Gillham a manager candidate

And one is intimately so — he’s had the job before.

That’s Jerry Gillham.

He was hired as Baker City manager in October 2003, and he started work that November.

Gillham’s tenure was interrupted, slightly less than a year later, when he was called to active duty in the Army National Guard and deployed to Iraq.

Gillham was gone for about 13 months. He returned to work at City Hall in late November of 2005.

His second stint lasted less than a year.

On June 27, 2006, Gillham submitted a letter of resignation to the City Council. He resigned Sept. 1, 2006.

Gillham’s mention of the council election in 2006 referred to what turned out to be a major change in the roster of councilors.

Five new councilors were elected that November.

When the newly constituted Council convened in January 2007,  just two of the councilors who had voted in 2003 to hire Gillham — Dennis Dorrah and Jeff Petry — were still in office.

Gillham could not be contacted in time for this story. He most recently served as city manager for the City of Lakeport, Calif., according to a report on the Web site of station KNDU.  During his employment there he again was called to active duty with the U.S. Army and returned to Iraq in August 2008.

He resigned from the Lakeport position in September 2009, according to the Lake County News Web site.

Gillham was one of four finalists for a city manager position at Sunnyside, Wash., which was filled in late July, according to the Yakima Herald-Republic newspaper.

The other candidate to replace Steve Bogart, who is resigning Sept. 23, is Mike Kee.

Kee, 52, who is Ontario’s police chief, is a 1976 graduate of Baker High School.

Kee said in a telephone interview Thursday that he has been interested for some time in returning to Baker City.

His interest in shifting from running a police department to overseeing an entire city is a bit more recent, dating to his service as Ontario’s interim city manager for about seven months in 2008.

Kee has worked for the Ontario Police Department since 1983, and as its chief since 1998.

The Council conducted separate interviews of Kee and Gillham during an executive session meeting (meaning it was closed to the public) at City Hall.

Oregon’s public meetings law allows city councils to discuss certain topics in executive sessions, including the employment of a manager.

Of the seven current city councilors who will choose Bogart’s replacement, only Dorrah was in office when the Council voted unanimously to hire Gillham in 2003.

Dorrah declined to comment on Wednesday’s interviews with the two candidates.

“None of us should be talking about what happened in executive session,” he said.

Councilor Beverly Calder said Thursday that she hopes “we do find one of them” that the Council can agree on for the manager’s position.

“The Council is doing its work. The Council is working together very well,” she said. “The Council knows what its obligation is to the community.”

Another executive session is scheduled at 6 p.m. Tuesday “to discuss the matter further,” Dorrah said this morning. The Council then will meet in regular session at 7 p.m. at City Hall.