Two Central Coast fire board members say they will not resign, setting up districtwide recall election June 7

 

By QUINTON SMTH/YachatsNews.com

WALDPORT – Two embattled members of the Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue board have notified Lincoln County they will not resign – setting up a district-wide recall election for June 7.

COCF&R board members Todd Holt and Kathryn Menefee on Saturday filed their state-required “statement of justification” to remain in office. That was just two days after they were notified a recall group had submitted enough valid signatures to seek their resignation or face an election. They had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to either resign or ask for a public vote.

Both Holt and Menefee said the recall movement involved a small number of people and that they wanted or deserved to remain on the fire district board, according to the documents released Monday by the Lincoln County clerk’s office.

“This recall was started by a small group of people,” Menefee’s statement said in part. “I do not believe that the view of the recall group is representative of the majority of this district’s stakeholders.”

Their decisions are of little surprise. When the recall effort started in January, both said they had no intention of resigning. They also declined two public requests to resign during a board meeting in April.

The recall group, headed by former board member Peter Carlich, needed to turn in a minimum of 292 signatures of active, registered voters in the fire district. For Holt’s potential recall, they turned in 404 signatures and 320 were verified. They turned in 403 for Menefee’s potential recall and 333 were verified.

There are 3,233 registered voters in the COCF&R district. The election will cost the district an estimated $6,000, said Lincoln County clerk Dana Jenkins.

In a statement to YachatsNews, Carlich said it was “unfortunate” that Menefee and Holt refused to resign.

“In addition to all of the other charges against them, they have now decided to cost the citizens of the district $6,000 more by forcing an election upon us,” he said. “We, the recall committee, will actively pursue their removal from office.”

In their official statements to Lincoln County, both board members had a 200-word limit to justify why they wanted to remain in office.

Holt’s offered a simple two-sentence statement:

“It is my understanding that the movement to recall me is undertaiken by a very small percentage of the community,” Holt wrote. “As a result, and as a consequence of my desire to fulfill the terms of my office, I seek to remain in my current position.”

Menefee was more detailed:

“It is my understanding that when I was elected for this position the community was looking for change,” she wrote. “The community wanted someone to fill this position who would provide oversight and ensure that they were provided the services they needed, and pay for, in the most equitable way.

“I have worked to fulfill that charge. I ask questions, do research and reach out to neighboring districts to create and foster relationships.

“This recall was started by a small group of people. I do not believe that the view of the recall group is representative of the majority of this district’s stakeholders. I was voted in with 409 votes. The signatures required to initiative this recall was significantly less than that. In fact, the signatures turned in represent only about 10% of the registered voters in this district.

“I feel that I have a duty, and it is my honor, to continue to perform the duties that were charged to me by our citizens. As such, I seek to remain in my current volunteer position to continue with duties charged to me by this district’s voters.”

Elected last May, joined board in July

Menefee and Holt joined the Central Oregon Coast board last July after a heated election in May during which the previous board was accused of inaction in dealing with former chief Gary Woodson, who was finally let go in February 2021.

In a two-way race, Holt defeated Carlich by five votes and in a three-way race Menefee easily defeated an incumbent and another challenger.

Holt, Menefee and newly elected chair Buster Pankey initially took a loud and aggressive role in addressing what they saw were issues in the fire district. Those included progress on rebuilding the substation in Tidewater, maintenance issues with a station in Five Rivers, the mixing of district and outside work by Lt. Erich Knudson and office manager Wendy Knudson, and at first challenging the leadership of Chief Jamie Mason, who was hired on a two-year contract two months before they took office.

But after many of those issues were addressed – along with verbal pushback at meetings from the firefighters union, volunteers and community – relations appeared to have settled down as the board started addressing the location of a new main station, agreed to hire two more firefighters, and tried to sort out emergency response disagreements with the Seal Rock Fire District.

That disintegrated in March when two Seal Rock board members disclosed publicly that Pankey, Holt and Menefee had intended in an executive session to fire Mason, but backed off and decided instead to explore mediation with the help an outside party.

The Oregon Government Ethics Commission is now investigating the board’s actions to see if Pankey called that executive session under the correct portion of Oregon’s public meetings law and if the board stayed on the stated topic.

Last week, the association representing Central Coast’s eight volunteers and six paid firefighters went public with their dissatisfaction over board actions, and announced an unanimous vote of no confidence in Pankey, Holt and Menefee.

The last recall election in Lincoln County was in September 2018, when the mayor and two city councilors in Toledo were removed from office.