SPECIAL 2018 ELECTION EDITION
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2018
HermistonHerald.com
$1.00
INSIDE
ON THE BALLOT
HOMECOMING
Hermiston High School
celebrated Homecoming
with a dance, football game,
the crowning of royalty and
more.
PAGES A3, A9-11
DAVIS and
GOMOLSKI
CONNECTIONS
A Project Connect event will
offer free haircuts, dental
exams and other services to
veterans and the homeless.
PAGE A4
face off for Hermiston City Council
VOTING TIME
Five measures will show up
on Umatilla County ballots,
as well as races for governor
and the 2nd Congressional
District.
PAGES A6, A7
BY THE WAY
Watkinds sells
Columbia Court Club
Two years after he had
to shut down the Colum-
bia Court Club in Herm-
iston due to a fire, Steve
Watkinds has sold the
building and started a new
business inspecting and
selling fire extinguishers.
Watkinds didn’t dis-
close the buyer of the club
at 80903 S. Highway 395,
but said in the near future
they should be announc-
ing plans to renovate and
reopen it as a fitness center
once again.
The building served for
38 years as a workout cen-
ter, gymnasium, indoor
track and Hermiston’s
only indoor pool, until
a fire broke out upstairs
in the summer of 2016.
The fire, thought to have
been started by an electri-
cal short in a power strip,
charred the upper floor of
the building and put holes
in the ceiling that have
since led to further water
damage.
Watkinds said he spent
two years and thousands
of dollars in legal fees
See BTW, Page A12
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Challenger Mark Gomolski answers a question as incumbent Hermiston city councilor Lori Davis looks on during the Hermiston
Chamber of Commerce candidate forum Oct. 10 at BMCC in Hermiston.
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
H
ermiston City Council candi-
date Mark Gomolski thinks
there are too many unanimous
votes at council meetings.
He used his opening statement during
a candidate forum last Wednesday night
to attack his opponent Lori Davis, say-
ing she is part of a council where too
many decisions seem to have been made
before the meeting takes place.
“When has she voiced opposition
to anything the city council wants?”
Gomolski asked. He later added, “She is
just there to go along.”
Davis didn’t directly address his crit-
icism of her voting record, choosing
instead to focus on her local roots (she
grew up in Hermiston and raised a fam-
ily there) and pointed to projects the city
has completed in her time on the council
since being elected in 2010.
“It is exciting to see these goals
become a reality,” she said.
Gomolski, however, said he has been
knocking on doors to campaign and no
one seems to know who Davis is despite
her two terms on the council. He said the
public needs leadership from its coun-
cilors, “not just someone who shows up
to meetings.”
He also accused the city council,
including Davis, of already having their
minds made up before meetings, and of
making decisions “in executive sessions
behind closed doors.”
According to state law, councils can
meet in a private executive session to
discuss certain sensitive matters, such
as litigation filed against them, but “No
executive session may be held for the
purpose of taking any final action or
making any final decision.”
Mayor David Drotzmann told the
Hermiston Herald he was disappointed
to hear Gomolski’s accusations and that
he “absolutely disagrees” that the coun-
cil is illegally making decisions outside
of open meetings. He said if someone
only shows up to a meeting once every
six months then it might seem like a
vote was “foreordained,” but big deci-
sions have usually been discussed in
depth at prior meetings and work ses-
sions open to the public before the night
they come up for a vote.
Both candidates were asked the same
set of questions on Wednesday at the
Blue Mountain Community College
campus in Hermiston, ranging from
what the city’s biggest challenge is to
what the city’s role should be in host-
ing events.
Davis answered most questions by
listing past projects the city has com-
See BALLOT, Page A12
Same battle lines in race for commissioner
Murdock, Pullen square
off for top county job
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Umatilla
County
Commis-
sioner George Murdock and chal-
lenger Rick Pullen agreed the coun-
ty’s election process could use some
improvement.
Otherwise, they took familiar
roles last Wednesday night during
a local candidates forum in front of
about 40 people at Blue Mountain
Community College, Hermiston. The
candidates during the span of a half
hour answered the same questions,
ranging from their achievements to
the county’s role in economic devel-
opment to how to get state money to
take on the mental health crisis.
Both fell short of 50 percent of
the vote during the May primary
— Murdock took about 45 percent
and Pullen 31 percent — and in the
November run-off are staking similar
ground as in their spring campaigns.
Murdock said he was proud of his
work managing the county’s bud-
get. Umatilla County has a history
of budget difficulties, but the county
in recent years has been providing
a stable level of services. Murdock
said the county looks to maintain its
programs and perhaps implement the
sheriff’s long-term staffing plan that
would result in coverage just shy of
24 hours each day.
Pullen touted his 10 years of
See RACE, Page A12
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Umatilla County Commissioner challenger Rich Pullen gestures while
raising a question to the audience as commissioner George Murdock
looks on Oct. 10 at BMCC in Hermiston.