WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2020
HermistonHerald.com
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2020 ELECTION EDITION
HERMISTON CITY COUNCIL
Five candidates discuss
city issues at forum
MORE ANSWERS
For candidates’ answers
on how the city should
deal with homelessness
in the community, see
page A12.
For a video of the full fo-
rum, visit the Hermiston
Chamber of Commerce’s
YouTube channel.
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Ballots for the Nov. 3
election go out Oct. 14, and
Hermiston residents got
to hear from the fi ve can-
didates running for four
seats on the Hermiston City
Council during a candidate
forum hosted by the Herm-
iston Chamber of Com-
merce on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Topics ranged from
encouraging more citizen
participation to spending
taxpayer money. Candi-
dates answering questions
were incumbents Rod Har-
din, Doug Primmer and
David McCarthy, and fi rst-
time candidates Nancy
Peterson and Maria Duron.
Peterson, who is an
accessibility specialist for
the disability rights offi ce
at Columbia Basin College,
spoke throughout the night
about how she believes her
personal experiences, from
a past as a single mother to
three months of homeless-
ness, will help her represent
a wide variety of Hermiston
residents.
“As a full time job I
work as an accessibly spe-
cialist helping college stu-
dents with disabilities have
equal access to their edu-
cations, so I spend a lot of
time studying laws, mak-
ing sure that their rights are
respected, sometimes doing
some creative problem
solving, and also making
sure that the school’s needs
are met as well,” Peterson
said. “And if if you think
about it, that’s a lot of what
government is. It’s taking
care of the needs of the peo-
ple, making sure the rules
are being followed, and
using what resources are
available in creative ways,
and I’m to that point where
I feel like I can offer that to
a broader community.”
She said she wants to see
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Candidates for the Hermiston City Council discuss the council’s duty in regard to city projects during a candidate forum at the
Hermiston Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020.
Primmer
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Ron Hardin, a candidate for one of four open Hermiston
City Council positions, speaks during a candidate forum at
the Hermiston Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020.
Hardin has been on the City Council for 28 years.
the city ask the school dis-
trict what it can do to sup-
port the schools and see
more solutions for afford-
able housing needs. She
said the city needs to “go
where the diversity is” in
the community and listen
to residents from all differ-
ent backgrounds and social
groups.
Duron, the other new-
comer to the race, spoke
of her past experience as a
Hermiston School Board
member and how past
jobs have helped her work
closely with the city, par-
ticularly
the
Hispanic
Advisory
Committee.
She described herself as a
“hardworking Latina” and a
“servant leader” who wants
to help the city continue
to grow. She also said she
would like to work on more
outreach to Spanish-speak-
ing residents.
Peterson
Durón
Duron said Hermiston’s
growth comes with many
challenges, from infra-
structure needs to increased
crime, and she wants to see
the city study how other
communities are handling
those problems. She said
she wants to encourage
more citizen involvement
in city council and commit-
tee meetings.
“A lot of the time we
draw our own conclusions
based on what someone
else might have said said,
but I think you have bet-
ter understanding as to how
they arrived at the decision
when you get to hear their
interaction and all the work
that has been done behind
the scenes,” she said.
McCarthy, who was
appointed to his seat on the
McCarthy
council in June, cited his
service to the community
in roles such as Kiwanis
Club president. He said he
is particularly passionate
about education, and about
expanding access to tech-
nology. He said the city
needs to start talking about
what “going back to nor-
mal” looks like after the
pandemic.
“One thing that shut-
downs have taught us,
and distance learning and
Zoom meetings and live
streaming, have all taught
us is that we may have
been very ill prepared for
this, but we also didn’t
ever expect this is some-
thing we would have to
prepare for,” he said. “We
have to examine the effects
if something like this were
to come into place again.
We have to fi nd ways of
making things like that
more accessible. We have
to fi nd ways of making ser-
vices more accessible to
people.”
When asked what he
would do if the city had
increased resources, he said
he would like to see the
city increase visibility and
lighting around pedestrian
crossings in town.
Doug Primmer, who has
served on the council since
2012, said he has a strong
sense of justice and of pub-
lic service developed over
a career that has included
working for the Depart-
ment of Corrections, being
a rescue diver and a reserve
for the Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Offi ce.
When asked about the
future of Hermiston, he
said getting more water
for agriculture and indus-
try in the area is a key to
the city’s future growth. He
also said he wants to make
sure the city continues to
monitor its spending care-
fully and attract new busi-
ness growth to make sure
it has available funding for
future projects.
“That’s the best thing we
can do is to keep the money
available to us and watch-
ing how we spend it,” he
said. “As opposed to just
throwing money at prob-
lems, we look at how prob-
lems are solved and the best
way to pay for that.”
Rod Hardin, who has
See Council, Page A15
Candidates makes their case for county commissioner
By ALEX CASTLE
STAFF WRITER
ONLINE
For the fi rst time this elec-
tion cycle, candidates for Uma-
tilla County commissioner met in
person to make the case to voters
this November during a candidate
forum at the Hermiston Commu-
nity Center on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Long-time county fair board
member Dan Dorran, fi rst-place
fi nisher in the May primary, and
Three Percenter HollyJo Beers,
who fi nished second, were also
joined by Pat Maier, a Hermis-
ton businesswoman who fi nished
third but is running as a write-in
candidate.
The candidates offered differ-
ent perspectives on the county’s
response to COVID-19, their pri-
orities for building a stable econ-
omy, along with their ability to
represent the county’s communi-
ties of color.
Beers and Maier each critiqued
Umatilla County’s handling of the
pandemic and the current com-
missioners’ decision to follow
mandates imposed by Gov. Kate
INSIDE
For a video of the full forum, vis-
it youtube.com/watch?v=2tXh-
751jAs on the Hermiston Cham-
ber of Commerce’s YouTube
channel.
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Candidates for the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners Pat Maier (from left), HollyJo Beers and Dan Dorran
speak at a candidate forum at the Hermiston Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020.
Brown.
“I would have tried harder to
help the small businesses and
make things a little more open,”
said Beers, who held a maskless
protest outside the county court-
house in Pendleton in August and
A3 City council discusses
Hermiston Energy Services rate
increase
spent the summer working on the
most recent failed campaign to
recall Brown.
Maier argued that the county’s
leadership was “wrong” and failed
its Latino and Hispanic popula-
tions by not communicating guide-
A8 Second Amendment
ordinance on the Nov. 3 ballot
lines quickly enough in Spanish
and “Mexican dialects” or funding
agricultural workers to stay home
when sick.
While declining to criticize the
county directly, Dorran said he
would have liked greater commu-
A10 Statewide candidates a
mix of incumbents and
newcomers
nication and transparency from
the beginning of the pandemic,
and suggested forming a small
economic recovery committee to
assist the commissioners in prior-
itizing next steps of recovery.
All three candidates said the
Umatilla County Sheriff’s Offi ce
and the county’s public safety bud-
get should be protected from any
pandemic-necessitated cuts. Dor-
ran also highlighted the need to
protect the Umatilla County Public
Health Department’s budget.
“If we’re talking immediate
shielding, I would protect that to
make sure that we fl ow through
these times that we’re in right now
and come out on the other end,”
Dorran said.
See Commissioner, Page A15
A11 Umatilla County commis-
sioners feel blindsided by vote on
industrial property