By Dixon Bledsoe
Billed as the mayor’s state of the city address, the November Silverton Chamber of Commerce Forum proved to be a revealing look at the relationship between Mayor Stu Rasmussen and chamber business leaders.
During his remarks, the mayor praised the efforts of city staff and the Silverton community in the face of a challenging economy, saying, “We are doing about as well as can be expected, given the economy… We have a good business mix and some very resilient stores in town.” He lamented the one-way traffic grid in the downtown core and listed monitoring of the reservoir dam as a project moving in the right direction.
But the question-and-answer session that followed revealed rifts between the mayor and the chamber.
City Councilor Dennis Stoll, co-owner of Silverton Beverage, asked the mayor if, as co-owner of the Palace Theater and other businesses, Rasmussen was a member of the chamber.
“The economic times have been rough so I haven’t joined this year,” Rasmussen responded.
“Is it true that you have gone to other businesses encouraging them to not pay their chamber dues?” Stoll asked.
“Yes, for $10 from each they could market themselves better,” the mayor said.
Trina Riemersma, owner of Havenhill Lavender Farm and incoming chamber president, asked the mayor about how the city and the chamber could work together more smoothly.
“Each time the mayor mentioned something we as a chamber could do better, I had to remind him that we had already done it. I really feel that there is a great opportunity to build on the strong relationship we have with the City of Silverton and the city council, but with Stu’s take on it, it was pretty lopsided against working with the chamber,” she said.
Stacy Palmer, chamber executive director, was direct with her comments following the meeting. “Any mayor who would openly and outwardly criticize a good community organization without offering constructive comments on how it might better serve its constituents has done a grave disservice to the entire community,” she said.
“It’s tough to always interact in a positive manner with the chamber when its director made some very negative comments about me at an earlier city council meeting,” Rasmussen said, referring to last summer’s discussion about the council dress code that gained national media attention.
“In public testimony over recent events and media attention regarding how he dressed, my comments weren’t directed at him, but they were the comments of those people who had contacted the chamber about their intent to not visit Silverton because of the issue,” Palmer said.
