Paul Schaefer seeks Washington County District 4 seat

Running in a crowded field of six candidates for Washington County Commissioner District 4, Paul Schaefer, a longtime Washington County land use planner, said the lack of financial accountability at the county is what prompted him to run.

Background

Schaefer and his family moved from Hillsboro to North Plains in October 2025.

He grew up in Cut Bank, Montana, in a small town he said was not too different from Banks or North Plains.

He attended Carroll College in Helena, Montana, for a year before transferring to Arizona State University in Tempe, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in design with an emphasis on urban planning.

Schaefer worked for the City of Mukilteo, Washington, for four years before joining the Washington County Department of Land Use and Transportation in December 1995. Over more than 30 years at the county, he has rotated between current planning and long range planning, and still works there today.

Running for office

Schaefer said his decision to enter the race came down to the county's budget and what he sees as a slip in financial discipline.

"For the first many years at the county, the Board of Commissioners had a stronger handle on the budget and the county's financial purse strings so to speak," he wrote. "Fast forward to the past several years, the Board does not exercise the same level of financial accountability and well-managed spending of taxpayer dollars."

He said the Board needs to take a closer look at what taxpayer dollars are being spent on and how efficient county government really is.

"Are funds being wisely spent on essential programs and policies? If so, are we getting full value on the money being spent?" Schaefer wrote.

One specific change Schaefer said he would push for is restoring the Major Streets Transportation Improvement Program (MSTIP) as its own budget line item, separate from the general fund.

He said MSTIP, a countywide program, has paid for more than 160 projects in Washington County and its cities. He said folding MSTIP dollars into the general fund means those funds can be spent on non-transportation uses.

"I do not know when the Board voted (3-2) to put MSTIP funds into the general fund rather than keep them separate — with the idea that funds would be transferred back to MSTIP from the general fund, as needed," Schaefer wrote.

"IMO this should never have happened and the Board of Commissioners needs to restore MSTIP to its own rightful place in the budget just where it had been for many years before," he wrote.

Asked to describe himself as a candidate, Schaefer said he is fiscally conservative, a supporter of law enforcement and the rule of law, and a backer of business-friendly policies and regulations.

"Above all, a non-politician," he wrote, saying he wants to champion the Action Plan posted on his campaign website.

He said he has not taken any large financial contributions, only relatively small donations from friends and family.

"Lastly I want to be known as a candidate with integrity and strong Godly character and one who is honest in word and actions and one who wants to hear from his constituents," Schaefer wrote.

Schaefer said his top three priorities are tightening the county budget, scrutinizing land use ordinances and developing pro-business policies aimed at retaining and recruiting back businesses.

He said budget work would focus on identifying wasteful spending while preserving funding for services for veterans, seniors and people with disabilities.

On land use, Schaefer said he would carefully read each filed land use ordinance and study the Long Range Planning Work Program to track ordinances coming to Board hearings.

For business retention, he said he would push the county to ask businesses that have left why they went.

"Knowing the 'why' can help the Board adopt better business-friendly policies, etc. designed to retain businesses and to recruit back businesses that have left," Schaefer wrote.

Asked how he would balance the needs of the urban and rural portions of District 4, Schaefer said he would work hard to promote policies that benefit both, or at least policies that benefit one without adversely impacting the other.

Schaefer cited his more than 30 years of Washington County land use experience as a key qualification, along with his work alongside the Board of Commissioners during his Long Range Planning years.

"I am not a career politician but a long-time resident with lots of land use experience who wants the best for Washington County," he wrote.

He also said he supports Jenny Kamprath, who is running for Board Chair, and shares her interest in seeing the Board adopt "a lean mean budget" each year.

Schaefer's campaign website is paulfor4.com, and his campaign email is paul@paulfor4.com.

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