by Christy Solo – Editor
Very few people were able to attend the April 2 Shady Cove City Council meeting via Zoom. Here’s why and what you need to do so you can attend subsequent meetings.
Why: Due to recent Zoom disruptions, and lacking no easy way to prevent
Very few people were able to attend the April 2 Shady Cove City Council meeting via Zoom. Here’s why and what you need to do so you can attend subsequent meetings.Why: Due to recent Zoom disruptions, and lacking no easy way to prevent them, the city will now need to verify potential Zoom attendees before allowing them into the meeting. Staff did the best they could April 2, letting in individuals they were familiar with.
them, the city will now need to verify potential Zoom attendees before allowing them into the meeting. Staff did the best they could April 2, letting in individuals they were familiar with.If you were not allowed into the April 2 Zoom and/or if you are unsure if staff knows who you are (e.g. knows your Zoom login name) call or stop by City Hall to get added to the “known users” list prior to the April 16 council meeting.
The meeting began with a presentation/discussion with Shawn Richards, Jackson County’s Assistant Emergency Manager. Richards said the county just wants to be sure everyone knows the process for emergency declarations and knows about the Jackson County Alert system.
Richards gave a brief overview of emergency declarations. He said the county is always there to back the city up, but the city needs to declare an emergency before the county can step in.
He also wanted to remind everyone to sign up for Jackson County Alerts as well as the Genesis platform which was used to divide the county into zones. Richards suggested people sign up for both, which can be done on the Alerts webpage.
Additionally, the city and county are planning an emergency management open house which is tentatively planned for the first week of May at the Upper Rogue Community Center.
During staff reports the sheriff’s deputy reported there will be a “traffic saturation” at the end of April. It will cover Hwy. 62 from Hwy. 227 to Hwy. 234 and will focus on speeding, cell phone use and other traffic violations.
Next up was Fire District 4 Chief Travis Crume. First he announced that there will be a Push-back Ceremony for their new truck April 11 beginning at 1 p.m. He explained the ceremony is “a long tradition in the fire service, where when we get a new apparatus, new fire engine. We roll it back into the station, and we have the community push it in, and that signifies that it goes into service
The ceremony will include time for everyone to view the new engine and ask questions, then Crume will give a presentation about the engine and the long-running push-back custom. Then the community will push the engine into the station followed by refreshments.
The next FD4 event will be their Open House May 9, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. This will include FD4 personnel as well as representatives from the Sheriff’s Office, Mercy Flights and the State Fire Marshall’s office. There will be activities for children as well as the Rogue Valley Fire Prevention cooperative trailer and FD4 will be handing out free smoke alarms.
Crume closed by cautioning folks to take care with burn piles. He said to keep them six feet or smaller, have tools around to help control it, keep the fire far from weeds and have water nearby. Two burn piles have already gotten out of control this year.
City Administrator John Edwards gave a brief update on the progress for hiring a new administrator. Some initial interviews have taken place, and they will be narrowing the field of candidates down for another round of interviews.
He also said they have received some feedback from franchised companies on the proposed rights of way ordinance, so that is still a work in progress as comments are considered.
Lastly he reminded everyone that the city has battery operated weed trimmers which they will loan out for free. Currently only one is working, so there may be a waiting period. Contact City Hall to borrow or reserve the trimmer.
Next on the agenda was a water system update which included an update from Councilor Kathy Nuckles on the Sunstone (Hiland) land use agreement.
Brief background: Sunstone is overdrawing water beyond their allotted limit. They asked The Army Corps of Engineers for 50 acre-feet of water from Lost Creek Lake. The City of Shady Cove needs to sign off on the request. The city requested that Hiland only use that extra water for current customers and expansion only to properties touching existing Sunstone lines.
This kept Sunstone/SC at an impasse for over a year.
Nuckles announced Sunstone has finally agreed to the city’s conditions and showed a new map verifying the new limits on where Sunstone can use the water.
Nuckles said that while she is confident the new map aligns with the city’s requests, she wants to wait for the next meeting for an official vote to approve signing the letter so she and the other council members can double check the map.
She clarified this will not hold up the process for Sunstone to pursue the 50 acre-feet as their final permit will take a few months to acquire.
As for the city’s water system update, they advised that the contract with RH2 to do the feasibility study has now been fully executed and approved by Business Oregon (who manages the $1.5 million grant) and RH2 is “off and running.”
The city’s request to the Army Corps for 150 acre-feet of water is in progress.
Councilor Jeff Vanier asked if the $1.5 million grant had a time limit on it, did it have to be used by a certain date as some grants do?
Nuckles said yes, it should be used by 2027, however she said, “the state is pretty lenient” on water projects because many areas of the project are subject to government processes and can’t be rushed.
Next Mayor Lena Richardson announced that there will be a budget workshop April 13. She added that there are still two openings on the committee for citizens who wish to apply.
She then clarified that committee members must be residents of Shady Cove. She said “some concerned citizens suggested that the budgeting process include participation of individuals in nearby communities” however per ORS 214.414, which reads, “The budget committee shall consist of the members of the governing body and a number, equal to the number of members of the governing body, of electors of the municipal corporation appointed by the governing body;”
Because an “elector” is someone who can vote within the city, only Shady Cove citizens may be on the budget committee.
During public comment on non-agenda items a long-time citizen (moved to Shady Cove in 1971) expressed concern that the audits must be completed. She said she believes Richardson can get that done and that as Richardson has said she will not run for reelection, there is “no need for a recall” with Richardson just having “a few months” left in office to work on audits. She feels Richardson’s time would be best spent on the audits than dealing with a recall.
Note: Due to the unusually poor sound quality on Zoom we were unable to accurately hear (or read via Closed Captioning, which was grossly inaccurate due to sound issues) the name of the citizen who spoke.
During council comments Vanier suggested they needed to fill seats on the fully vacant Rec & Tourism committee “ASAP” especially with summer on the way.
Richardson suggested an alternative would be for citizens to reform the Booster Club who used to do many of the city’s events. For example the Booster’s started the flag program. Richardson noted that when they did need help the Boosters would come to the city and most often the city was able to help them.
Note: For example the city used to have a small grant program for community events with monies coming out of the tourism budget.
Councilor Paige Winfrey thanked Jeannine Curry for her work curating Zoom attendance so “we can feel more comfortable having a meeting.”
Nuckles began her comments saying she had been “contacted separately by two members of the Shady Cove Matters group” and she had spent one hour talking with one member and two hours with the second.
She said that while the conversations were different, some topics came up in both discussions, and she wanted to address three of those.
First she said “Shady Cove Matters believes” that former City Admin Michele Parry acquired the $1.5 million water grant.
Nuckles clarified that the grant was awarded before Parry was hired. The grant was signed by Governor Tina Kotek April 17, 2024 and Parry began working for the city May 13, 2024.
Despite this Parry stated that she authored, submitted and won the grant “in her personal resume, numerous press releases and partner correspondences.”
Nuckles continued saying that moreover Parry “illegally used [the grant] to pay for City Hall operations unrelated to the water project.” She said the city is currently analyzing all the water grant charges and “backing out the illegal charges” these will then need to be applied against the General Fund. Nuckles said hiding the charges “within the water grant is criminal.”
Second Nuckles said, “Shady Cove Matters” believes Parry “inherited a mess so she cannot be blamed” for any of the city’s current problems.
Nuckles said that “yes” Parry had inherited a mess, but it was her job to clean it up and instead she “made it much, much worse.”
Nuckles exemplified this with three examples:
- Parry illegally funneled expenses through the water grant
- Parry denied approximately $90K in payments to Rogue Valley Sewer Systems in 2024, which the city has now paid, and the city may now owe them an additional $65K for 2025.
- Parry “was shuffling money between funds to give the illusion” of a better financial picture.
Nuckles said Parry’s quarterly reports are online in the April 2 agenda packet as evidence of the last.
Third Nuckles said, “Shady Cove Matters claims the city is delinquent on years of IRS taxes” to the tune of $350K and that they believe Parry “discovered this.”
Nuckles said this is patently false, “Shady Cove has a credit of $292K with the IRS.”
The error was that 941 report forms were not being filed prior to and for five quarters after Parry became the administrator.
Work is now being done to submit and audit all the delinquent reports.
Nuckles noted all of this information is available in public records.
She closed saying, “To the members of Shady Cove Matters…if the city really does matter to you, put your personal agendas aside” and help the city clean up the messes left behind to help ensure “the next administration has a chance to succeed.”
Richardson also addressed comments from Shady Cove Matters in her council comments. Hers centered on the hiring process for a new city administrator.
Richardson began, “The Shady Cove Matters political action group have stated that they ‘believe that the entire process should be open and transparent’ and ‘meetings should not be limited in access to a select few.’”
To present a thorough reply to this, Richardson consulted an HR professional and read aloud their reply to “should the hiring process be fully open and transparent?”
The reply from the HR professional included eight common sense points.
You can hear all eight on the Zoom recording of the April 2 meeting, we’ll list a few here:
- Highly qualified candidates are often currently employed in other cities or organizations, if their job search becomes public, they could risk losing their current job and future opportunities.
- Protecting privacy. Candidates are sharing sensitive personal and professional information such as references, work history, etc. Sharing these publicly can invade their privacy.
- Also exposing a candidate to unnecessary scrutiny before their final interview is an invasion of privacy.
- Interviews require honest deliberation; this can be done in Executive Session. There everyone can speak candidly about strengths, weaknesses and concerns and ask blunt questions without fear of public interpretation.
- Executive session reduces political pressure. Public discussion too early can invite lobbying or pressure for and or against candidates. It can shift focus from qualifications to public perception.
Richardson noted that as with previous hirings, there will be an opportunity for a public meet and greet of the finalists, but interviews will be kept in Executive Session.
She closed saying, “council has already had to contend with ne very painful breach of confidentiality. We want to protect the privacy of applicants…by following professional recommendations.”
And with that the meeting was adjourned.
