By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
WALDPORT – Eight people have expressed interest in being appointed by Lincoln County commissioners to an open seat on the troubled Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue board — a selection that will have to be made in a special meeting next week because a recalled fire board member refuses to resign.
To be considered for the single appointment by commissioners, the eight — and anyone else interested — must fill out a formal application by noon Tuesday. The form is available on the county’s website.
Commissioners will conduct any interviews and deliberate on the appointment during its regularly scheduled meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday. But because the June 7 recall results are not legally official until 5 p.m. Wednesday, commissioners will meet again Thursday morning to make their appointment.
The issue stems from the June 7 election that saw voters recall two of the five COCF&R board members — Todd Holt of Waldport and Kathryn Menefee of Tidewater — by wide margins. But those results are not “official” under Oregon law until 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 29.
Rather than wait for the final recall certification, Holt submitted his resignation June 13. Board chair Buster Pankey, who formed a board majority with Holt and Menefee, resigned the same day.
That left the board with three members until 5 p.m. June 29 — Menefee, Reda Eckerman and Kevin Battles.
Menefee, who is a nurse practitioner at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport and lives in Tidewater, has not been in communication with the district office or Eckerman and Battles since the last board meeting in May. She did not attend the regular June board meeting last Thursday, so there was not a quorum to approve the district’s 2022-23 budget and consider appointing one or two more members to ensure a quorum once she was officially off the board.
Under district policies, if the COCF&R board is unable to have a quorum to make its own appointments that task falls to county commissioners.
All that landed in the commission’s lap Wednesday.
With the help of COCF&R chief Jamie Mason and county counsel Kristin Yuille, commission chair Claire Hall outlined some of the scheduling issues to commissioners Doug Hunt and Kaety Jacobson — and quickly determined the board could not make an appointment during its regular Wednesday morning meeting. They decided to set a deadline of noon Tuesday for formal applications, interview and discuss candidates Wednesday and then call a special meeting Thursday morning to select one.
The Central Oregon Coast board would then meet Thursday night and have a quorum to approve its budget by the state’s required Friday, July 1 deadline. It was not clear Wednesday when the three-member COCF&R board might appoint its fourth and fifth members.
Commissioners made it clear Wednesday that people wanting to apply for their appointment need to fill out the county’s application, not just a letter of interest to them or the fire district. They plan to interview them Wednesday — and also invited Eckerman and Battles to attend.
“It would be nice to see someone with a background in local government and a familiarity with fire service,” Mason told commissioners.
Lincoln County Clerk Dana Jenkins said the commission’s appointment would be for a one-year term ending June 30, 2023.
Six district residents submitted letters to the fire board last week expressing interest in an appointment, and two others sent letters Tuesday to county commissioners. The eight who have so far expressed interested are:
- Zach Akin, a Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy and former COCF&R firefighter;
- Greg Dunn, a Waldport city councilor and former district volunteer who finished second to Menefee in a three-way board race in May 2021;
- Jon MacCulloch, a Lincoln County Community Emergency Response Team leader;
- Barbara Wiley, a member of the Ocean Hills subdivision homeowners association board;
- Jim Sehl of Tidewater, manager of the Waldport Moose Lodge;
- Dakota Hartzell, a ServiceMaster Restoration employee and a member of the district’s budget committee;
- Ray Woodruff, a COCF&R board member for 16 years before resigning in 2016 when faced with enough signatures for a recall election over the district giving up its ambulance service; and
- Cheri Brubaker, the news director at Yaquina Bay Communications Radio in Newport.