Welcome to Monmouth Monthly a peek into the heart of the Willamette Valley. Each month we will bring you updates of the things happening in and around town brought to you by the people who helped make it happen. I am your host Sabra Jewell
Welcome to a another episode of Monmouth Monthly and welcome to 2024. I am here today with the mayor of Monmouth Mayor Cec Koontz and I couldn't be more excited. She is going to tell us a little bit about herself and kind of what the vision is for Monmouth in the future. We've had a lot going on this past year with the making of our new City Hall, the MI Trolley coming to town, the skate park, just an endless list of really exciting things that we had going on this year. Which leads me to think how can we top it next year. So welcome to Monmouth monthly Mayor Cec Koontz
Thank you Sabra. I'm excited to be here and kick off, like you said, what can be another amazing year for our city.
It's going to be hard to top but I think between the two of us and the city council and all the other staff, I think we'll be will be in good shape and prepared to do so. So you have been the mayor for just a little while here. You've been on city council on the board of trustees at Western. And you've also worked for the school district. But tell me about your journey that not everybody has known you for the last 30 years or so. So talk about what brought you to Monmouth and what how did you decide to become the mayor of Monmouth
I grew up in Salem. So Monmouth was a place that we came many, many of my high school friends went to college here when it was the Oregon College of Education. I did not go to school here but spent a lot of time during my college years here on campus, and then started dating someone who was a teacher at Central High School. So that is really when I first volunteered in the community. And that was in 1979. It goes back aways, I was fortunate to get to be involved in a lot of things at the high school because of Ken Herman's, who became my first husband, and really get to know people. And then I always say I knew people who were students, then I knew their parents, then I now know their children and grandchildren from those days. So it was really a great opportunity to get involved in the community didn't ever live here, though. But I did come to work here in 2000, I came to work for what was then West Coast bank. So right there on Main Street, Monmouth and again, meeting new people getting to know much more about our local businesses. And about all the politics going on in town. My first actual opportunity to volunteer for the city came a few years later. And that was when I was asked to join the Monmouth Economic Development Commission, a group of volunteers who were working through issues regarding business development, business support and retention. And I actually served as an advisory board on the urban renewal agency. So that was really interesting. Got to know a lot of great things there. That led to my actually applying for an opening on the city council. So in 2010, I was appointed to city council and served there for four years.
Who was the mayor at the time that you were on city council.
That would be John Oberst.
Wow, look at that. So now you are the mayor, he is on city council that must make for some interesting conversations from time to time.
Sure. You know, he and I have worked have worked together for many years on that project and others. The dynamic could be challenging, but it is not. He has been a tremendous support and supporter. And it's always good having a couple of people on council who have that long, deep history, not only with the work of the council, but for example, he was on the planning commission prior to being elected mayor. So those kinds of that kind of historical knowledge and in depth knowledge is really valuable. So he's been a great sidekick.
Speaking of relationships that could be difficult or dynamics that could be difficult. I wonder if this has something to do with you because the relationship that we have with Independence from what everyone in the universe says has improved so much and just the time that you have been mayor working alongside John McArdle you do you see yourself as a part of the movement towards the direction of the relationship that we have with our sister city?
I think there are a lot of things of the cities have always worked together on especially project type work, right? There have always been, they're helping each other out planning together. Obviously, our police departments cover each other in times of needs. So there's always been work. And I think there was a sort of a different sense. And Mayor McArdle has done an amazing job in 25 years of creating and encouraging and supporting and making come true a vision for independence. And part of that was really incredibly ambitious. It was things that people never thought would happen here. The waterfront development, for example, that was something that came out of their community visioning. And they made it happen. Monmouth was always seen as a little more conservative in that way. So I think that was some of it wasn't that we weren't doing things together, it said, they were doing really big, ambitious things that got a lot of attention. And we were putting in, you know, a power substation and new water lines. And, you know, things were important infrastructure. And when I mentioned, I grew up in Salem, sort of Mayor McArdle, and we actually knew each other in high school, we went to different schools. But when I when I did move to town, finally in 2008, and really reconnected with him, I think we saw how much more we had similar visions for our cities. And I think, myth, having done a lot of infrastructure work, was ready for some of the fun, ambitious, or visionary work to be done that we have been able to do over the last few years. So I think when he he saw that, and, and we could build things together. Right. And that's been really, really critical. You mentioned the skate park, you mentioned our trolley, we've, we've done things that we could have each done individually. But it really worked so much better when our staff, our electeds. And our community members saw that as an important project for both cities. So that's, that's it's been, I will not take much credit for that. But I will say I have enjoyed the fruits and benefits of it.
I didn't think you would take credit for it, to be honest, but I'm glad that I asked. So 2023 was, as I mentioned, at the top of the show was an incredible year for both of our cities, specifically for Monmouth, we we hit the trolley won several a couple of awards, statewide awards. But there's a lot to be proud of. Could you tell me some of the things that you're the most proud of? Or can you pick one thing and if all those things that you're the most proud of?
Well, I I think one of the other things that we have also been recognized for consistently is not only the collaboration between the two cities, but the increased collaboration with all of our partners, the school district, the university, even our fire district, right, which serves both communities. I think the we started something that you know, you'll never forget the day right Monday, March 16. Schools shut down on Friday the 13th of 2020, Monday, March 16. Fire Chief said, Hey, this is going to really affect us. We need all hands on deck to deal with this. And we started meeting the two city managers to Mayor school superintendent, president of the university and our fire chief, we've also had our State Representative Paul Evans, our state senator Deb Patterson, people from the county. And we met twice a week for a year leaning on each other, giving each other support and information. And then we met weekly for another year. And we've we're down to every other week. But I am so proud of the collaboration of all of those entities. And it's again, always worked together always got along but it's really strengthen. And I think the part of what I'm most proud of is how much we have pulled in the university. Right. Always been the complaints about town versus gown and is this you know, a university town or is it a town with the university? I have been fortunate to be able to work closely with the current president Jesse Peters, the prior President Rex Fuller and even the interim president Jay Kenton and having them be more engaged at that level with what is going on, really helps all of us. If
you're just now joining us, we have Mayor Koontz, the mayor of Monmouth, Oregon with us today on the program. Mayor, new City Hall, we have this great new building, talk about the journey of that city hall, like what makes you most excited about this new space? And what does it mean to you,
When I started really getting involved in the community more I was behind the eight ball on the city hall, there had been people working on it for decades at that point even. But really, my time on the Economic Development Commission, around 2008 2009 was when we we really took a focus on, we've got to do something about that building, not only because people work in it, and it is not safe. And it is an environmental disaster with mold and everything else. But because of its prominent place on our main street, it it not only is a symbolic heart of government, but it was sort of literally the heart of downtown. And it was a non historic, non significant piece of architecture. So the Economic Development Commission actually really talked about it as an economic driver. And that has always inspired me, so that as we went through the years, and well, we started a study, we got architects, we started doing community open forums to talk about what a new city hall would look like. But it's really, really hard to ask people for money taxpayers to come up with money to fund facilities. So even though we were moving slowly towards a plan, it really took a new set of eyes, I think, to push us towards what we have now. And that is when longtime city manager moved on, I was able to connect with a retired city manager whom I knew, and he came in as an interim for us and kind of looked for projects, things he thought he could help with. And he's like, why aren't you building this city hall. And really, he's the one who sort of helped us identify that we already had funding for it, in our coffers on our books. And that all we would really need to ask the public for in the way of additional taxes was about $3 million. So that that really gave us hope for the first time in a long time. And went out, asked and our generous community supported that ask, it's been a long haul, I feel so much for our fabulous staff who've been displaced for the last two years now, working in nooks and crannies of other buildings The city owns, I feel feel for people who work and live downtown and have had to deal with health and construction and for a long time, just sort of fencing with a you know, vacant building there. And but it is going to be so worth it when we get to not only move our staff back into that space, but move our government activities back into that space. No, you and I have some some hopes and dreams about that. But it really should be it should be a place where people feel welcome. They feel like they can come there will have city council meetings that of course we'll have planning commission meetings, our municipal court will meet there. But it can be other things too. It can be a place for other gatherings other community work and and I really see it as a a new vibrant spot for our downtown. And I'm just thrilled I'm sure you've heard it too. But people really like it. People are so complimentary about it. And it's a little different architecture for our downtown so you always kind of worry that people won't see it as fitting Monmouth but they do and I've got to say particularly when I hear students and faculty at Western talking about how much pride it gives them. That is amazing because not all of them live here. This isn't their town and yet that helps them connect more to our city.
And we already know the acoustics are fantastic and they're for music when we had our opening. We had the Tuesday String Band join us and that sounded great in there so we know it's a space where what music is playing. It fills the room with a little bit of extra Joy doesn't it?
Exactly and land We don't have an indoor concert spot in town. So now I think we need to work on making that happen.
That's right. In the meantime, while we're waiting on that Ross theater restoration project to really take off more to come on that listeners can't wait to tell you more about that when now, what are you looking forward to in 2024? We've got so many things behind us now. But you and I have got to start thinking about the next great big wave of Monmouth. Right. So what does that look like to you? What what are we going to be getting into this year?
Well, I think the most the only job, we're often told the only job of the City Council is to hire the city manager, right? We don't manage staff. We don't have anything to do with day to day operations of the city. Our job is to find and onboard and really give strong goals to the city manager. One of the hardest things for me since I've been mayor, well, I've done a lot of hard things, I guess the pandemic was hard. We had our issues last year, last spring with all of the community concern about homelessness and potential things, but but I think the hardest for me certainly personally was Marty, why our fantastic city manager for the last three years, was given an opportunity to move back to Washington where she's from, so she has taken that opportunity and gave us her resignation. So we're back doing the only really important job we have to do, which is find her replacement. We are so fortunate woman named Christy werster, who has worked as an interim in cities all over the state just happened to be finishing up one gig and we were able to snag her. So she has come in, absolutely prepared, ready and is has stepped right in to keep us moving forward. But really 2024 is about that next vision of what we want or need, no matter what we do on council, it really is staff and the hires, the city manager makes that that lay that foundation for the future.
How do you think we are positioned to find that person? Are we better position now than we were a few years ago? Do we do we look a bit a little bit better to a potential candidate, I guess is what I'm trying to say
All the awards, you mentioned all of the recognition we've gotten, which is for fun things, cool things. But it's also mostly been because of the collaboration because of our ability to tell our story about what we're building here. That has made us I think much more attractive, Marty says herself right having having a city council that A is not being recalled, which many cities go through having city councils that actually work together, may have differences of opinions or can ask tough questions, but come out with a product we all can fully support. That's huge. And obviously city managers a crappy job you have seven bosses, right? So having those seven bosses get along, really helps. But Marty also our staff is fantastic. We've had, you know, a couple department head retire retirements in the last couple of years that have changed the face of that are police chief Isaiah Haynes has done amazing work with his department. And after losing Chuck Thurman, our Power and Light director we've got you know, Wade is knowledgeable he's he is well connected in the industry, and bringing additional new ideas and information to us. So I feel really good about our staff. We also retired Janet Dennard, who is an amazing finance director. But gosh, we've got Suzy Marston. And Suzy comes with a wide background, not only in finance, but general city management. And she has so enthusiastic and eager to continue creating really transparent, open and sort of readable budgets and financial information for our community. And that's huge for me, so I think that's great. And then and we also got an assistant city manager, which, you know, I I think we're kind of small, do we really need that but, you know, finding out that they tiny, tiny cities, give someone that title and that person really has the ability to step in if the city manager is even out of town or something sort of has that authority, but But to court help coordinate really manage our our operations is huge.
And I do second all of what you're saying about the team at the city of Monmouth My coworkers are some of the finest people around and I'm not what biased what so ever, or am I? So tell me what your role was an ending Monmouth's long standing prohibition.
Well, and to be honest, I honestly thought I would never get elected mayor because of that. But the the real Trailblazer there again, John Oberst is someone whose wife was working at Western, he was in the community and thought, you know, it's this whole thing where you cannot buy alcohol in Monmouth, and it's the last or a town in the West. And, you know, what is this thing? So he actually led the petition to get a ballot measure on the city of Monmouth ballot, to allow the sale of beer and wine only. And after decades of people trying that was a new approach. Well, maybe if they, you know, can't have hooch, they'll they'll, they'll pass it. So he was actually the big Trailblazer. And when they allowed the sale, the voters voted to allow the sale of beer and wine. That that was one step. And, and again 10 years later, nine years later, on the Economic Development Commission, somebody said, Well, you know, come on, why now, before we were unique, now, this is just stupid. We, uh, we cannot have a cocktail, right? With her dinner so that I looked around the room and said, Well, somebody has to go through and file the petition and nobody was raising their hands. So I did. And fortunately, had a friend who was an attorney who helped me get that all set up. And Ray Stratton, now the proprietor of Jack's pub was a big, big help to us, because he was actually out running around getting signatures, we had to gather signatures in order to get the ballot measure on the ballot. And so that was really the work we did. We, we knew we needed to maybe spend a few bucks on signs and things. So we started a political action committee called martinis for Monmouth, and it's still on file with the Secretary of State's office, but it was, you know, a successful drive. And I think I think people saw it as a opportunity to make some changes. And so we did and it's, it's fun now to tell stories about the old Monmouth and so many people, so many people around the state remember Monmouth as a dry town, right? And people who went to college here, people who just had friends from here, it's something we get asked about a lot. So it is kind of fun.
So mayor, my last question to you is for our listeners out there local or from maybe curious about Monmouth, what's your call to action for people that want to get involved in the city who want to get back to the city? What do you what do you tell people? What do you what do you want people to do in this next year?
Well, I think so much of the vibrancy of our community, obviously is the university. So our first job is to make sure that the university continues to thrive. But also our small business, our downtown our, you know, local folks who do things also contribute to vibrancy, supporting them as huge. We see continuing lingering effects of the pandemic and its effects on businesses. So it's super important to us to continue to support those. That's a way to help the city. We have folks that are interested in volunteering and and really the city itself, our city, sort of government structure relies on a lot of volunteer help from boards and commissions. And there are often openings on those people that get involved in those I just a professor was telling me last night that she got involved, she moved here and she thought she'd get involved in the historic commission. Because first of all, she just likes old things, but she thought that would be a good way to get to know more about the community she was moving to. So that kind of connection and it's not in her field. She's not a history person or an architecture person, but just something that connected her to Monmouth so I think people often find those little things spaces where they can contribute their time and their talents. Or their curiosities. Maybe you don't know anything about arts and culture, you don't know anything about our tree commission, right, our tree board, but but you want to learn more. And so I think those are great opportunities for folks to get involved, usually a very small time commitment. And that's when we have openings on the Planning Commission, which is very complex and really a quasi legislative body for the city according to Oregon law, or our budget committee, which again, has a very prescribed legal duty to the city. We look for people from other boards and commissions, right. So kind of an opportunity for folks to to grow into positions of public service. But really volunteering with any nonprofit any at our events, right. We have We need people to help out with the Fourth of July festivities and any of those things supports our community and I love seeing new people get involved through those efforts. Well,
Thank you so much for joining me today on Monmouth Monthly, mayor. It has been such a pleasure to finally get you on the program. I'm sure we will have you back next year to talk about Monmouth 2025. My gosh, oh Lord, that is hard to hear. Well, thank you everyone again for listening to the program this month. I just want to let you know about a few things. remind you the mayor's Call to Action check out our boards, commissions and committees online at our website. There are some openings available please sign up for those we'd love to have you be a part of the process. Also don't forget to come visit the city hall. Come to a city council meeting stop by and see us we'd love to show you around it is your city hall to visit. Also the city of Monmouth is going through a rebrand process and we want to hear from you. You can check our website on the front page there is going to be a survey where you can vote online and talk a little bit about what you think makes Monmouth unique and some of the things that you want to see in that future logo. The voting for that ends on January 15. So thank you again for listening. We look forward to having you again next month take care and we will see you again next time.
Thank you for joining us for Monmouth monthly My name is Sabra Jewell. Our music is Catching Up by Chill Study and we record at indy Commons which is a co working community in Independence, Oregon. Please find us wherever you find podcasts rate review, tell the friend and we will see you next month.
