North Plains is all but ready to select a new city manager. But what remains to be seen is whether the hiree and Russ Sheldon — current council president and candidate for North Plains mayor — will be investigated by the Oregon Secretary of State.

The city council is slated to approve a contract with Finance Director Bill Reid in an emergency meeting Tuesday, Oct. 29 — less than a week before a regularly scheduled council meeting.

Sheldon and Reid are accused of colluding to retaliate, intimidate and improperly use public officials’ time in the city’s handling of a video posted by challengers in the North Plains City Council races. Aaron Nichols, on behalf of the Save North Plains slate of three council candidates and mayoral candidate Ariel Goodwin, lodged the complaint with the Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division last week.

The video in question — now taken down — shows the Glencoe Opportunity Area, owned by the North Plains Urban Renewal Agency, scattered with garbage.

In the Oct. 22 letter Interim City Manager Rob Drake sent to the four candidates — Goodwin, Aaron Dumbrow, Mandy Hagedorn and Katie Reding — the city states that the video is evidence of possible criminal trespass and subjects the anonymous videographer to civil and criminal penalties.

“Further, the video represents an intentionally false and misleading statement for the purpose of affecting an election because the property has been remediated since it was posted for ‘no trespassing’ in 2023, and therefore the claim that it represents the property in its current condition or any time during the calendar year 2024 is false,” the letter read.

The video alleges that the footage was taken before “no trespassing” signs were installed at the site.

Not only did the letter expect the slate to remove the video from its website, but requested that the candidates issue a retraction “in order to clarify that the video is possible evidence of criminal trespass and so was regrettably shared as part of political campaign messaging.”

City leaders also stated intentions to “inform the Secretary of State’s Office of this video and incident,” though Drake told the News-Times that no action had yet been taken.

“I believe that this letter, by itself, is outright intimidation of a political campaign by the city they are running to represent and should be a gross ethical violation by whomever had a hand in it,” Nichols wrote in the complaint.

Who was behind the letter?

Drake signed off on the letter, but the temporary official — who is on his way out this Thursday — said he was not involved with drafting any of its actual contents.

“I did not draft it; I reviewed it,” he clarified. “It was drafted by an assortment of staff, and then it was approved by the city attorney to send it.”

Although Drake did not specify who was behind the letter, the ethics complaint brings attention to both Reid and Sheldon’s involvement through email correspondence, which Nichols alleges violates permissible political activity for Oregon elected officials and public employees.

Exhibit emails attached to the complaint show Sheldon directing Reid to send official authorized communications (believed to be the letters) to two recipients alongside the four candidates.

“We likely don’t have the full email chain (and after being caught, they likely switched to talking) but we do have direct evidence that Mr. Sheldon, from his North Plains email address, directed Mr. Reid, during work hours and also at his official email address, to include other campaign volunteers in the letters,” Nichols wrote in his complaint.

Neither Sheldon nor Reid said they had received notice of the ethics complaint as of Monday, Oct. 28, and declined to directly comment regarding the allegations.

As to why the director of finance was taking part in conversations pertaining to city notices, Reid said he was assisting Drake, who was also included in the string of emails.

“The interim city manager is involved in all aspects of business, but for different things, like property that we’ve owned for a while, and things that I assisted with the prior city manager, Mr. Drake has frequently consulted me and routed me into information for context or resources about things,” Reid said. “His duration was really only for a limited time, and so he’s far from familiar with everything.”

According to Sheldon, he became privy to the conversation as the chair of the city’s Urban Renewal Agency — which owns the property on Glencoe — and cited his “fiduciary responsibility” to protect city property from trespassing.

“As far as any ethics complaint, I can tell you that I have full faith and confidence that I would be fully exonerated of any of those things,” Sheldon said. “I have no idea what the claims are, and I really can’t give any comment on something that I haven’t looked at or reviewed.”

What’s on the property?

Although the city stated that it has “remediated” the property, it appears there is more cleaning up to do.

Emails as recently as Oct. 19 show Reid inquiring with a North Plains Parks & Recreation Board member about cleaning up the Glencoe Opportunity Area property, and Drake acknowledged how the area has been littered with garbage.

“Some folks have dumped trash on the site. So it does have no trespassing signs, and it has had over time — doesn’t keep people from removing them.” Drake said. “It could be a little dangerous to be around, especially if somebody goes by with children. It’s not a play area.”

Photos taken by the News-Times on Monday, Oct. 28, depict old bikes, bins and other trash laid across the property visible on the corner of Northwest Glencoe Road and Northwest Kaybern Street.

Notably, the area is where city leaders have eyed space for a new grocery store in the town — an addition that has been in discussions for years.

Who can use the park?

An additional complaint levied against Reid took issue with how park pavilion rental permits are issued in the city — contending that the North Plains financial director attempted to restrict the use of a public facility based on the political speech of the event.

A volunteer with the Save North Plains group requested the use of the Jessie Mays pavilion in early September — a request that was approved by city staff. Upon finding out that the reservation and the planned “Cookies with the Candidates” event by Save North Plains were one and the same, Reid challenged how the reservation was initially scheduled as a private event.

“Can you please clarify the application’s failure to disclose the true nature of the rental? We have insurance, public safety and sanitation considerations for a rental of this nature. We have a policy in practice of keeping rentals of the pavilion for private, family type events given the playground adjacency,” Reid wrote. “And we have to be neutral in how we implement our restrictions to private gatherings.”

“And since it is a public space for what will be a public political event, we cannot restrict the space to your affiliated candidates and their supporters. It will have to be open to everyone,” Reid continued.

The event did in fact take place, but Nichols questioned how Reid handled the matter, alleging inconsistency and lack of transparency.

“…He was unable to provide any policy or show where on the application the information he was demanding was asked for. I have specifically asked for this policy and he has refused to answer that question,” Nichols wrote.

The leadup to Reid

While the complaints could take months to resolve, the North Plains City Council is within a day from hiring Reid for city manager and less than two weeks away from Election Day.

The search for a new public employee to help guide the town was sparked when longtime city manager Andy Varner stepped away for a Beaverton community development director position in June. Varner was hired in 2018 on an initial salary of $105,000.

Drake, the previous city manager for Cornelius, took the helm in an interim capacity in late May of this year. Drake served as the mayor of Beaverton for 16 years prior to his time in Cornelius.

The contract slated for approval has Reid starting in his new duties as of Nov. 1 with a salary of $150,000 annually. A 3% raise, up to $154,500, is promised if Reid meets or exceeds expectations for the first six months of his tenure.

Like his predecessor, Reid will be in charge as the small town examines the prospect of growth and navigates rifts over its proposed urban growth boundary. After 72% of voters rejected plans to double the size of the city in May, the city has moved forward in its relook process — with a dedicated committee to propose a recommendation.

What leadership will exactly look like remains to be seen based on the results of the general election come Nov. 5, but Reid appears to be a guaranteed part of the process.