By Christy Solo and Wayne Lee – Editor and Sports Editor
Eagle Point
Of course July kicked off with the annual Fourth of July parade and fireworks show. Main St. was lined with booths of food, souvenirs and assorted projects and information as well as music and games. Thanks go out to the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce and the legion of volunteers who make it happen each year.
The city council heard a report from Tim Doney, Director of Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon on the latest upgrade to the 911 emergency system. The system was a decades-old analog system sorely in need of updating estimated to cost $28 million. A bond measure passed in 2019, and the project is expected to be completed in 2026.
The council also heard from Eagle Point Police Lieutenant Mike Anselmi who had recently returned from a 10-week stay at the FBI academy at Quantico, Virginia. His stay included both classroom training as well as physical fitness training with a bit of spare time to visit the site of the former Twin Towers and some Washington D.C. monuments.
The final city council meeting of the month mostly dealt with routine decisions regarding the disposal of three old public works vehicles now that their new replacements have arrived. They also received an update on projects on the horizon that may be coming before them.
Shady Cove
The July 1 Shady Cove City Council special meeting was the start of months of stress and strife in the city as both Mayor Jon Ball and Councilor Kathy Nuckles resigned leaving only two councilors left (recall no one had applied for the open fifth seat).
There were three topics on the agenda, starting with the scheduling of a performance review for Parry.
However Ball opened the meeting saying he was “skipping to the third” item and he resigned. In a relatively brief statement, he first said he was “fatigued” then handed out copies of his formal letter of resignation before reading it aloud in full.
It read in part, “Due to the incompetence of our current City Administrator and the dysfunctional staff she holds around her I feel my time would be much better spent enjoying the assets of what our local area offers.”
The letter also said Ball feels the progress of the city “has stalled” and “At this point, I no longer feel that my service or the time I invest would be of value to either the city or myself.”
Ball left the meeting immediately after reading the letter and a visibly stunned Nuckles called for a brief recess.
When the meeting reconvened Nuckles referenced a lovely thank you note she’d received from Parry a couple days prior. Then passed out printed copies of texts she’d received from Parry (sent from Parry’s city owned phone, thus public record) stating she felt they were ‘quite threatening.”
In the texts between Parry and Nuckles, Parry asked that the July 1 meeting not happen.
Nuckles replied asking Parry to “hold off” advising she would be speaking to Ball.
Parry replied, “1. Do you want to continue forward with an executive session [to start Parry’s review, which was past due]? If you do, I have to get Jeremy [Green the city’s attorney] involved. Which will be money flying out the door.
“2. If the executive session moves forward I will formally turn in my written documentation [regarding alleged behavior by Ball]. This will then trigger another executive session and potentially a formal investigation. Which will cost money.”
In the meeting, Nuckles then said her goal for the meeting had been to share all of this, discuss the “tensions being high” all around and to “diffuse the tension, share what I knew and acknowledge that we do have a problem” then to “see if together council would agree that we need to schedule an executive session to dig into it and go forward.”
Nuckles then said with Ball’s resignation “the wind has left my sails.” She continued saying “We have serious problems in City Hall” then resigned immediately.
With only two members left on council, a special meeting was called for July 10 to begin the process of filling out council again.
In a follow up interview regarding their resignations Ball said he felt resigning was the “best way possible” for council and the city to move forward because he was “highlighted as the problem” in Parry’s text. He did not anticipate Nuckles would follow with a resignation of her own.
During the July 10 special council meeting four citizens applied for the vacant mayoral position, Jared Considine, Hank Hohenstein, Lena Richardson and Sluggo Spottedwolf.
Following interviews with all four candidates, remaining councilors Mitchell and Winfrey appointed former mayor Lena Richardson.
Richardson was sworn in and gave a list of priority goals: bringing the city into compliance with audits, continuing work on the citywide water project, implementing a street maintenance schedule, designing the new city park and updating and enforcing city ordinances.
She then said she felt everyone needed a “cooling off” period following the resignations and mayoral appointment and suggested applications for the open council seats should be extended until Aug. 20 – the motion carried 3/0.
In the July 24 council meeting contract planner Slaughter gave a presentation about applying for a grant from the Department of Land Conservation and Development that would allow the city to make the planning process “more objective.”
The plan would include redoing the entire planning section of the ordinance with a model ordinance. It also proposed using AI vs. staff to answer planning questions and give guidance – this portion was vetoed by council who felt AI would be unreliable.
The motion to apply for the grant carried 3/0.
Richardson advised the city had contracted a new auditor to help ensure they would catch up on past audits.
Also in July the URI ran explainer articles as to why ongoing city legal issues cannot be reported on, as well as the first of several explainers on which elections are being referred to via the “council appointees will run in the next available election” wording in the city’s charter.
There was one July obituary: Eva Laverne Albert
Other July news: Oregon got a new shark themed license plate (available in July via voucher).
