Three Cascade Locks city council members resign

“A dysfunctional and destructive system” was the way city government was described by Lorang, a former mayor who was appointed to fill a vacant position in March 2012.

Holmstrom in his letter called for a special election to fill the vacancies, rather than using an appointment process.

The three resignations brings to four the number of vacant positions on the council.

Along with Cramblett, just two council members — Bruce Fitpatrick and Glenda Groves — remain officially on council, and both are in their first, having been elected in November and taken the oath of office on Jan. 14.

Cramblett was on council until his election last year, and in the Jan. 14 meeting the council could not reach an agreement on how to fill that single open position.

Dying in 3-3 deadlocks were two motions: Holmstrom’s to appoint the 2012 candidate with the next most votes (which would have been Helfrich), and Groves’ to solicit applications and appoint someone.

The lack of seated council members is a repeat, though by different cause, of the situation facing Cascade Locks in November 2011.

In October of that year, voters approved the recall of three councilors: Tiffany Pruit, Kevin Benson and Don Haight, along with Mayor George Fischer.

With their dismissal, that left only Cramblett, Lance Masters, and Eva Zerfing on the council. Masters and Zerfing cast votes, over Cramblett’s dissent, to appoint Storm, Jeff Helfrich, Randy Holmstrom (who had been on council from 2006-10), and Gail Lewis. (Lewis declined to run for election in 2012 and left the council.)

Masters would be appointed to replace Fischer in November 2012. He served as Mayor in 2012, often facing open criticism from community members and from Cramblett.

Cramblett defeated Masters in the mayoral race in November 2012; Zerfing resigned in February 2012 and Lorang was appointed to finish her term.

The council's next scheduled meeting is Jan. 28.

More on this story when city offices re-open Tuesday.