By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS – The mayor-elect of Yachats – and the councilor who lost to him in this week’s general election – believe the vote was a reflection of voter frustration the past two years.
That’s why Craig Berdie, who got 372 votes, and councilor Ann Stott, who got 267 votes, believe he won after three days of ballot counting ended Thursday.
“I congratulate Craig Berdie on his win,” Stott said in a statement to YachatsNews. “The community of Yachats spoke very clearly. The status quo is not acceptable and I agree.”
Berdie is the chair of the city’s Parks & Commons Commission and ran mostly out of frustration with the city and council’s lack of progress on a number of projects the past two years. Now it’s his turn to see if he can work with four other council members to bring some action — and stability — to city hall.
Berdie will have a fellow Parks & Commons Commission member joining him on the council in January. Catherine Whitten-Carey, who received 375 votes, will join 2020 appointee Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey, who got 377 votes, on the council.
Anthony Muirhead, who was appointed to the council in 2021, came in third with 344 votes. Muirhead is the general manager of the Adobe motel and the only council member – current or future – who is not retired.
Berdie will be Yachats’ the fourth mayor in the past eight years.
In their campaigns, both Berdie and Stott promised different styles and approaches to spending, council operations and overseeing the city manager than Mayor Leslie Vaaler, who did not seek re-election after one term.
Berdie spent his professional career in Minnesota working in data communication, training, rural economic development, project management and finishing his career with 3M. He moved to Yachats in 2015, and got involved by volunteering in community activities. He accepted a four-month council appointment in 2018 to fill a sudden vacancy and has been on the Parks & Commons Commission for three years, now serving as it chair.
In an interview Thursday, Berdie said the city “needs to get going.”
“I’m a careful and cautious guy … but the citizens want to see something happen,” he said. “You need to act. You can’t debate forever.”
That includes specific movement on water security, which he said the council has talked about but made little progress on, several other projects which seem to be stalled, clearing up organizational issues, better communication with and between commissions and citizens, and finding help and advice on seeking state and federal grants.
“We need to be prepared to jump on those,” Berdie said.
After months of frustration and push-back from commissions, new city manager Heide Lambert recently brought in a former planner and project manager to help devise and implement a process to evaluate, prioritize, launch and monitor city projects in order to get some of them off the ground.
Berdie – and Stott – were critical of Vaaler’s cautious approach to governing and reluctance to spend money on projects when the city is in strong financial shape because of continued strong lodging tax revenues and little spending the past two years.
“Everything is not an expense; they can be seen as investments in the community and quality of life,” he said.
But Berdie said he’s also realistic that he has a lot to learn in the details of Lambert’s day-to-day work and overall management philosophy. He also will need to be able to work with and lead a council that may not see things quite the way he does.
“I’ll need to help develop a consensus, and that will be a challenge,” Berdie said.
But his goal will be to give Lambert and the city “the confidence to move ahead,” especially on projects that have languished for 2-3 years.
Stott urges caution
For her part, Stott said that she looks forward to the next two years of her term on the council and working with Lambert, who she strongly defended.
“Heide has given direction to the city during the past eight months, doing a tremendous job getting city hall staffed and fully functioning after several years of challenges,” Stott said in a statement. “Many are quick to negatively judge Heide’s performance. These judgments are not based on understanding the work she accomplished and we need to support our city manager as a community.
“I know there are some that believe the mayor is the primary decision-maker on the day-to-day running of Yachats,” she said. “City administration, by law, is carried out by the manager in our council-city manager form of government. The mayor shouldn’t go in and ‘run’ city hall. Let the manager manage and let the council and mayor set policy.”
Seems to me the person at the Yachats Chamber of Commerce who was brought in should be involved in how to “get Yachats going.” Good energy, ideas and work ethic needs a spot and this person appears to have those assets. Use the chamber moving forward. New, fresh, energetic, forward thinking blood awaits
Congratulations, Catherine and Mary Ellen 👍💓
I’ve always believed a little grace and humility go a long way. How about some true acknowledgement of the hard work of those who came before/are continuing?
I hope the city council and mayor finally reach out to Verizon Wireless who has been willing to work with the city to improve cell phone reception here. We are in the dark ages because the past administrators have done nothing about this. Please do something.
While I agree that the city manager makes the day to day decisions about administration, the policy about what gets administered is the purview of the council. The mayor is part of that council and the figurehead for representing those policy initiatives.
The new mayor is absolutely correct in his vision of how careful investment in a community can bring real value. Spending priorities are the way that’s done. Past forest management, driven by obsolete business models and bad ecological practices, took a toll on the town’s water system. Getting that taken care is crucial to the residents of Yachats’.