A6 • Friday, June 10, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
Harsh reception for Gearhart
council after fi rehouse bond defeat
NEWS NOTE
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Katherine Lacaze
Patrons shop for local hand-crafted goods at the Seaside Farmers Market.
Seaside Farmers Market to open season
Seaside Signal
Now in its ninth year, the
Seaside Farmers Market has
become a staple of summer
in Seaside, drawing a mul-
titude of locals and tour-
ists. The Seaside Farmers
Market off ers fresh produce
from farmers as well as arti-
san goods.
Gourmet foods, hum-
mus, nuts, honey, tea, spices
and kettle corn are some of
the artisan foods off ered
at the market. Patrons can
grab lunch from several
food trucks. Other ven-
dors include wineries and
spirits, health and well-
ness products, handcrafted
art and jewelry, and educa-
tional organizations and ser-
vices. As patrons shop, they
are treated to music, featur-
ing a diff erent local act each
week. This year’s market is
sponsored by Providence
Seaside Hospital.
Another feature of the
market is an eff ort to stretch
patron dollars through part-
nerships with the Supple-
mental Nutrition Assistance
Program and the Double
Up Food Bucks Program.
When patrons charge money
on their EBT cards, they
are given tokens to use for
food. The SNAP program
gives patrons an additional
$10 for food, and the DUFB
program provides another
$20 that patrons can use for
produce.
Located at 1120 Broad-
way, the market is open
every Wednesday from 2 to
6 p.m. from June 15 to Sept.
28 this season. For more
information, visit the mar-
ket’s website at seasidemar-
ket.org.
Cockrum: Mayor fi nished parks plan, amended
downtown zoning, developed kids’ park
Continued from Page A1
The resignation comes
after the failure of a con-
tentious $14.5 million bond
measure to fund a new fi re-
house and police station on
land north of the city.
“Some Gearhart residents
have argued that this isn’t
a good time to ask the vot-
ers for a bond to build a new
fi re-police station,” she said
in presenting plans to voters.
“I say, ‘If not now, when?’”
Originally from Seat-
tle, Cockrum was a nurse at
Columbia Memorial Hos-
pital in Astoria and selected
by the governor to serve
on a work group for cri-
teria for coordinated care
organizations.
The former planning
commissioner was appointed
by Mayor Dianne Widdop
to fi ll the unexpired term of
City Councilor John Duncan
in District 3 after Duncan’s
death in 2015.
She serves on the city’s
Community
Emergency
Response Team.
Cockrum ran unopposed
for mayor in 2020 after Matt
Brown announced he would
not seek reelection. She
received 96% of votes cast,
winning nearly 950 votes out
of the city’s 1,500 registered
voters.
After the election she
said her goals included “get-
ting past the COVID-19 pan-
demic and the turmoil of the
national election and look
forward to the future.”
At the time said she hoped
to prioritize the needs of fi re-
fi ghters and implement the
city’s hazard mitigation plan.
“There is no shortage of
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for or against.”
“We heard that you
need more surveys,” Zim-
merman said. “We partici-
pated in those surveys. We
saw those surveys and how
biased they were. What
I heard is that we need
experts. We need more
education. That implies
that the people voting
who don’t have the capa-
bility of critical thinking.
I assure you, based on the
turnout the voters thought
long and hard.”
Morey said he wanted
Cockrum and the entire
council replaced. The vote
of no confi dence will be
targeted to nonresident
property owners who will
be able to voice their dis-
satisfaction with the per-
formance of the entire
council.
In other business, Gear-
hart’s fi nal 2022-23 budget
passed without an appro-
priation for debt service to
create a fund for a future
fi rehouse bond measure.
The $14.5 million fund
had been placed in the pro-
posed budget in order to
establish appropriations
for the objective of con-
structing a new fi re/police
station. The fund was con-
tingent on a successful
measure being passed by
taxpayers.
City staff recommended
two diff erent options for
specifi c funds, debt ser-
vice and fi re/police general
obligation bond, city trea-
surer Justine Hill said.
Because the bond mea-
sure did not pass, the coun-
cil decided to adopt option
one, which reduced debt
service by almost $700,000
and removed all appropria-
tions for the bond project
fund of $14.5 million, Hill
said.
The budget commit-
tee approved $23.5 mil-
lion, but without the debt
service and appropriations
included, the City Coun-
cil adopted a fi nal 2022-
23 budget of a little over
$8.27 million.
For now, a new fi re-
house bond vote in the
foreseeable future appears
to be off the table.
“I would like to move it
out,” City Councilor Reita
Fackerell said. “I think try-
ing to go for another vote
in November is too soon.
I think this community
needs time to heal.”
MARKETPLACE
Three beds, several dressers,
nightstands, love seats, chairs,
dining table and chairs, kitchen
table, bookcases, coffee table,
end tables, exercise bike, small
and large TVs, sound bar,
clothes, glassware, pots and
pans, lots of household,
upright freezer, vintage fruit
jar collection, milk bottle
collection, chop saw, jig saw,
lots of miscellaneous hand
tools, propane tanks, fishing
gear and poles, reloading dies,
lead and steel shot, duck
decoys, bar clamps, heavy
duty work table, moving
blankets, five anchors,
carpenter’s tool chest, pegs,
ladders, vintage wood fish
boxes, Columbia River wood
floats, propane camp stoves
and lanterns, twelve foot
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lots lots more.
Oak/Maple
Furniture—Typewriter
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Radios—Toys—Silverware,
Hutch—Armoire—Phonos,
Xmas—Dolls—Sewing
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great things we can work on
for all of our residents to pre-
serve the Gearhart we love,”
Cockrum said.
During her time as mayor,
Gearhart fi nished its parks
master plan, began devel-
opment of a children’s play
area at Centennial Park,
limited contractor working
hours, endorsed a Gearhart
ZIP code and passed zon-
ing amendments designed to
assist downtown businesses.
As council president,
Kerry Smith will serve as
interim mayor.
Vacant seats are fi lled
by appointment by a major-
ity vote of the remain-
ing members of the coun-
cil. The appointee’s term of
offi ce begins immediately on
appointment and continues
through the unexpired term
of their predecessor.
The $14.5 million ques-
tion after the defeat of the
May fi rehouse bond: What
next?
For the City Council,
it could be a town hall, a
new fi rehouse survey —
or a recall election, vote
of no confi dence and legal
action.
Last Thursday, Mayor
Paulina Cockrum resigned,
citing personal reasons.
Kerry Smith, the City
Council’s president, will
serve as interim mayor.
A majority of the remain-
ing councilors will appoint
a replacement to serve
the unexpired portion of
Smith’s Position 1 term.
Jack Zimmerman, an
outspoken critic of the
bond measure, said coun-
cilors failed individually
and as a collective body.
“We need an admis-
sion from you folks,” he
said. “On May 17, your six
years of eff ort failed. You
failed as individual coun-
selors and you failed as a
collective body. Gearhart
voters did the right thing
for Gearhart. You failed —
not Gearhart.”
Gearhart resident and
co-owner of the for-
mer Gearhart Elementary
School Bob Morey blasted
Cockrum and councilors
for what he called “the
$10 million giveaway” —
the land exchange agree-
ment enabling developers
to build homes at city zon-
ing levels rather than more
restrictive 2-acre county
zoning. “It is hard to imag-
ine a more poorly negoti-
ated and crafted agreement
if the objective was to
optimize the value the city
brings to the transaction.”
The contingent land
transfer agreement with the
Cottages at Gearhart LLC
is up for reconsideration on
Aug. 23. In the event that
the city is unable to bring
the property into the urban
growth boundary by that
date, the agreement will ter-
minate unless both parties
agree to extend the term.
The proposed swap as
structured would lose mil-
lions of dollars of potential
value to Gearhart taxpay-
ers, Morey said.
“Now that the fi re sta-
tion bond has been soundly
defeated it’s time for the
city to provide fully sup-
ported fi nancial informa-
tion regarding the mul-
tiyear fi re station eff ort
and the UGB land swap,”
Morey said. “I have
retained
counsel
and
directed counsel to fi le
appropriate actions with
the court if compliance is
lacking.”
July “would be a great
time to begin a recall elec-
tion,” he added.
Last month, two-thirds
of voters said “no” to the
$14.5 million bond to
build a fi rehouse and a
police station on property
off Highlands Lane north
of the city.
Of 1,562 registered vot-
ers, the Oregon Elections
Division reported 931
votes, with 615 against
the measure, with 316 in
support.
A citywide town hall
could take place within
the next two-and-a-half
months, to determine next
steps, Cockrum said. “I
feel like the longer it’s put
off the more it will cost. If
we go for a November bal-
lot, we need to decide by
mid-August.” Smith pro-
posed live or virtual town
halls. “We’ve got to fi nd
a place to move forward,”
Smith said. “I’d like to
know what they’re willing
to do and how much they’re
willing to spend.”
A survey may be use-
ful, Beth Cameron, a res-
ident, said in public com-
ment Wednesday, but falls
far short of what bond crit-
ics are seeking.
“As to surveys, you all
seem to think that surveys
are easy to write and they
are not,” she said. “The
bond failed because you
guys failed to listen to and
include Gearhart taxpay-
ers. You thought you knew
best and all you needed to
do was tell us what to think
and we would fall in line.
Instead, people started
doing their own research
and began asking ques-
tions that you couldn’t or
wouldn’t answer and lost
confi dence in your words
and your actions.”
Cameron proposed a
citizens’ advisory commit-
tee “representative of all
sides of the issue, not just
cherry-picked people that
only support one side of
the argument, whether it’s
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