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Headlight Herald Page A10
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2022
Perfect Pirouette ...
Former Tillamook School Dist. Superintendent Curt Shelley.
Cost of Shelley’s resignation hits district hard F
Please send any comments to headlightreporter@countrymedia.net.
County’s proposed business license fee met with push back A
Will Chappell Headlight Reporter
urther details have emerged about Curt Shelley’s abrupt resignation as superintendent of Tillamook School District on November 14. Chair of the Tillamook School District Board Matt Petty revealed that an outside investigation conducted into Shelley by Ussery Consultants, Inc. during October, cost the district $12,856. The report generated by the investigation, however, will remain confidential due to it being a personnel matter. Shelley’s separation agreement also prohibits Shelley or the District from releasing the report. Petty said that he could not comment further on the investigation, citing employee privacy concerns. Shelley will receive $158,656 from the district through October 31, 2023, in addition to his insurance benefits. When accounting for taxes, the district will spend $171,893 on severance pay for Shelley and an additional $17,964 on insurance benefits, for a total of $189,857. Adding the cost of the investigation to that figure brings the total expenditure by the district on Shelley’s separation to $202,713 so far. Shelley was not entitled to severance pay or continued benefits in the case of his resignation under the terms of his contract, but the school board unanimously approved the separation agreement at their November 14 meeting. Shelley’s contract, renewed in March 2021, only provided for severance pay only in the case of termination without cause. However, Oregon Senate Bill 1521 that went into effect in March 2022, would have complicated efforts by the board to terminate Shelley without cause. The bill requires school boards to provide superintendents with 12 months’ notice of such a termination. Costs to the district will continue to mount as the search for Shelley’s successor begins in the New Year. The school board will meet in early December to discuss bids from various recruitment firms for their assistance in the search. Search firms generally charge a percentage of the salary of the new hire as their fee. Petty said the school district would work with the recruiting firm to determine pay and benefits for the new superintendent. Acting Superintendent Bruce Rhodes is being paid at a prorated salary of $140,000 for his stint with the district, which will last until January 13, 2023, when he will be replaced by an interim for the spring semester. Neah-Kah-Nie’s school district is also searching for a new superintendent to take the place of the retiring Paul Erlebach and will be advertising their position with a pay range of $140,000 to $160,000.
VOL. 134, NO. 49 • $1.50
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
The City of Tillamook hosted the annual Tree Lighting and Holiday Light Parade Saturday officially kicking off the holidays in Tillamook. The crowd was entertained by dancers from the Oregon Coast Dance Center along with food, coloring contests, a visit from Santa and of course the Light Parade. Photo by Joe Warren
County Clerk certifies November election results T
Will Chappell Headlight Reporter
illamook County Clerk Tassi O’Neil submitted certified election results for the 2022 election on December 1, with most results from the county matching those reported earlier. In the City of Tillamook, Nick Torres pulled ahead of Dean Crist by two votes, 128 to 126, in the race for the fifth council ward after earlier results had shown a dead heat in the race. Crist has until December 19 to challenge the results of the election but will incur the expense of the recount should he choose to do so. The certified count revealed that Greg Sweeney and Christopher Kruebbe both received four write-in votes for an open seat on Bay City’s city council. Following a recount to confirm the tie, a drawing of the lots will be triggered. The drawing between Sweeney and Kruebbe will take place on December 9 at 9:30 a.m. at the county clerk’s office and consist of the two drawing playing cards from a deck. The winner of the draw will then decide whether to accept their write-in victory, as will Anthony Boatman who received six write-in votes in the same race. If either Boatman or the winner of the draw declines, it will fall to Bay City’s government to select a councilor to fill that vacancy. O’Neil said that a two-voter household that should have voted in the Tillamook’s fifth council ward race had erroneously had the race left off its ballots. However, the oversight was only brought to O’Neil’s attention two weeks after the election, and she had no way to address the problem. Other results from the county that were certified by O’Neil on December 1, matched those reported in the weeks following the election, with a final vote total of 14,741, representing a 69.55% turnout. Rockaway Beach, Nehalem and Manzanita will be welcoming new mayors, with Charles McNeilly defeating incumbent Sue Wilson in Rockaway Beach, Phil Chick beating out Lydia O’Connor to fill the position being vacated by Bill Dillard in Nehalem and Deb Simmons replacing the departing Mike Scott in Manzanita after running unopposed. “I believe we need a deeper transparency
in our city government, increased information sharing and a deeper, more consistent response to residents’ concerns,” McNeilly said while campaigning. McNeilly brings a background working in electric utilities and banking to the position and campaigned on a platform of better managing and benefiting from short term rentals. Wilson congratulated McNeilly at a city council meeting the day after the election, and thanked residents for their support during her time serving the city. Nehalem Mayor-elect Phil Chick has a background in water utility management and ran for mayor on a platform of water quality and fiscal responsibility. “I am committed to see that the city fully explores diverse funding opportunities, while financing improvements through city means other than debt,” Chick said. In Garibaldi, Mayor Tim Hall held off a challenge from former Mayor Judy Riggs to retain office. “We have an undisputed record of achievements,” Hall said while running for mayor. He cited well-resourced fire and sheriff’s
n See RESULTS, Page A3
Will Chappell Headlight Reporter
proposed business licensing fee for Tillamook County met with voluminous and vociferous public backlash at a public hearing at the board of county commissioners meeting on November 30. Business owners from up and down the county came out for the 9 a.m. meeting and unanimously derided the proposal, leading Board Chair David Yamamoto to cancel a previously scheduled public hearing in favor of forming a working group on the issue. The proposed license would have been required for all businesses operating in the county, with limited exceptions. Applicants for the license would have needed to certify their compliance with state, federal and local laws and pay an annual licensing fee between $75 and $300 depending on their number of employees. The licensing program would have been administered by the Tillamook County Economic Development Council and funds generated by the fee would have contributed to council initiatives. As written, the ordinance would have given county officials the right to enter businesses to inspect them for compliance. Trouble was clearly brewing for the proposed ordinance as the weekly meeting got under way at 9 a.m. Usually sparsely attended, the commissioners’ meeting room was packed with a standing room only crowd of agitated business owners who spilled into the courthouse’s hallway. Agitation grew when County Attorney William Sargent told the assembled crowd that public comment on the proposed ordinance would need to wait until the advertised meeting time of 10:30. Most of the business owners waited through the regular meeting and another public hearing to have their voice heard, and more arrived as the official start drew close. In a break between the end of the board meeting and the start of the first public hearing, Yamamoto drew up a chair to speak to those in the audience. He said that the county government wanted to have an idea of who was operating businesses in Tillamook to help prevent illegal operations. Yamamoto also stressed that the purpose of public hearings was to solicit feedback and amend proposed legislation. The crowd gladly obliged Yamamoto, offering an hour and a half of critical, sometimes vitriolic feedback to the board. The most common point of contention with the bill was the right of entry to inspect for compliance. Business owners, many of whom operate out of their homes, strongly objected to the idea of a county official entering their businesses to inspect. Many expressed skepticism that any county official would or even could be qualified to assess compliance with all state, federal and local laws for the wide variety of businesses across Tillamook County. They also were doubtful that the county would be able to hire a staffer to carry out enforcement, given labor shortages in Tillamook. The economic development council also drew sharp criticism. Business owners questioned the council’s purpose, complaining that they saw no benefit from its work and had no desire to supplement its budget with no specifics for how those funds would be spent. The licensing fee itself was criticized for being overly broad, with some noting that as written it would apply to people running multilevel marketing businesses out of their homes or small-scale firewood vendors. Others complained that the 30-day application review period was too long, the fee was unprecedented among Oregon counties and that penalties were overly harsh. But above all, business owners expressed
n See FEE, Page A3