THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020
Baker City, Oregon
4A
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news@bakercityherald.com
EDITORIAL
Choosing
the city
manager
The possibility that six of the seven Baker City
Council members who plan to hire a new city manager
later this year won’t still be councilors when that person
starts work seems at fi rst glance a questionable pros-
pect.
But Mayor Loran Joseph says the situation is consid-
erably more nuanced.
And he makes a compelling case for why the current
slate of councilors should hire the new manager rather
than leave the task for their successors.
This circumstance arises from a confl uence of factors.
Fred Warner Jr., who has been city manager since
2016, is retiring at the end of the year. This is not a
secret, to be sure. The Council started the recruitment
process several months ago, and 14 people applied. On
Sept. 17 a committee comprising three councilors — Jo-
seph, Lynette Perry and Jason Spriet — met and pared
the list of candidates to six, one of whom later withdrew.
The City Council interviewed the fi ve candidates by
Zoom on Oct. 5 and 6.
On Tuesday night the Council announced that it
would invite three fi nalists to Baker City in November
for another interview. They are Scott McClure of Mon-
mouth, Oregon, Steve Ashworth of Alpine, Wyoming,
and Jonathan Cannon of Saluda, North Carolina.
More importantly, Joseph said he believes a vital part
of the fi nalists’ visit to Baker City is a chance to meet
with the councilors who are elected Nov. 3 but who won’t
be sworn in and take offi ce until early January. Joseph
said the opinions of those councilors-elect about the
fi nalists will be “highly infl uential” in his decision about
whom the city should try to hire to replace Warner.
How many of the councilors who will vote on the hir-
ing decision will actually oversee the new city manager
— although the manager runs the city’s day-to-day
operations, the Council alone has the authority to hire
or fi re the city manager — depends on the election
results Nov. 3.
Of the seven current councilors, only Lynette Perry
will defi nitely remain; she was elected in 2018 to a
4-year term.
Among the six other councilors, Joseph, Randy
Schiewe and Larry Morrison will leave the Council
at the end of the year. Joseph and Schiewe were not
eligible to run for re-election due to term limits, and
Morrison did not fi le as a candidate.
The three remaining incumbents, however, are on the
Nov. 3 ballot — Spriet, Doni Bruland and Arvid Ander-
sen. If voters re-elected all three, then four of the seven
councilors who choose the new city manager will retain
their seats in the new year.
The bottom line is that from one to four of the current
councilors will retain their seats in 2021.
Joseph acknowledges that some people advocate for
leaving this important decision to the slate of councilors
who will actually work with the new manager. But he
contends that it’s preferable to have the new manager
ensconced at City Hall by the time the new councilors
take offi ce. That’s sensible. The alternative is to saddle
the new councilors, even as they’re trying to move ahead
with their priorities and become familiar with their du-
ties, with the need to recruit a new manager, a process
that would take at least several months.
The obvious counterargument is that an even worse
scenario is to leave the new councilors with a manager
they don’t support. But Joseph thinks that is extremely
unlikely, and his reasoning is sound.
The newly elected councilors, though they won’t have
a vote in hiring the new manager, will have a chance
to express their opinions to the current councilors after
meeting with the fi nalists. Joseph said he believes all
are highly qualifi ed. He’s also confi dent that whoever is
elected to the Council Nov. 3 will reach a consensus with
the incumbent councilors about the best candidate. And
if that’s not the case, Joseph doesn’t believe the current
councilors would decide to hire a manager the council-
ors-elect dislike.
The best-case scenario, and the one that seems likely
to happen, is to start a new year with a new crop of
councilors to represent Baker City residents, and a new
manager ready to carry out the councilors’ goals.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Your views
Republican Party should
replace its elephant symbol
We seem to live in an era of symbols.
Mascots are often caricatures which
may be well drawn but whose char-
acter is based as much on lore and
reputation as the actual observed be-
havior of the model which inspired the
symbols. Symbols themselves evolve,
age, and vary in relevance with time.
One symbol which is aging and fading
in relevance is the avatar which has
represented the GOP for too long now
— the elephant. A traditional stereo-
type of the elephant was perhaps best
expressed by Simon and Garfunkel in
their song “At the Zoo” — “elephants
are kindly but they’re dumb.” I doubt
that many current GOP worthies — or
their opposition — would agree with
that sentiment. Perhaps the elephant
should be retired and replaced by
another mascot, already in use by a
state, whose model’s behavior, lore, and
reputation more closely illustrates that
of the present GOP leadership and
the drift of much of the party itself.
The wolverine, while already a state
mascot, has the reputation and real
characteristics to suit a new role as the
party symbol. Even the species Latin
name, gula gula, is a natural to be
included in a rally cheer.
Let’s allow the old elephant its
sunny days in the pasture, give the
GOP a new, dynamic, and appropriate
avatar, and, lest we forget, having had
the wolverine appropriated from it,
Michigan would now deserve a new,
strong, graceful, and handsome mascot
with a tie to the state’s history and
culture. The Impala?
Buck Pilkenton
McEwen
Baker County Republican
Party’s City Council picks
Citizens of Baker City: The Baker
County Republican Party recogniz-
ing the opportunity to make a differ-
ence in Baker City government this
election year has taken the unusual
step to endorse Republican candidates
for the non-partisan seats on Baker
City Council, in accordance with our
bylaws.
There are 13 fi led candidates for the
six open seats. Out of the 13 candi-
dates, nine are registered Republicans.
All nine candidates were invited to
participate in a vetting process. Six
were chosen for the six seats up for
Letters to the editor
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of public interest. Writers must
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election. The Baker County Republican
Party unanimously endorsed based on
the vetting, the goals of the commit-
tee, and the values expressed in the
Oregon Republican Party platform.
We are proud to endorse for fi lling
the six open Baker City Council seats:
• Kerry McQuisten
• Joanna Dixon
• Betty Milliman
• Doni Bruland
• Shane Alderson
• Johnny Waggoner, Sr.
These six candidates ask for your
vote. Ballots will be in the mail Oct. 14.
Please check off each name on your bal-
lot, you are only allowed to vote for six.
Make sure to return your ballot to an
offi cial County drop box by Nov. 3. We
do not advise mailing your ballot.
Suzan Ellis Jones
Chair
Baker County Republican Party
Bridgeport
A Republican who feels he
has to vote for Biden
I watched the debates, and am
deeply frustrated. As a registered Re-
publican, I’m appalled that so many
in the GOP still support Trump. He’s
an abysmal president.
If you believe in democracy and
our Constitution, please look at The
Lincoln Project, an organization of
prominent Republicans dedicated
to protecting democracy by “holding
accountable those who would violate
their oaths to the Constitution and
would put others before Americans.”
The founders have 200 years experi-
ence getting Republicans elected.
Their goal is to defeat President
Trump in this election. I urge you to
go to https://lincolnproject.us/ and
read it.
The list of Trump’s screwups is
too long for a single letter. To start,
he refuses to condemn neo-fascist
domestic terrorism, which is uncon-
scionable. Fascism is one evil our
fathers/grandfathers fought against
in WWII. Now a U.S. Senator says
democracy isn’t important to our na-
tion. We should worry.
Trump isn’t a conservative — his
budgets prove that — and his busi-
ness history is sordid.
Most telling is his bullpucky about
the pandemic. His leadership on
public health and safety is atrocious.
Our nation is one of the worst in the
world in handling COVID-19. Trump
lies about it regularly. He trashes
the very science that probably saved
his life from the disease.
This is why the New England
Journal of Medicine, for the fi rst
time in over 200 years, endorsed
defeating Trump. Scientifi c Ameri-
can, the oldest monthly magazine in
the country, endorses Biden, the fi rst
time that mag has ever endorsed a
candidate.
I haven’t voted for a Democrat for
president for over 35 years. This year,
like Sen. McCain’s widow, Pence’s
former homeland security/counter-
terrorism adviser and others, I have
no choice but to vote for Biden.
Rick Meis
Baker City
My choices for the top six
City Council candidates
Baker City Council race this year
is an opportunity to elect some new
blood into city government, which
should not be taken lightly. We have
some remarkable candidates run-
ning for the six open positions. One
of my personal favorites is Kerry
McQuisten. Kerry is a 7th-generation
Baker County resident, a graduate of
Baker High School and Willamette
University. She owns and operates
a successful publishing company in
Baker City, which sells books inter-
nationally. I have known Kerry since
she was a kid. She is the type of solid
citizen we need on city council. Kerry
supports small business, including
agriculture and mining. She under-
stands the custom and culture of
Baker County.
Please join me in voting for Kerry
McQuisten for Baker City Council.
I also recommend voting for Joanna
Dixon, Betty Milliman, Doni Bruland,
Shane Alderson and Johnny Waggoner
Sr. for the other fi ve seats that are up
for election this year.
Chuck Chase
Baker City
OTHER VIEWS
Editorial from The New
York Daily News:
The eight justices of the
United States Supreme
Court must let the counting
for the 2020 Census continue
until Oct. 31, refusing the
Trump administration’s devi-
ous request that it stop im-
mediately. If the justices are
smart, and they are plenty
smart, they will stay clear
and let lower court rulings
stand.
Trump and his Cabinet
have practically turned med-
dling with the constitution-
ally mandated count into an
art form. An ugly one.
First, the highest court
rejected plans by Secretary
of Commerce Wilbur Ross to
unconstitutionally include
a citizenship section on the
questionnaire. Soon, they
are poised to hear a separate
appeal from Trumpites, an
unconstitutional attempt to
keep undocumented immi-
grants out of the apportion-
ment of congressional seats.
The shenanigans over
when to shut things down
are more of the same. After
Ross rightly pushed the nor-
mal July 31 end date to Oct.
31 due to the pandemic, he
tried to back it up to Sept. 30.
Advocates sued to keep the
Halloween date, and a Cali-
fornia federal judge agreed.
Ross then sneakily an-
nounced an Oct. 5 deadline,
leading the judge to force the
department to tell every Cen-
sus employee: “As a result of
court orders, the Oct. 5, 2020
target date is not operative,
and data collection opera-
tions will continue through
Oct. 31, 2020. Employees
should continue to work
diligently and enumerate
as many people as possible.
Contact your supervisor with
any questions.”
The trial court ruling was
sustained by a three-judge
appeals panel. The Supremes
should decline yet another
hearing; there’s no dispute
between courts.
This is basic but crucial
stuff: All the people in the na-
tion must be counted. There’s
no harm to fi nishing the tally
on Oct. 31, but there would
be great harm to a rushed
fi nish that misses millions
and results in underrepre-
sented, underfunded cities
and states.