Community group throws support behind Cutchen, warning of ‘a mistake with serious consequences’

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — Failure to renew Oakridge City Administrator Bryan Cutchen’s contract “would be a mistake with serious consequences” and “a costly setback” to much of the community’s recent progress under his leadership, says the nonprofit organization South Willamette Solutions.

The warning is at the heart of a letter to the Oakridge City Council from SWS Executive Director Sarah Altemus-Pope and signed by all five voting members of the organization’s board. Dated March 12, their letter calls for “a full renewal” of Cutchen’s two-year contract with the city.

The City Council met in both closed and open sessions for nearly three hours Thursday night but did not act on the administrator’s contract. It calls for renewal or nonrenewal by March 31, and Mayor Kathy Holston said she will post a special council session next week “to address the contract.”

On March 7, in an open letter to the community, Holston cautioned that it would be “catastrophic” to Oakridge if the popular city administrator’s contract is not renewed. The possibility of nonrenewal, she told The Herald, had been raised and discussed by some members of the council in an executive session three days previously.

In response to her letter and news of the secret discussion, supporters of Cutchen unleashed an outpouring of vocal support for renewal of his contract at a special council meeting that Holston called on March 10.

Cutchen’s chief critic on the council has been identified as Council President Christina Hollett. Neither she nor her allies on the council have been willing to speak publicly about their concerns.

Holston said Cutchen has been the target of “rumor and innuendo” in the community because of his openness to consider all options in addressing the city’s severe fiscal problems — options including cutbacks in fire department and EMS services. Hollett’s husband is an Oakridge fireman, and she is an EMT.

The South Willamette Solutions letter in support for Cutchen does not mention the potential conflict-of-interest issues at play in the matter. The letter does, however, offer ringing praise of Cutchen’s performance, declaring that he possesses “a can-do attitude” and is “open to creative solutions” to community challenges.

The letter is signed by Altemus-Pope as well as the SWS board’s voting members David Chamberlain, Paula Hebert, Thalia Larin, Susan Knudsen Obermeyer and Laurie Patty.

South Willamette Solutions is a community-based nonprofit with a mission “to promote, coordinate and support creative solutions that strengthen rural communities, economies and landscapes.”

The nonprofit oversees the Southern Willamette Forest Collaborative, Oakridge Air Upgrades and the Community Firewood Program.

Herald Editor Doug Bates is a retired newspaper journalist who lives in Oakridge.