GEARHART — Residents will see three contested races on the November ballot — one for mayor, and two for City Council positions.

As candidates vie for voter attention, many are focused on two issues: the city’s water supply and plans for a new public safety building.

For decades, the city has purchased water from Warrenton, but recently, capacity has become an increasing concern, and residents have seen increased rates.

The city has also seen fierce debate over plans for a new public safety building to replace the aging firehouse on Pacific Way. The crumbling infrastructure and lack of training facilities have sparked concern for city staff, firefighters and some residents who argue a new facility should be built at higher elevation. In 2022, voters rejected a $14.5 million bond measure that would have financed the construction of a new firehouse off Highlands Lane along U.S. Highway 101.

Mayor

In the mayoral race, Mayor Kerry Smith will face developer Robert Morey.

Smith, who has lived in Gearhart for nearly 40 years and has worked as a general contractor, served on the City Council for eight years before being appointed to the role of mayor in 2022. This will be his first time seeking election for the position.

“I have started a couple of processes that I want to see come full circle,” Smith said. “One is getting the city to commit to building a new public safety building, and that’s for our fire and our police. If you saw what they have right now as far as office and facilities, you would just be appalled.”

Smith said he’s also initiated an application to the Oregon Water Resources Department to increase the city’s water supply.

In his time on the City Council, Smith helped pass items like the city’s vacation rental ordinance, transportation system master plan, dune vegetation plan and homeless camping ordinance, which has helped control camping in derelict vehicles. Looking ahead, he hopes to create a citizen committee to review the city’s comprehensive plan, and to bring improvements to the city while maintaining its residential character.

“I’m dedicated to Gearhart, and what is good for Gearhart,” Smith said. “I believe a lot of people like Gearhart for the way it is, and I’d like to see that it continues the way it is as a residential community, and not build it up into a tourist destination.”

Morey bought a house in Gearhart in 2016 and has lived in the city with his wife since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. He comes with a background in homebuilding and housing and land development — a strength he feels is missing on the City Council.

“I don’t have any day-to-day experience … in terms of being on a City Council. However, I do have the day-to-day experience dealing with city councils and planning commissions,” he said.

Morey said he’s completed projects in eight different cities in Oregon. In 2020, he and his wife purchased the former Gearhart Elementary School with the hope of sprucing up the site. The project, he added, has been a valuable learning experience and a means of connecting with the community.

Last year, Scofi Gearhart LLC, Morey’s company, withdrew an application to rezone the elementary school property for residential use after objections from the Planning Commission.

“We thought it was just too important to the entrance to the city to have it just deteriorate,” Morey said. “So we bought it with the idea that we’d try to save the iconic school and then make an attractive entrance coming into the city.”

Morey said he’s running to create a change on the City Council, specifically to address issues like work toward a new public safety building, which he said has been languishing for years. Other priorities include understanding the city water supply and providing better facilities for police and fire. He said his goal is to see city councilors cooperate, listen to one another and share strengths — something he’s grown familiar doing in his own work.

“I always rely on team members, so I don’t do this myself,” Morey said. “I have to have good land use counsel. I’ve got to have good planners, good engineers. Without them, I don’t get anything done.”

Position 2

In Position 2, longtime resident and former Mayor Paulina Cockrum is running against artist David Savinar for an open seat. City Councilor Reita Fackerell chose not to run for reelection.

Cockrum, a retired nurse who worked at Providence Seaside Hospital and Columbia Memorial Hospital, has lived in different areas on the North Coast — including Gearhart — for more than 40 years. She first got involved in Gearhart’s local government in the 1990s, when she sat on the Planning Commission and a committee working to update the city’s comprehensive plan.

Cockrum rejoined the Planning Commission from 2008 to 2015 before being appointed to the City Council. She was elected to the City Council in 2018. She was elected mayor in 2020, serving for two years before resigning in the wake of the 2022 vote against the new firehouse bond to take a break from elected office.

“I did not like the tone of some of my constituents,” said Cockrum, who supported the bond measure. “It felt abusive to me, to their public officials, and so I quit and took a couple of years off to kind of grieve that.”

Now, Cockrum said she’s ready to bring her skills back to the City Council. She hopes to use the experience she’s gained in communication, administration and managing large projects as a nurse to contribute to a well-functioning team. Her goal is to work with the City Council on its list of priorities and find opportunities for compromise.

She used the city’s failed firehouse bond as an example.

“There are people in Gearhart who believe the fire station should be built on high ground, and there are people that think it should be built downtown, in the current location,” she said. “I’m not sure that Gearhart will find a solution unless people are willing to move those positions just a little bit and try and find something in the middle — and I don’t mean that necessarily in terms of height.”

Savinar, an artist who rents a studio in Gearhart, has spent all of his life coming to the beach and bringing his children to the coast. He has had a second home in Gearhart for 18 years and has been a permanent resident for the last four.

“Gearhart is a great place, it’s my happy place,” Savinar said. “And there’s been a lot of back-and-forth on a lot of things here, and I care about this town, and I think I have a vision of what it could be, even though it’s awesome right now.”

Savinar has an extensive background in advertising, working for major brands like L’Oréal, Campbell’s and Coke, including a stint as creative director for L’Oréal in Mexico City. He has also served on the boards of several arts-focused nonprofits, including the Maryhill Museum of Art and Pacific Northwest College of Art, where he was on a transition team as the college merged with Willamette University. He currently sits on the board of Astoria Visual Arts.

Savinar said he sees himself as a networker and collaborator, and emphasized the importance of listening to others as a city councilor. He hopes to work with councilors to support businesses and help steer growth and improvements to the downtown area.

His volunteer experience on nonprofit boards, he added, could be an asset to the city council.

“That’s community service, and I think that’s something I’m very proud of and passionate about,” Savinar said. “So you know, what better place to do it (than) where you live?”

Position 4

In Position 4, City Councilor Sharon Kloepfer faces former Clatsop County Commissioner Patricia Roberts.

Kloepfer, who moved to Gearhart in 2015, has a range of experience, from helping extend the Ridge Path trail to becoming part of the city’s Community Emergency Response Team and organizing an emergency preparedness town hall. Kloepfer has been on the Gearhart budget committee for three years, and has also served on the Planning Commission.

“I think it taught me a very good lesson, and that lesson is to look at an issue from all sides before making decisions or recommendations about it,” Kloepfer said. “It was really important on the Planning Commission to do that, but it’s also important as a city councilor.”

This will be Kloepfer’s first time up for election after being appointed to the City Council in 2023. She said she hopes to continue to seek public input and engage in conversations about a public safety building, water rights and the urban growth boundary. Specifically, she hopes to see more transparency and open communication from the city on those issues.

Kloepfer added that she sees it as her role to represent the interests of citizens in alignment with the city’s comprehensive plan.

“I don’t want to only hear viewpoints that support what may be my inclination, because, you know, the bottom line is, it’s not about me,” she said. “I’m there to represent the people. If I’m elected, I will have been elected to represent the citizens of Gearhart. And so I’m only one Gearhart citizen — it’s really about what the majority wants.”

Roberts, who has lived full-time in Gearhart for about a dozen years and has owned a house in the area for decades longer, brings a background in historic preservation as a member of the Gearhart Landmarks Commission and the Clatsop County Historical Society board.

“I have a real knowledge and appreciation of our city’s history, our county’s history and our country’s history, and a commitment to the preservation of those events, buildings and environment that are worth keeping,” she said. “That’s really what it’s about to me.”

Roberts also has represented the area on the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, where she said she helped pass budgets and add new judges’ chambers to the county courthouse. The experience working with staff and fellow commissioners has informed her approach to problem-solving.

“I think we came to understand one another,” Roberts said, “which is what I say — that you approach people, no matter who they are, with respect, and you’ll receive some back. And if you are open and genuinely want to hear what they have to say, it’s completely different than going in with a closed mind.”

Roberts narrowly survived a recall election as a county commissioner in 2009, primarily over her support of a potential liquefied natural gas project in the county. She said she saw the project as an opportunity to provide funding for a new jail and drug treatment for adults in custody — benefits that to her would have outweighed perceived dangers.

Among Roberts’ priorities are advocating for transparency and regular reporting on the city’s water supply, an engaged public process for a public safety building and tools for navigating upcoming changes surrounding flood plain development recently announced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“I now have the time and energy to do something more for the city,” Roberts said. “And I mean that because Gearhart is at a really — well, it’s always a critical junction. But we have big, big, big issues.”