Toledo Council Candidates Talk Opportunity

Toledo City Council Candidates Jack Dunaway and Franki Trujillo-Dalbey discussed the excitement they feel about Toledo’s opportunities during a forum Thursday on KCUP 1230-AM. They are two of four candidates vying for three open seats on the Council. The other candidates, Mark Camara and Donald K. Lee, Sr. will appear in an upcoming program.

Dunaway was appointed to his seat two years ago when Wes Chadwick resigned, after being named City Attorney. He is seeking a full elected term. Trujillo-Dalbey is seeking her first elected office. Both were candid about some of the problems facing Toledo, but also talked up many recent successes, made possible by the residents’ can-do spirit. “The reason I’m running is that Toledo has an amazing collection of people dedicated to making it even better,” Trujillo-Dalbey said. “We have the critical mass of volunteers” that we need. Dunaway said “everybody (in Toledo) believes in the city’s future. The really great thing about Toledo is that everybody is excited and everybody is pulling together.”

Both candidates stressed the challenges facing the city’s need to rebuild its aging water system, and the need to broaden the city’s economic base so it is less dependent on the Georgia-Pacific mill.

Trujillo-Dalbey is a third-generation Toledo resident. She holds a PhD in Community Development and is Chairperson of the Main Street Economic Redevelopment Committee. She describes herself as a “mediator, team-builder and facilitator.” She wants to improve services for lower-income residents. Dunaway is a 22-year resident of Toledo and retired in 2007 as manager of the local Forestry Office. He served as a member of the Toledo Planning Commission for five years, and was involved in obtaining the Tree City designation for Toledo.

You can hear this program and an earlier Mayoral candidate forum here.

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Query The Candidates: You Ask The Questions

The Wavelength will be interviewing Mayoral and City Council candidates this month, and we want you to help supply the questions. Tell us what is on your mind. The Council and the Mayor are accountable to you – and you deserve to have them answer to your concerns. Please get your questions to us by October 8 so we can publish in our October 15 edition. Send questions to candidates@yaquinawavelength.com.

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Mayoral Candidates Discuss Issues

In a forum on KCUP 1230 AM today, Toledo Mayoral Candidates Monica Lyons and Ed Johnston discussed issues facing the city during the coming two-year mayoral term. Johnston focused on the need for transparency in government, particularly in the city budget. Lyons said all the budget documents are available * to anyone who wants to see them, and the city budget committee meetings were open to public scrutiny.

Johnston strongly advocated pay-as-you go government for Toledo, saying “grants are just loans to other agencies” that are paid for with taxes elsewhere. He also says the Mill Creek watershed property needs to be kept open to the public with as little management as possible. The City currently has a Request For Proposal out for management of the 400 acres it owns there. Lyons says she wants to continue the momentum started under the last three mayors to repair the city’s aging infrastructure, to prepare for additional growth.

Candidate Lowell Neal did not participate in today’s program. Future programs (9:30 a.m. Thursdays) will feature City Council candidates Mark Camara, Jack Dunaway, Donald K. Lee Sr, and  Franki Trujillo-Dalbey.

You can listen to the entire program here.

* Editor’s note: the link to the city budget was broken when this story was posted Friday September 24. It has now been fixed by the City.

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Editorial: Civility Matters

Our political discourse is ugly and is dangerously close to being thoughtless and irresponsible. And no, we are not referring to cable TV chatter displacing thoughtful reporting of critical issues. We’re talking about Toledo. A friend told us recently he believes “all politicians lie. They say one set of things to get elected and then do none of them.” This is an old charge, and a stereotype, but there is sometimes a bit of truth in it. Unfortunately, there are also too many voters who believe that. We believe the majority of people who seek elected office, especially unpaid, non-partisan offices in places like Toledo, have the public’s best interest at heart. Otherwise, they wouldn’t volunteer for the job. But there is risk that we will mirror the national rhetoric and foster disrespect in our home town. That’s dangerous, and not in our best interest.

During the past several weeks we have seen public accusations of City wrongdoing where no wrongdoing occurred. We have seen members of the public misplace their manners while addressing the City Council. We have had a candidate for public office refer to a local civil servant as an “A$$” in print, and write that an elected official is a “clown.” Many people in and around local politics are on edge. Our fear is that voters will become cynical and not vote. We will oppose this climate of discourtesy as vigorously as possible.

Civility matters in public life, and in the discussion of issues vital to us all. Our political debate is sometimes raucous, and parties may disagree, but that doesn’t excuse uncongenial or intemperate behavior. One at a time, we can raise the level of discussion. And just maybe – if we do that – others will too. Then Toledo will have an informed and involved electorate as a result, not a disgusted and disheartened one.

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Toledo Mayoral Candidate Questioned On Alleged Campaign Violation

Update: September 13. We have now seen a copy of the letter from the Secretary of State’s office and Mr. Neal’s final response, and have changed our copy accordingly.

Toledo Mayoral candidate Lowell Neal received a letter from a compliance officer with the Oregon Secretary of State’s office dated September 9 concerning a complaint of possible campaign violations. The letter says “a copy of the complaint cannot be provided at this time due to the nature of the allegations.” The questions concern whether he had sent campaign-related material to city employees at city email addresses, whether he had placed campaign materials publicly in the Toledo city council chambers at the September 1 council meeting, and to explain statements he allegedly made to city employees saying that his First Amendment rights had been violated, and explain his intent in saying so. The letter says Neal must respond by September 23. It goes on to say that “our inquiry into this matter does not mean we have determined any provisions of Oregon election law have been violated.” It gives no time frame for when the office will make a final determination.

In his response to the Secretary of State’s office, Neal admitted to sending the emails in question and setting out campaign badges in the council chambers. He also reasserted that his First Amendment rights were violated.

In a long response provided earlier to the Wavelength, Neal wrote that he “probably sent several people with those email addresses in City Hall some materials that I now realize might be campaign related,” and would not engage in similar emails in the future. He wrote that having those addresses in a “send to all” response to an email was inadvertent and not deliberate. As for having a basket of campaign buttons on a side table in the Council Chambers, Neal admitted that he did, but intended to retrieve it before the meeting was called to order. However, before he could do so, he said, City Manager Michelle Amberg brought him the basket, indicating he could not display political materials in City Hall. Neal wrote to Brown that he would no longer engage in campaign activities in City Hall and “would not make an issue of that until after the election.” Neal wrote that he believed it was allowable for him to set out campaign materials because, according to him, “others have passed out campaign materials before” at that location.

The Oregon Secretary of State’s publication on campaign restrictions says “we routinely discourage the distribution of campaign advocacy materials to public employees through a government mail or distribution system, regardless of the source of the materials.” That provision appears to speak to the allegation that Neal emailed campaign-related messages to city employees. With regard to placing or distributing campaign materials within City Hall itself, the publication says “ORS 260.432(2)…does not regulate the use of public facilities or property for election purposes.” However, it goes on to say if the governing body “allows one political group to use public facilities, all groups should have the same opportunity…If unequal access is granted, a public employee who facilitates such services may have committed an election law violation.”

Mayor Rod Cross said at the September 9 City Council Work Session that he believed Amberg acted appropriately and within the law when she returned Neal’s campaign materials to him and asked him to not distribute them again. In discussion, Cross said “yes we have allowed people to put materials on the table but not campaign materials in the 14 years I’ve been on Council. Wearing buttons and carrying signs are OK but not campaigning (in City Hall). Because this is a place of council business – she took the right stand. I think she is on good legal footing.”

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