SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2018 | 9A
COMMUNITY from page 7A
“I’m not political”
“When Maureen was first up
for the board, the mayor actively
disliked her, and expressed it and
attacked her during the process,”
Preisler said in an interview with
the Siuslaw News.
It was Jan. 18. Miltenberger
was applying for an open posi-
tion on the city council, left va-
cated by George Lyddon, who
relocated out of Florence. Hen-
ry began the meeting cordial-
ly. The field had been whittled
down to four, all of whom were
interviewed that day: Dan Lofy,
Woody Woodbury, Joel Marks
and Miltenberger. The record-
ed interviews are part of public
record and were sourced for the
following recounting.
“I’ll kick this off, and ask the
first one: What unique skills, ex-
perience, or qualifications can
you bring to the City Council
position?” asked Henry.
Miltenberger listed a number
of jobs she had done over her
life; teacher, tutor and “doing so-
cial work kinds of things.”
Greene asked if there were any
other questions on the topic, be-
fore moving on to his own ques-
tion for Miltenberger.
“I do have a couple,” Henry
said. “I was particularly interest-
ed in your service on the Canby
City Council.”
Miltenberger replied, “Yes, I
was going to mention that later
but, sure.”
“Well, I didn’t know quite what
question that would fit into, but
it seems to fit into this as far as
qualifications, so you can tell us
a bit about that?” Henry asked.
On her application for the
Florence City Council, Milten-
berger wrote under prior gov-
ernmental experience, “Canby,
Oregon: City Council Appoint-
ed in 1991. Elected 1992 to 1994.
Miltenberger said that she was
a single mother with a full-time
job, saw an ad in the paper for
the Canby City Council position
and then applied.
It’s at that point she began
speaking matter-of-factly about
being recalled from her position
because of her opposition to
Measure 3-2, a charter amend-
ment that sought to prohibit
special rights for homosexuals,
according to a December 1993
article in the Canby Herald.
“I said, ‘I don’t discriminate
against people, … I don’t do
that.’ I refuse to follow that and
discriminate against people. I
said I wouldn’t do it, and anoth-
er guy on the council said the
same,” Miltenberger said.
Because of their opposition
to the measure, the electorate
held a vote to remove Milten-
berger and fellow councilor Joe
Driggers. Only half the city vot-
ed, and the approval to remove
Miltenberger had a margin of 62
votes, according to the Canby
Herald.
“Even though it may seem like
a negative that I was recalled, it
was something I was proud of,”
she said. “I stood up for some-
thing that I believed in and felt
good about.”
“Okay,” said Henry, and the
questioning continued; what she
thought of the issues facing Flor-
ence, her involvement in com-
munity activities. Miltenberger
spoke in length about her work
with EMAC.
“You mentioned that you are
a part of the EMAC committee,
are you actually a member?”
Henry asked. “You mentioned a
number of other organizations.
Are you on any other commit-
tees or boards or non-profit
boards?”
“Not actually, no,” Miltenberg-
er replied.
However, on her application,
she listed EMAC, Siuslaw Vision
and other organizations. But she
neglected to mention that she
was the vice-chair of the Flor-
ence Area Democratic Club.
“So, have you served on other
entities?” asked Henry.
“No, no actual boards,” she
said. “Several different commit-
tees. But no, no boards or civic
kinds of things.”
The question period moved
on, and everything seemed
normal until the very end, after
Miltenberger’s final statements.
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“I do have one follow up ques-
tion,” Henry said. “When I asked
you specifically if you were on,
or have been on since you’ve
been in Florence, any other
boards, committees, 501(3)c’s,
you said, ‘No.’”
Miltenberger answered, “I’m a
member of the Democratic Par-
ty, I just didn’t want to bring that
up. Yes, I’m the vice chair of the
Democratic Party. I just didn’t
want to get political. … There’s
also some committees that I’m
a chair of. Actually, two that I’m
the chair of.”
“Why didn’t you mention that
on your application?” Henry
asked.
“Because I didn’t want to be
political,” Miltenberger repeat-
ed.
“Did you read the part on
there that says, ‘That all infor-
mation that is provided on this
form is true, to the best of my
knowledge?’” Henry asked.
“Everything that was on that
form is true,” Miltenberger an-
swered. “And I would be very
happy to bring that up. I don’t
have any problem discussing it
all. I’ve been a member of the
Democratic Party, but I was a
part of the committee of this
group. And six months into it
I became vice-chair. I’m very
proud of it, and very happy, but I
just didn’t want this to be a polit-
ical discussion.”
Preisler agreed, saying, “And I
would take that attitude as being
correct, too. This is not a politi-
cal application.”
“Oh really?” Henry said.
“Well, gee.”
“Yes, I don’t think it is a politi-
cal issue,” Preisler said.
“You don’t think omission
is an issue?” Henry continued.
“You also spent a whole para-
graph talking about your time
on the city council, but you
didn’t mention the fact that you
were recalled until I specifically
brought up your service on the
council.”
The application for the po-
sition did not specifically state
that candidates needed to list if
they had ever been recalled, and
Miltenberger was open about
the issue when asked.
“She did mention it during her
presentation,” Preisler said.
“She did, though not until I
brought it up,” Henry said. “We
were ready to go onto the next
subject, so I came back with a
follow-up question. … I’m just
curious as to why, especially
since you have limited experi-
ence on committees, why you
would not list that on the appli-
cation?”
There was a long pause, then
Miltenberger said, “I’m not po-
litical. I’m really running as a cit-
izen of this community, and I’m
not running as a Democrat or a
Republican.”
“Okay,” Henry said. “If no-
body has anything else, thank
you very much.”
As the council went to break,
Preisler said, “Really?”
At a city council meeting
four days after the interview,
Miltenberger stated in public
comments that she believed she
was verbally attacked by Henry,
saying she hadn’t disclosed being
in the Democratic Club because
she felt the council was supposed
to be non-partisan. She stated
that she didn’t appreciate the in-
sinuation that she was a liar, and
told Henry, “You made me feel
there was something I should
confess to, and not something to
be proud of.”
Finally, she said the mayor
should “listen to the things that
people have to say. Don’t just
turn them away and make them
feel bad because they don’t be-
lieve the same things you do.”
As she walked back to her
seat, multiple members of the
audience applauded.
How one views these events
largely depends on one’s feel-
ings toward the two. For those
who dislike Miltenberger, Henry
could be viewed as a shrewd tac-
tician, perceiving her to be un-
trustworthy and caught in a lie.
“She was not as forthcoming
as she should have been,” Preis-
ler said. “But she didn’t want to
wave the flag in front of the bull,
basically. With Maureen’s back-
ground, it’s as far as I’m con-
cerned excellent. Is she a perfect
person? No, she’s not. None of us
are.”
Greene said, “What every-
body wants to do is catch you
in a lie. Once you do that, then
you’re not trusted. Why was it
necessary to out Maureen? They
tried to use a gimmick to tarnish
her name and make it look like
she’s a liar.”
With Miltenberger claiming
she was attempting to keep pol-
itics out of the discussion, and
Henry outing her political ties, it
appeared both sides believed the
same thing: Partisanship doesn’t
belong in the council election.
Unfortunately, it became a
factor anyway — as well as ha-
rassment from both sides.
Florence First
Wednesday afternoon, Katie
Prosser, who volunteers on Lu-
cio’s campaign, quietly came into
the Siuslaw News with a stack of
hundreds of fliers that had been
left on the doorstep of Lucio’s
business.
The photo on the flier ap-
peared to be taken from a polit-
ical ad posted on the website for
Patriot Place, which had Lucio
cutting a local man’s hair.
Except on the flier, the picture
had been altered: Instead of a
local, it was President Donald
Trump. The flier was labeled
“Welcome to Old Town Trump-
ershop, Florence Oregon.” The
flier also pictured a speech
bubble with Lucio saying, “Oh
Donald, I love your HAIR! And
we really need more affordable
assault weapons in every home
for the safety of children: I know
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you get that!”
Two pictures of rifles were
placed above Lucio’s head.
On the right bottom corner
of the flier, the Florence Liberty
Alliance logo was placed, with
the phrase “And all ‘Sovereign’
Nationalists invite you to VOTE
TRUMP: MAKE FLORENCE
‘GREAT’ because ‘We love ev-
erybody, ‘even you!’”
The fliers had been dissemi-
nated across Old Town Florence
sometime during the previous
night. It is unknown who cre-
ated and distributed the flyer,
but the reasons were clear — to
administer public ridicule and
shame.
It was after this incident that
Tomeny came to speak with the
Siuslaw News, providing new in-
formation about the Lucio cam-
paign and the issues he felt her
supporters are facing.
“The reason I’m here is there’s
a lot of stuff going on in the
community that’s uglier than
people have seen in a long time,”
Tomeny said. “It’s been esca-
lating. You don’t hear it, but it
comes to her by text or email
or anonymous letter, or real vile
crap.”
According to Tomeny, Lu-
cio is constantly afraid that her
business, property or residence
will be vandalized. When her
candidacy was first announced,
the Siuslaw News received sev-
eral anonymous phone calls ac-
cusing Lucio of child abuse and
neglect, which were found to be
untrue.
“How things started to turn
ugly is beyond me, but I’m al-
most at the point now where I’m
going to tell her, ‘I’m sorry for
ever have gotten you involved in
this.’”
Tomeny echoes this phrasing
in a letter to the editor included
in today’s two Opinion pages.
This was not how the cam-
paign was supposed to go.
When Lacer announced that
she was going to retire, members
of the community began looking
to encourage people to run for
her replacement. For Lacer, it
was someone more diverse than
the current remaining council.
“I did advocate and encourage
younger people, both in per-
son and in social media, and at
council meetings, to consider
running in hopes that our coun-
cil would become a little more
diverse and be more representa-
tive of our citizens,” Lacer said.
As for age, Lacer is the young-
est on the council at 53, and
doesn’t remember the last time
someone younger was on the
council.
At the same time, Tomeny, the
mayor and others were looking
for a replacement.
“Everybody wanted a woman,”
Tomeny said. “A lot of the older
people wanted an established
older woman, but none of them
wanted to run. Now I see why.”
Henry had known Lucio per-
sonally and liked her. So did
Tomeny, who states that he leans
conservative, but is generally
non-partisan.
“I was getting a haircut once,”
recalled Tomeny, “and I said to
Geraldine, ‘Why don’t you con-
sider running for Florence City
Council?’”
But there was also anoth-
er reason that Lucio had been
asked: Miltenberger.
“I’ll be honest, I don’t like par-
tisanship, and I look at Maureen
as a very left-leaning person as
the vice chair of the Democrat-
ic Club,” Tomeny said. “If Ger-
aldine was the vice president of
Patriot Place, I wouldn’t want
her in there either.”
From all accounts, Lucio is
independent in her politics,
with no party affiliation. She has
supported LGBTQ rights, allow-
ing her business to host the first
show of local performer Jason
Wood’s drag queen character
“Fanny Rugburn.”
She has also been a vocal pro-
ponent of gun rights, with Lucio
being an avid hunter and fisher.
So, she was convinced to run
a completely non-partisan race.
“She gets along with both
sides, so I thought this was a re-
ally great thing,” Tomeny said.
A non-partisan campaign was
formed. Henry helped out at the
beginning of the campaign, but
has since backed off, according
to Tomeny.
See COMMUNITY page 10A