Nichols

The three Baker County commissioners intend to meet the afternoon of Oct. 18 to hear from candidates and appoint four members to the Baker City Council, reconstituting a quorum for the council, which has no members now.

Commission chairman Shane Alderson and commissioners Christina Witham and Bruce Nichols met in a special 40-minute session Monday morning, Oct. 1, to discuss the process for partially rebuilding the council.

The three remaining councilors — Beverly Calder, Jason Spriet and Ray Duman — all resigned the evening of Sept. 21. They resigned after Judge Matt Shirtcliff in Baker County Circuit Court ruled that the councilors, lacking a quorum, couldn’t fill the four vacancies or take any other action.

That prompted the trio to resign, which triggered a state law — ORS 221.160(2) — which states that when a city council has no members, and its charter has no method for dealing with such a situation, the county commissioners “immediately shall appoint” enough councilors to constitute a quorum.

That’s four councilors in Baker City’s case, as its council when full has seven members.

The commissioners will appoint just four members, the minimum needed for a quorum. Those four will then choose the three other councilors.

All seven will serve through the remainder of 2024. City voters will choose a full slate of seven councilors in November 2024.

The deadline for applicants to apply is 5 p.m. on Oct. 9. Applications are available at www.bakercity.com/2248/City-Council-Elections.

The city had applications from nine people interested in serving as of Monday, Oct. 1 — Doni Bruland, William “Sean” Castle, Lance Cline, Julie Daly, Randy Daugherty, Sarah Heiner, Norman Kerr, Sandy Lewis and Helen Loennig.

The county is also soliciting written comments from the public about the appointment process or the applicants. Those can be emailed, by noon on Oct. 17, to elinan@bakercountyorg, or brought to the Courthouse, 1995 Third St.

Commissioners will individually review and rate the applicants by Oct. 12, and the top eight candidates, based on overall scoring tabulated by Erin Linan, the commissioners’ management assistant, will be invited to attend the Oct. 18 meeting, starting at 1 p.m., and will be given three minutes to say why they believe they are qualified to serve as a councilor.

Alderson said he knows “things have been contentious” at the city, and he said the situation “puts an awful burden on us.”

But he said he feels “very strongly about being the voice of the people in this instance. We’ll do our absolute best to go through this process fairly and pick those who we think will do the best job.”

Legal analysis

At the start of the commissioners’ meeting Monday, county counsel Kim Mosier explained the legal situation.

Mosier told commissioners that ORS 221.160(2) is clear about the commission’s authority to appoint enough councilors to constitute a quorum.

“It’s really plain,” Mosier said. “There isn’t anything muddy or unclear about it. There’s no authority to make any decisions on behalf of the city except to appoint those councilors who will then go on and conduct city business.”

Mosier said she spoke to officials from the League of Oregon Cities and Association of Oregon Counties and that they concurred with her assessment.

She said the statute doesn’t set out a process for commissioners to appoint councilors, nor does it define “immediately.”

Alderson asked Mosier about the possibility of the city calling a special election to allow city voters to choose new councilors.

Alderson said he has received “a few” emails on that topic.

Witham responded: “Just a few? I got flooded.”

Nichols said he also has had many emails on the election issue.

Mosier said that although state election law allows county commissioners to schedule a special election after declaring an emergency, she believes ORS 221.160(2) determines the commissioners’ path.

Election law says the council “may” declare an emergency, Mosier said, but ORS 221.160(2) says the county “immediately shall appoint.”

“I don’t see how you get around that directive from the legislature,” Mosier said.

The three plaintiffs in a civil suit filed Sept. 12 against Calder and the city council contended that state law prohibits councilors, when lacking a quorum, to fill vacancies. The plaintiffs called instead for a special election.

Shirtcliff agreed with the plaintiffs’ interpretation of state laws regarding the lack of a quorum.

Assessing applicants

Witham said she will ask Linan to send her the applications with the names redacted, and she will rate those applicants based on information on the applications but without knowing the names.

Witham said she wants to avoid, as much as possible, any potential bias based on applicants’ names when she’s reviewing applications for the first time.

But Witham will know the names of the eight finalists before she votes on appointments.

Alderson and Nichols said that although they understand Witham’s point about bias, they both intend to review and rate all applications in full, including the names.

Witham said she will not vote for any candidate who formerly served as a Baker City councilor but didn’t complete the term, for any reason.

Nichols said he would consider appointing former councilors who left during their term because, for instance, they moved out of town due to personal circumstances.

“The problem is, is when somebody, their employment changes and they have to move out of county or out of city or whatever and then maybe they’ve gone away for five years or something and then end up coming back,” Nichols said. “I don’t see that as a disqualifying factor.”

All seven councilors have resigned since Aug. 11.

The first, Dean Guyer, resigned that day, citing what he considered inappropriate behavior by Calder.

Councilor Boston Colton resigned Aug. 30, less than a month after he was appointed, saying he regretted his decision to vote for a resolution imposing a monthly public safety fee to support the fire and police departments.

That fee, of $15 per month for residential water/sewer accounts and $50 for commercial accounts, took effect Oct. 1.

During Monday’s meeting, Nichols said several people have asked him if commissioners could postpone that fee.

Nichols said state law, although it authorizes commissioners to appoint a quorum of councilors, doesn’t allow them to change the public safety fee.

With the council down to five members, Nathan Hodgdon and Johnny Waggoner Sr. both resigned Sept. 6. Hodgdon said he did so because he didn’t think it was fair to have four of the seven councilors appointed rather than elected, as would have happened had the five councilors filled the two vacancies by appointment.

Hodgdon also advocated for the city to schedule a special election to fill the vacancies, as allowed under state law. He filed a declaration in support of the plaintiffs in their lawsuit.

The resignations of Hodgdon and Waggoner left the council with three members, one short of a quorum. That led to the lawsuit, the judge’s ruling and, finally, the resignations of the three remaining councilors.

Councilor application

The application includes the following questions:

• How would you currently rate the city’s performance?

• What ideas do you have for improving “fair” or poor performance?

• Why are you interested in serving on the City Council?

• What contributions do you feel you can/will make to the City Council and citizens of this community?

• What qualifications, skills, or experiences would you bring to the City Council?

• Previous/current appointed or elected offices:

• Previous/current community affiliations or activities:

The commissioners also decided to add four questions of their own to the application:

1. Identify the problems or needs associated with Baker City as it pertains to sitting on the City Council?

2. What do you believe are the community’s goals?

3. If selected to serve on the City Council, what will be your priorities?

4. Have you previously served on the Baker City Council at any time? Were you appointed or elected? Did you complete your term? If you didn’t complete your term, was the reason due to you moving out of the City limits?