This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
It looks like Lincoln County will continue with two commissioners for a while.
Commissioners Casey Miller and Walter Chuck once again Wednesday could not agree on how or whom to appoint to fill the Position 2 seat that became vacant when Claire Hall died unexpectedly in January.
For months the two commissioners have argued over the process and could not agree on an appointee, so Miller suggested in April they wait until after the May 19 primary election when all three commission positions were on the ballot to see who voters liked.
That opportunity came Wednesday.
Miller suggested that former sheriff Curtis Landers be appointed to Position 2 for the remainder of the year because he defeated Chuck outright in the two-man race for Position 3. In January, Landers would simply move over to his elected spot and the winner of the November general election race – Cristen Don of South Beach or Joe Steere of Siletz — would take Hall’s seat.
“The point was to fill it until the end of the year … and maybe in the primary we’d see the community’s choice,” said Miller.
Chuck quickly disagreed, saying they had developed a process, had 24 applicants, and in March interviewed two of the four finalists – Christen Don and Marci Baker of Lincoln City – after two others dropped out.
Miller’s motion died for lack of a second.
Don was named a finalist by Chuck and finished first in the five-candidate May primary race for Position 2 to fill the remaining two years of Hall’s term. Although she received the most votes — 44 percent — it was not a majority so she and Steere will square off in November.
Miller had nominated Baker, a Lincoln City councilor, for the commissioners’ interview but then she finished third to Don and Steere in the Position 2 primary.
Chuck said Wednesday that Landers didn’t apply for Hall’s vacancy and that he and Miller owed it to the people who did apply to select from that group. His motion also died for lack of a second.
Chuck, for the first time since he was appointed to the commission 16 months ago, seemed to show frustration publicly with the stalemate.
“I think we owe it to these candidates to look at them,” he said. “They did apply. They did go through the interview process and to change it on either one of them is not fair. They participated in good faith … at no time was any election results part of the process to fill a vacancy.”
Miller said that the appointment situation changed as months passed by “and I just have a different viewpoint.”
County counsel Kristin Yuille jumped in to say that Oregon law says commissioner’s “shall” appoint someone to fill the vacancy, that the May primary election was a separate process and that Landers did not apply for the Position 2 vacancy.
“I would not recommend moving the goal posts,” she said.
Neither Miller nor Chuck responded. But they did agree they appear to be working better together.
“… so I think we’re just going to have to continue to do our best and try to find common ground when we can,” Miller said.
Chuck said that was evidenced by them approving 40 items – generally routine items ranging from from contracts to surplus property sales — on the commission’s consent agenda Wednesday.
“ … so the business of the county is getting done,” he said. “We’ll move forward.”
