Oakridge City Council faction discusses possibility of terminating City Administrator Bryan Cutchen

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — Meeting in executive session last week, some members of the Oakridge City Council discussed the possibility of not renewing the contract of City Administrator Bryan Cutchen, The Herald has learned from multiple sources.

Contacted early Sunday morning, Mayor Kathy Holston confirmed those reports. She said she could not discuss details of the private talks but said it was clear during the discussion that some on the council “were not pleased with the direction” Cutchen was leading the city administration.

Holston made it clear that she is not among the displeased and that she favors the renewal of Cutchen’s contract based on the positive performance evaluation he received by vote of the council last October.

“It is concerning to me that so soon after that positive evaluation that we’ve run into a bit of a mud puddle here,” she said.

Sunday afternoon, Holston submitted to The Herald an open letter to the community in which she said failure to keep Cutchen on the job would be “catastrophic” for the community. On Monday she posted a special city council meeting for Wednesday evening as a public forum, preceded by an executive session, on the matter. The virtual (Zoom) meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. Information on how to sign in and participate can be found here. Those who wish may view it safely (with masks, distancing) at the Willamette Activity Center, where the meeting will be live-streamed on a large screen.

Under Cutchen’s employment contract, a notice of renewal or nonrenewal must be given by March 31. Thursday night’s discussion came during a legally posted, closed-to-the-public executive session allowed under Oregon law. It permits governing bodies to discuss a limited number of subjects in secrecy, including personnel matters, litigation and real estate negotiations.

Highway 58 Herald covered that evening’s public meeting but declined to attend the executive session that preceded it. As a policy, many news organizations today avoid having reporters attend executive sessions because journalists who attend must first agree not to report what they hear. By forgoing attendance in the talks, The Herald is ethically free to report on them.

Cutchen, a former Navy pilot who retired as a rear admiral and began a new career in city administration on the East Coast,  accepted the $90,330-a-year Oakridge position in mid-2019. After his first year in the job he waived his right to an increase because of the city’s poor fiscal outlook.

Generally popular among the Oakridge business community, Cutchen has been the target of considerable “rumor and innuendo” in the community, according to Holston, because he “had the courage” to list fire department and EMS service cutbacks among difficult options the city has for balancing its budget.

Holston didn’t say so, but other sources told The Herald that talks of not renewing Cutchen’s contract have involved Council President Christina Hollett, an EMT whose husband is an Oakridge fireman.

Via email on Sunday, The Herald requested interviews with Hollett and councilors Bobbie Whitney, Audy Spliethof, Michelle Coker, Dawn Kinyon and Melissa Bjarnson. Whitney and Coker declined to comment and the other four did not respond.

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