By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats City Council on Wednesday completed its last meeting of a contentious year, doing a little business but mostly citing accomplishments of two outgoing members, listening to a simple warning from another, and getting a mea culpa from one councilor-elect.
It was the last meeting for Mayor John Moore, who had served a two-year term; for Max Glenn, who was appointed to the council in 2014 and elected in 2016; and, for Jim Tooke, also elected in 2016. All three were defeated in November’s general election.
Councilor Leslie Vaaler, who won the mayoral race, submitted her resignation Wednesday, effective Jan. 1 so that she can be sworn in Jan. 7 as mayor.
Ann Stott and Greg Scott, who came in first and second in a five-way race for two council seats, will also join the council in January.
Once those three take their new seats next month, the council will begin the process – outlined in the city charter — of advertising for and eventually appointing a fifth councilor to finish the last two years of Vaaler’s four-year council term.
The council already has one appointed member, Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey, who joined the council last March, to fill a term that runs until January 2023.
Post-election feelings
But there were apparently some hard feelings lingering from the election.
During a typically routine presentation on the yearly audit of the city’s finances, Glenn said that during the election campaign candidates were alleging that city finances were “a real mess and that money was missing.” He asked auditor Teresa Hanford is that was true or possible.
Hanford said the city’s finances were strong and in good shape.
“If there were significant amounts of money missing, I would know it,” Hanford said. But she said if small, cash transactions were not reported, those would not show up in an audit.
“I’m going to look for fraud, but I’m not looking at every dollar,” she said. “If $200 disappears, we’re not going to find it.”
Scott, who was listening in to the online meeting, then said during the campaign he expressed his concerns about cash transactions “not showing up in the system.”
But Sue Forty, the finance director from the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments, and Don Groth, a retired accountant who has been volunteering his services, both said that the city has established internal controls to help prevent that from happening.
Their reassurance seemed to settle the issue, and the council voted 4-1 to retain Hanford’s firm for one more year for continuity’s sake rather than put the audit out for bid in the spring. Vaaler voted no, explaining “I’m just not ready to make that decision at this time.”
Decision on Ocean View Drive
To settle a year-long issue, the council voted unanimously to make permanent the one-way southbound direction of Ocean View Drive between West Seventh Street and Yachats State Park.
Lincoln County wants to complete turning ownership of the road over to the city after paving work and other repairs this year and new guardrails, traffic signs and directional striping in 2021. But the council needed to make a decision on the direction so the county can finish up in the spring.
Stott made the one-way direction an issue in her election campaign, using it as an example of the City Council not listening to residents on that and other issues.
When asked two years ago, most residents favored making the direction one-way northbound. But that prevents large delivery trucks from getting to the city’s only grocery store, so the council decided to make it temporarily southbound.
The council was ready to make a decision in November, but Stott asked it to delay until she could talk to the C&K Market manager and see if she could come up with a solution.
After doing all that, Stott said the city had no choice but to make Ocean View one-way southbound or risk losing the store.
“I’m saying sorry to all my friends and supporters … I see no other option at this point in time,” she said. “As a citizen I would never vote for the direction it is going on Ocean View Drive. As a councilor I would have to vote for that direction.”
But Stott did urge the city to begin planning to re-do the curbs at Highway 101, West Second and Beach streets, something it has already put into its list of future capital projects.
Listing accomplishments, issuing plea
The council finished up its last meeting when Moore, Glenn and Tooke made final statements on what they felt they accomplished during their terms.
Moore cited a long list of infrastructure improvements, ranging from a new water tank south of the Yachats River, improvements to the Commons building and new City Hall, near completion of the long-running Ocean View Drive project, a new website and software.
“ … there isn’t a fluff project on that list,” Moore said. “Maintaining and improving our infrastructure is the primary responsibility of every city council, and we kept to that standard.”
But he also looked back to November to chide critics.
“We have been called spendthrifts by some during this last campaign,” Moore said. “For those who say that, you should know that we are leaving the next council with over $2,515,000 more in our city treasury than we started our term with.”
Tooke read a long statement into the record, recounting issues with the Highway 101 project, the transition to the city manager/council form of government, studies of how best to use the 501 Building, and other long-running projects.
He urged council members, city commissions and residents to read the years-old master plan for the city’s parks and studies from 2015 on how to organize city government. The park plan has received no action, Tooke said, but is just “another big plan just stuck in a drawer.”
The various councils, he said of Yachats’ way of doing things, “have spent a lot of time admiring the problems.”
He also admonished citizens and council members to be nicer to each other.
“All those who serve are volunteers,” Tooke said. “All words of praise and scorn have impact.”