Mayor Kate McBride takes the oath off office from Municipal Judge Reuben Cleaveland. At center is Mark Zanmiller, the new council president, succeeding McBride in that role.
Mayor Kate McBride takes the oath off office from Municipal Judge Reuben Cleaveland. At center is Mark Zanmiller, the new council president, succeeding McBride in that role.
Mayor Kate McBride moved up from city council Monday, assuming the duties after a unanimous council vote to appoint her as interim mayor McBride, who had been Council President for three years, appeared along with Ed Wilder and Jason Garrett Gibson in a 45-minute Q-and-A session that Gibson interrupted repeatedly by challenging the process, the questions, McBride during one of her answers, and the vote itself. By 6-0 decision on first ballot, including McBride’s own vote, council chose the eight-year council veteran. Council Member Erick Haynie said, “Kate’s long track record of service and dedication is the deciding factor.” As a result of the appointment, McBride’s council seat is now open; the city is accepting applications, available at City Hall, 211 Second Street, Hood River, city website cityofhoodriver.gov or e-mail j.gray@cityofhoodriver.go.
McBride said, “My qualifications basically come from experience.” She cited her start on school committees, appointment to the City Planning Commission, which she chaired for several years before she was appointed to City Council - a seat she then won election to. She sat on the Urban Renewal Board, which she had chaired in her previous capacity as council president. “I have a good understanding about the workings of the city and what may be possible for the future,” McBride said.
Council voted after deliberating less than 10 minutes. (A print edition article erroneously stated that the vote would be by five councilors; by law, McBride was allowed to participate in voting, and moved from center table to council dais after the interviews were concluded.)
“This is not a fair situation,” Gibson said, claiming he had insufficient time to prepare for the six interview questions, and claiming that minority and other under-served citizens should have a say in the mayor selection process. When asked the first of six questions, “describe the job of the mayor,” Gibson said, “it’s not a job, there is no job description,” and tried to submit his “motion to dismiss” McBride’s application for the position.
Councilor Mark Zanmiller, who ran the interview session Monday, pointed out that the interview process was in keeping with the city charter, and said Gibson could use alloted answer time to state his objections.
Zanmiller was named new council president later in the meeting. McBride will serve as mayor through December 2020; a new election will take place in November 2020, at which point the next mayor will be sworn in for the full two-year term.
The opening came up when former mayor Paul Blackburn stepped down because he moved out of state. His final day was Aug. 31 and McBride, as council president, had served for 23 days as Pro Tem, under city charter. “I have lived in Hood River County all my life and in the city since 2004, I know the push and pull of locals and visitors, city and county residents. And seeing the change grown up here has given me an appreciation for new citizens and people born and raised here. I have recently retired and have more time to give to the issues of the city. I’ve been described as level-headed, to the point, and factual.”
Wilder’s answers were brief; he said as mayor he would work to pave the streets and obtain electric or hybrid vehicles, and for the city to aquire a hyperbaric therapy chamber like ones used at Portland-area hospitals. Wilder, former owner of Hood River Brewing Supply, suffered a stroke in 2016 and is on permanent disability due to motor and verbal impairments. Gibson and McBride spoke from a table, and Wilder remained in his electric-powered wheelchair just behind them.
Gibson, who also uses the names Bud Justice and Alonzo Smith, said his qualifications “are too long to list here, two minutes is not nearly enough to scratch the surface.”
His Facebook page describes himself as a “Wellness Practitioner, Producer, Outreach Educator, Entrepreneur, Artist & Active Social Networker.” Material he provided to the City Council as part of the selection process does not specifiy his sole proprietorship, nor his address, work history, or other details. He cites serving as “cultural catalyst for the passage of Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program in 1998,” and “over 20 years of professional activism.”
City and county officials had been unable to verify Gibson’s status in meeting the basic requirements of serving as mayor: To be a registered voter who has lived in Hood River for the past 12 months. According to County Clerk Brian Beebe, he said told city officials that further research would be needed if Gibson was to be appointed.
In his interview, the home address he cited was that of a Hood River business that rents out postal boxes.
Gibson said, “To boil it down, I have worked for judges, and librarians, worked for so many people from Stevenson all the way to the Dalles, 27 years as sole proprietor, always resourceful and in terms of my quality of life and retaining that first. Fourth generation, local Gorge steward."
Gibson opened his laptop and said, “In terms of other achievements, as I said - totally odd, I can’t get to web links and references, but just do a search, the polls are somewhat favorable at this time. And you can find everything you’re looking for.”
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