By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Anthony Muirhead, the general manager of the Adobe Motel, is the newest member of the Yachats City Council.
On their first ballot Wednesday, the four members of the City Council voted unanimously to appoint Muirhead to fill the remaining two years of a vacancy created when Leslie Vaaler was elected mayor in November.
The vote followed two hours of interviews Tuesday with Muirhead and Fran Morse, a retired clinical psychologist and former social service agency director.
While the vote was unanimous, all four councilors praised Morse for her thoughtful interview and views on how to help the council, the city and the community unite and move forward.
“I felt I was at a TED talk – and I mean that as a compliment,” said Councilor Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey.
But councilors said a group that already has four retirees who worked at universities or high schools, needed a younger, broader makeup.
“It was really more about diversity … and building a relationship with the business community,” said Councilor Greg Scott.
After the vote, Morse said she supported the council’s decision.
“I have to say I agree with you completely,” Morse said, adding that she felt even better about Muirhead’s application after his Tuesday interview. “I think you made the right decisions for the reasons you say.”
During his Tuesday interview, Muirhead told the council he had worked in the hospitality industry in Bend, Bandon and Yachats for 16 years – the last six at the Adobe. He is on the board of the Yachats Chamber of Commerce and participated in a city “plan ahead” committee last year when coronavirus restrictions shut down many businesses and activities.
He said the whole coast, but especially well-to-do retiree communities like Yachats, have issues with affordable housing. In all his time in the hospitality industry, Muirhead said, “the only time I’ve employed a homeless person is in Yachats.”
He urged the city to connect more with younger workers in the area and to understand the struggle most small hospitality businesses are experiencing.
In response to a question about potential conflicts of interest between the Adobe and council decisions – specifically a controversial marine lighting ordinance – Muirhead was direct. He would refrain from any votes, as required by law, on anything that directly affected the Adobe.
“I do not view this as an extension of my job … but as a volunteer in the community,” he said. “Even if it gets me in hot water at work, I will make the decisions that’s best for the community.
“But I’m not joining the city council to get the lighting ordinance killed,” Muirhead said, but more of a motivation to have someone on the council with the perspective of the everyday struggles of local businesses.
“I’m not interested in joining city government as a disrupter,” he said.
A third candidate, Jennifer Fredrickson, manager of Yachats Brewing + Farmstore, withdrew her application after a Jan. 25 article in YachatsNews mentioned that the company she works for and its owner had been embroiled in six years of controversy over lack of building and occupancy permits. That reference, Fredrickson said in an email to Vaaler, led to “very negative and attacking emails” that should not have been directed at her.
In other business Wednesday, the council:
- Voted 4-1 to proceed with bids for the paving of La de da Lane. Scott was the lone no vote, saying again that the estimated $160,000 project did not go through the city’s capital improvement process, would cost the city needed funds beyond a $100,000 state grant, and that the council lacked overall information on operating funds and capital reserves. “Without this information we’re flying blind,” he said. While other councilors agreed with part of Scott’s objection, they said the project was needed, it leveraged a large state grant, and that after a design mis-start last year a revised plan drew strong community support.
- Agreed to an “as needed” contract with Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments for remote planning services ranging from $85 to $125 an hour.
- Finished job descriptions for an interim city manager and part-time contracted planner and began advertising those on various municipal and local websites. It was unable to finish a job description for a finance employee it plans to hire to replace contracted services now provided by the council of governments.
- Agreed to back off having Stott and O’Shaughnessey recommend ways to gather community ideas on how to best use the Commons building once it is reopened. Stott said it was a mistake for the council to try to undertake that effort, when it would best be coordinated by the city’s Parks & Commons Commission.