EDITORIAL: Waiting for special council election was a bad bargain

Published 12:00 pm Friday, September 29, 2023

The resignations are over. Now the work begins. The Baker City Council for now exists in name only.

The three remaining councilors — Beverly Calder, Jason Spriet and Ray Duman — all resigned Wednesday evening, Sept. 27. On Sept. 6, councilors Nathan Hodgdon and Johnny Waggoner Sr. resigned.

Boston Colton resigned Aug. 30, Dean Guyer on Aug. 11.

With no councilors in office, a state law — ORS 221.160(2) — authorizes the three Baker County commissioners to appoint four city councilors, which constitutes a quorum.

Those four councilors will then appoint three more people to completely reconstitute the council.

This can, and must, happen soon.

Baker City needs a council to address multiple vital matters.

Interim city manager Jon France’s contract expires Dec. 28. The city charter states that the council shall hire a successor within six months of a city manager leaving. City manager Jonathan Cannon resigned July 3.

The city is facing a projected deficit of $900,000 in its general fund, which includes the police and fire departments, for the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2024. That’s the reason the council on Aug. 22 approved a public safety fee of $15 per month for residential water/sewer accounts, and $50 for commercial accounts. The council has discussed other potential revenue sources, which could allow the city to reduce the amount of the public safety fee and shift some of the financial burden from residents who can least afford the fee. But nothing can happen until the council has at least four members. The fee, meanwhile, takes effect Oct. 1.

This situation needn’t have happened. Guyer said he resigned because of “unacceptable behavior” by Calder. Colton said he resigned over his regrets at voting for the measure imposing the public safety fee. Even with two vacancies, the remaining five councilors, one more than is needed for a quorum, could have appointed two replacements.

But then Hodgdon and Waggoner resigned on Sept. 6.

Hodgdon said he didn’t think it was appropriate to have two more councilors who would be appointed rather than elected. Had that happened, the council would have consisted of three elected councilors and four appointed.

Yet appointment by the council is the method the city charter prescribes when there are vacancies.

By resigning and depriving the council of a quorum, Hodgdon hoped to force the city to schedule a special election to fill the four vacancies. Three city residents filed a lawsuit against Calder and the council Sept. 12 seeking the same thing, and challenging the council’s contention that the three remaining councilors could fill the vacancies despite lacking a quorum.

On Wednesday, Sept. 27, Judge Matt Shirtcliff in Baker County Circuit Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in that lawsuit. But there is another option besides a special election — county commissioners appointing four councilors — and Calder, Spriet and Duman forced that option by resigning later on Wednesday.

Although having voters choose councilors is of course ideal, the city’s situation is far from ideal. Had the three remaining councilors decided, after the judge’s ruling, to schedule a special election, it probably couldn’t have happened before the end of the year — and before France’s contract as interim city manager expired (the city recorder estimated an election wasn’t possible before February 2024).

According to the Oregon Secretary of State’s office, state law requires that the city submit to the county elections officer a list of candidates for a special council election at least 61 days before the election. Obviously the city would also have needed to allow a reasonable amount of time for prospective candidates to file the necessary papers. Even if the remaining councilors had chosen the special election option soon after Hodgdon and Waggoner resigned, rather than contend that they could fill the vacancies even without a quorum, the election likely wouldn’t have happened before Dec. 1. And that’s based on the city giving candidates just three weeks or so to file.

In any case, the potential for the city to be without both a council and a manager, and for another two or three months to elapse with no chance to reduce the public safety fee and work on other possible revenue sources, is too great a burden to place on city residents in exchange for a special election.

It’s a bad bargain.

Moreover, city voters will choose an entire roster of seven councilors in little more than a year, in November 2024. All councilors appointed this year will serve only through the end of 2024.