Primmer

PENDLETON — Despite a near total turnover over the past five years, the Pendleton City Council has maintained a consensus on the big issues: a street funding plan should include a gas tax, the Pendleton Unmanned Aerial Systems Range is one of the city’s best economic development opportunities, and the city can’t cut its way into prosperity.

Ward 3 candidate Larry Anderson is taking an opposite tack in trying to unseat incumbent Councilor Dale Primmer, who is seeking a second term.

“Many have said, ‘There’s no money to cut, there’s no money to cut,’” Anderson said. “There’s always money to cut. And there’s always ways to budget things without having to hurt the very people that we’re supposed to represent.”

Anderson moved to Pendleton in 1978 when his employer, General Tire, transferred him to town. When General Tire wanted to transfer him again to Seattle because it was pulling out of smaller markets, he declined so he could stay in Pendleton.

Anderson spent the ensuing years working at car and RV dealerships before becoming owner of the Main Street Diner. He also got involved in various community organizations, serving on the boards for the Pendleton Little League, the Pendleton Downtown Association and the Sister City Exchange program.

Anderson started getting involved in city politics after retiring, applying for a vacant at-large seat on the council in 2016, a seat that eventually went to Councilor Paul Chalmers. Anderson is now making a second attempt at joining the council by running for Ward 3, which covers nearly everything south of Interstate 84, including Southgate, Tutuilla Road and McKay Creek.

Anderson said he’s running because he wants to keep city taxes and fees down, and he’s started to look at the budget to see where costs could be cut.

He singled out the Pendleton Fire Department, saying it paid too much in overtime and housing costs for its interns. He said the department would be better served if it hired another employee instead of paying overtime and moving interns to one of the other fire stations so the city could lease or sell the housing.

In contrast, Primmer didn’t think there were many budget cuts that could be made that wouldn’t affect the quality of the city’s services.

“I know that there’s a lot of people that believe every government budget has a giant line item called ‘Waste,’ and you could go to that line item and fix every problem that God ever created, but the fact of the matter is that it’s simply not true,” he said.

A Hermiston native who moved to Pendleton to start a career in law enforcement, Primmer said he’s running again because he still finds himself with the time and ability to do the job.

Although there’s been progress made toward new housing, Primmer said the council will need to continue focusing on the issue, specifically the need for starter homes and low-income housing.

Primmer and Anderson found themselves on opposite sides of the 4-cent gas tax for road maintenance, which will be on the May ballot but has no official supporters following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anderson thought the tax would hurt gas station owners and was a steep price to pay for Pendletonians.

“Why do we manage by crisis?” he said. “Why hasn’t something been done 10, 15 years (ago), a little at a time? If you need something done in your home, you do what you can, and you try to keep ahead of it. The same should be done at the city level.”

Primmer said he understood the issue was polarizing, and he unsuccessfully pushed to sunset the gas tax after five years instead of 10 as an accountability measure.

But he supported it because he understood that if the city doesn’t boost its funding further within the next few years, the problem will only get larger and more expensive in the future.

The political opponents also disagreed on the value of the Pendleton UAS Range, which recently lost high profile customers like Airbus and PAE.

While Anderson would prefer the airport focus on bringing in bigger non-UAS customers, Primmer said the turnover at the range was a feature, not a bug.

“Turnover is something you expect at a test range,” he said. “People come in, they develop a product, they run it through their prototypes, they move it into manufacturing, and then they move on. And then somebody tests a new product, and they move in. That’s the nature of the beast.”

Umatilla County will begin mailing out ballots for the Ward 3 election on April 29 while Election Day is May 19.

Larry Anderson

Age: 70

Occupation: Retired, former owner of Main Street Diner

Birthplace: Spokane

Years in Pendleton: 42

Highest level of Education: Associate’s degree, Kinman Business University

Family: Married, four children and eight grandchildren

Dale Primmer

Age: 47

Occupation: Umatilla County director of community justice

Birthplace: Everett, Washington

Years in Pendleton: 17

Highest Level of Education: Bachelor’s degree, Western Oregon University

Family: Married, two children

This is the third in a series of stories on the races for the Pendleton city council.