City Council Censure Motion Targets Councilors Gwyn and Hoy
The Salem City Council is set to take up a motion to censure Councilor Deanna Gwyn and Mayor-Elect and Councilor Julie Hoy tomorrow.
According to the November 12th meeting agenda, the motion, first reported by the Statesman Journal, will be made by Mayor Chris Hoy, who, earlier this year, was denied re-election when Councilor Julie Hoy successfully challenged him in the Mayoral race by winning nearly 56% of the vote.
Chris Hoy is accusing the two councilors of violating Section 62 of the city charter, which requires councilors to disclose and recuse themselves from any vote that is likely to benefit someone who has directly or indirectly given at least $501 to their campaign.
At issue is an October 14th City Council vote that allowed Creekside LLC – a south Salem golf course – to forgo building a sidewalk as part of a new 11-lot development on the course, representing a $216,000 savings to the project.
Gywn and Hoy disclosed their campaign finance relationship during the vote as required by the City Charter, but in the draft motion, Mayor Hoy argues that Gwyn and Hoy should have gone further by recusing themselves from the vote.
Local businessman Larry Tokarski owns Creekside via Mountain West Investments Corporation. Campaign finance records show Tokarski and his business have donated thousands to Gywn and Hoy over the years.
The vote to allow Creekside to build the development without sidewalks passed with bipartisan support by a margin of 6-2, meaning it would have passed even if Hoy and Gywn recused themselves. Mayor Chris Hoy was not present for the vote.
With Creekside’s history of financial woes, it’s unlikely that $216,000 in savings would benefit Tokarski or Mountain West Investments. In 2022, the course unsuccessfully asked local homeowner association members for millions more to address deferred maintenance and other renovations.
The costs of putting in a sidewalk would undoubtedly be passed onto eventual renters or owners of the 11 new housing units.
It’s unclear how Mayor Hoy will fend off accusations of political retribution in light of an October 28th vote where he and Councilor Virginia Stapleton voted to ratify a contract with the union representing city workers, AFSCME Local 2067. The contract will cost Salem taxpayers nearly $25 million over the next three years and give workers 15% raises. The vote passed unanimously.
An independent review of campaign finance records conducted by the Salem Business Journal found that AFSCME Local 2067 has contributed $4,000 to Mayor Chris Hoy’s political action committee. Oregon AFSCME Council 75, the statewide lobbying group for local AFSCME chapters, contributed $2,500 to Stapleton this year. Campaign finance records show that AFSCME and its affiliated political action committees consistently support, directly and indirectly, their favored candidates with dues and donations from members.
At the time of the vote, Stapleton declared that the government union had supported her campaigns for office but refused to recuse herself. Mayor Hoy neither acknowledged their support nor recused himself.
Decisions to censure members of the Council are political reprimands and do not require any legal wrongdoing, nor do they carry any punishment.
The motion would be the first of its kind since 2016, when the Council censured Daniel Benjamin for social media posts he made criticizing Black Lives Matter protesters’ tactics of blocking roadways. He went on to resign following the vote. You can watch the Salem City Council proceedings tomorrow, November 12th at 6 PM on Capital Community Media’s YouTube channel.