Oakland councilors to try again to appoint new officials.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

OAKLAND - The town's two remaining city councilors have agreed to meet tonight for a third try at breaking their stalemate over appointing replacements for a mayor and two council members removed from office in a recall election last month.

But residents shouldn't count on having a full contingent of City Hall representatives when the 7 p.m. special meeting is over.

Councilor Myra Weber, Oakland's only remaining elected official, said Tuesday she has no intention of considering five new candidates who have applied for the vacant posts since the two-member City Council's last meeting Dec. 6.

And Councilor Jacqulynn McCarty remains adamant that she will not appoint any of the nine original candidates who applied after the city advertised for applicants last month. McCarty said on Nov. 29 that she had no confidence in the nine, fearing they shared the "agenda" of the recall committee.

The three recalled officials had appointed her to the City Council just before their removal from office, after a fourth councilor resigned in October.

The nine original candidates included a planning commission member, a state trooper, a former mayor and a former city councilor. McCarty wanted to appoint a 10th original applicant, Ron Jones. But Weber rejected him on the basis that he was McCarty's "significant other." McCarty confirmed Tuesday that she and Jones live together, but insisted he was "a viable candidate regardless of what our relationship is."

There's nothing in Oakland's city charter that specifically prohibits two unmarried residents of the same address from serving on the City Council, Weber said.

Nor does the document spell out a remedy for the appointment stalemate. "It doesn't say," she said. "Everything that we've heard from our attorney and everybody says the two of us is a quorum, and we can still conduct business."

Oregon League of Cities member services director Jenny Messmer said she has offered to help the two councilors work through their impasse.

"But I would only go at the invitation of the city, and I still haven't received a formal invitation at this point," she said.

The situation is not unique, she added.

"There are a lot of tough issues now because budgets are so tight," she said. "And I think it's sometimes harder in a small town because everybody knows everybody, so issues can seem more intimate or personal."

McCarty said Tuesday she feared the nine original candidates are linked to the "negative" group that worked to recall former Mayor Jim Baird, Councilor Karen Copeland and Councilor Diane Fred.

"They represent a very small percentage of the city of Oakland," she said. "Their main goal is to raise taxes to create a position of city manager/police chief. Our former chief who was fired is their candidate for this position. I don't believe those goals are in the best interest of Oakland. And I believe that a majority of the citizens here share my viewpoint."

Recall organizers cited the former council's firing of former police Chief Dale Shaw as a catalyst for the recall, but also cited long-standing tensions between Baird and a series of city employees. In the year before the recall election, Oakland saw four other employees resign from a staff of just six. Two resigned the same day, complaining of a malicious work environment.

Weber disagreed that the nine original applicants were puppets of the recall committee, noting that five of them didn't even sign a recall petition. And she refused on Dec. 6 to authorize McCarty's call for more applicants, saying the city already had advertised and allowed 2 1/2 weeks for candidates to apply.

City Attorney Bruce Coalwell told McCarty then that Oakland could not advertise for more candidates without Weber's agreement, but could accept any unsolicited applications that came in.

Weber reiterated Tuesday she has no plans to consider any of the latest applicants and charged that some of them appear to share the agenda of the three officials voters just removed from office.

"One of them is the daughter of (recalled Councilor) Karen Copeland," she said.