Ellie McConnell signs official documents denoting her as an appointed Pendleton City Council member Feb. 4, 2025, during the council’s regular meeting at city hall.

PENDLETON — The Pendleton City Council is back to its full contingent.

The council at its Feb. 4 meeting appointed Ellie McConnell to fill the Ward 2 vacancy.

McConnell fills the seat McKennon McDonald left after she became mayor at the start of 2025. McConnell will finish out the seat’s term, which ends Dec. 31, 2026.

The council voted to appoint McConnell after interviewing and considering nine applicants for more than two hours just before the regular meeting. Applicants had to submit letters of interest, live in Ward 2 and be registered voters.

The applicants each faced a 15-minute interview with the council. Questions focused on applicants’ experience in public service, vision for the city, goals as a councilor and approach to navigating conflict. Council members took notes on interviewees’ answers and had the opportunity to ask clarifying questions and debrief together between candidate interviews.

Before voting, council members offered their overall thoughts.

“I thought it was fantastic,” Councilor Addison Schulberg said. “I would be very happy to sit next to any of the nine who we interviewed today.”

The voting process took four rounds. The council narrowed the nine applicants to four; then three; then two. The final two in consideration were McConnell and Josh Goller, a former Hermiston School District board chair.

McConnell won the vote 4-3. Councilors Brett Mulvihill, Steve Campbell, Sally Brandson and Schulberg voted for McConnell. Councilors Linda Neuman, Carol Innes and John Thomas voted for Goller.

McConnell, who graduated from Pendleton High School in 2010, has a background in technology and website design. Her company, Calibrated Concepts, offers business consulting and helps clients build skills to create efficient systems for running and managing their small businesses.

To the council, McConnell stood out for her breadth of experience after living abroad in Ireland for many years as well as her commitment to helping small businesses. Brett Mulvihill, a newly elected councilor and owner of Brett’s Books, mentioned a millennial entrepreneurs group she started when voicing his support for her.

After the vote, McConnell joined the council immediately and participated in the regular meeting agenda. She will meet with city staff members and McDonald to go over the city charter as well as council rules and procedures.

City Manager Robb Corbett is in the process of leading informational sessions on how to serve on city boards and commissions that will be available for McConnell to attend as a new council member. McDonald told all the applicants Corbett or someone else from the city would reach out to encourage them to join commissions if they weren’t appointed to the council.

Other than appointing the new council member, the meeting proceeded as usual. Items on the agenda included a request to approve the Oregon UAS Center of Innovation Excellence transitioning into a 501©3 nonprofit, the Oregon UAS Accelerator as well as two requests for work order approvals — one involving wastewater and the other involving a connecting road for housing development. The council also voted on a contract price for the Roy Raley Ice Rink rebuild project and heard updates on department activities.

The council will host its next regular meeting on Feb. 18.