8 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015
Local
Housing relief
available for
wildfire losses
What it’s like to be a …
City Manager
With college students
choosing majors and high
school students deciding
between college or the
workforce, this series will
highlight one career path
each week in August and
September.
This week, we introduce
you to Mike Kee, Manager
for the City of Baker City.
Kee grew up in Baker City
and is a 1976 Baker High
School Graduate.
BY GINA K. SWARTZ
Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com
The BCP: What is your
background?
Mike: In 1981, I started
work as a Deputy Sheriff.
Then, a couple years later,
I went to work for the Po-
lice Department in Ontario
and kinda worked my way
up through the ranks, even-
tually becoming the Chief.
I was Chief for 8-9 years.
The BCP: How long
have you filled this role
and what was it like when
you first took over
Mike: I’ve been here for
let’s see—it will be five
years in September. Taking
over, there was a lot to
muddle through.
As a city government,
a lot of the organizations
we worked with looked
at us with trepidation,
just because of the lack
of continuity with all the
staff we had been through.
Now we have a really good
close working relationship
with ODOT. We have to—
they are a huge funding
source for us, but when I
first came here, we didn t.
Some of the local organi-
zations had been burnt by
the City; we had a bad rep-
utation. Just overall a lot
of people in town I talked
to weren’t happy with the
lack of consistency.
Unfortunately, that is
one of the things that hap-
pens when you’re cycling
through administration. I
kind of concentrated on
that when I was trying to
convince the Council to
hire me. There were defi-
nitely smarter people they
could hire, people with
more education or with
more experience, but they
wouldn’t find somebody
who would try as hard as I
would and be as honest as
I am.
They’d had an incident
several years before with
the city manager where
community perception
was that he wasn’t treating
people very well. I assured
them they wouldn’t have
that problem with me and I
would stay around at least
long enough to kind of
get things stabilized and I
think I’ve done that.
The BCP: So does that
mean you may have plans
to retire?
Mike: Plans. (He said
laughing without giving
any hints as to when that
might be.)
The BCP: Tell me how
a typical day starts for you
and how it flows
Mike: I get here between
7:00 and 7:30 in the morn-
ing. It’s really quiet and
I would guess I get more
done in that time than I do
the rest of the day.
I have my day mapped
out, but it usually only
lasts until about 9:00. You
can bank on it that there is
going to be a phone call or
a department head come
in, and you’re off on some-
thing totally unexpected.
That is the really fun
part of this job—you never
know what’s going to hap-
pen next.
The day is composed
mostly of talking to
citizens. Talking with
department heads. I have
very little interaction with,
like say, the guy out there
filling potholes except just
in passing. I deal directly
with the department heads
and have a lot of citizen
contact.
Council contacts me with
a lot of citizen concerns.
You know, they may get
hit up at the grocery store
with maybe a complaint or
concern, and I should be
the guy that they come to
and find out what the story
is. There are always two
sides to the story, which
is something I found out
as a police office . And
usually the first story isn t
completely accurate. But
hopefully we can get to the
bottom of it and that Coun-
cilor can get back to them.
We really owe them that.
The BCP: What skills,
qualifications or education
do you need?
Mike: Well, Baker
City was kind of in a bad
place when they hired
me. They’d been through
kind of a progression of
city managers at the time,
and the interim had let
them know that he was not
going to be around long.
They weren’t actively
recruiting or maybe they
had just started. I had a
friend here and at one
point maybe late 90s early
2000s. I applied for the
Police Chief here and was
offered the position, but at
the time it didn’t work out
for me. People knew I had
an interest in coming back
to Baker.
The Council at that time
was kind of a different
Council and I’m sure they
were looking for somebody
that had some management
experience and could do a
budget. I really touted my
people skills and the fact
that I was able to get along
with people, and although
everyone may not always
agree with me, including
the Council, I would take
the time to explain why I
believed what I did.
I have degree in law
enforcement. I’ve had lots
of management training
and have training from an
FBI command school. So
I had a lot of management
certificates and a manag -
ment certification through
Department of Public Safe-
ty Standards and Training.
The education didn’t seem
as important to them.
There are people that
go to school to be a city
manager; they usually
have a Master’s Degree in
public administration and
of course I don’t have that.
It didn’t seem as important
to them as the experience.
Maybe a combination of
that and a little education.
The BCP: What would
you say are your primary
job duties?
Mike: Well first and
foremost, I answer to City
Council, the body not
just one City Councilor.
Sometimes they forget that
they are a body and for
example I’ll get an order
from one of them and often
Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press
Baker City Manager Mike Kee in his office at City
Hall.
times have to remind them
that we are a team. If it’s
something easy I’ll just
take care of it but with
some of the requests I’ve
gotten we have to get a
majority of the Council
to agree with—especially
if it is spending money
or something like that. I
work closely with HBC,
the Chamber, those types
of organizations.
We are a small commu-
nity and we do touch each
other so it goes back to
having good relationships
even though personalities
may not always agree in a
small community like this,
you have to have relation-
ships where you can get
things done for the best
interest of the community.
You can’t let petty little
arguments and fights stand
in the way of that.
The BCP: What is your
favorite thing about being
City Manager?
Mike: There is no day
that is the same. It’s not
a job where you come sit
down at your computer
and work on documents
all day. You never know
what’s going to happen
with the next phone call.
I enjoy police work, so I
enjoy overseeing the police
department and I’ve re-
ally come to enjoy public
works, all the things that
they do. Fire was interest-
ing to me too—it’s a dream
job for me.
I’ve had probably had
more stress overall doing
this job except for a couple
times being a policeman.
At least nobody has ever
actually tried kill me in this
position (he laughed)—
that I know of.
The BCP: What about
boards and commissions?
Mike: Council appoints
all the commissions and
boards so all of them an-
swer to the council.
There may be times
where we appoint tempo-
rary task forces and I may
run them and compile the
information for the Coun-
cil, but in the end the only
reason is for the Council
to get that information,
They are the overseer of
all of the commissions and
boards. I am a member by
ordinance so I help with
the minutes and stuff like
that. The chairman of those
boards pull more weight
than I do. Each commis-
sion has a city staff liaison.
The BCP: What is your
least favorite thing about
being City Manager?
Mike: I don’t know.
There have been a couple
times throughout the years
that I’ve been here that I
didn’t seem to have the
Council support that I
thought was necessary.
Let’s just say that politics
would be my least favorite
thing. That’s a better way
to say it.
The BCP: What advice
would you give to for any-
one looking at this career
path?
Mike: Well, there are
a lot of people that want
to go down this path as a
career and what they need
to do is get the education.
Even in Oregon the major-
ity of city managers have
Master’s Degrees in public
education or business that
gives them the real strong
background in finances and
managing people. Experi-
ence is every bit as impor-
tant I think. What I’ve seen
a lot of young people doing
is going out and finding an
internship where they work
in a city and shadow the
administrator and maybe
even do some projects. I
have seen a lot of people, I
mean a lot, doing this. That
would be the best way to
do it. Now the smaller the
city, the less they’re going
to require. I’ve seen a lot
of these small cities where
a manager is what they are
mainly interested in and
they don’t need quite the
budgeting background. I
think it depends on the size
of the city. All of that is of
course going to determine
what you might get paid.
Margaret Davidson, Executive Director of Community
Connection in La Grande, reminds, “During this last leg-
islative session OHCS received funding to administer a
newly created Wildfire Damage Housing Relief Account
(WDHRA). This account was created by the passage of
HB 3148 and authorizes the department to provide fina -
cial assistance to very low income (75% of FPL) home-
owners who have experienced the loss of their primary
residence due to a wildfire. Unfortunatel , many fellow
Oregonians have experienced such a loss in the last few
weeks and more are at risk of losing their homes.”
She added, “We are requesting help in sharing the
information about the fund with your community mem-
bers as they are or become victim to a wildfire(s). The
information will also be on our website at http://www.
oregon.gov/ohcs/Pages/wildfire-damage-housing-relief
program.aspx including a fillable application for reques -
ing WDHRA financial assistance. While applicants can
apply directly to OHCS for assistance, we hope that the
local CAAs, Red Cross and Emergency Coordinators will
be our primary referral sources.
“As part of the state’s emergency response system,
we will also continue to refer those who have lost their
housing due to a disaster to their local community action
agency for temporary housing assistance.
“If you have any questions or concerns regarding the
WDHRA, please contact me at margaret@ccno.org or
Sheila Parkins at sheila.parkins@oregon.gov.”
Sinkhole repairs
on hold
Repairs to the Anthony Lakes Highway Sinkhole near
Antone Creek were originally scheduled to begin on
Monday, August 17th and run through Thursday, August
20th, during which time the road was scheduled to be
closed in the vicinity of the construction.
Due to increased fire activity on the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest permanent repairs planned for the Antho-
ny Lakes Highway (Forest Service Road 73) have been
placed on hold. The road will remain open and a tempo-
rary patch is in place. Caution signs are on the road to
warn drivers of the temporary repair, and forest officials
urge continued caution while driving on Anthony Lakes
Highway.
The final repairs will resume once fire activity ha
slowed in the region.
Stices Gulch
The BCP: What has
been your biggest chal-
lenge?
Mike: Without a doubt
the biggest challenge was
the day that we found out
we had cryptosporidium
in the drinking water. That
was the worst time of my
life.
The BCP: What would
you say has been your big-
gest accomplishment?
Mike: Probably the
thing I will look back on
and be most happy about
is the fact that we’ve got
the water treatment facility
that we have. That is thing
I feel best about leaving
the City of Baker with. We
now have a good water
treatment system and no-
body should ever get sick
again from something like
cryptosporidium or at least
a waterborne disease. I
think that is definitely what
I’m most happy about.
The BCP: Parting
thoughts?
Mike: What I think
people need to remember,
what I hear from people
and I think if you’ve been
here for a long time, you
kind of take things for
granted. The city is just a
great place to live, with
great people, and we need
to remind ourselves of that.
Try to get along with each
other, make this a better
place to live, which we can
do. People want to live in
Baker City. We just need to
show them our best side.
Submitted Photo.
Stices Gulch resident Jenny Long said Greater
Bowen Valley Fire Chief Jim Devlin is her hero after
her family’s home was saved.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Folks sat and chatted with each other, asking about ex-
periences and sharing their own. Most were relieved that
their losses were limited to surface land crops and trees.
Only two houses out of the 20 or so in the area were lost,
along with several structures. Most of the residents’
homes were saved by the firefighters from harm—incl -
ing that of Greater Bowen Valley Fire Chief Jim Devlin
and his wife, Penny, who also volunteers for the depart-
ment. The Devlins lost four of their own outbuildings.
Residents had been allowed in to check their proper-
ties and, although the devastation was tremendous, most
attending were relieved that they had homes to return to
once the evacuation orders were lifted.
Many residents were staying with friends or family.
Glen Nelson and his wife, Jill, were amazed by, as
Glen said, "how the fire came right up to our haystack,
and then turned. We still have a haystack!"
Others had similar stories of seemingly random action
by the fire.
One found his wood stack of seasoned timber still
intact, although the fire had obviously come right up to
the stack.
" I would have thought it would go for sure," he told the
group. "It's well-seasoned and dry, but it's fine. Fire didn't
touch it."
Devlin called group to order around 6:15 p.m., and
gave an overview for the residents. He talked about the
unusual degree of collaboration between all of the service
agencies involved.
SEE STICES GULCH PAGE 11