What does the future hold for the MHCC bond?

MHCC District voters decided to not support a $125 million general obligation (GO) bond for Mt. Hood that, had it passed, would have helped make major campus upgrades and pay off outstanding debts.

While mostly disappointed with primary election results on Tuesday night, some college officials expressed ideas for possible future efforts.

Those may have to wait awhile – or, maybe not.

“We’re going to have to regroup,” said MHCC President Debbie Derr. “I would hope that the (MHCC) board would make the decision to go out (to voters) again, but I can’t imagine that would happen before minimum of a year, maybe two years.”

Paige Richardson, a political consultant hired to help with bond efforts, said she would work with Mt. Hood again if they decided to hire her. “It’s so great because everybody supports each other,” said Richardson. “You really have a strong community, and it was a pleasure to be a part of it.”

Richardson said she believes an effort for another bond measure should be made in 2017. This year’s campaign raised Mt. Hood’s visibility and some good will, and too long a delay could prove negative.

“I would generally say, you’ve now re-established communication with voters, so you want to hold on to that, you want to keep that going, and so you don’t want to wait too long,” she said.

Still, pausing long enough to raise money to pay for communication is important said Richardson. “There is no way to win without paid communication, and school bonds have changed a lot, certainly since the recession, and since the last time Mt. Hood won a bond.”

Starting last December, Mt. Hood supporters raised about $211,000 to fund the bond measure campaign, Oregon election finance records show. A successful new bond attempt would need similar or even greater contributions.

MHCC District board chairwoman Susie Jones thinks that since it’s been a long time since Mt. Hood passed a bond (that would be in 1974) there’s not a lot of institutional memory there (among voters).

“We’ll have to get together and regroup and assess the situation,” said Jones. “It has to be a thoughtful process – it’s not something that you jump into, but the college will continue to move forward because the community needs it.”

During campaign efforts, volunteers for the bond measure encountered a lot of support, Mt. Hood leaders said.

“We never ran into opposition, so if this bond goes down, it will be a surprise to us because everywhere we went, we met with overwhelming support for the bond,” said Jones.

Advocate Staff