welcome
from the editor
The dust is finally starting to
clear from the last eight months of
turmoil at Vernonia City Hall, and we
are finally ready to get back to business.
With three new City Councilors
in place and Bill Haack back as City
Administrator, I would like to take this
opportunity to send out some kudos
to the citizens of Vernonia as a whole.
Over the last eight months the people
of this town have rallied together and
under very difficult circumstances, took
a stand and fixed what they saw as a bad
a situation. With three City Councilors
acting in ways that did not reflect
the will of the electorate, the citizens
stepped forward, attended Council
meetings, stayed informed about current
happenings, spoke out publicly about
their opinions and created the change
they wanted to see. When Mayor
Josette Mitchell and Councilor Randy
Parrow asked for citizens to volunteer
to sit on an interview panel to offer
recommendations to fill three vacant
council seats, twenty-nine citizens
volunteered their time to be part of the
process. And after three Councilors
were recalled and the whispering
around town was, “Who would want to
be a City Councilor now? No one will
volunteer for that position after what
has happened!”, eight citizens stepped
forward and offered to serve their
community in an extremely important
role, at a critical and controversial time.
The last few months have been
painful for Vernonia as a community and
for our citizens. But if there are a few
bright spots that have come out of this,
one of them has to be that once again
Vernonians have shown resiliency and
courage, and have refused to give up.
The last few months have produced a
new found sense of civic engagement,
and I have been proud to witness this
community pull together during a
difficult time. Everyone who stepped
forward in the many various roles and
capacities deserves to be commended.
That being said, there a few
particular people who I feel deserve
special recognition:
Mayor Josette Mitchell and City
Councilor Randy Parrow—From
day one when Mitchell took office this
past January, along with two new City
Councilors, it looked like this new
Council was going to have trouble
working together. Over the last nine
months the Vernonia City Council has
had to deal with an investigation into,
and the firing of a police officer, the
2011
resignation and then reappointment of
the Interim Police Chief, a job search
for a permanent City Administrator , the
firing of the Interim City Administrator,
two separate recall elections involving
the recall of three City Councilors,
the appointment of three new City
Councilors, and finally last week, the
hiring of a permanent City Administrator.
Through all this, long time
Councilor Parrow stepped forward and
assumed the role of elder statesman,
taking some difficult and controversial
stands, offering guidance to new Mayor
Mitchell and calmly disagreeing with a
majority of the Council when he believed
they were making mistakes. Parrow was
thoughtful and concise with his public
statements and actually contributed an
air of dignity to the Chambers at City
Hall, at a time when it was clearly
needed.
Mayor Mitchell, who walked
into a maelstrom in her first role in
public office, has been nothing short
of amazing. She has dealt with all the
above mentioned turmoil with aplomb,
grace, a sense of humor, and above all,
professionalism—even though she is
a volunteer. She has worked tirelessly,
stepping into the role of part-time Interim
City Administrator and has shown
extensive leadership qualities. She has
grown quickly into her role, has spent
inordinate amounts of time educating
herself and has not backed away from
making hard decisions. She has come
out the other end of a very ugly eight
months looking like a real hero. She is
a Mayor this community can be proud to
have represent us and someone we can
all rally behind. I expect her to do some
great work for this community in the
years ahead, now that she is getting back
to the business at hand.
Jim Johnson—Johnson has twice now
come to the aid of our community in a
time of need, filling the role of Interim
City Administrator on two different
occasions. He has brought a sense of
professionalism, experience, and calm
during some very difficult transitional
periods and has helped this community
work through some confusing issues
and traumatic changes. His demeanor,
insight, guidance and dedication to our
community have been above and beyond
what we could have expected from an
Interim. We all own Jim Johnson a debt
of gratitude for his continued willingness
to adopt and assist us.
Sharon Bernal—It is never easy for
a business owner to take a political
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stand. It is also not easy for anyone in
a small community to take the lead on a
controversial issue. Sharon Bernal has
done both, on two separate occasions.
In 2009 she took the lead and ran the
campaign, helping pass the School
Bond that provided the initial funding
to start construction on our new school
campus. Running a campaign to tax a
community is never popular, yet Bernal
did it, passing the Bond Measure by
an unheard of 22% margin. This past
spring, when it became obvious that
something needed to be done about the
majority of City Councilors who were
not representing the majority of the
voters in this community, Bernal again
came forward and ran and organized two
separate recall campaigns, winning both
handily. Bernal has stuck her neck out
professionally twice now—because she
is a citizen of the community who cares
about our future and because it was what
was best for Vernonia. And the citizens
have shown they have agreed with her
with their response at the ballot box.
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Vernonia’s Voice is published
on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday
of each month.
Bill Haack—Haack was appointed as
Interim City Administrator in June of
2011, after having worked in various
Vernonia’s Voice, LLC
capacities within the community and
PO Box 55
Columbia County in regards to flood
Vernonia, OR 97064
recovery after December 2007. He had
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built strong relationships with many
www.VernoniasVoice.com
community entities and citizens, as well
as important statewide relationships
during his work on flood recovery, and
with city staff during his work as Interim be rewarded for his allegiance to our
City Administrator. He believed he still community.
had work that he wanted to complete
Scott Laird
in Vernonia and had applied for the
Editor and Publisher
permanent City Administrator position,
offering to fill the position at a salary
way below current industry standards.
No one would have blamed
him if he had just waved goodbye to
Vernonia and all our troubles when
a majority of City Council voted to Need more room?
terminate his contract in May of 2011.
See us for
He could have given up on us again when
the
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Council couldn’t agree on appointing
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a fifth member and remained split after
Move-in Special
interviews for City Administrator,
5x10 $25
leaving Haack and the other candidate
5x10
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10x10 $69 10x20 $99
dangling in the wind. Haack is a
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Vernonia,
Oregon 97064
continue the work he started.
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He has shown humility, integrity
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Jill Hult
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Photography
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Scott Laird
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