by Christy Solo – Editor
The May 7, 2026 Shady Cove City Council meeting began with a presentation and ended with profanity.
We’ll skip to the profanity so you don’t have to scroll to the bottom then back up to read about the balance of the meeting.
During Council Comment, Councilor Jeff Vanier once again said the city “needs” to get Rec & Tourism going again, because “We need to build our reputation back to what it was once upon a time. And these things help build morale and our fellowship with our fellow citizens.”
Regarding the upcoming budget meetings, Vanier then said, “We need to appropriate money” for R&T and he’d “like to see at least $5,000” in the 26/27 budget.
Mayor Richardson replied saying R&T had spent almost their entire budget on their first event of 2025, and “I would recommend that you have a budget estimate for each of [the events the city might have] and submit it for the budget so that we can have a realistic view of what this would possibly cost.”
Richardson also suggested that citizens could reform the Boosters Club or create a similar group. She added that in the past the Boosters would come to the city for help with some funding of their events but were independent of the city.
The upshot was that the 26/27 budget is going to be very tight, which has been a topic of discussion during several previous meetings.
Vanier replied saying, “if we can give away over $100,000 on attorney fees” they could find $5,000 for R&T.
Richardson reiterated that presenting a budget for proposed 26/27 events would be the best jumping off point versus just going with $5,000 because R&T had spent almost that much just on the Summer Bash in 2025.
Vanier replied, “No they didn’t.”
Richardson said they had spent $5,000, and she was asking for a realistic budget for consideration.
Councilor Paige Winfrey echoed that they had spent $5,000 and she could help Vanier with a 26/27 budget.
It was at this point Robert’s Rules of Order went out the window as Vanier slammed is fist on the dais and said loudly to Richardson, “I’m trying to get morale built up in the city, okay, and you’re sitting there, and this is why people are trying to recall you. Because you don’t want to say anything nice!”
Councilor Steve Mitchell interjected, “Okay, point of order. Point of order. I’m calling for point of order.”
Vanier yelled at Mitchell, “Kiss my butt! You’re a puppet for them too!”
Richardson then called “You are out of order!” to Vanier as Mitchell yelled to Vanier, “Kiss my ass!”
Vanier shot back to Mitchell “Did you hear what I said?” To which Mitchell replied, “You’re a hypocrite.”
And Vanier elevated it to, “You know what I’ll talk to you outside.”
Richardson reigned it in, saying to Vanier, “Please. I’m sorry you have such a short fuse, but I think asking for a reasonable, itemized budget and possibly a different way of funding and organizing these events is not unreasonable.”
Winfrey then asked if the Boosters had been a non-profit and Richardson advised they had been and she suggested, “the citizens of Shady Cove and volunteers of Shady Cove to go in that direction, because that would give a group focus.”
Note: There is a history of fluidity to Shady Cove events over the last two decades and City Hall/Council has only been a part of city events for a relatively small percentage of the city’s history.
Parks and Rec wasn’t formed until 2019. Prior to that, and even after, the city’s major events were run by volunteers. For example, Alma Spicer ran Daffodil Days and the Art Walk, Mary Gunderlock ran the SPAM Festival, Kate Crowston came up with Tie Days after Gunderlock said there just weren’t enough volunteers to keep SPAM going. The Shady-Cove Trail Wildflower Society ran the Wildflower Show. Other events sponsored by other groups large and small came and went over 20 years.
Music in the Park was started by volunteers including Sue Krupa when Tom Sanderson was mayor. It was taken over by Parks & Rec eventually downsizing from several concerts to one big Summer Bash.
The Boosters helped with many of these events and also held an annual river cleanup. They started the city’s decorative flag program which they ran until they dissolved due to lack of members.
In the midst of all that there was a local Chamber of Commerce, which died from lack of participation. Parks & Rec went away when Shari Tarvin was elected mayor and was replaced by the Events Committee which then went away when Jon Ball was elected and Rec & Tourism came along until their final members left in late 2025.
Back to the front of the meeting.
At the start of the meeting, Richardson added Resolution 2604 to the agenda and moved the Southern Oregon Sanitation presentation to the beginning.
SOS announced they will enact a 2.7% increase for 2026, which is allowable per their contract to the city. They said even with a higher percentage increase to the price of doing business – in part due to increased fuel prices – they’re sticking with the 2.7%.
During public comment on agenda items Natalie Swendener spoke on behalf of Shady Cove Matters regarding the city’s budget. You can hear Swendener’s full comments on the audio recording of the meeting.
Swendener asked that council meet with SCM “preferably during an open budget committee meeting” do hear their concerns because “We recognize that not all Council members are experts in budget.”
However, Swendener did not offer any written or verbal documentation which would show that SCM members are themselves “experts in budget.”
Mitchell asked Swendener “who are” the members of “Shady Cove Matters.”
Swendener said the “directors” are herself, Terry Rasmussen, Hank Hohenstein and Shari Tarvin.
During his staff report interim City Admin John Edwards said progress is still being made on past audits even as work is done on the 26/27 budget.
There was bad news on the City Admin recruitment front. Edwards reported that the city had made an offer to their Candidate of Choice, but he had declined the offer.
On the upside, they have already received two new applications and the process continues.
Edwards has put in an application for a “small” grant ($226K) from the Oregon Department of Transportation which – if awarded – would be used to finish up the Hannah’s Way drainage project and to do some of the more urgent street repairs in the city.
He also announced new office hours for City Hall, they will now be open from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Mon – Thurs.
He closed by inviting citizens to check out the city’s website frequently because staff continues to add more information weekly.
Next Councilor Kathy Nuckles gave an update on the water project. She said that “we had a call” with Business Oregon regarding “fraudulent misuse of the grant” by former City Admin Michele Parry. This included Parry using the water fund to pay for her assistant though the assistant did not work on the water project full time. Additionally the city disclosed documents to Business Oregon where Parry had lifted the signatures off of other documents.
Luckily for the city the upshot of the discussion was that Business Oregon, “was very pleased that we brought this forward. They’re sorry that it happened are they are committed to working with us to straighten it out.”
The financial upshot is that the city needs to repay $15,418 of “fraudulently applied” monies back into the water grant. Versus an actual repayment, Business Oregon will deduct that amount from the city’s next drawdown.
Per Nuckles there are additional fraudulent charges to the water grant of $52K, but those will be “reassigned to other budget funds” versus being repaid to the grant.
Despite all of that, RH2 – the engineering firm now back on track completing the feasibly study – still believes the city can meet their completion date of June 2027.
See RH2’s graphic for what the “now to June 2027” project entails.
Next was an update on “an issue” with payroll taxes. Richardson introduced the topic and Nuckles – who did an audit of the payroll taxes – gave a full report.
If you are interested in the full report – Warning: Technical Tax Talk – the update begins at 33:33 on the audio recording.
The brief version: Payroll tax errors began in early 2021. Errors were not discovered until 2025 and the back taxes have now been paid.
Due to delays in notifications from the IRS, the city now also has penalties and interest on payroll tax payments – even payments made on time following the initial cleanup and repayment.
They are trying to get some of these cancelled, but they are dealing with the IRS.
This led to Resolution 2604. Edwards led the discussion prior to the resolution. The proposal is to migrate the city’s payroll online through ADP payroll service.
This will not only keep payroll – thus payroll taxes – up to date, but it also comes with Human Resources services such as background checks and employee handbooks.
The cost would be $220 per month. Per Edwards this will save the city $1,800 if they make the ADP purchase by the end of May. More importantly it should ensure the city doesn’t have payroll tax issues in the future.
Other companies were investigated, one company wanted $5,000 just to buy into the software and they did not provide as many services as ADP.
The city is still responsible for the data going into ADP and it was suggested at least two people check entries to “make sure they’re right.”
The resolution “approving and authorizing migration to in-house payroll to the online payroll service provider ADP” carried 5/0.
During public comment on non-agenda items Jay Taylor circled back to the payroll tax issue.
His understanding was that while the unpaid taxes go back to 2021 he believed the city had only paid the back taxes for 2025.
Richardson spoke up advising they had resolved all the unpaid taxes as Nuckles had just reported.
Finding out they had been paid, Taylor switched gears from “why are they not paid” to “Who’s supposed to be supervising this?”
When Richardson pointed out the issues went back to 2021 when Tarvin was mayor (immediately following Richardson’s first tenure ending in 2020) Taylor asked if “the proper procedure and control” had been passed to Tarvin.
Richardson said administrative duties such as this are the city administrator’s job.
Tom Corrigan was the administrator in 2021.
Taylor then changed course again saying, “I also had a problem with Tom Corrigan making $150K” and wondered who approved that.
Richardson said she was not in office when he was hired (Corrigan was hired in 2018 under Mayor Tom Sanderson).
The next, and final, citizen to speak was Laura Sheridan-Campbell. She said she had received a “note card” in the mail which was “an invitation to sign a petition” to recall Richardson.
She said the “tone of this card sounds vindictive, mean-spirited and the alleged claims seem minor compared with the consequences of past failures of this city.”
Sheridan-Campbell closed saying she did not support a recall and felt it would take the city “backward at a time when we need steadiness” and cooperation.
During council comment Nuckles reported on the most recent Rogue Valley Council of Governments meetings reminding everyone – especially seniors – that RVCOG has a lot of free programs to aid citizens.
Nuckles then said she’d had a very bad week, “last week I have to admit I had a breakdown” she continued that she “was angry at all the work I was doing to clean up the mess” left behind by Parry and even mad that she was part of the Council who hired Parry.
She was also angry at the mayor of Lakeview, OR who gave Parry a recommendation when she first applied. She was also angry at Shady Cove Matters for “trying to distract us from our work by constant spreading of misinformation.”
Lastly she was angry because she feels all of these combined will “no doubt make our recruitment process for our city administrator even harder.”
Nuckles then referred to a May 6, 2026 article by OPB which details the downfall of Lakeview and Parry’s role in it.
Note: The Upper Rogue Independent has included OPB’s article in full in this edition.
Nuckles said when she read the OPB article she, “immediately saw the parallels between Lakeview and Shady Cove” and saw “what our fate could have been had we let Ms. Parry continue in her role [as City Administrator].” She asked citizens to read the article for themselves.
The takeaway: Nuckles cautions that “in small rural towns where the city manager and council roles are very segregated” and managers retain “vast power over city operations” things can go horribly wrong as they have to a greater extent in Lakeview and lesser extent in Shady Cove. She urged the citizens and the next council to make an effort to update the City Charter to “level the playing field” between the administrator and council.
Lastly, Nuckles discussed meeting with a member of Shady Cove Matters (AKA Shady Cove Advocates). Initially this member came to Nuckles hoping they could work together to “restore normalcy” to the city.
Per Nuckles, “I proposed that he resign from SCM and that he and I co-host community coffee chats where residents could come talk with us to get two different views of city issues. He promised to think about it.”
Nuckles said their follow up meeting was “disappointing to say the least.” The member presented Nuckles with “a list of requests” from SCM.
Nuckles said, “These requests included appointment of two SCM members to our committees; inclusion of a budget item for a pet project; and a secret meeting between myself, the Mayor and two SCM members. And a stipulation of this meeting was that anything discussed could not be shared with the public.”
Nuckles said she, “responded politely that this was it; there would be no further talks.”
