By Paula Mabry
There were no pitchforks at the Jan. 3 Silverton City Council meeting, despite the fliers displayed in downtown businesses in the days prior urging residents to “Grab your pitchfork and rally to support our mayor.”
But members of the audience had plenty of pointed words for their leaders.
An overflow crowd spilled out into the community center entryway, and people too late to get a seat in the council chambers hovered around an open door to hear speaker after speaker address in turn the actions of the mayor, the councilors and the city staff.
The overall message: do better by Silverton.
The public call to arms was in response to the council’s Dec. 6 censure of Mayor Stu Rasmussen for what were labeled misleading or disparaging statements. The challenged comments about the actions of the council and city staff appeared in Our Town in November. The 5-1 vote to censure (Councilor Randal Thomas was absent and Mayor Rasmussen voted no) generated its own critics, but public comment Jan. 3 started with business owner Jeff DeSantis, who complained the message behind the vote hadn’t gotten through.
“Everyone, except Stu, took it seriously. It is as if you think the rules don’t apply to you,” DeSantis said, adding the fliers gave the appearance the mayor or his supporters were trying to “incite or create an uprising.”
His suggestion that perhaps Rasmussen should resign was countered by boos from sections of the audience.
He was followed by speakers who urged the council to stop the bickering and finger pointing.
“Our town is suffering and becoming sorely divided,” business owner Jay Sorgen said. The friction between factions was not going to provide the solutions needed now; it wasn’t going to “help businesses grow.”
Subsequent speakers drew applause when they called on the council to “cease the on-going, internal battles” and “put all this behind you.”
One reoccurring issue was picked up from the mayor’s original comment “the high school could have handled” the upgrade of the city website, which was awarded to the sole bidder, an out-of-state firm experienced in government sites.
Restaurant owner Sue Countryman told the council money that is paid out locally generates a five-time return. “Invest in Silverton,” she said.
Former Mayor Ken Hector reminded his former colleagues “once you arrive at a decision you move on. You don’t throw rocks at each other,” and cautioned his successor, “sometimes you say things flippantly, words have meaning.”
He urged the mayor to “fully disclose” information when talking about city business and the council as a whole to “look to what’s ahead, not what’s behind.”
Hector noted that the mayor knew the website bid wasn’t for cosmetic work, but for multifaceted “major infrastructure” changes. Comparable projects cost the cities of Newburg $35,000 and West Linn $60,000, he said, adding that the contractor had “experience with 700 cities across the nation.”
Barber Darrell Mathews asked if Councilor Kyle Palmer or Council President Bill Cummins would make a motion to rescind the previous month’s censure. Each declined.
The audience murmured approval when Barbara Rue Swing said, “We all like to see that everybody works together.”
Doreen Kelly of Silverton Together slipped into the room as a seat became available to help focus the council on “how many wonderful things you have accomplished. Silverton is often envied. Thank you, you are appreciated.”
Newcomer Carol Sterner, celebrating her birthday by attending her first council meeting, said she and her husband could have retired anywhere in Oregon, but they chose Silverton. “We’re very blessed to be able to live in this town… I’m asking everybody to put all this behind you.”
