Callee Ackland, Navy veteran and progressive candidate for Springfield’s Ward 4 City Council, says the city deserves fresh voices that focus on people’s basic needs. At 33 years old, she wants to bring a younger perspective to the unpaid nonpartisan position. “I’m doing it because I feel so strongly about this work, about improving living conditions for Springfield’s working families.”
Springfield’s Ward 4 encompasses the central-east portion of the city, extending from Highway 126 to the southern city limits near the Middle Fork Willamette River.
Ackland is running on a principle of better homes, better roads and a brighter future. To her, that means improving living conditions for working families in Springfield by reinforcing basic habitability standards, bolstering Springfield’s public road system and ensuring things like the city’s library remain open.
Currently, Ackland works as a tenant hotline support specialist at the Springfield Eugene Tenant Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping tenants in Lane County learn their rights as renters. She also serves on the Springfield Planning Commission.
She says one way to improve living conditions in Springfield is to ban artificial intelligence price fixing software used to collect tenant data and increase rent prices. In November 2025, the city of Portland banned the use of such AI software the same day the state proposed a $7 million settlement with Greystar Management Services in an antitrust lawsuit over the same kind of tool.
Ackland says the Planning Commission is actively working on changing the Springfield development code to “make it easier to build housing.” She adds that there are several undeveloped properties that have potential if the city were to continue to partner with organizations like nonprofit housing developers DevNW and SquareOne Villages.
In early August, Springfield gave SquareOne Villages a $504,000 forgivable loan to purchase land for an approximately 50-unit affordable housing complex near Main and 33rd Street on the condition that the units are for low-income residents.
Ackland says to fund her ambitions of increasing access to affordable housing, she’d like to see the City Council approve incentives for more businesses to adopt a home in Springfield. “I think that’s the opportunity that we’re missing out on right now,” she says.
Hardware retail giant True Value recently announced the pending closure of its 520,000 square foot Springfield warehouse, valued at $26 million by the Lane County assessors office. The building brings in $395,000 in property taxes each year.
Ackland argues that measures 5 and 50, controversial property tax reforms, should be amended at the state level to allow for property taxes to reflect current market values rather than being capped at 3 percent.
Measure 5 passed by a narrow margin in 1990, capping property taxes at $5 per $1,000 of real market value for school funding and $10 per $1,000 for general government funding.
Measure 50 passed in 1997 and converted the property tax system from levy-based to rate-based, rolling back assessed property values to 90 percent of their 1995-1996 levels and capping assessed value growth at 3 percent regardless of their actual appreciation over time, with some exceptions for things like new construction or major improvements.
The measures remain controversial as tax revenue from the 3 percent cap grows slower than inflation rates, leaving schools and local governments oftentimes unable to collect enough funding for services. “That’s really the root cause of why we’re all at the place that we’re at,” Ackland says.
Springfield Public Schools is currently facing a $7.9 million projected budget deficit for the 2026-2027 school year as state funding falls and operational costs rise. At the same time, the city of Springfield had projected a $4.5 million shortfall for the 2027-2028 fiscal year.
Ackland was one of the lead supporters of the Save Springfield Library group, protesting cuts to Springfield’s library budget in June. Ackland says the incumbent candidate Jill Cuadros, who was appointed to the position in April, voted in favor of cutting the library budget.
“Our library is so important to bringing foot traffic to our downtown area, our main street small businesses, and in addition, libraries are just absolutely vital to a healthy democracy,” Ackland says. “I think our libraries need to be protected.”
Ackland says while no one wants to cut funds from city programs, if elected she would “definitely want to take a look and see if there is any fat we can trim off.”
In December 2025, Springfield canceled its contract with the automated license plate reader company Flock Safety. Ackland says she is adamantly against “warrantless mass surveillance” and finds it “frustrating that we have the money in the budget to do things that are widely unpopular like that and yet we don’t have the money in the budget to protect one of our most beloved community institutions, our library,” she says.
As an openly progressive person and a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Ackland says she wants to dispel false narratives about socialism and progressivism. “What I’m fighting for is giving more power to the people, and that’s not even a political affiliation in my mind,” she says. “I think that the vast majority of us are in agreement that we want to live in a world where children and nature are prioritized over corporations in their profits, and that’s what I’m working towards.”
Oregon Secretary of State records show Ackland has raised $19,710 while Cuadros has raised $16,848.