By Quinton Smith/YachatsNews.com
Yachats City Councilor James Kerti abruptly resigned from his position Tuesday afternoon, just one year into his four-year term.
Kerti’s said his resignation was effective immediately. The City Council is scheduled to accept his resignation Wednesday, Jan. 15 and decide how to seek applications to replace him.
In his four-sentence resignation letter and a brief interview with YachatsNews, Kerti did not delve into reasons for his quitting. But in his letter he wrote, “… I’ve reached the conclusion that there are more effective ways for me to serve the community.”
Kerti, who moved to Yachats in 2015, served two years on the city’s Planning Commission before being elected to one of two open council seats in November 2018. Kerti, 33, works remotely as a digital business strategist and is formerly a basketball scout and consultant for professional and college teams. He is by far the youngest of the five-member council.
But he has been frustrated by some major council processes and decisions this year, often times coming out on the short end of 3-2 votes with Councilor Leslie Vaaler, who was also elected in 2018. Those frustrations appeared often in meetings during work on the city’s vacation rental ordinance that were upended at the last minute by the city attorney, frustrations about developing a code enforcement plan and hiring someone to do that work, and communication with Mayor John Moore and City Manager Shannon Beaucaire.
It came to a head Jan. 2 when Kerti nominated Vaaler to be council president this year, a position that councilors had elected Max Glenn to the past two years. The position is important because the mayor and council president meet weekly to go over the city manager’s work and to offer advice and direction. Moore nominated Glenn, and after a 2-2 deadlock between Glenn and Vaaler, Council Jim Tooke broke the tie and to re-elect Glenn.
Later in the same meeting during a discussion over council rules involving determining council replacements, Moore made an awkward comment about Vaaler and Kerti being upset that they were not chosen to fill a vacant council position in July 2018. Vaaler objected to the statement.
Kerti said Wednesday he didn’t want to elaborate on his resignation until he had more time to reflect and to first talk with Moore and Beaucaire.
“I’m not ready to go into any further specifics at this time,” he said. “But, I will definitely be looking at getting involved in the community in other ways.”
Moore told YachatsNews that he tried to reach out to Kerti this week to understand the reasons for his resignation, but that Kerti was not yet willing to talk.
“It saddens me that James chose to resign from the Council,” Moore said in an emailed statement. “I was looking forward to seeing him continue to grow in that position.”
This is very sad to read, James is just what we need on the council, a young person interested in the city. I hope he continues working with the city and for the city, and perhaps join the council again in the future.