YACHATS – It’s been a tumultuous few years for the Yachats city council – so here’s that once-every-two years chance to see if you can try to do better.
Three positions are up for election in the November general election – the mayor’s and two council seats. Application packets – and they’re complicated – are available at city hall or on the city’s website.
The deadline for filing completed paperwork with the city is Aug. 23.
The mayor’s position is for two years; the council positions are for four. All begin in January 2023, the mayoral term ending Dec. 31, 2024 and the council positions Dec. 31, 2026.
Yachats will have a new mayor for the fourth time in eight years.
Leslie Vaaler, who took office in 2021, is not seeking re-election. Vaaler was a councilor when she defeated incumbent John Moore in November 2020. Moore was elected in 2018, replacing Gerald Stanley, who was elected mayor in 2016.
Councilor Ann Stott told YachatsNews she will run for mayor. If she were to win, like Vaaler in 2021, she would leave a council vacancy that would have to be filled by appointment.
Yachats elects councilors who finish first and second from a field of candidates. In 2020 there were five candidates in the field; in 2018 there were four; in 2016 there were just two.
The two council seats up for election Nov. 8 are both held by appointees.
Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey, a retired university administrator, was appointed in March 2020 to fill the remaining three years of the term of James Kerti, who resigned one year after taking office. O’Shaughnessey told YachatsNews she intends to file for election.
Anthony Muirhead, general manager of the Adobe Motel, was appointed in February 2021 to fill the council seat vacated by Vaaler after she became mayor. Muirhead told YachatsNews that given the Adobe’s recent change of ownership and family obligations it is very unlikely he will seek election.
Candidates for the council positions must be registered voters and have lived in the city for one year prior to the Nov. 8 election.
But even filing for office takes a bit of work. After you go through all the paperwork, prospective candidates have to collect signatures from 20 registered voters in the city to make the ballot.
Here’s how to file for office:
- Get a copy of candidate filing form SEL 101 from the city or download from the Oregon elections division website, fill it out and sign it. (The city races are non-partisan.)
- Get two copies of signature form SEL 121 and have it approved by the city before collecting signatures. You’ll need at least 20 signatures, so collect more in case some cannot be verified. (No voter may sign more than one petition for each vacant office – that means if Joe Blow signs a petition for council candidate Susie Smith, he cannot also sign one for council candidate John Doe. But he could sign one for a mayoral candidate.)
- Turn the signatures in to the city by 4 p.m. Aug. 23, which allows time for the city to get them to the Lincoln County clerk’s office to verify signatures.
- Once the number of signatures has been verified, the candidate must file the petitions along with the petition submission form SEL 338 to the city manager/elections officer along with the signatures. Deadline for submitting final petitions is 4 p.m. Sept. 8.
Questions? Look at the instructions on the city’s website, call city hall at 541-547-3565, or email a city staffer at Officemanager@yachatsmail.org. The Lincoln County clerk’s office may also be able to help by calling 541-265-4131/4121.