Richards failure to follow city charter election REQUIREMENT

Shady Cove's City Charter, Section 21, clearly states that vacancies on the City Council are only to be filled by appointment until the next available election. 

 Section 21. Filling Vacancies: “In the event of a vacancy in the council, the remaining council members may appoint a member to serve until the next available election date, at which time the position will be filled by election for the balance of the unexpired term”. 

At the December 4th Council meeting, members of SCM-PAC presented a request to the City Council to ask for an upcoming election for the Mayor and both vacant Council positions during the May 19th 2026 Oregon Primary election. We were concerned by Council's inaction and took it upon ourselves to request this. We pointed out to Council that the election would be FREE of Charge, as confirmed by the Jackson County Elections Department.   Read our request letter to Council. 

The Council failed to address the matter at the December 18th Council meeting.  When we asked for feedback, Mayor Richardson refused to answer.  She reluctantly agreed to put the matter on the agenda for the January 15th Council meeting, only after Council Vanier addressed the issue in his Council comments. 

At the January 15th Council meeting, City Council discussed our request for an election.  The entrenched leadership (appointed Mayor Richardson/Councilor Nuckles), supported by long-time Councilor Mitchell stuck together.  They provided no legal basis for denying an election in May, instead citing "City precedent".  The Mayor said "the city and its citizens need consistency and stability to restore the trust and truthfulness necessary to get important work done".  Mayor Richardson said an election in May would cause "chaos" and characterized a November election as a "distraction".  

Unlike the other Councilors, appointed Councilor Vanier had actually checked with two legal authorities -- the City's Attorney and the District Attorney of Jackson County.  Vanier stated that both attorneys confirmed our interpretation of the City's Charter was correct and should be interpreted as the next available election is the May 19th primary.  The honesty was appreciated. Unfortunately, he then said that he felt the Council was a good team and pointed out “even though the law may read different, I just don’t think it’s the best thing”.   He admonished Citizens that we should keep our "personalities" out of the way. 

Ultimately, every single Councilor except Paige Winfrey voted to delay the election to November.   As a result, we now have a Council where the majority of members are unelected.  As we point out in our recall petition, the result of the Council's decision to not hold the election is that unelected Council members will run the City for well over a year, with power to hire an Administrator, set budgets, allocate over $2M in City funds, and approve upcoming labor and public safety contracts that are up for renewal in 2026.

In the November 2020 general election, then-Mayor Lena Richardson, Councilor Steve Mitchell and their cronies supported a ballot measure to change the City Charter.  The measure failed.  We allege that Lena Richardson knew full well that her vote to deny our petition for a May 2026 election was invalid, because language to change this was rejected by the voters themselves in November 2020. 

The (rejected) Charter Modifications attempted to put this language in-place:  "A Mayor or Councilor vacancy will be filled by appointment by a majority of remaining Council members.  The appointee's term of office runs from appointment until the expiration of the term of office of the last person elected to that office." 

Note: It's worth reading the entire proposed charter, as it included an attempt to make the Mayor's term four years, implement "quasi-judicial authority" for Council members, and many other changes.  

Source,  Jackson County Elections Archive (2020) and City of Shady Cove Website:  071620-City-Council-Regular-Meeting-Packet-1.pdf