Trevor Phillips, the Ward 3 Salem City Councilor, didn't run for re-election this year. Instead, he endorsed Nathan Soltz, a fellow progressive, who narrowly lost to Shane Matthews in the May election.
On June 20 Phillips posted a message on Facebook about Matthews' win and a look back at what Phillips was proud of accomplishing during his time on the City Council, and what he regretted: the decision to impose a employee payroll tax on Salem workers to meet a budget shortfall.
I liked the message a lot. Honest. Nicely written. Substantive. You'll be missed on the City Council, Trevor. But your reasons for leaving made a lot of sense. Here's the message. I corrected a few typos.
Trevor Phillips
Mr. [Shane] Matthews received sufficient votes to serve on the Salem City Council for Ward 3. His 4 year term will begin in January 2025. This is the normal cycle for Salem City Council volunteer positions. I plan to complete my term and serve through the end of this year.
This was a close election. While this is not the outcome that I had hoped for, I accept the results of this election.
I would like to thank Nathan Soltz for running a great campaign. Both Nathan and Shane have said that they will try to work together on behalf of the residents of Ward 3 and Salem moving forward.
Nathan's campaign was out spent by a margin of $21,000 to $73,000. I have very real concerns about the influence of big money in all elections, but especially in these local nonpartisan small government elections.
My experience on Salem City Council has been transformational on a personal level. I've put in a ton of volunteer time trying to quickly catch up to speed with our local processes and current issues.
I am proud of the work that our City has accomplished in the last 3.5 years. When I first decided to run, I never imagined serving during a worldwide respiratory virus pandemic. COVID-19 was really really rough for everyone. Being both a local leader and a full time emergency room physician during the pandemic was just next level stressful more frequently than I would prefer.
Serving in those two positions during Forest fire smoke of September 2020 (as a Councilor-Elect), the Ice Storm of 2021, the heat dome, and entirely remotely for the first 2 years on Council was a lot.
Positive things that stand out include:
Passing the comprehensive plan update, passing the strategic plan update, investing millions of ARPA funds and State funds into our local managed micro shelters and the navigation center, passing the infrastructure and Livability bond, unanimously passing a resolution to declare healthcare a Fundamental Right, passing so many policy changes to help / begin / continue to address safety issues for all modes of transportation, hiring a new city manager... These were worthwhile experiences. I am hopeful that our City will benefit from these things for decades to come.
Locally, seeing Reed Road built was really cool.
And yes, we have got real and profound issues left to tackle. Every city in Oregon and every school district in Oregon is stuck with a structural budget issue that just sucks. No city or school board in our state has sufficient revenue to continue services at past levels. Our property tax system is broken.
My response to the math was to advocate for a solution that was feasible to implement. I am sorry for putting my colleagues and our community through the process of considering the deeply flawed payroll tax.
It was a mess. It was easy for the opposition critique. It was impossible to get sufficient residents and voters to approve. My "hope" was that we could just fix the staffing crisis in our city and build out more resiliency in libraries and first responders as a council action. I thought that there was a chance that an insufficient number signatures would be collected to force a vote. And at a bare minimum, I thought that by going all in on the need to raise revenue we could at least elevate peoples awareness of the math and realities we are dealing with.
I feel like we / I clearly failed on that front in the short term, and it's at best incomplete in the moderate to long term. More work and decisions will come from the revenue task force and council moving forward. I wouldn't do things the same way knowing what I know now.
And, not that anyone asked, after March or April of 2023 I knew that I couldn't run for re-election. I have had too many close family members deal with problems like strokes and other health issues that I just couldn't keep volunteering 20 to 30 hours a week while working full-time in the ER. It's too much. I needed to tap out. I am grateful for all of the volunteers, colleagues on Council, community members and outstanding staff that I got to meet and learn from along the way.
If I could part on one note, please don't give up. Voting matters. It has a profound impact on so many things. There's a huge for profit effort to convince so many of us that we and our votes don't matter. They are wrong. We have real power. Show up. Vote!
Sincerely,
Trevor Phillips, MD
Salem Ward 3 Councilor
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