SIX - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, January 18 , 2023
The city of Boardman swears in new council members
-Continued from PAGE ONE 2023, or until a successful I think it’s very important meeting planned for Board-
about any action.
“I’m just a little con-
cerned about letting the
public know this is an item
we’ll be discussing,” said
McCauley.
“Before we go down
that path, Mr. Mayor, may-
be we should decide wheth-
er or not it’s even legal for
us to have this discussion,”
agreed council president
Brenda Profitt.
“We need to decide
who’s going to lead the
city,” responded Keefer.
Profitt replied that the
council might need to have
another meeting, and coun-
cilor Drago suggested a
special meeting.
“If we don’t know, I
think we should side with
caution,” Profitt said.
McCauley read that
section of the charter, which
stated the council may ap-
point a city manager pro
tempore but seemed to
give no guidelines as to the
process. Pro tempore is a
Latin term meaning “for
the time being.” The city
council rules, she said, did
not address a city manager
vacancy.
“My concern is not
that we can’t do that. My
concern is if we should have
advertised to the public
that we were considering
Boardman Mayor Paul
Keefer swears in re-
turning councilor Isaac
Williams. -Contributed
photo
doing that,” said McCauley,
agreeing the council should
hold a special public meet-
ing for the purpose.
Keefer again asked
who was going to run the
city in the absence of a
manager.
“Don’t you think we
should appoint somebody
to act in the name of the
city until our next special
meeting?” he asked.
“We should probably
be discussing more a date
when we could meet, so we
can have it on an agenda
and let the public know this
is something we’re consid-
ering doing,” McCauley
replied.
Williams asked, first, if
a special meeting required
seven days’ notice and,
second, if the city has a
flow chart outlining who
was after the city manager
in responsibility. Pettigrew
thought there was.
“I think if you’re going
to appoint someone as an
interim city manager, that’s
the next step down. Then
it goes department heads,
across,” she said.
“Then who’s running
the city?” asked Keefer.
“Nobody,” said Mc-
Cauley. “Everybody knows
their job. I guess if there was
a really big crisis, you’d get
a phone call.”
Keefer questioned
whether there was any
guidance on who acted as
city manager if the current
manager couldn’t perform
their duties. McCauley said
the city’s policy stated the
police chief could step in
in that case but “it does not
speak to a vacancy.”
Police Chief Rick
Stokoe pointed out that he
was currently the assistant
city manager, and that he
thought it would be best
to wait and hold a special
meeting.
The council agreed
to hold a special meeting
Thursday, Jan. 12, at 6 p.m.
At the special meeting,
Keefer moved to appoint
Stokoe city manager pro
tem from Jan. 11 to June 6,
city manager is chosen.
June 6 is the date of the June
city council meeting.
“One of the reasons I
put the date in there is that,
if we are unable to choose
a city manager, it allows us
to come back and discuss
it,” said Keefer.
Williams asked if the
city had received any letters
of interest, and Keefer re-
plied that they had not. Wil-
liams then asked whether it
was the council’s respon-
sibility to simply choose
a person as they saw fit.
Keefer replied that it was.
Councilor Drago asked
for clarification on Stokoe’s
current title, which was as-
sistant city manager/police
chief. In the absence of the
city manager, Stokoe would
be the one to step in and
perform the city manager
duties anyway.
The motion carried
5-1 with Williams voting
against the appointment.
Councilor Brenda Profitt
was an excused absence.
Financial report
In her report, Board-
man Finance Director Mar-
ta Barajas reported that the
general fund had a large
receipt of revenues for the
month of November. Total
city revenue for the month
was $3,957,047.
“November’s always
an exciting month for the
city. That’s when we re-
ceive the majority of the
property taxes, which really
funds most of our activities
for the general fund,” she
said.
The city’s biggest ex-
penditure was in the cap-
ital projects fund, which
Barajas said should be the
case for a while. The cap-
ital projects fund covers
housing of the G.O. Bond
water and wastewater proj-
ects. Expenditures for the
fund were $698,977 for
November.
“We’ll be seeing that
for a while, while we con-
tinue with those projects,”
she said.
Special goose taking
The council also ap-
proved Resolution 1-2023
to establish a special Cana-
da goose taking on private
property.
Landowner Dan Mc-
Carty reported that he had
found depredation of his
crops due to Canada geese
feeding on his property.
McCarty requested a spe-
cial permit for the taking of
Canada geese to decrease
the population. According
to the resolution, the tak-
ing of the geese would be
within guidelines from the
Oregon Dept. of Fish and
Wildlife (ODFW) as well
as stipulations from the city.
Stokoe explained that
the council had allowed it
in the past, and that law en-
forcement would be given
24 hours’ notice before any
shooting took place.
“Are they doing their
due diligence and letting
everyone know?” asked
Drago.
Stokoe said they were
pretty good about contact-
ing law enforcement. The
new ordinance will expire
Dec. 31, 2023.
Board appointments/
Other business
The city council voted
unanimously to appoint
Keefer and Pettigrew as
city representatives to the
Columbia River Enterprise
Zone (CREZ) II board with
Williams as an alternate.
Keefer made the nomina-
tions, saying he felt the
mayor needed to be on the
CREZ board and that he felt
Karen Pettigrew was most
qualified to be the second
person.
“I just think since she’s
been on there, she brings
a lot of history, and with
people leaving, and we’re
getting a lot of new people,
that we have a person who’s
been on there from the be-
ginning,” he said.
The CREZ II board
is made up of two mem-
bers each from the City of
Boardman, Morrow County
and the Port of Morrow.
The council appoint-
ed Pettigrew to the North
East Area Commission on
Transportation (NEACT).
NEACT is an area advisory
body chartered under the
authority of the Oregon
Transportation Commis-
sion and covers Morrow,
Baker, Union, Umatilla
and Wallowa counties and
the Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla Indian Reser-
vation.
Williams was appoint-
ed to The Loop (Morrow
County Public Transit) ad-
visory committee.
In other business, the
council:
Boardman Mayor Paul
Keefer swears in return-
ing councilor Roy Drago,
Jr. -Contributed photo
-received a written re-
port from the Boardman
Chamber of Commerce
and Boardman Community
Development Association
with a review of 2022 and
upcoming events;
-set the date for the an-
nual council retreat as Jan.
28. from 8-11:30 a.m.;
-removed Leslie Pier-
son as a bank signer since
she is no longer a council
member;
-appointed Barajas as
2023-24 budget officer and
approved the 2023-24 bud-
get calendar. The budget
committee will meet May
16, and a budget hearing
will take place June 6;
-reappointed Alejandra
Mendoza as a budget com-
mittee member for a term
ending Dec. 31, 2025.
-reappointed Jacob
Cain and Jennifer Leighton
to the Boardman Planning
Commission. Both terms
expire Dec. 31, 2025;
-appointed Mike Con-
nell to the planning com-
mission for a term ending
Dec. 31, 2025.
-heard from Board Po-
lice Chief Rick Stokoe,
who reported that Board-
man Police Department had
more than 600 cases for the
year, which is a record for
the agency. The department
also sent two officers to a
class to become trainers
on handling active shooter
events;
-heard that the building
department had a total of
854 building permits for
2022. Of those, 197 were
for Boardman, with seven
manufactured placement
permits, 32 new home con-
struction permits and 148
apartment unit permits;
-heard that public
works reported no new
meters installed for Decem-
ber but a total of 36 for the
year. In 2022, public works
completed 105 work or-
ders, completed 332 locates
to mark water and sewer
lines prior to digging and
replaced 37 broken meters;
-read the city manag-
er’s report in which Pet-
tigrew stated that the city
made a payment to the
construction bond Dec. 14.
Projects already started are
going well, and the city will
be bidding out the second
phase of the water project,
which is the storage tank
and new water building.
She also reported attending
a lunch to meet Oregon’s
new Speaker of the House,
and that the small cities
man in January had been
moved to Salem;
-heard from Drago
that he had received good
comments on how quickly
the city picked up the live
Christmas trees;
-learned from Stokoe
that Public Works Director
Kevin Kennedy has been
with the city 26 years this
month. “That’s a pretty
good tenure for the city. We
thank him for his years of
service in the department,”
said Stokoe;
At the end of the meet-
ing, councilor Cristina Cue-
vas noted the presence of
several high school stu-
dents who had attended the
meeting as a senior class
requirement. She said she
appreciated their attendance
and hoped it had been a
good experience. Keefer
echoed the sentiment.
“I would just like to
point out that you don’t
have to be perfect to do
a position like this, to be
elected for your communi-
ty,” Keefer said. “You just
have to love your commu-
nity, be involved in your
community, listen to your
people, listen to your con-
stituents, try to do your
best.”
“Kudos to you for com-
ing. Get involved in your
city. Have a voice. Share
your concerns. Don’t be
silent,” he added. “If I can
do it, you can do it.”
New roof for Windy
River
-Continued from PAGE THREE
azon funding has put it
back on the table. MCSD
Business Manager Gabriel
Hansen said the district
received $2.5 million from
Amazon, which was put
into the capital projects
fund.
The current shingle
roof will be replaced by
metal roofing; Combe said
the style is the same as
was recently put on Clara
Brownell Middle School
in Umatilla. The contractor
hopes to begin work in
March, with an estimated
three months to completion.
Because the new roofing is
metal, work can’t be done
during the high summer
temperatures.
The contract is admin-
istered through the Associ-
ation of Educational Pur-
chasing Agencies (AEPA)
through Intermountain
ESD. AEPA contractor
Tremco collected three
bids, of which the board
chose WTI, and will also
serve as the project manag-
er. Paying Tremco to man-
age the project raises the
cost, but Sweeney said she
thought their expertise and
experience made up for it.
“ I t ’s m o n e y w e l l
spent,” agreed MCSD Su-
perintendent Matt Combe.
The dollar amount on
the bid is a jump from the
quote of $1.38 million the
district received in 2020
when it was collecting fig-
ures for the proposed bond.
Sweeney said that the jump
wasn’t a surprise, since so
many costs have jumped
in the recent, post-COVID
economy. However, costs
have seemed to stabilize
recently.
“I don’t think we’re go-
ing to get it much cheaper,”
said Sweeney.
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