Salem Political Snark

demobrats podcast is a must-listen if you care about Salem politics

I'm not a big fan of podcasts. Until now.

Because thanks to a December 31 story by Whitney Woodworth in the Statesman Journal, "Salem politics goes brat: New 'demobrats' podcast focuses on city budget, local government," I learned about the podcast started by Virginia Stapleton and Vik Schaaf.

Stapleton is a former Salem city councilor who didn't run for re-election last year, choosing to challenge Kevin Mannix for his seat in the state legislature, House District 21. Unfortunately, she lost to Mannix. Schaff handled social media for Stapleton.

The story says that the demobrats color scheme and name is a homage to Charli XCX's recent album, and the singer's endorsement of Kamala Harris as "brat" -- a good thing. Here's how brat is described by Charli XCX.

The title of Charli XCX’s sixth studio album, she envisions a “brat” as someone who has a “pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra.”

“You’re just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes,” she explained in a video shared on TikTok.

“Who feels like herself but maybe also has a breakdown. But kind of like parties through it, is very honest, very blunt. A little bit volatile. Like, does dumb things. But it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”

Many theorize that it is the antithesis to the “clean” and “highly groomed” aspect so often on display by social media influencers.

The podcast is on Apple and Spotify. Some of the episodes are short. Some are long. On Apple, which I use, a transcript of every episode is available. I read the transcript of the first episode I "listened" to, The Mayor That Got Away (Chris Hoy).

With three people speaking and the transcript not identifying speakers, it was a bit confusing to read the transcript. But I preferred doing this, as Stapleton, Schaaf, and Hoy talked about a variety of things, some far removed from Salem politics, which is my main interest. 

I encourage you to check out demobrats. The podcast is a great addition to our local political scene. It has a strong progressive slant, which is perfectly fine with me. However, even if you're a conservative, you should use demobrats as a way to find out what the other side is thinking.

I'm looking forward to listening, or reading, the City Council and the Chamber of Secrets episode. The description is tantalizing.

Do private big developers and their friends have any business involving themselves in local politics? The Salem City Council, City Staff, and future electeds received a letter last week from The Salem Chamber of Commerce and the Home Builders Association. They are requesting the formation of a "Blue Ribbon Committee" to take a redundant deep dive into understanding the city's already dwindling resources. Join Vik and Virginia as they examine the distrust these groups have been shepherding in the community since the fall of the payroll tax in 2023 and the potential motivations behind this letter.

Thanks to Mayor Hoy and three others who are leaving the Salem City Council

Tonight is the last Salem City Council meeting for the year. So this is a goodbye of sorts for four members of the council who won't be returning after their terms end on December 31, either because they lost a re-election bid or chose not to run again.

Mayor Chris Hoy (lost reelection bid)

Ward 1 Councilor Virginia Stapleton (chose not to run again)

Ward 3 Councilor Trevor Phillips (chose not to run again)

Ward 5 Councilor Jose Gonzalez (chose not to run again)

I've adapted a "thanks for running" blog post from 2016 and 2020 for this occasion, because it does a good job of expressing my appreciation to the people above. 

I offer a heartfelt Namas'cray to Mayor Hoy and Councilors Stapleton, Phillips, and Gonzalez.

Thank you for being crazy enough to put in so much time, effort, and money seeking an office that pays exactly nothing, requires a hell of a lot of work, and puts you in the firing line for constant criticism. 

Politics really is a crazy sport.

At first I had "cruelest sport" in the title of this post, because there's also that side to politics. Putting up with the craziness/cruelty is admirable on any level of elective office-seeking, but it really deserves accolades on a local level like Salem's. 

Like I said, no pay, long hours, lots of aggravation. 

Of course, just about everybody happily volunteers to do things that are somewhat similar. Such as, competing in various kinds of sports as an amateur. 

In many ways, politics is a sport. But here's why I consider running for political office -- and specifically, Salem Mayor or City Councilor -- is a super-crazy sport. 

The "season" is one game. In golf, tennis, basketball, football, or whatever, losing or winning is temporary. Almost always another game is coming up soon. Next time... we'll learn from this loss... coming up with a better game plan. In politics, though, it's two or four years before another chance. And maybe never. 

In Oregon, the "final score" pops up abruptly. I really feel for candidates on election night, May 19. Since we have vote by mail, ballots are tabulated quickly on election day. Often, if not usually, results are available online a few minutes after 8 pm that stand up. Meaning, the winner is known. It's akin to playing a game hard for months, but not knowing if you're winning or losing. Then, when you're exhausted, the final score pops up. In most other states, returns dribble in, so you have time to adjust to the outcome. In Oregon, it's pretty much Instant Joy or Sorrow.

Rules are loose. Trick plays abound. All sports have rules. So does politics. However, the political game is played pretty fast and loose. Even more so than in football, say, where arguably holding or pass interference could be called on almost every play, if the referees were sticklers. So feelings get hurt. Sort of like when a team goes for a touchdown in the last 30 seconds even though it is ahead 48-0. Hey, you're supposed to take a knee! But the rules allow it.

The stakes are large. So is disappointment. Candidates for political office, especially in local races, run because they care about their community. When they lose, it must feel like more than a personal loss. Wanting to do something positive for their fellow citizens, they've failed. (Well, the way I see it, actually they've won, no matter the outcome, because running for office is such a positive thing to do; but I'm sure it hurts a lot to come up short at the ballot box.)

There's more crazy aspects to the sport of politics, but I'll stop here. With a final thank-you to the departing members of the City Council, and a hope for the political scene in Salem:

Let's remember that politics is a game, albeit a serious and important one. Both teams going out together after a game for beers, pizza, and some laughs is a big part of many amateur sports. There's no reason politics can't be somewhat the same. 

Fight. Battle. Scream. Yell. Push. Argue. Leave it all on the field. 

Then, when the match is over, do our best to remember that the Bigger Game is life itself, way beyond politics. 

Mayor-elect Julie Hoy faces censure over City Council vote involving campaign donor

It's another battle of Hoy vs. Hoy.

Chris Hoy, Salem's current mayor, lost the first battle with his unrelated namesake when he was soundly defeated by City Councilor Julie Hoy in the May primary election that decided the race because she got more than 50% of the votes, so a rematch in the November general election wasn't necessary.

Julie Hoy and Chris Hoy

Depending on your point of view, the second Hoy vs. Hoy battle either is a sour grapes attempt by Chris Hoy to get back at Julie Hoy for snatching the mayor position out of his hands, or Chris Hoy's high-minded determination to make sure that Julie Hoy complies with City Council ethics rules.

On the agenda for tomorrow's (November 12) City Council meeting is this motion from still-Mayor Chris Hoy.

MOTION:
I move that City Council publicly censure Councilors Julie Hoy and Deanna Gwyn for their failure to recuse themselves under Section 62 of the Salem Charter during a land use public hearing that occurred on October 14, 2024.    

DISCUSSION:
When a participant at a public hearing, where any participant will receive a pecuniary benefit, has made a campaign contribution of more than $501 to a member of Council, Section 62 of the Salem Charter requires that member of Council announce that contribution at the hearing and recuse themselves from participating in the hearing if, in the mind of a reasonable person, their participation would create the appearance of bias or impropriety in the mind of a reasonable person.

At the October 14, 2024 City Council meeting, Council held a public hearing where the applicant and property owner was Creekside LLC. The principle of Creekside, LLC is Larry Tokarski, through his company Mountain West Investments. Mr. Tokarski made campaign contributions over $501 to both Councilors Hoy and Gwyn for the most recent election.

As elected officials, we have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and the City Charter. We do not get to pick and choose which of those laws we follow. Faith in our laws and institutions of government is paramount. The City Charter is the foundation of our city government and must be honored by its election officials.     

My view is that Julie Hoy seems to have complied with the letter of the law, though perhaps not its spirit.

She will probably argue that the "mind of a reasonable person" criterion is subjective and that, in her own reasonable person mind, she didn't feel that her decision on the Creekside issue was swayed by donations to her campaign for mayor by Tokarski in the amount of tens of thousands of dollars. Since it is up to a city councilor to decide whether to recuse from a decision after announcing a possible conflict of interest, she chose not to do this.

A Salem Reporter story by Joe Siess, "Two city councilors who didn't recuse themselves in land use decision could be publicly censured," contains some information about the issue that spurred the censure motion.

The council voted 6-2 on Oct. 14 to grant an appeal related to an 11-lot subdivision on behalf of Creekside Golf Course LLC and the land’s buyer and developer, Don Lulay Homes. Creekside is managed by Mountain West Investment Corp. and Tokarski is Mountain West’s president.

With the council’s decision, Don Lulay said, his project would be spared $216,000 for sidewalks required by the Salem Planning Commission. 

He said his purchase of the property had been contingent on getting the needed land use approvals. He said his firm would have been responsible for the sidewalk costs, not Tokarski’s company.

...The appeal would have been granted even if Councilors Hoy and Gwyn had recused themselves. According to the engineering firm that appealed for Creekside and Don Lulay Homes, Lulay Homes is the sole beneficiary of the sidewalk savings. 

Don Lulay of Don Lulay Homes and his company, The Lulay Group, also donated to both Gwyn and Hoy’s campaigns.

The fact that  the motion to grant the appeal that got Don Lulay Homes off the hook for $216,000 worth of sidewalks at Creekside would have passed even without the votes of Julie Hoy and Deanna Gwen shows that the four other councilors who approved the appeal (Mayor Hoy didn't attend the meeting, so he didn't vote) agreed with Hoy and Gwyn.

While this probably isn't legally germane to the question of whether they should have recused themselves, in the court of public opinion it matters. I'm no fan of Julie Hoy or Deanna Gwyn, who are too conservative for my political liking, but I find it difficult to criticize their failure to recuse when their position on the appeal was shared by four other members of the City Council -- which has nine members, but only eight were at the October 14 meeting.

The City Council may still vote to censure Hoy and Gwyn tomorrow. However, I suspect that they won't. Of course, I thought Kamala Harris was going to defeat Donald Trump, so my recent prognosticating when it comes to voting isn't great.  

Looks like Chris Hoy has lost to Julie Hoy in Salem Mayor race

The initial results are in for today's primary election in Oregon. Final results will take a while, since mail-in ballots are counted so long as they're postmarked on or before election day.

"Primary" doesn't apply to Salem mayor and city council races if a candidate gets 50% of the vote plus one, because then they win outright and are unopposed in the November general election.

So it sure looks like Julie Hoy will be the next Mayor of Salem. This is the combined initial result for Marion and Polk counties.

Not a huge surprise. Julie Hoy outspent Chris Hoy by a lot. Though Chris Hoy was the incumbent, he was saddled with his support for the highly unpopular employee payroll tax that was soundly rejected by voters last November.

Rather strangely, I never heard him admit that pushing for the city council to implement the tax without a vote of the people was a big mistake. Maybe if he'd done that, he would have fared better in his reelection bid.

Chris Hoy was the only member of the city council running for reelection who had voted for the payroll tax. So three of the four city council races featured fresh faces. (Councilor Nordyke voted against the tax and was unopposed.)

It appears that the progressive in the Ward 1 race, Paul Tigan, will end up winning the seat currently held by Virginia Stapleton, a fellow progressive.

The Ward 3 race is too close to call. Shane Matthews has a narrow lead over Nathan Soltz, the progressive candidate. This seat is currently held by Trevor Phillips, a progressive. 

The Ward 5 race is also too close to call. Irvin Brown, the progressive candidate, has just a 19 vote lead over Michael Hoselton. This seat is currently held by Jose Gonzalez, a conservative.

To me the most interesting congressional race was between Janelle Bynum and Jamie McLeod-Skinner in the Democratic primary for the 5th District. Bynum trounced McLeod-Skinner, who narrowly lost in 2022 to Republican Lori Chavez-Deremer. I guess Democratic voters thought it was time for someone new to take on Chavez-Deremer in this swing district.

Currently progressives have a 6-3 majority on the nine person Salem City Council, mayor plus eight councilors. With Mayor Hoy's apparent loss, that leaves the progressives at 5-4. So ideological control of the City Council will come down to the Ward 3 and Ward 5 races. Unless the progressive candidate wins one of those wards, conservative members of the City Council will be a majority.

All I know is that a Hoy won the Mayoral Debate

Last Tuesday the Salem Reporter and Salem City Club held a debate between the two candidates for Mayor. One thing is clear: Hoy won.

I can say that with complete confidence because the candidates were incumbent Mayor Chris Hoy and his unrelated opponent, Councilor Julie Hoy. 

Given Chris' much longer political experience, and his incumbency, I figured that he would dominate the debate. But though I think Chris was sharper and more on point with his answers to questions posed by people from the sponsoring organizations, which earned him a win in my utterly personal opinion, Julie performed better than I thought she would.

You can watch the debate via a Capital Community Media video. 

Chris is a progressive. Julie is a conservative.

This was reflected in their differing takes on the City of Salem budget problems. Chris doesn't want to cut any current programs, saying that more revenue is needed to preserve those programs. Julie put more of an emphasis on living within budget limitations, though she was open to revenue raising options such as a dedicated tax for funding the library.

One reason she favors such a tax could be her wanting public safety, police and fire department operations, to be the top funding priority. Yet Julie was impressed with how much citizen support the library has been getting. So a dedicated library tax would make it possible to spend more on public safety from the city's general fund without further reducing popular library services.

Interestingly, Chris said that he'd be open to a dedicated tax for public safety. Since he worked as a deputy sheriff for many years in Clackamas County, support for the police is part of his political DNA. Also, he may believe that a tax dedicated to public safety would have a better chance of being approved by voters than a general tax for city services. 

Several times Julie shied away from directly answering a question by saying that she needed to study the issue more, would rely on people who know more about it than she does, or simply misunderstanding the question -- such as when she referred to financial capital when a question asked about spending political capital. 

On the plus side, Julie sounded pleasingly humble when she said that she wasn't the smartest person in a room and would listen to more knowledgeable people. Chris came across at times as being unwilling to admit to mistakes and weaknesses, as when he defended his decision to not refer an employee payroll tax to voters, who defeated it big time after an initiative petition put it on last November's ballot.

I think he might have been better served by looking straight at the camera and saying something like, "I thought it was the right thing to do -- not asking citizens to vote on the payroll tax -- but I now realize how wrong I was. Live and learn. That's what I promise to keep doing if you reelect me as mayor."

Realtors and homebuilders love Julie Hoy for Mayor, not Chris Hoy

There's an almost foolproof way to tell which candidate for Mayor or City Council here in Salem is the most conservative.

Check out ORESTAR, Oregon's campaign finance reporting system that's part of the Secretary of State office, and see who is getting contributions from realtor and homebuilder organizations. Whoever they're supporting, that's the conservative candidate.

On Facebook this image is being shared by people who favor incumbent Mayor Chris Hoy, a progressive, over his opponent in the May election, Julie Hoy (no relation).

Now, being a progressive myself, my sympathies are with the Chris Hoy backers. There's nothing wrong with pointing out the large amount of money Julie Hoy is getting from these sources, which are dominated by realtors and homebuilders. 

At the moment ORESTAR is showing that Chris Hoy has gotten $40,154 in campaign contributions in 2024, while Julie Hoy has gotten $217,513 -- a big difference. Mayor Hoy is batting .000 when it comes to contributions from the sources in the image above.

However, I think it's unfair to claim that Julie Hoy has been bought off by realtors, homebuilders, and other conservative groups that are supporting her campaign. These days every person running for a significant office needs a substantial amount of money. 

Labor unions typically support progressive candidates. Are those candidates being bought off by the unions? Conservatives claim this, just as progressives claim conservative candidates are being bought off by business organizations. 

In truth, it's difficult to determine cause and effect here. For it makes sense that both individuals and organizations prefer to give money to candidates who share their political persuasion. Basically, conservative or progressive. 

(I'm still fond of the term "liberal," but I realize that progressive has become the favored term for those on the left portion of the political spectrum.)

So it doesn't require a moral failing by a politician, such as having their vote on an issue determined by whoever gives them the most money, to explain why conservative elected officials usually are more business-friendly than progressive elected officials are. 

That's simply a reflection of their political philosophy -- which is shared by donors and the elected official. The same applies to labor unions and progressive politicians.

Nonetheless, I'm still bothered by how much money is being showered on Julie Hoy and, to a lesser extent, Chris Hoy. Money may not directly corrupt elected officials, but it is still a burden both for themselves and the electorate. 

Raising money takes up a large share of every politician's time. I'd prefer that they used that time to work on solving problems faced by the people they represent. But this is the system we have, not the system most of us would want if we could wave a magic wand and make our elections as we'd like them to be.

Chris Hoy deserves to be re-elected as Salem Mayor

Ballots for the May 21, 2024 primary election will be mailed on May 1. So it's time to start thinking about who to vote for.

Keep in mind that when it comes to local races -- such as Salem mayor and city councilors -- usually the "primary" ends up being the actual election, since a candidate who gets 50% plus at least one additional vote in the primary won't face an opponent in the November general election.

There are only two candidates for mayor: Incumbent Chris Hoy, shown above, and Julie Hoy, a city councilor who is unrelated to Chris. So whoever wins in May will be elected mayor.

Chris Hoy is a progressive. Julie Hoy is a conservative. That's one reason why I'm urging people to vote for Chris, since I agree with him on most issues. One exception was Chris' support in 2023 for an employee payroll tax to raise revenue needed to preserve important city services. 

He wanted the city council to approve the tax without a vote of the people. That's what ended up happening. The uproar over both the tax, and how it was implemented, led to an initiative petition that put the tax on the November 2023 ballot, where it failed big time. 

Julie Hoy is making a big deal of this in her campaign, since she opposed the unpopular tax. That's fair. Incumbent candidates for public office should expect to have their votes on controversial issues become part of their opponent's election strategy. 

But here's something to keep in mind. No elected official is going to please everybody all the time. Chris Hoy supported a tax that was soundly rejected by Salem voters. Okay, that's a strike against him. In general, though, he's done a fine job as mayor. 

Which pays absolutely nothing, by the way.

Being mayor of Salem is a volunteer position, even though it requires long hours and a lot of pressure. Yet Julie Hoy has raised about $200,000 for her campaign, mostly from large donors such as real estate developers. Chris Hoy has raised about $21,000, so he's being outspent 10 to 1.

Those supporting Julie Hoy will expect a return on their investment. To my mind, that's another reason to vote for Chris Hoy. He wants to serve the interests of everybody in Salem, not just the rich and powerful. 

Head to his web site to learn more about Chris. He's a likable guy who cares deeply about making Salem a better place. 

Citizen activism prevents additional Salem Library cuts. For now.

It's great when elected officials do the right thing, even when they're forced into it by citizen activism.

But most of the credit for the city's budget committee voting yesterday to prevent additional cuts to the Salem Public Library by using money from the hotel tax goes to Jim Scheppke and Lois Stark, fervent advocates for the library who did a great job organizing citizens to press for No More Cuts.

Without Scheppke and Stark doing what they did, almost surely the West Salem branch would have been closed, with staff and hours at the main library severely curtailed from the already diminished level.

But public pressure spurred Mayor Chris Hoy, who is in a tough race for reelection against Councilor Julie Hoy (no relation), to dig around in the City of Salem spare change container and find $1.2 million that could be used for the library as a temporary stopgap measure, not a permanent funding source.

Not without controversy, though, as these excerpts from a Salem Reporter story, "Budget committee votes to fund Salem's library following outpouring of community support," point out.

Salem will keep its remaining librarians this year after the city’s budget committee unanimously voted Wednesday to use money from the city’s hotel tax to fend off proposed cuts.

The vote came after over an hour of public testimony from library employees and a diverse group of supporters that included a state senator, educators, parents and one elementary school student. More than 75 people submitted written testimony opposing cuts.

...The money the city will now use to pay library operating costs was savings sitting in a city account intended to support tourism and cultural facilities. The money comes from a tax levied on hotel stays within city limits.

That fund had $4.2 million at the start of the budget year, which Chief Financial Officer Josh Eggleston said was intended to support ongoing programs in the future.

...City Attorney Dan Atchison said during the meeting that he evaluated Hoy’s original proposal to fund the library and believes it is consistent with state law and the city charter. The tax is required to be used for specific purposes, including improvements to, or operation of, major tourist attractions or cultural facilities and activities that promote tourism.

“It is my determination that the Salem library meets both definitions of a cultural facility, as well as a tourism facility under state law,” he said.

He said he anticipates there will be further discussions with the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association, which has objected to the use of the funds to the library. In a statement, they said that any money raised through increases in the tax rate since 2003 must be allocated 70% to tourism promotion or facilities. Thirty percent can be used however the local government sees fit.

Association President Jason Brandt, in a Thursday phone interview with Salem Reporter, said that the associate is still assessing the situation and use of funds.

“Unless a library has a substantial purpose of supporting tourism, then it doesn’t count as a tourism-related facility,” he said. The unrestricted portion of the tax funds can be used on city functions like libraries, police, fire and streets.

Brandt said the association plans to take action, as it has against other Oregon cities, if it determines the funds haven’t followed those rules. 

It does seem to be a stretch to claim that the Salem Public Library is a tourist attraction. Or a cultural facility visitors to Salem would seek out. However, 30% of $4.2 million, the amount in the hotel tax fund, is $1.26 million.

Since $1.2 million would be used for the library, if the 30% unrestricted use is applied to the $4.2 million, the City of Salem could be on solid legal ground.

Julie Hoy has much more money than Chris Hoy in Salem Mayor race

As I noted in the title of a post from last November, "It'll be Hoy vs. Hoy in 2024 Salem Mayor race. Marvelous!"

Julie Hoy and Chris Hoy

City councilor Julie Hoy and incumbent Mayor Chris Hoy aren't related. They also aren't in the same ballpark when it comes to the current state of their campaign finances, according to the ORESTAR system that tracks this in Oregon.

It's a familiar story when it comes to local races in Salem. Almost always, the conservative candidate (in this case Julie Hoy) raises more money than the progressive candidate (in this case Chris Hoy).

Here's how their campaigns stack up at the moment, with several months remaining until the May election. There's plenty of time for Chris Hoy to ramp up his campaign, but so far the money momentum decidedly favors Julie Hoy.

2024 contributions
Julie Hoy: $57,788
Chris Hoy: $5,216

2024 expenditures
Julie Hoy: $28,428
Chris Hoy: $594

Cash balance
Julie Hoy: $41,419
Chris Hoy: $16,656

Number of contributors in 2024
Julie Hoy: 50
Chris Hoy: 16

Largest contributor
Julie Hoy: $20,000 from Lawrence Tokarski
Chris Hoy: $2,500 from Trevor Phillips

It'll be Hoy vs. Hoy in 2024 Salem Mayor race. Marvelous!

Since politics isn't always played fairly, occasionally I'll hear of a candidate who enters a race because they have the last name of a popular politician of the opposite party and want to fool voters into casting a ballot for them.                                                                                             Julie Hoy and Chris Hoy

But here in Salem, Oregon, a not-so-sleepy city of about 180,000 people, we're going to have a race for Mayor in 2024 that features two Hoys: Chris Hoy, the progressive incumbent, and Julie Hoy, the conservative challenger.

It would have been cool if Julie and Chris were related, but they're not. However, they're "related" in this sense. In 2022 Julie won Chris' Ward 6 City Council seat after Chris first ran for Mayor, which I theorized in a blog post sounded like the last name political dirty trick noted above.

Julie Hoy and Stacey Vieyra-Braendle are the candidates seeking to fill Chris Hoy's seat. I could be completely wrong about this, but it seems strange that an unrelated Hoy just happens to hope to replace Chris Hoy. 

This is the sort of thing Republicans would do. So I'll indulge my conspiracy theory mind and theorize that Julie Hoy leans conservative. I know nothing about Vieyra-Braendle. If she turns out to be conservative, I wouldn't be all that surprised, but for now I'm guessing she's the more liberal candidate.

I learned about the Hoy vs. Hoy matchup in a Salem Reporter story, "Julie Hoy will challenge Chris Hoy as Salem's Mayor."

Salem City Councilor Julie Hoy announced Tuesday that she will run for mayor in 2024 against incumbent Chris Hoy, setting up a competition between two city leaders who share the same last name but are often at odds over city spending and public safety. 

Councilor Hoy said she chose to run because she believes Salem is in crisis.

“I see things differently, maybe because I’m a business owner and a mom, but I feel a tremendous amount of need for public safety and a sense of security that I believe is missing,” she said. “And that will be hard for me to do anything about from a minority position on council.”

She represents ward 6, in east Salem, which Chris Hoy represented before being elected mayor in 2022. The two are not related.

Julie Hoy said that the payroll tax was a major reason she chose to run, and where she showed she is consistent in her messaging and decisions when she felt the city was not giving voters enough information about plans.

She was one of four councilors who voted in July against imposing a tax without sending it to voters, and tried unsuccessfully to repeal the tax ahead of the November election after voters referred the measure to the ballot.

Voters rejected the tax decisively, with 82% opposed.

Chris Hoy was a strong supporter of the payroll tax. So it will be interesting to see whether voters hold that against him, given that the tax was favored by only 18% of the electorate.

That may partly depend on how Mayor Hoy, the City Manager, and the City Council approach another try at convincing voters to approve more money for the City of Salem.

Another Salem Reporter story that included news (seriously consider subscribing, if you haven't already) about the formation of a revenue task force indicates that city officials are acting more wisely this time around. One reason the payroll tax suffered such a massive defeat was that those officials had an annoying attitude of We know best, so we're not going to put the tax up for a vote of the people.

That backfired big time when opponents of the payroll tax had little problem gathering enough signatures on a petition that required the tax be on the November 2023 ballot. But the Salem Reporter story shows that city officials appear to have learned some things from that 82% opposed debacle.

The council met on Oct. 25 to discuss forming the [revenue] task force, and directed staff to prioritize community engagement and a wide range of perspectives.

Consultant group Moss Adams will manage the task force, and will collaborate with city staff and the council to identify revenue options and the pros, cons and risks of them. The group prepared a scope of work plan that outlines the next several months. 

Moss Adams’ fees will cost the city $120,000, and city staff do not have the capacity to facilitate the task force without the consultants, Eggleston said.

City staff also recommend working with community engagement consultants Parachute Strategies, who would cost $55,000 and polling from DHM that would cost $45,000.

Community engagement will include eight focus groups, one per council district, community surveys and three town halls, according to Moss Adams.

If all that goes well, and enough of it happens before the May 2024 election for Mayor, Chris Hoy will have an easier time with his campaign, since by and large, his progressive views are more in tune with those of Salem voters than the conservative stances of Julie Hoy.