Baker County Commissioners to Select New Councilors on October 18
By Joe Hathaway on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY — Baker County commissioners plan to appoint four new councilors to the Baker City council on October 18.
The commissioners set that date and opened applications for residents who are interested in serving on the council during a special meeting on Monday, October 2. Those who want to apply have until 5:00 pm next Monday, October 9. Applications can be found on the City of Baker City’s website.
The Baker City council currently has no members, after the resignations of the three remaining councilors on September 27. The three’s resignations triggered a state law which states that when a city council has no members, and its charter has no method for dealing with such a situation, the county commissioners “immediately shall appoint” enough councilors to constitute a quorum.
Four councilors constitute a quorum in Baker City, which when full has seven members.
Commissioners will choose just four councilors, enough for a quorum. Those new councilors will then appoint three new councilors to reach seven.
During Monday’s meeting, Baker County’s three commissioners, Shane Alderson, Bruce Nichols and Christina Witham, discussed the possibility of calling a special election with the county’s attorney, Kim Mosier.
Three residents of Baker City who sued the city council and former mayor Beverly Calder to stop the council from conducting business without a quorum had also called for a special election.
Mosier said that under election laws, the county may call for a special election during an emergency, but that ORS 221.160(2) states that the county “immediately appoint”.
“I don’t see how you get around that,” Mosier said.
Commissioners also discussed how they’ll go about choosing candidates. Once the application deadline of October 9th has passed, the three commissioners will review and grade the applicants by Oct. 12. The top eight candidates, based on overall scoring, will be invited to attend the Oct. 18 meeting, starting at 1 p.m., and will be given a few minutes in front of the commission to say why they believe they are qualified to serve.
Witham reiterated her stance that she’ll not consider any applicant who previously served on the council and did not finish their term.
Nichols said he would consider appointing former councilors who left during their term if, for instance, they moved out of town due for personal reasons such as employment or medical issues.
Alderson says the entire situation “puts an awful burden” on the commission.
“I know that the things have been awfully contentious, but I do hope that we get people that are interested that have a civic mind that want to participate in the business of the city,” said Alderson. “We’ll do our absolute best to go through this process fairly and pick who we think will do the best job.”
