for sale.

Grant says that he was excited about the next chapter of his life and had been planning to retire from PGE and to do "something else."

However, in December 2023, when the Gilliam County Court began to discuss eliminating the county judge position and stripped the judge of jurisdictional duties, Wilkins felt that they had overstepped their bounds.

"I felt that the voting public was not involved in this big change, and I didn't think that three people should have made that decision," he says. "That was one of the driving and deciding factors," Wilkins said in running for county commissioner.

However, Wilkins stressed that the county government's structure could be worth discussing in the future. Albeit, with initiatives driven by the public and ultimately decided on by voters.

"I'm not against a five commissioner (board of directors) if that's what needs to be done down the road," Wilkins says. "But at the time, and with elections coming up, it was like – OK, let's put on the breaks."

Wilkins says the recall election was unfortunate, and he wishes it could have been avoided.

"The voting public has lost, in my opinion," says Wilkins, "nobody's winning, but I want to be there, to try and help make a positive impact going forward."

Wilkins insists that he would not have run for the county commissioner position if the county court had not acted on the proposed structural changes. He also maintains that he was not involved in the recall effort. Although his restaurant did function as a gathering place for those who drove the recall campaign, Wilkins says that he worked to distance himself from the recall and instead focus on running for office.

When asked about his top priorities and the specific items he is interested in working on, Wilkins says that he is focused on supporting county employees and finishing projects that the previous county court had approved but had yet to implement.

Some of these actions that were approved by the previous court have been scrutinized by several community members who were centrally involved in the recall election. These community members pressured the new court of Judge Cris Patnode, Leah Watkins, and Wilkins to change course on previously approved actions. Specifically, a few community members questioned the previous court's decision to award Kelley Nonprofit over $1 million to support local nonprofits in Gilliam County.

But Wilkins, looking over the paperwork, said plainly that a contract had been signed and that the project would need to move forward. He also reviewed information about the EV charging stations approved by the previous court, which will result in three rapid charging EV stations behind the Gilliam County Library. With grant funds left unspent, Wilkins pushed to move quickly and secure the funds to move the project forward.

He has also been familiarizing himself with the committee assignments that each court member gets and learning about his role from a course offered by the Association of Oregon Counties. He has also met with the Community Renewable Energy Association (CREA), one of his committee assignments.

Wilkins sees the need for structure and a measured approach to governing as county commissioner. His experiences on several boards, including the Arlington School Board and, more recently, the North Gilliam Health District board, have helped to prepare him for the role, he says.

He is less interested in projects that he would spearhead, and he says that he has not made any big goals for himself as county commissioner.

"I'm trying not to get too deep, but let me give an example about housing," Wilkins says. "When Oregon Waste went in back in 1990, everybody thought that we were going have 100 people moving to Arlington, with families," Wilkins explains. "But I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen because we had the Kinzua mill, and the Maupin mill closing. My point is that trying to get housing has always been an issue. Is there a need? Absolutely, but do I have a crystal ball? No, I don't."

Wilkins praises the Port of Arlington for being proactive but says that housing in the area will always be a challenge.

Wilkins says he is looking for more immediate needs in the county.

"One of my short-term goals as commissioner is trying to get our staffing back up," Wilkins says. "Some of the key positions to help the judge and commissioners, there's a big transition and a lot of catchup work to do."