POLITICS, PUBLIC SAFETY

Rejaian challenges incumbent Hunter for Marion County sheriff

For the first time in 26 years, the race for Marion County’s top cop is a contest.

Voters have only had one choice for Marion County Sheriff on every ballot since 1998. Now, Sheriff Nick Hunter is being challenged in the Nov. 5 general election by one of his own deputies, Stacy Rejaian.

Both have worked in law enforcement for 19 years. 

The Marion County Board of Commissioners appointed Hunter from among six applicants in June 2023 to complete the term of retiring Sheriff Joe Kast. He previously worked in three of four divisions at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and led its SWAT team.

Rejaian has spent her entire career in the sheriff’s office enforcement division, which handles calls for service, search and rescue, SWAT, police dogs, criminal investigations, traffic safety and contracts with local cities. She applied for the sheriff job in 2023 when Kast retired.

The Marion County Sheriff is a nonpartisan position with a four-year term. 

The sheriff leads an agency serving nearly 350,000 people, including 37 unincorporated communities in Marion County. Sheriff’s deputies patrol unincorporated east Salem.

The sheriff’s office also oversees the county’s parole and probation division, its 470-bed jail and courtroom deputies. The office has an annual budget of about $91 million.

The Marion County Law Enforcement Association, representing around 220 deputies and department employees, has not made an endorsement in the race.

The winner will take office on Jan. 1, 2025. The annual salary for the seat is currently $203,000.

This is your guide to the race for Marion County sheriff.

Nick Hunter

Name: Nick Hunter

Party: Nonpartisan

Age: 47

Residence: Sublimity

Occupation: Marion County sheriff (June 2023-present)

Education: Willamette University, Bachelor of Psychology

Prior law enforcement experience: Marion County Sheriff’s Office – lieutenant (2015-2023), sergeant (2012-2015), deputy (2008-2012), reserve deputy (2001-2003); Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association – Legislative Committee (2023-present), Co-chair, Tactical Command Council Subcommittee (2018-2024); Independence Police Department officer (2004-2008)

Top issues: Addiction, theft and violent crime

Hunter started his law enforcement career volunteering as a reserve deputy in 2001 at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

He later joined the Independence Police Department, where he worked four years before returning to the sheriff’s office in 2008.

He was promoted to sergeant in 2012 and oversaw a patrol team for three years before being promoted to lieutenant in 2015.

Hunter went on to supervise the operations division – which oversees administrative matters including courthouse security, concealed handgun licenses, recruitment and records – and then the enforcement division. Those roles also included administrative work such as finances and records.

He also began serving as a SWAT commander in 2016.

Commissioners selected Hunter to take over as sheriff last year after interviewing six candidates, including Rejaian.

He told Salem Reporter that his leadership experience, governmental work outside the sheriff’s office and focus on communication are the biggest reasons he should be elected.

Hunter is also a national instructor in use of force and de-escalation, as well as a qualified expert in state court. He said that experience qualifies him to teach his staff “honest accountability.” 

He helped create an Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association committee that facilitates statewide tactical training, including the Basic Tactical Operations School which he has run since it started in 2018.

For around seven years, he has also gone to the state Legislature to provide expert analysis and testimony on behalf of the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association. The topics he’s spoken about have included the state’s troubled mental health system and drug re-criminalization.

Hunter said he has “absolutely no hard feelings” about one of his employees running for his job.

“I’m not in any means trying to change what we have as a society and being able to choose your elected official,” he said. “I think that’s the system working in the way it should work.”

His endorsements include State Senators Fred Girod (R–Stayton), Kim Thatcher (R–Keizer) and Deb Patterson (D–Salem), State Representatives Ed Diehl (R–Stayton), Tracy Cramer (R–Gervais) and Rick Lewis (R–Silverton), Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson, all three Marion County commissioners and retired Marion County Sheriff Joe Kast. He is also endorsed by the Salem Police Employees Union, Keizer Chamber of Commerce, Keizer Arts Association, Union Hispana, Oregon Hispanic Business Association and Marion County Farm Bureau.

Stacy Rejaian

Name: Stacy Rejaian

Party: Nonpartisan

Age: 42

Residence: South Salem

Occupation: Occupation: Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputy (2007-present)

Education: George Fox University, Master of Business Administration; University of North Carolina, BA Political Science

Prior law enforcement experience: Western States Hostage Negotiators Association – board of directors (2009 – present), secretary (2023-present), treasurer (2014-2022), district representative (2009-2014); Marion County Sheriff’s Office reserve deputy (2004-2007)

Top issues: Violent crime, drug trafficking, and employee recruitment and retention

Rejaian, who lives in south Salem, was working as a state legislative assistant when she began volunteering with the sheriff’s office as a reserve deputy in 2005. She was hired two years later.

By 2012, she was balancing her law enforcement work with the real estate business. She later became owner and principal broker of Salem-based Olympic Realty in 2016. That experience, she said, has equipped her to manage employees and a budget. 

Rejaian said she doesn’t plan to close her company If she is elected, “but being Sheriff would definitely be my priority.”

“I do not have any other brokers with my company at this time that I have to supervise.  Since I am the owner, I get to decide how many, if any, clients I take on at a given time,” she said.

She has also been active in the community through volunteer work, including on committees of Family Building Blocks, Salem Academy Christian Schools and Holy Resurrection Greek Orthodox Church.

Rejaian said her specialty is crisis and hostage negotiation. She’s responded to life-and-death situations where a person had just killed someone and taken hostages, and she has talked with the suspect and brought the incident to a peaceful resolution.

As sheriff, she said that experience would help her resolve problems and build trusting relationships with staff and the community. 

Many times, she said, law enforcement agencies have done a poor job of communicating with the public immediately after a major incident. After the initial investigation concludes, she said she would invite the public to ask questions about what happened.

Rejaian said she would bring a fresh perspective if elected sheriff. She believes it’s wrong that every Marion County sheriff for nearly three decades has retired before completing their term.

“I don’t think that’s how our system of government was meant to function,” she said. “The way that it’s been done takes that choice away from people.”

When Rejaian sought to be appointed by commissioners last year, she said no matter the result, she would run for election. She wanted to keep her word.

After over a year, she said she has yet to hear a plan for how Hunter intends to reduce gang violence, drug trafficking or staffing issues at the sheriff’s office.

“I think we’re in a worse position now than we were a year ago,” she said.

Rejaian said she hasn’t tried to get endorsements from politicians because her focus is on earning support of Marion County voters. 

“I think voters care more about a candidate’s record and what they plan to do if elected than how many politicians are endorsing them. I will be a sheriff for the people, not the politicians, bureaucrats or any other special interests,” she said.

Violent crime

Hunter said one of his top priorities is curbing violent crime. 

The sheriff’s office in March hired outside researchers to investigate the state of street violence across the county and create a report that includes unincorporated east Salem. The project is intended to inform local policy as well as strategies to prevent future violence and intervene in the lives of those involved. 


Hunter hopes to share his agency’s findings this November, with information about specific neighborhoods included. 

He said what used to be fistfights among teenagers now involve weapons, and conflicts escalate much faster on social media. He said the sheriff’s office may pursue a program similar to its Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program for adults where young mentors with lived experience help steer teens away from lives of violence, create alternative spaces to socialize and give them things to do besides being on the streets.

Another option is community groups who work to reduce youth violence through mentorship. In his time as sheriff, Hunter said he has found that he learns more when he meets people where they are. “I may think I’m creating what I think is a safe and comfortable space, and it’s not,” he said.

Such mentors exist in the community, he said, but the sheriff’s office needs to seek them out and get their input.

Hunter said the sheriff’s office this past summer created overtime patrols focused on northeast Salem, where the city found much of its violence was concentrated. They include officers who supervise gang members on parole or probation. 

“Through those focused patrols, we have consistently been taking guns off the street,” he said.

Both candidates said that the Salem-Keizer School District’s removal of school resource officers from high schools in 2021 made it difficult for law enforcement to mentor and build relationships with kids.

Rejaian said that schools need services like the DARE drug prevention program, as well as resources parents can refer their kids to when they see them going down a negative path, such as opportunities for internships and employment.

The sheriff can personally help spearhead such efforts, she said.

The Salem report estimated that as much as 85% of shootings in recent years involved gang members as victims, suspects or both. Rejaian said the county’s study will likely include similar findings.

As sheriff, she said she would create a dedicated gang team that works with city agencies to coordinate efforts and share information.

Hunter said that while he doesn’t have a gang enforcement team, two of his agency’s parole officers work directly with gang members and collaborate with agencies throughout the county on a collective team that’s addressing gang issues.

Rejaian said that the community should be involved in curbing violence, but she doesn’t believe that community-led efforts such as group peace walks will be enough to accomplish that goal. She said the sheriff’s priority should be making sure deputies are actively getting guns off the street.

She also said deputies should be allowed to be more proactive in deciding when to pursue fleeing drivers. Currently, she said they need to pull over and ask a supervisor for permission in most circumstances. 

“That’s a policy he could’ve changed day one,” she said of Hunter.

Sheriff’s office staffing

Rejaian said part of why she is running for sheriff is to make the changes she believes the office needs to become a desirable workplace. Those include more professional development and spending more time listening to employee concerns.

She said that Hunter’s ability to recruit and retain employees is a serious issue and that the sheriff’s office will reach a “breaking point” if it doesn’t make meaningful changes to address it. 

Staffing issues existed before Hunter took over as sheriff, she said, but he’s had over a year to hire more employees and keep those he already had.

Years ago, she said she suggested that the sheriff’s office allow part-time positions. She said that option would attract people who can’t work full time, such as women with young children or people caring for aging parents. Another option, she said, is hiring some people on a year-to-year contract basis.

When employees leave the sheriff’s office, Hunter said the agency contacts them about conducting a survey and interview about their reasons for leaving.

If elected, Rejaian also plans to conduct “retention interviews” to find out if employees have considered leaving, what other agencies are offering them and what she could do to get them to stay.

Rejaian said Hunter in February sought $250,000 from commissioners to pay a consultant to evaluate how his office provides public safety services. She questioned why the sheriff didn’t instead seek input from his own employees, who would have “plenty of suggestions.”

Hunter said law enforcement agencies across the country are facing staffing issues.

He said he brought in the consulting firm to survey his employees while also comparing sheriff’s office operations with other agencies across the U.S. with demographics similar to Marion County’s. People often want to rate their own performance, he said. “I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to open the doors to what is potentially criticism from an outside group coming in saying, ‘You’re not doing this well.’”

He also said that Rejaian has had a chance to help improve staffing on the recruitment team, which she has been part of since 2011.

Rejaian said the recruitment team was originally geared toward people looking for jobs in law enforcement. Now, rather than participating in events such as career fairs, she said the team mostly focuses on community relations such as presentations at elementary schools, festivals and open houses.

Other issues

One point of contention among the candidates is about Hunter’s decision in August to temporarily close the sheriff’s office transition center, a minimum-security alternative to jail where several dozen residents work jobs or do community service while nearing probation.

The closure allowed the sheriff’s office to reopen a 55-bed jail unit that closed in 2011 due to budget cuts. The agency last year planned the expansion at a cost of nearly $2 million. But Hunter told commissioners at a July meeting that his office had struggled to hire employees to run the expanded facility. Inmate crews from the transition center are continuing their work at the jail.

Rejaian believes the closure has made staffing issues at the sheriff’s office more visible. She said it’s misleading for Hunter to tell the public that he’s reopening the jail pod because when commissioners approved that funding, they didn’t do it with the intention of shuttering the transition center.

“It’s not really an accomplishment,” she said.

Hunter said moving the 10 deputies stationed at the transition center to the jail did reduce vacancies and strain on existing staff. But he said the transition center was closed primarily to increase the number of beds at the jail and have the space to keep violent offenders behind bars who are awaiting trial, instead of having to choose which ones to release.

Since then, Hunter said the jail has released zero violent offenders who would’ve been forced out when there was less bed space. The previously overcrowded jail now has around 30 beds open.

The sheriff’s office had not been making full use of the transition center, using no more than 40 of its 144 beds at a time, according to Hunter.

He said the temporary closure will allow the sheriff’s office to reopen the facility as the “stabilization center,” with some beds reserved for people arrested for drug possession. He said there will be a mix of people who have just come off the streets, have already been sentenced or have violated their probation or parole.

“If we are not focused on treatment and how we get folks off and outside of this addiction cycle, then we’re not actually making an improvement, and I’m not here just to continue to push the cart down the road,” he said.

Rejaian has also said throughout her campaign that she would reinstate the agency’s directed patrol unit, which Hunter disbanded earlier this year.

Hunter said he got rid of the team of three detectives because it had no official purpose and was “never given expectations, an objective or a true direction of what they were supposed to be doing.” He said he transferred those employees to do other detective work and patrols.

Rejaian also said that the sheriff’s office could be more proactive about investigating sex crimes. If she is able to beef up sheriff’s office staff, Rejaian said she would create specialty teams, including one dedicated to investigating the sale of illegal drugs in Marion County.

Hunter said he’s not aware of any lack of investigation or priority related to sex crimes, and detectives are addressing such reports every day.

One area of crime Hunter has taken steps to address is retail theft. Instead of focusing on individual theft cases, he said he wanted to investigate where stolen items were being sent en masse.

He pointed to a recent investigation which the sheriff’s office described as its largest retail theft case. The agency in August arrested a northeast Salem man on accusations that he ran a sophisticated operation in which he would pay shoplifters a fraction of the value of stolen items and then post them for sale online at higher prices. Deputies recovered from his home more than 10,000 stolen CDs, games and toys totaling nearly a half-million dollars.

But Hunter said the county’s rise in thefts is mostly people with addictions who are stealing to make ends meet.

He has worked with the Marion County District Attorney’s Office to create the “RESTORE court,” a new specialty court that started last month. People accused of lower-level offenses such as theft or trespassing can now get help finding employment, work to pay restitution to victims and get their charges expunged at the end of the process. The acronym stands for REStitution & Treatment On Route to Expungement.

The new court also helped provide some relief for the statewide shortage of public defenders, according to Hunter. He said “a chunk” of criminal defendants waiting for an attorney to represent them was immediately moved to restore court instead.

“We are trying to use that court to divert them ultimately away from being part of the criminal justice system,” he said.

Campaign money

Here are totals for each campaign as reported by the state Elections Division as of Oct. 15. To look into individual donations and expenditures, start with this state website: Campaign finance.

NICK HUNTER

Contributions: $52,003. Expenditures: $18,979. Cash on hand: $37,694.

Top donors: K&E Excavating Inc, $10,000; Allied Rock, $10,000; Melissa Pollman, $5,000; The Jackie Winters Leadership PAC, $5,000; VIP’s Industries Inc, $2,500; Tyler Freres, $2,500 (tie).

STACY REJAIAN

Contributions: $7,195. Expenditures: $974. Cash on hand: $6,221.

Top donors: Athena Winkler, $5,000; Olympic Realty, $695; Maria Pannas, $500; Ellany Adams, $500.

Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.

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Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.