Pendleton mayor addresses state of the city

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Mayor’s message during Pendleton Chamber event focuses on collaboration, communication

PENDLETON — Pendleton Mayor McKennon McDonald in a state of the city event said the city is doing well, though there are challenges.

The Pendleton Chamber of Commerce hosted the luncheon Wednesday early afternoon, Feb. 25, inside Pendleton Center for the Arts. For about 40 minutes, McDonald as the keynote speaker addressed a group of about 60 community members. She highlighted the efforts city council and staff are making on four central issues in the city’s strategic plan: homelessness, economic development, public safety and infrastructure maintenance.

Balance of priorities and structure

McDonald said after her presentation she hopes people left the lunch event “seeing there are many bright spots” in the community.

“There are still challenges that we’re navigating and we’re trying to figure out how to address as a city,” she said, “but (challenges and successes) can exist at the same time, and we’re continually looking forward.”

The comment summed up the message of her presentation, which focused on the balance between improvements the city has made as well as the challenges that still exist moving forward.

McDonald started the presentation reminding the audience about the basics of city governance. Cheryl Viola, CEO of the chamber, said after the presentation she was glad to have McDonald offer a review of how the city functions. McDonald believes community members don’t always realize, for example, that funds the city receives through grants usually are tied to specific projects, and the city cannot spend that money in other ways.

The mayor also offered the example of the aquatic center, which she noted contributes to quality of life in Pendleton but loses money every year.

“It’s one of those where we have to make a decision: Are we going to move forward on decisions and things that make quality of life strong, or are there things that we need to fix that have a more immediate need?” McDonald said.

Viola said she guesses many people haven’t considered the city keeps it going because the residents want it even though it’s a drain on resources.

“It really is that balancing act,” Viola said. “I think the mayor knocked it out of the park, and I really hope that people come away with a little bit more compassion and understanding and will take the initiative to actually seek to talk to these public officials to get the answers instead of just making negative comments on social media.”

McDonald reminded the community during the keynote speech that the city staff structure is shifting starting April 1.

City attorney Nancy Kerns is retiring and the city likely will contract with an external attorney moving forward, McDonald said. The city will use that money instead to hire current Police Chief Charles Byram as assistant city manager, which in turn promotes Tony Nelson from the police department’s operations lieutenant to chief of the Pendleton Police Department.

Key city efforts underway

McDonald said the city is making progress in four key areas of its strategic plan for 2025-28.

In efforts to address homelessness in Pendleton, the city has created a task force to support collaboration between service providers and find more opportunities for transitional housing. Pendleton Public Library Director Jennifer Johnson leads the task force.

Additionally, McDonald said, staff is reviewing the right to rest ordinance, though those efforts are generally on pause due to ongoing litigation. She and city officials are meeting with county representatives and interested individuals and groups, including Neighbors for a Better Pendleton, in their work to address challenges around housing.

“This is more than just a Pendleton challenge. It is a regional challenge,” she said. “And my belief is that we’re going to get further in this conversation if we can go in as a unit together.”

With regard to housing, one of the big projects McDonald highlighted is Goad Road, just north of Interstate 84 on the eastern end of the city. The project is well underway, with 3,000 linear feet of road constructed so far and another 4,000 linear feet planned soon. About 250 acres have been opened up for construction, McDonald said, on which single family and multi-family homes can be built, housing up to about 1,000 people. The first developer of Goad Road properties plans to build on about 45 acres.

The Pendleton UAS Range is also excelling, she said. The UAS Accelerator program brought in dozens of unmanned aircraft system operators that have reached out to her to learn about how to get more involved in the community. Since the city opened its unmanned aerial range opened, McDonald said, more than 67,000 UAS operations have taken place.

“To me, this is an untapped area or an area that there’s infinite expansion possibility,” she said.

On the topic of public safety, McDonald mentioned the fire department’s efforts to modernize Fire Station No. 2 and the five-year operational levy city council recently approved to add to the upcoming May election ballot to increase fire department personnel. The city also received about $2 million in the past six or so years to work on flood mitigation in the McKay Creek residential area near Community Park, and the city and community partners are working together to limit negative impacts of future floods.

McDonald mentioned the challenges around an indoor community pool as well as city infrastructure projects that are in progress now. Specifically, the city is working on the North Hill water system.

The city submitted a $4.4 million grant application for a community connector road on Feb. 24, McDonald said. It would connect the Tutuilla Road community near Sunridge Middle School on the southeast side of Pendleton to Highway 395, closer to the northeast end of town. Constructing that connector road would divert about 1,000 vehicles per day from the intersection of Southgate and Tutuilla Road, she said.

Transparency a priority

Another major message from McDonald is the community has seen — and will continue to see — improvements in communication between city officials and the public. City Manager Robb Corbett posts strategic plan update videos to city social media accounts. Councilors Ellie McBride and Carole Innes meet with city communications specialist Jennifer Colton to discuss how to better educate and connect with members of the public.

“ We’re always trying to do better. We’re trying to learn,” McDonald said. “We’d really like to switch from more of a reactive approach to a proactive approach.”

Events such as the chamber’s luncheon are important, she said after the event, because they offer an avenue to hear directly from residents and people who may not make it to council meetings. Additionally, people sometimes offer different perspectives in person than they do over the phone or via email.

The city’s strength comes not only from its residents, she said, but the organizations and businesses in town, so offering a place to connect is “the least we can do” from her perspective. The event’s title sponsors were American Pacific Mortgage, Bachmeier Property Management and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

“The key to success and future movement for our city hinges on partnership and collaboration,” McDonald said after her keynote address. “And in order to do that, we, the elected officials, have to be willing to engage with people in many different modes, many different settings.”