SPECIAL ELECTION EDITION
A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2018
CANDIDATE RUNDOWN | CITY COUNCIL
Lori Davis, Ward 1
Jackie Linton, Ward 1
Roy Barron, Ward 2
Kyran Miller, Ward 3
Who she is: Lori Davis has been a
city councilor since 2010. She works
for Two Rivers Correctional Institu-
tion. She grew up in Hermiston, and
said she is running again
for the city council
because she feels
like she still has
more to contribute
after gaining expe-
rience and confi-
dence on the council.
Her vision for
Hermiston: Ten years
from now, Davis would like to see
Hermiston have a YMCA-type rec-
reation facility with an indoor pool,
paid for through a voter-approved tax-
ing district on the west side of Umatilla
County, as well as added restaurants
and retailers like Target. She would
also like to see the city pay more atten-
tion to its homeless population, and
work on getting increased housing to
the area.
Davis said she believes the city
moved too fast on taking over owner-
ship of the Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center (she made a motion to
delay the decision, but ultimately voted
for it after her motion did not pass) but
has also expressed a belief that, given
some time, the center will bring in the
revenue it needs to operate successfully.
Overall, Davis said the city has
been doing a lot of things right, includ-
ing getting a free public bus system
going for residents and providing the
right business incentives to bring proj-
ects like a major expansion of Lamb
Weston’s food-processing operation to
town.
She wants to help the city continue
to stay on the right track.
Who she is: Jackie Linton is a sub-
stitute teacher for Hermiston School
District. She grew up in Hermiston
and moved back to the city in May
2012 after retiring from
the postal service in
Washington
then
spending some time
in Georgia helping
a family member.
She was recently
appointed to the
city’s budget commit-
tee and said she decided
to run after attending city council meet-
ings for almost two years.
Her vision for Hermiston: Lin-
ton said she worries about community
members — particularly retirees —
having to choose between paying their
tax bill and their grocery bill, and said
the community should be aware of that
when trying to pass levies and bonds.
She said she believes supporting
small businesses is a key to continuing
Hermiston’s growth. She would also
like to see the city support ventures
such as a year-round farmer’s market
combined with a location for food carts
to congregate, and would like to see a
center where the homeless can pick up
mail, receive phone messages and get
clothes for job interviews.
On EOTEC, Linton believes the
city should give VenuWorks, the venue
management company hired to run the
center, some time to “dig in and learn
the ropes and get to know the people
and what they like as far as events”
before coming up with some larger
events to hold there.
If elected she would like to send
out surveys to residents about city
issues at least quarterly and hold listen-
ing sessions to gather feedback from
constituents.
Who he is: Roy Barron has lived in
Hermiston for about three years after
growing up in Weiser, Idaho and grad-
uating from Xavier University in Ohio
with a political science
degree in 2015. He
was a victim’s advo-
cate for the Uma-
tilla County Dis-
trict
Attorney’s
office, a drug and
alcohol
counselor
for drug court until it
closed down and is now
working with the county’s RISE mental
health program in schools. He coaches
the freshman baseball team at Herm-
iston High School and is on the city’s
Hispanic Advisory Committee.
His vision for Hermiston: Barron
said he likes what the city has done
with its Hispanic Advisory Committee
and believes the city’s police depart-
ment treats Latino residents fairly, but
he hopes to see outreach and relation-
ships with the city’s Hispanic commu-
nity continue to improve and would
like to see more participation in city
government from all residents.
He said he is excited about how
Hermiston’s downtown is looking, par-
ticularly with projects such as the new
festival street under construction, and
believes it is important to invest in the
community to continue to bring new
projects like the recently-announced
Lamb Weston expansion to the area.
He wants to see Hermiston continue
to grow while managing to keep its
“small-town feel.”
Barron said he knows he has a lot
to learn but is committed to making
Hermiston a better place after settling
down here and having younger sib-
lings who are in the Hermiston school
system.
Who he is: Kyran Miller moved
to Hermiston in 2016 after retiring as
director and owner of a funeral home
in Midland, Michigan. He is a Vietnam
veteran and volunteers
a number of places,
including
Agape
House, Our Lady
of Angels Catholic
Church, the Lions
Club and Two Riv-
ers
Correctional
Institution where he
runs a Bible study group.
His vision for Hermiston: Miller
wants to see Hermiston grow and
become a “destination city” that draws
in tourism and new residents through
some sort of theme. He said Hermis-
ton’s graduation rates could be a barrier
to convincing people to move to Herm-
iston, however. He called the East-
ern Oregon Trade and Event Center an
interesting opportunity to draw in tour-
ism and said he likes some of the event
ideas — including a BBQ cook-off and
horse show — that the new manager
has discussed bringing to EOTEC, but
also said the city may have been sad-
dled with a financial burden in taking
on full ownership of EOTEC.
Miller said he is a “very strong sup-
porter” of the chamber of commerce
and didn’t think the city should have
made the chamber move out of the
Hermiston Community Center. He
said the city has made many wrong
decisions in recent years, and said it
feels like when the city council comes
to meetings to make a decision they
already have their minds made up —
something he would like to change by
starting monthly listening sessions.
He said he believes the city has done
a good job handing its finances and he
has been pleased with reports on the
city’s budget.
Mark Gomolski, Ward 1
Shean Fitzgerald, Ward 2
Jackie Myers, Ward 3
Doug Smith, Ward 4
Who he is: Mark Gomolski is a
school board member for the Hermis-
ton School District, a member of the
city’s Hispanic Advisory Commit-
tee and a volunteer with
several organizations
including
Agape
House, Our Lady
of Angels Catho-
lic Church and the
Aspire
program
at Hermiston High
School. He retired to
Hermiston from the Chi-
cago area in 2014, where he worked in
county government.
His vision for Hermiston: Gomol-
ski believes the city has made sev-
eral missteps in the last few years and
would like to be involved in city deci-
sion-making going forward. He cited
the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event
Center, the new senior center and the
city’s decision to take over ownership
of the Hermiston Community Cen-
ter from the chamber of commerce as
examples where he believes the city
council should have done a better job
of listening to its constituents, and said
he thought the $1.2 million the city is
spending on a festival street downtown
could have been better spent elsewhere.
Going forward, he would like the
city to hold VenuWork’s “feet to the
flame” in making EOTEC profitable
and search for a new management com-
pany if that doesn’t happen. Gomolski
hopes to see the city do its part to bring
in another grocery store to Hermiston,
to get new homes built in the area and
to get more area students going into
trade programs and apprenticeships to
help with the contractor shortage.
Who he is: Shean Fitzgerald
moved to Hermiston in 1978 to work
in the construction industry and is now
retired. He is a Marine Corps veteran
who served in Vietnam,
is getting involved
with
veterans’
groups in the area
and is running for
the seat from which
his wife Clara
Beas Fitzgerald has
decided to retire.
His vision for Herm-
iston: Fitzgerald wants to see the city
recruit new industries and new busi-
nesses to the area, helping to grow the
city’s tax base. He said he believes
property taxes in Hermiston are too
high right now and he doesn’t want to
see taxes raised on current residents.
He said the city also needs to focus on
fixing Hermiston’s housing shortage.
Fitzgerald said the citizens need
to “stand up and put pressure on the
city council” to listen to the taxpayers
on issues and think for themselves. He
said he would love to see 200 people
attending council meetings on a regu-
lar basis, and would give his cell phone
number to any constituent if he were
elected.
Homelessness and veterans’ issues
are close to his heart due to his military
service, and Fitzgerald said if there is
anything the city can do to create more
outreach and mental health services
for veterans, he wants to help. He also
has ideas for the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center, including making
the center more affordable for rentals,
soliciting private donations and starting
a flea market there.
Who she is: Jackie Myers has been
a city councilor since 1994 and said she
plays a valuable role in being the city
council’s historian. She is the council’s
liaison to the Parks and
Recreation commit-
tee. She graduated
from
Hermiston
High School and is
a licensed tax pre-
parer for Severson
Accounting & Taxes.
Her vision for
Hermiston: Myers said
the city has been “pretty forward-think-
ing” in recent years and is on a good
track. She praised the city’s decision
to join with the county in creating the
Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Cen-
ter, bringing a new asset to the commu-
nity and opening up a space in the mid-
dle of town for the school district to
expand, as an example.
She also said she believes that since
the parks and recreation department
took over the Hermiston Community
Center the space has been “well-uti-
lized” to offer new, diverse program-
ming to city residents. She called the
Harkenrider Center (home of the new
senior center) the future “shining star”
of downtown and said she believes that
the new festival street being built a
block away will become a nice gather-
ing place for the community that can be
extended along Second Street in future
phases.
Myers said she believes Hermiston
has “made great strides in making peo-
ple feel welcome” and is an inclusive
community, something she wants to
help continue.
Who he is: Doug Smith was elected
to the Hermiston city council in 2015.
He grew up in Pendleton and moved
to Hermiston after he was hired as an
officer by the Hermis-
ton Police Depart-
ment in 1988. After
retiring from the
department he now
works as a general
contractor.
His vision for
Hermiston:
Smith
said while visitors to city
council meetings may get the impres-
sion that councilors are just accept-
ing whatever recommendations city
staff present, the recommendations put
together by department heads and the
city manager are based on a detailed set
of goals that the council creates each
year. He said that goal-setting process
is one of the best things the city has
started doing in recent years and has
helped develop ideas such as the fes-
tival street.
Smith said one thing he would like
to see to aid in Hermiston’s economic
development is a 500-foot extension
of the airport’s runway. He said since
Hermiston is already known as a trans-
portation hub for shipping goods by
road, river and rail it only makes sense
to open up more opportunities for mov-
ing freight by air too.
He also said as Hermiston’s growth
continues to add to traffic on High-
way 395 and a few other main thor-
oughfares, the city needs to build new
roads that residents can use to navigate
around town.
CITY RACE
continued from Page A1
council is on the right track there.
Linton, who is not currently on
the council but has been attending
meetings regularly for about two
years, described recent changes the
council made to zoning, lot cover-
age rules and other steps to encour-
age infill development of empty
lots scattered around town.
“I think this will help as far as
housing is concerned, bringing in
more homes with the zoning laws
being changed, and making it
more accessible for families to buy
and purchase and own their own
home,” she said.
Incumbent Doug Smith (Ward
4) said a next step needed to be
addressing the shortage of contrac-
tors that makes the housing short-
age worse. He referenced Ranch &
Home, which hasn’t been able to
complete its store on the south end
of Hermiston yet due to problems
finding electricians.
“In order to actually get those
houses built we have to have con-
tractors to be able to come and do
it,” he said.
Economic Development
The topic of economic devel-
opment was woven throughout the
evening, as candidates discussed
the need to bring in new homes,
businesses and tourism to the area.
Kyran Miller (Ward 3) said new
businesses and homes won’t appear
until the city has things that make
people want to visit and live in
Hermiston. He criticized the school
district’s graduation rate as a draw-
back to people researching whether
they wanted to move to Hermiston.
He also said he wants to see the city
complete projects that make Herm-
iston a “city of destination,” and
praised the creation of the urban
renewal district downtown.
“Again, it has taken forever to
get anything done, but we’re show-
ing results,” he said.
Incumbent Lori Davis said
Hermiston growth “is a positive
thing but can also be a challenge.”
She said she would like to see
more retail, restaurants and hous-
ing available to help attract larger
industries. She said that she thinks
that projects the city has in the
works, from the festival street to a
planned new skate park, will help.
Linton said small businesses are
the backbone of any city’s econ-
omy and she wanted to see the city
be as supportive as it can to small
businesses and residents trying to
start a new business, in addition to
trying to bring in new business.
“Help them to be able to start a
business here in Hermiston,” she
said. “That will bring in more tax
dollars. That will also help to bring
in more people, who will buy prop-
erty, buy homes.”
Fitzgerald said the city should
work to recruit large businesses
like Lamb Weston to help Hermis-
ton’s economy grow. He also said
the community needed to stop put-
ting new taxes like school bonds on
the residents before old debts were
paid off.
Other thoughts
Economic issues weren’t the
only ones discussed Wednesday —
candidates also shared their goals
to help Hermiston’s people.
Barron worked as an alcohol and
drug councilor for Umatilla County
before the drug court closed and
now works for the county’s men-
tal health program in schools called
RISE. He said he is passionate
about tackling the city’s addiction
and mental health problems.
Davis discussed the need for
Hermiston to keep up its infrastruc-
ture so that residents have good
roads to drive on and the com-
munity doesn’t start losing assets
because they are too far gone to fix.
Smith said Hermiston is his
home, and he cares deeply about
making it a better place. He recited
his personal cell phone num-
ber to the audience and said he is
open any time, any place to hear-
ing feedback on city issues. Miller
said he wanted the city council to
start holding monthly forums, but if
other councilors weren’t willing to
participate he would “put up a tent
in my front yard” if that’s what it
took.
Gomolski also touted his com-
mitment to transparency, stating
that the city council doesn’t do
enough to inform residents and
hold public hearings on issues
before voting on them. He also said
that the city needed to “re-invest”
in its relationship with the chamber
of commerce and do more to sup-
port that organization.