Recall petitions filed against Dorrah, Calder

By JAYSON JACOBY

Baker City Herald

A local group has filed petitions seeking to recall Baker City Mayor Dennis Dorrah and City Councilor Beverly Calder.

Dorrah and Calder, along with Councilors Clair Button and Aletha Bonebrake, voted on June 9 to fire City Manager Steve Brocato.

Neither Button nor Bonebrake can yet be the subject of a recall effort because state law prohibits recall petitions from being filed against any official who has not been in office for at least six months.

Both Button and Bonebrake were elected in November 2008 but they weren’t given the oath of office until Jan. 13.

Recall petitions could be filed against the pair as early as July 13.

Dorrah and Calder were both elected in November 2006 to four-year terms that expire Dec. 31, 2010.

Jamey Hardy of Baker City, the chief petitioner for the Dorrah and Calder recall effort, declined to comment on whether she intends to file recall petitions on Button or Bonebrake.

The petitioners have 90 days — until approximately Sept. 15 — to collect 603 signatures from residents registered to vote in Baker City elections, County Clerk Tami Green said.

The 603-signature requirement applies to both petitions. Registered voters can sign both petitions.

There are 5,758 people registered to vote in city elections.

Hardy, who said about 100 people are involved in the recall effort, said she’s confident they will collect the 603 signatures required.

“I think that’s an obtainable number,” she said.

From the date petitioners submit their signatures — and they can do so sooner than 90 days if they want  — the Clerk’s office has 10 days in which to verify the signatures, Green said.

If the petitions have the required 603 signatures, Dorrah and Calder then would have five days in which to resign, or submit a written statement in response to the petition, or do neither.

In either of the latter two cases, the Clerk’s office would have to conduct the recall election within 35 days.

Based on those timelines, a recall election could happen as soon as early August, or as late as early November.

Dorrah said Thursday morning that he will not resign.

“I don’t feel I did anything wrong,” Dorrah said. “I don’t really see anything wrong with the way (Brocato) was terminated.”

In response to the petitioners’ claims that he “denied citizen participation on key issues affecting the City,” Dorrah pointed out that he did allow audience members to comment during the June 9 meeting after the Council had voted 4-3 to fire Brocato.

Dorrah said that even after those comments from people who supported Brocato, the Council declined to reverse its decision.

“Citizens were allowed to voice their opinions,” Dorrah said.

Ultimately, he said, although he disagrees with the petitioners, he’s glad they have the right to try to remove him from office.

“I applaud that we have a democracy here and that when people are upset with public officials they have recourse,” Dorrah said. “It’s part of the system, and I’m glad that we live in a country where we can do that.”

Calder said she, like Dorrah, will not resign if petitioners collect enough signatures to force a recall vote.

“I know I did the right thing, and I voted to represent the community and the people who have depended on me,” Calder said.

Calder disputes the statement in the recall petition that she “places her own agenda ahead of the interests of the Citizens.”

“There is no personal benefit for me (in voting to fire Brocato),” she said. “I love this community, and I have loved it since I first turned onto Main Street 16 years ago. I’ve put my heart and soul into it.”

Calder deemed as “grasping at straws” the statement in the petition that she and Dorrah wanted to “deny citizen involvement” in Brocato’s firing.

“Dennis and I have both been committed to public participation,” Calder said.

But she believes that the decision to fire, or to hire, a city manager is an employment matter that’s vastly different from the Council’s deliberations about issues such as ordinances for which Calder said she has advocated for more rather than less testimony from citizens.

“I am all about public participation, but I don’t believe it is appropriate in employment issues,” Calder said.

She pointed out that the city charter gives the City Council alone the authority to hire and fire the city manager.

Calder said she thinks she has a responsibility to her constituents to try to replace the city manager if, as she believes was the case with Brocato, a majority of the City Council no longer had a good working relationship with the manager.

“This didn’t come out of left field,” Calder said. “All of the issues that have come up I’ve been talking about for more than a year. Steve has great skills but they’re not compatible, in my opinion, with public service.”

Hardy said she her motivation to lead the recall campaign was not Dorrah’s and Calder’s votes to fire Brocato, but rather how they went about it.

For instance, Hardy said she was upset that the Council did not consider citizens’ opinions about Brocato — a point listed on the petition for both Dorrah and Calder.

“All the reasons (on the petitions) are important,” Hardy said. “We felt they are all good reasons (for the recall).”

Former City Councilor Terry Schumacher, who said he supports the recall effort, agrees with Hardy that the council’s decision to fire Brocato was not the key factor in prompting the recall.

“They have the right to make that decision,” said Schumacher, who attended a meeting of recall proponents Wednesday night.

Schumacher, who was a member of the City Council that hired Brocato in January 2007, thinks Dorrah should have scheduled an executive session, which is closed to the public, so councilors who were concerned about Brocato’s performance could discuss those concerns in detail.

“I would like to hear more explicit reasons than they gave,” said Schumacher, who ran for re-election in November 2008 but was not successful.

Schumacher said in his view Brocato emphasized to councilors, before they hired him in 2007, that his management style would probably differ from his predecessors’.

Brocato’s manner in dealing with the public and the council is one reason councilors cited for his dismissal. It’s also the area in which he received the lowest marks when councilors evaluated him in May.

“When we hired him we knew he wasn’t a bureaucrat,” Schumacher said. “He was a manager and he’s done an excellent job.”

Reasons for demanding recall of Dennis Dorrah, as listed on recall petition:

* “Dennis Dorrah has proven his inability to provide adequate leadership of the City Council”

* “Dorrah assumes powers beyond those granted to him as Mayor by the City Charter”

* “Dorrah has denied citizen participation on key issues affecting the City”

* “Dorrah claims power to manage the city with neither the skill, nor the power, to manage”

* “Dorrah caused the firing of an effective city manager without notice to citizens, employees and other councilors”

* “Dorrah’s lack of leadership has caused employee morale to sharply decline”

* “Dorrah has become a source of embarrassment to many citizens of Baker City”

Reasons for demanding recall of Beverly Calder, as listed on recall petition:

* “Beverly Calder continues to demonstrate her inability to work effectively with other Council members”

* “Calder says she wants more Citizen participation, yet she went along with the Mayor to deny citizen involvement in the recent firing of the City Manager”

* “Calder places her own agenda ahead of the interests of the Citizens and has contempt for anyone who disagrees with her”

* “She acts independently of the City Council to advance her interest despite the needs of the City”

* “Calder’s positions on issues are controversial and inconsistent with the public good”