Kimberly Culbertson seeks Washington County District 4 seat

Running in a crowded field of six candidates for Washington County Commissioner District 4, Kimberly Culbertson, an executive board member at Habitat for Humanity Portland Region, said she is running to address housing affordability, economic accountability, and the county’s growing infrastructure needs.

Background

Culbertson has lived in downtown Hillsboro for 28 years and serves as vice chair of the Hillsboro Downtown Partnership. She previously chaired the Heart of Hillsboro Neighborhood Association and has served on the city’s Urban Renewal Advisory Committee and Downtown Design Committees.

She grew up south of Vale, Oregon, attending Vale Elementary before moving to Pendleton for junior high and high school. She graduated from Pendleton High School, studied German at Blue Mountain Community College, and went on to Portland State University, where she studied business, Russian language, and history, and earned a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages certificate.

Her work history includes 15 years with Oregon State University Extension as a Master Gardener program coordinator and time as a foreign language enumerator for the U.S. Census Bureau. She worked the front desk at Willamette Week for four years and was a UFCW member through Klopfensteins in the 1980s. The Washington County voters’ pamphlet lists stockbroker among her occupational background.

Running for office

Culbertson said her work with Habitat for Humanity has shown her the scale of the region’s housing crisis, and she wants the county to focus on what she called the “Missing Middle” — housing that working families can afford.

She said the county should not just build new units, but preserve existing affordable homes.

She said she sees the Urban Growth Boundary as a tool for denser, more compact development inside city limits to reduce pressure on rural and forest lands in District 4.

Economic accountability is another priority. Culbertson said she has been looking at the Strategic Investment Program and GainShare, the county tax programs that benefit large industrial users.

“Tax programs designed decades ago need to be updated to reflect today’s high-tech economy, ensuring the county remains solvent and efficient,” she said.

She said new industry should pay its fair share for amenities the county provides, including sheriff’s patrols and road maintenance in rural areas where response times are longer.

Culbertson said she has concerns about farmland being converted to industrial uses, citing high-energy data centers as an example. She said once agricultural land is converted, it cannot be recovered.

On rural infrastructure, she said expanding broadband access is necessary for modern agriculture and timber industries to compete, and she supports vocational and apprenticeship programs to give rural youth career paths in trades like equipment operation and precision agriculture.

She also said she supports Project Labor Agreements on county infrastructure projects.

Culbertson said language access is a priority. She said 27.1% of households in Washington County speak a language other than English at home, and that she would commit to holding town halls in Spanish and pushing for bilingual permitting and grant documents.

Culbertson pointed to projects in downtown Hillsboro where she said her advocacy made a difference. She said food carts on Main Street during the COVID-19 pandemic came after she “got pushy” at Urban Renewal Advisory Committee meetings, giving residents an option for restaurant-style food while indoor restaurants were closed.

She also said she pushed for rooftop bars at 2nd & Main, on top of mid-century bank buildings.

“I knew that mid-century bank buildings were built as bomb shelters and required little structural work to develop as additional and chic seating for good restaurants,” she said.

Find more information about Culbertson’s candidacy online.

The May 19 election closes at 8 p.m. Find a ballot drop site, a voters’ pamphlet, and more information on voting online.