Duquenne is running unopposed for council Position 5. 

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news 

For the upcoming Ashland City Council election, all candidates were contacted by Ashland.news for interviews. All who responded were asked the same six questions. 

Answers from candidates competing for the same position have been paired together. This is the second of two articles on the uncontested seats. Some answers have been edited for clarity or length. 

Gina DuQuenne was first elected to council Position 5 in November 2020. DuQuenne has also previously served as council liaison for the city’s Social Equity & Racial Justice advisory committee, the Citizens’ Budget Committee, as a board member at Phoenix Counseling Center, board member at Children Advocacy Center, council liaison to the Ashland Chamber of Commerce and Travel Ashland, and council liaison for the Ashland Senior Center. She is also a founding member of Southern Oregon Pride, according to a longer list on the website Gina for the People. 

Question 1: Being a city councilor is barely paid, it’s verging on volunteer work. Can you talk about why you want to serve?

DuQuenne: I want to serve our community because of the original reason that I came to council. I’ve seen so many missed opportunities and I don’t want us to have any more missed opportunities. Living through and being on council through the pandemic — since 2021 we’ve had 19 businesses close and growing. I just saw another shop on Main Street is getting ready to close. 

I think about this: We are not a metropolis, we are a small municipality of 21,000 people, and to have 19 businesses close in such a short time and people are still trying to recuperate from the pandemic. … To have a cohesive thriving robust Ashland, we have so many opportunities here that we haven’t even tapped into. 

Going in another four years, I am ready to roll up my sleeves and actually have more conversation with community and city staff and see how we can get to yes, because the yeses are there. We just have to be persistent and, oh, I don’t know — kind of radical about getting things done. 

Question 2: How do you see the role of a councilor as that role relates to the rest of city government or the public?

DuQuenne: My role as an Ashland city councilor is to ask the difficult questions and be fiscally responsible for the people’s money. Being fiscally responsible when it comes to the public, the people of Ashland. 

Being fiscally responsible with the people’s money, the budget, the taxes — that’s the people’s money. How do we use that, how do we prioritize and listen to what the needs are of the people, look at what’s going on at the state level and make sure that we are in compliance in what’s going on with the legislature and what’s going on at the local level. For me, to have my mind kind of focused on all of those, but my priority is to be able to be fiscally responsible with the people’s money and to ask the hard questions and to be transparent. 

Question 3: In your conversations with voters, has anyone raised issues that surprised you?

DuQuenne: Um, yes. People say there’s never a dumb question, there is never a dumb question. Sometimes I have had voters ask me questions that are common sense questions. If we kind of think about it, we can get to that solution and that answer. I’ve had people ask me questions that come from a place of desperation, “I can’t pay my bills, I can’t pay my rent.”

People will ask me, “Gina, I’m renting, the property management company continues to raise my rent.” I speak to a lot of renters who are impacted by property management companies who will raise their rent on an annual basis and then this prices people out of their homes. And then I look at the taxes of Ashland being maxed out and when the city of Ashland wants to hit the ratepayer on the utilities, even if you’re renting and you don’t pay the water or the trash or whatever, the owner or the landlord pays for it and it trickles down to the renter. 

When I listen to people, you don’t realize how much a poor economy impacts people on a daily basis. Schoolteachers going shopping at the Ashland Food Bank, your nextdoor neighbor. You just have no idea. … that just makes me really want to look at — we’ve got to do better. 

Question 4: The city of Ashland is coming to an interesting position. The desire to preserve its unique character and traditions alongside the necessity of adapting to the demands of various social issues. How do you envision Ashland approaching these competing priorities?

DuQuenne:  I don’t see this as a competition. I believe that if Ashland does not grow — and when I say I don’t mean we have to push our urban growth boundaries, expand. But I believe if we do not grow and if we don’t adhere to what the citizenry is asking for we will be stagnant.

I believe we can keep our charm and we can grow. I don’t think that we need to turn into Santa Monica, California with promenades, and we don’t have to turn into another city kind of down the road and have all kind of trails and mountain biking and running over pedestrians, things like that. 

We have a whole other side of Ashland that has been almost redlined, and that’s the south side of Ashland. On the south side of Ashland I see a lot of growth and that’s where we can bring in our charm and bring in our cultural needs. … I have been here 18, almost 19 years. And when I moved in the same house the neighborhood was almost entirely different being here now and seeing how this side of town has been utterly neglected. That is where we can pick up the charm and spread it out. I do not see a competition, it’s only a win-win and a positive move to make. 

Question 5: The city has these various issues to address and a wishlist of things to achieve. How do you believe the city should best answer to these things with its frankly limited resources? 

DuQuenne: First off I think the city of Ashland needs to prioritize. We need to seriously prioritize our needs. We need housing, and we need jobs. We need a robust economic development, and that has to happen simultaneously. Once again when I look at the undeveloped side, the south side of Ashland and I see opportunities for businesses to come in and employ 35, 50 people who can have a good living wage job and health insurance and their families can live here, they can work here, the money goes back into the economy. 

When I look at housing, I believe the community development department needs to sit down and talk to our local developers, our local builders, and go through those antiquated permits and fees and all of these things that make people not want to build here. … We have to perhaps look at land banking, whereas the city of Ashland buys the property and then works with a nonprofit to build 100% affordable housing like snowberry one and two over here on Clay street. 

There are opportunities, missed opportunities is why I’m here. I would like to see the city and the chamber step it up and look at buildings like the Ashland Cinema. We did a feasibility study with the students at (Southern Oregon University) and they said that they would love for that to be a skating rink, bowling alley, burgers, fries — I mean its 17,000 square feet of dust and this could be bringing money into Ashland. I would love to see the city of Ashland, first off, prioritize our needs and then look at ways to make it attractive to people want to come. 

Question 6: Is there anything you hoped I would ask about, anything you’re particularly passionate or concerned about that you would want voters to know? 

DuQuenne: First off, I would want the voters to vote! Vote all the way down the ballet and around and just vote, number one. And then do their research. There’s a lot of information out there and I think it’s important that we have all the information out there so that voters can come to an educated decision so they have done their research, they feel comfortable with it. It’s important for people to do the research and to ask questions. I would just honestly, just want them to vote.

When everybody is sworn in, I would want voters to hold your elected officials and our city staff accountable and to know your elected officials and city staff. They work for you. 

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].

Related stories:

Council Q&A with Ashland Mayor Tonya Graham (Oct. 25, 2024)

Rapid-fire candidate forum held at SOU (Oct. 17, 2024) 

Ashland City Council Position 1: Q&A with candidate Doug Knauer (Oct. 16, 2024)

Council forum: Six candidates, three seats, lots of questions (Oct. 14, 2024)

Q&A with Ashland City Council candidates Dylan Bloom and Eric Navickas (Oct. 14, 2024)

Q&A with Ashland City Council candidates Jeff Dahle and Kelly Marcotulli (Oct. 10, 2024)