Baker City has two new city councilors but the mayor stays the same.

The seven-member council, meeting for the first time in 2025 on Tuesday, Jan. 14, voted unanimously to elect Randy Daugherty to a two-year term.

There were no other nominees.

Under the city charter, the mayor is elected by councilors, not voters. The mayor presides over meetings and signs documents but has no veto power or other authority beyond those of the six other councilors.

Daugherty was chosen was mayor in October 2023 after the Baker County commissioners appointed him along with Doni Bruland, Roger Coles and Larry Pearson as councilors.

Commissioners, who aren’t normally involved in Baker City matters, did so because all seven councilors had resigned between Aug. 11 and Sept. 27, 2023.

Once commissioners had appointed four councilors, constituting a quorum, those four appointed Loran Joseph, Helen Loennig and Nic Carman to round out the council.

Five of the seven chose to run for reelection in November 2024 — Daugherty, Bruland, Coles, Joseph and Loennig.

Pearson didn’t run, and Carman moved outside the city limits and wasn’t eligible to continue as a councilor.

Their seats were filled in the election by Stephen Carr and Gratton Miller, the two candidates who joined the five incumbent councilors on the ballot.

All seven were sworn in at the start of the Jan. 14 meeting.

After electing Daugherty as mayor, the council voted unanimously to elect Bruland as vice mayor. She will assume the mayor’s duties if Daugherty is absent.

Daugherty thanked his fellow councilors for their confidence.

“We had a good year together, we worked well together and we communicated very well together and we got things, I think, headed down a pretty good track,” Daugherty said. “So we’ll try to keep that up this year.”

During the public comment period, Grace Martin of Baker City asked councilors why City Manager Barry Murphy has received two $5,000 salary increases since he was hired in December 2023.

Councilors approved the pay hikes in September 2024. One was retroactive to July 1, 2024, and the second, which boosted Murphy’s annual salary to $115,000, took effect Jan. 1, 2025.

Joseph answered, saying “in my opinion Barry has done an excellent job.”

Daugherty agreed, saying he believes Murphy is “worth every penny.”

Joseph noted that Murphy’s salary is below those of managers in some other Eastern Oregon cities with similar populations to Baker City’s 10,100.

Martin also asked about the city’s workforce, suggesting that the staff is larger than it needs to be considering the city’s population has grown by less than 1,000 people in the past 50 years.

Daugherty said the city has fewer full-time employees now, at 59, than it did a few years ago, when there were 65.

Martin also said the $10 monthly public safety fee, which the council enacted in June 2024, can be a burden on her and other people who have fixed incomes.

“That you for letting me speak,” Martin said.

“You’re welcome any time,” Daugherty said.