Three incumbents, Coles qualify for Council ballot

Baker City voters will have four candidates, not five, to choose from in the Nov. 2 City Council election.

Although five people had gathered signatures to qualify as candidates before the filing deadline at 5 p.m. Tuesday, it turns out that incumbent Gail Duman, who was appointed by the Council to replace Andrew Bryan after he resigned in late May, is not eligible for this year’s election.

The Nov. 2 ballot will include four candidates for the four openings on the seven-member council: Incumbents Dennis Dorrah, Beverly Calder and Clair Button, along with Roger Coles.

Coles is a member of the city’s budget board.

The reason for Duman’s disqualification is Section 7 of the city’s charter, City Recorder Becky Fitzpatrick said.

That section, which lists the qualifications for councilors, reads in part: “no person may serve as a councilor for more than two consecutive terms, or any portion thereof.”

Here’s why that section affects Duman:

She was elected in November 2006 to a two-year term that ran from January 2007 through December 2008.

Duman ran, unsuccessfully, for re-election in November 2008. She was 105 votes short of winning a seat on the Council.

But then, in June of this year, Duman was appointed to serve the remainder of Bryan’s term, which ends Dec. 31 of this year.

Because Bryan’s term ran consecutively with the two-year term to which Duman was elected, by serving a portion of Bryan’s term she already has, according to the city charter, served two consecutive terms.

And that means she’s not eligible to run for re-election this November.

Fitzpatrick said she noticed, when reading the city charter after being named as city recorder this summer, that councilors can’t serve more than two consecutive terms.

She said she asked the city’s contract attorney, Dan Van Thiel, to look at the charter and decide whether Section 7 applies to Duman’s situation.

Van Thiel agreed that it does apply, Fitzpatrick said.

Duman said Tuesday afternoon that although she’s “a little disappointed” that she’s not eligible to run in the Nov. 2 election, she understands the term limits section of the charter.

“I’m fine with it,” she said. “We still have four excellent candidates for four openings.”

Duman said she hadn’t even considered running this fall until she was subjected to “gentle persuasion from some other councilors.”

Duman said she was also encouraged to seek another term by the Council’s recent decision to hire Mike Kee as city manager.

Duman could run for a seat on the Council in 2012.