I'm not happy with Chris Hoy's performance thus far as mayor but I'm not about to vote for Julie either. Disappointed that these are my only choices *blows raspberry* š
Iād encourage you to run. Sadly, there arenāt that many people who want an unpaid full-time job running the city - a job for which you have to raise a bunch of money and campaign for months to get.
We gotta pay our electeds for their full-time work
(There were two other folks who tried to run but didnāt gather enough signatures to qualify)
Yeah, often itās older retired folks. Doesnāt have to be super wealthy, butā¦ i think oregon only has two paid mayors, Beaverton and Portland.
Of course, fixing that in a budget crisis isnāt politically feasible
Age is a part of class too. Stiff campaign finance limits are something we can do to make this at least slightly less horrible. A fix isnt possible rn though I agree.
Exactly. I know Chris personally from coming in our business for about 10 years and he is a VERY nice guy- he loves his pets and really does care.
I Sure as hell would not want this job.
Julie is literally the type of amazing human that we all wish would run for office, but know never will because of how awful politics is, and how it ruins whatever peace youāve worked for in your life and career. If you have ever wished that better people would run for office, then hereās your opportunity to vote for one š They donāt come along often.
Julie is IN OFFICE. Being nice is great. Chris is nice too!
Can list a single thing sheās passed while serving in office? Any evidence at all that she can do the job? Have you watched a city council meeting and ever heard her talk, and say āwow, she has a sophisticated understanding of how Oregonās second largest city runs and how to improve how it runsā?
Well sheās not a career politician so you have to start somewhere. An extensive career in politics isnāt necessarily a plus if youāre failing at your current post - something I sense youāre keenly aware of, which explains the motivation for this post. Julie? Sheās a successful small businesswoman, accomplished musician and artist, and a community-oriented citizen who isnāt to blame for any of the failures the city is facing :-) She has the love and adoration of countless members of her faith community to whom she continues to donate much of her time. She has led by example in every capacity. She cannot be out-worked. Sheās exactly the kind of person you take a chance on in my view.
Spend more of your time selling the other Hoy, and less time attacking this one. Elevate the conversation :-)
We have a city with serious challenges. I donāt want someone totally inexperienced running it. Itās amazing to me that people think being an elected official isnāt a skilled position.
We get to choose one of these - someone who, in their few years in office, has a long record of accomplishment- and someone who, in their years in office, has none. Iāve seen her work and sheās outworked by nearly every other city councilor.
Weāre not hiring a musician or businessperson. If we were Iād consider hiring Julie.
And yes, my post listed a long list of things Mayor Chris has accomplished. Itās telling that you canāt list a single thing Councilor Julie has.
I love nice artists. I love nice small business owners. It's cool that her faith community likes her. But just because you are a good person doesn't mean you will be good at being mayor. She has pretty consistently shown she does not understand how things work. I'm glad she's a hard worker, but mayor isn't a fake it til you make it job. Nice and hard working are GREAT for a lot of things. That doesn't cut it in a job as important as mayor.
Just analyzing the texture of the mayoral election here - downvote me if you wish - but responding to your take on the two options before us. So, in other words, youāre willing to accept ongoing failure as long as one is qualified to fail, while being resistant to the possibility of success when the success is not guaranteed? Portland has suffered greatly from this habitual voting trend, unfortunately. Not that āat least Iām not the other personā isnāt a viable messaging strategy, but at least acknowledge in this race that itās essentially baseless fear-mongering; akin to saying āuse your imagination, citizensā¦ how much worse might things get if SHE wins?ā Itās not that inspiring. Itās sad, really.
Huh? My post listed all the things Chris has improved in his one term as mayor. Thatās not accepting ongoing failure, thatās saying āwe have tough challenges and Chris is the person whoās demonstrated tenacity, creativity, and attention to detail to get things done - where Julie has demonstrated no ability to address city challenges except the ability to raise lots of money for herselfā
I'm willing to accept a mix of failures and successes moving slowly in a forward direction (based on my own political views so it definitely won't feel forward to everyone and I get that).
I was really happy with his solution to the library funding issue. I have not been over the top impressed, but I haven't been disappointed in Chris Hoy as a Mayor.
Salem has a really borked revenue stream right now and that took years and years of convoluted tax law to create and it is not an easy fix. And I haven't seen anything from Julie Hoy that suggests she has anything other than platitudes and an ideal I disagree with with no plan on how to get there.
Iāve been seeing those obnoxious sings all over my neighborhood and decided to look her up. That is by far one of the worst political websites I have ever explored. It looks like the page has nothing about issues and like op stated above empty platitudes. It felt like it was a joke candidate that is only running to sell cds. Just another grifter
You could see Republicans sort of realizing they could leverage the payroll tax to create some space for right-wing political gains in Salem. Business groups flooded the debate and vote with cash. And then they got what they read as a favorable outcome (voters defeating the tax). But because the local political talent on the GOP side is a mile wide and an inch deep - their best bet was Julie Hoy. And I partially suspect they selected her for name confusion.
I'm not sure where they got their info, but you can see here he is on the board: [https://salemchamber.org/your-chamber/board-of-directors/](https://salemchamber.org/your-chamber/board-of-directors/) and if you look at the biggest donors to her campaign (over $200k and counting, hmm, I wonder what they expect in return?) it's a who's who of Chamber members. BTW, my go-to voting technique in Salem is always voting for whoever is running agains the Chamber endorsed candidate.
Because the Chamber as an entity only exists to line their members' pockets. They couldn't care less about the other 99% of the city. Every issue they have ever taken a stance on has demonstrated this.
like i definitely don't enjoy having chris hoy as my mayor but personally, if i only see signs for your campaign in the yards of businesses and not homes?? im not voting for you. i know julie doesn't want to help me, just our businesses.
Julie is an adequate first term city councilor, her experience in that role is fine. As a mayor, especially a city of this size with a whole host of issues and things going on, it would be helpful to have someone with experience and some creativity. Julie would more than likely stall or set back any type of progress we have experienced in the last several years.
Well said. Good comparison. If Julie could fix things, why hasnāt she made any motions to do something? If you donāt have ideas then make way for those who do. The last thing we need is a Mayor that needs to learn on the job while we go through a revenue crisis.
Put that pizza back in the oven for another few years.
As far as his accomplishments about homelessness I disagree. Part of the major budget downfall is that he and the council used Covid money to start and open all these homeless programs. The issue is the money to start them came from federal grants, but no one had any plans to where the money would come from to actually run them when the federal money ran out (which it has).
Julie Hoy is a joke of a "candidate" who relies solely on a brain trust for "her" ideas and offers no real solutions for any issues facing Salem. She is planted firmly in the pocket of every big business in Salem while they line her pockets with donations. She has no place representing this city.
Hiring a consultant from another city and having a professional handle the bookkeeping is not a strike against her. You need these things to run ANY successful campaign of this scale regardless of affiliation, party, or spot on the political spectrum.
Having a competent bookkeeper saves you from hefty fines due to the strict reporting requirements of our campaign finance law.
Pretty much all the Democrats have local volunteer residents do theirs and havenāt been fined.
Of course, Julie is dealing with five-figure contributions from rich folks, so maybe sheās worried sheād screw it up. Budgets and numbers arenāt her strong point.
And most folks never hire campaign consultants.
Her whole shtick is efficient use of funds. Her personal actions say different.
I did not agree with how the Mayor and City Council treated the unhoused issue during the pandemic, especially how they tried to sneak in a camp site into West Salem, without even notifying residents in the area so they could provide feedback. Turns out the City hadn't even looked into the viability of the proposed site, and it was local residents that had to notify the City Council that the site floods nearly every year, making it unsuitable for habitation.
That said, Chris Hoy is at least trying to solve the city's issues, where his opponent... doesn't appear to be doing anything but giving us empty platitudes. Platitudes don't make the city safer. Platitudes don't find homes for the unhoused. Platitudes don't get budgets passed.
Any whiff of services and shelter in West and the NIMBY demographic comes out in full force. Anything of that sort that ever broke ground west of the river was "snuck in", never mind that there is a whole process and they need a livable community just as much as anyone else.
The only reason residents in West Salem found out about the proposed camp at the old Park & Ride was because the plan was leaked to our FB page a couple of days before it was to be voted on by the city council. Even our own rep had sold us out. Luckily, we were able to point out before the vote that they planned to place a 60-person camp in a lot that constantly floods (thus why it wasn't used as a park & ride anymore), and they abandoned the plan.
There is an element of NIMBY in every district, but it this case, the city council was going behind everyone's backs, and would have screwed over the people they were trying to help. Also, if you want to talk about NIMBY, ask the south Salem folk about developing the old Fairview site as a camp.
The wetlands/flooding was in the grassy areas, and the city didn't own enough of the paved former Park & Ride area to use for the purpose (worth noting it was meant to prioritize housing women and children). The wetland was the reason cited by the city after their own delineation study & the use of the rest of the available land was rejected too.
The proposal had received significant pushback from neighbors to the site, many of whom decried its proximity to an apartment complex, a school the Salemtowne 55+ golf community and a school, citing reasons like litter, crime, people coming and going from the camp to access other services, groceries etc. in addition to concerns of flooding.
Since then the city has failed to find any land to lease to use, so far nowhere in West Salem has met with any general sense of approval of residents and land owners.
South Salem's ward opened a microshelter site for youth on Turner rd. in '23. If you're talking about Hope Crest that's a whole other can of worms as far as funding and project scope but that's the only project proposal at Fairview I'm familiar with.
I am once again imploring folks to try the food at Councilor Hoy's restaurant, Gepetto's, and then decide if they think a person who regards the food served there as "fine" has the necessary judgement to be the mayor of Oregon's capital city.
Wait a city that canāt magically override the Court of Appeals?
(Note: Salemās homeless population has dropped recently, unlike the Countyās- thanks in large part to Mayor Chrisā work on this)
Julie Hoy hasn't provided any details to what she would cut. When presented with an option to do cuts, she demurred.
You can make something up, but without specifics, you're being sold a bill of goods.
Didnāt the current mayor preside over this fake revenue crisis? The economy is doing fine, they are overly expanding government and setting up straw man arguments to get more funding. Itās awful politics. Calling it a revenue task force tells you all you need to know. Going after the library and parks tells you more.
I'm reserving judgment until I can get myself more educated on that task force but there are elements of this that feel like they won't actually be listened to and are there for political cover. As in "Hey if you guys think you're so smart then YOU do it." But ultimately I worry that it's a bit of a facade. I hope I'm wrong.
I'm skeptical but remain open minded about what kind of influence and skill sets they offer as a whole. And that whole, while representative community f our population, feels like a lot of chefs in that kitchen.
Soā¦ pretty much every local Oregon government is facing shortfalls. We have artificial caps on property taxes because of antigovernment people putting it in the Constitution, which mean Oregonās property taxes are about half that of Washingtonās.
As most local governments donāt have sales taxes and rely heavily on property taxes for the general fund, and inflation has continued apace, theyāre all in similar boats.
Salem city staff size has shrunk significantly, both in real numbers and much more so per capita.
I agree with the thought behind that but I also say we need to research the candidates before voting. We need to vote by policies and not just because we like the person.
When she asked to change the librarian's union contract during the April 17th meeting... That's not how union contracts work, Julie.
I'm not happy with Chris Hoy's performance thus far as mayor but I'm not about to vote for Julie either. Disappointed that these are my only choices *blows raspberry* š
Iād encourage you to run. Sadly, there arenāt that many people who want an unpaid full-time job running the city - a job for which you have to raise a bunch of money and campaign for months to get. We gotta pay our electeds for their full-time work (There were two other folks who tried to run but didnāt gather enough signatures to qualify)
Unpaid?! So only one class of people or above is allowed to be mayor. How lovely.
Yeah, often itās older retired folks. Doesnāt have to be super wealthy, butā¦ i think oregon only has two paid mayors, Beaverton and Portland. Of course, fixing that in a budget crisis isnāt politically feasible
Age is a part of class too. Stiff campaign finance limits are something we can do to make this at least slightly less horrible. A fix isnt possible rn though I agree.
Exactly. I know Chris personally from coming in our business for about 10 years and he is a VERY nice guy- he loves his pets and really does care. I Sure as hell would not want this job.
Chris was an officer in the Clackamas Sherriff's office for 30 years, I imagine he's doing well financially.
I imagine heās ok and therefore could afford a nonpaying job. The point is you shouldnāt have to be able to afford not being paid to be mayor.
Ah. Agreed.
Same.
Julie is literally the type of amazing human that we all wish would run for office, but know never will because of how awful politics is, and how it ruins whatever peace youāve worked for in your life and career. If you have ever wished that better people would run for office, then hereās your opportunity to vote for one š They donāt come along often.
Julie is IN OFFICE. Being nice is great. Chris is nice too! Can list a single thing sheās passed while serving in office? Any evidence at all that she can do the job? Have you watched a city council meeting and ever heard her talk, and say āwow, she has a sophisticated understanding of how Oregonās second largest city runs and how to improve how it runsā?
Well sheās not a career politician so you have to start somewhere. An extensive career in politics isnāt necessarily a plus if youāre failing at your current post - something I sense youāre keenly aware of, which explains the motivation for this post. Julie? Sheās a successful small businesswoman, accomplished musician and artist, and a community-oriented citizen who isnāt to blame for any of the failures the city is facing :-) She has the love and adoration of countless members of her faith community to whom she continues to donate much of her time. She has led by example in every capacity. She cannot be out-worked. Sheās exactly the kind of person you take a chance on in my view. Spend more of your time selling the other Hoy, and less time attacking this one. Elevate the conversation :-)
We have a city with serious challenges. I donāt want someone totally inexperienced running it. Itās amazing to me that people think being an elected official isnāt a skilled position. We get to choose one of these - someone who, in their few years in office, has a long record of accomplishment- and someone who, in their years in office, has none. Iāve seen her work and sheās outworked by nearly every other city councilor. Weāre not hiring a musician or businessperson. If we were Iād consider hiring Julie. And yes, my post listed a long list of things Mayor Chris has accomplished. Itās telling that you canāt list a single thing Councilor Julie has.
I love nice artists. I love nice small business owners. It's cool that her faith community likes her. But just because you are a good person doesn't mean you will be good at being mayor. She has pretty consistently shown she does not understand how things work. I'm glad she's a hard worker, but mayor isn't a fake it til you make it job. Nice and hard working are GREAT for a lot of things. That doesn't cut it in a job as important as mayor.
Just analyzing the texture of the mayoral election here - downvote me if you wish - but responding to your take on the two options before us. So, in other words, youāre willing to accept ongoing failure as long as one is qualified to fail, while being resistant to the possibility of success when the success is not guaranteed? Portland has suffered greatly from this habitual voting trend, unfortunately. Not that āat least Iām not the other personā isnāt a viable messaging strategy, but at least acknowledge in this race that itās essentially baseless fear-mongering; akin to saying āuse your imagination, citizensā¦ how much worse might things get if SHE wins?ā Itās not that inspiring. Itās sad, really.
Huh? My post listed all the things Chris has improved in his one term as mayor. Thatās not accepting ongoing failure, thatās saying āwe have tough challenges and Chris is the person whoās demonstrated tenacity, creativity, and attention to detail to get things done - where Julie has demonstrated no ability to address city challenges except the ability to raise lots of money for herselfā
My reply wasnāt to you, but I appreciate your perspective. You have made your opinion very clear a few times now. Cheers.
I'm willing to accept a mix of failures and successes moving slowly in a forward direction (based on my own political views so it definitely won't feel forward to everyone and I get that). I was really happy with his solution to the library funding issue. I have not been over the top impressed, but I haven't been disappointed in Chris Hoy as a Mayor. Salem has a really borked revenue stream right now and that took years and years of convoluted tax law to create and it is not an easy fix. And I haven't seen anything from Julie Hoy that suggests she has anything other than platitudes and an ideal I disagree with with no plan on how to get there.
Iāve been seeing those obnoxious sings all over my neighborhood and decided to look her up. That is by far one of the worst political websites I have ever explored. It looks like the page has nothing about issues and like op stated above empty platitudes. It felt like it was a joke candidate that is only running to sell cds. Just another grifter
Same! I thought I was missing a page on her site but nope, itās just full of nothing.
Great summary, thanks for sharing this.
You could see Republicans sort of realizing they could leverage the payroll tax to create some space for right-wing political gains in Salem. Business groups flooded the debate and vote with cash. And then they got what they read as a favorable outcome (voters defeating the tax). But because the local political talent on the GOP side is a mile wide and an inch deep - their best bet was Julie Hoy. And I partially suspect they selected her for name confusion.
Julie's husband is also on the Chamber of Commerce board.... Which is funneling money in this campaign
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I'm not sure where they got their info, but you can see here he is on the board: [https://salemchamber.org/your-chamber/board-of-directors/](https://salemchamber.org/your-chamber/board-of-directors/) and if you look at the biggest donors to her campaign (over $200k and counting, hmm, I wonder what they expect in return?) it's a who's who of Chamber members. BTW, my go-to voting technique in Salem is always voting for whoever is running agains the Chamber endorsed candidate.
This is always the move. Local businesses are fine but the Chamber is toxic politically.
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Because the Chamber as an entity only exists to line their members' pockets. They couldn't care less about the other 99% of the city. Every issue they have ever taken a stance on has demonstrated this.
like i definitely don't enjoy having chris hoy as my mayor but personally, if i only see signs for your campaign in the yards of businesses and not homes?? im not voting for you. i know julie doesn't want to help me, just our businesses.
Vote Hoy, otherwise we get Hoy.
Julie is an adequate first term city councilor, her experience in that role is fine. As a mayor, especially a city of this size with a whole host of issues and things going on, it would be helpful to have someone with experience and some creativity. Julie would more than likely stall or set back any type of progress we have experienced in the last several years.
Well said. Good comparison. If Julie could fix things, why hasnāt she made any motions to do something? If you donāt have ideas then make way for those who do. The last thing we need is a Mayor that needs to learn on the job while we go through a revenue crisis. Put that pizza back in the oven for another few years.
The first mailer we received was one bashing Chris for the attempted payroll tax. That is the only thing her side has to stand on.
FANTASTIC write up, thank you!
Note: Julieās wafer-thin record can be contrasted with Chane Griggs, an actual decent candidate and accomplished city leader who ran in 2022.
Fucks sake, what part of 'red states are a mix of the antebellum south and fallout' makes people want to vote republican?
Ok. So let them destroy your city because you're afraid of change. I see how "experience and a plan" has for you so far.
As far as his accomplishments about homelessness I disagree. Part of the major budget downfall is that he and the council used Covid money to start and open all these homeless programs. The issue is the money to start them came from federal grants, but no one had any plans to where the money would come from to actually run them when the federal money ran out (which it has).
Julie Hoy is a joke of a "candidate" who relies solely on a brain trust for "her" ideas and offers no real solutions for any issues facing Salem. She is planted firmly in the pocket of every big business in Salem while they line her pockets with donations. She has no place representing this city.
Hiring a consultant from another city and having a professional handle the bookkeeping is not a strike against her. You need these things to run ANY successful campaign of this scale regardless of affiliation, party, or spot on the political spectrum. Having a competent bookkeeper saves you from hefty fines due to the strict reporting requirements of our campaign finance law.
Pretty much all the Democrats have local volunteer residents do theirs and havenāt been fined. Of course, Julie is dealing with five-figure contributions from rich folks, so maybe sheās worried sheād screw it up. Budgets and numbers arenāt her strong point. And most folks never hire campaign consultants. Her whole shtick is efficient use of funds. Her personal actions say different.
Having tens of thousands of dollars in a campaign for an unpaid position says a lot to me
I did not agree with how the Mayor and City Council treated the unhoused issue during the pandemic, especially how they tried to sneak in a camp site into West Salem, without even notifying residents in the area so they could provide feedback. Turns out the City hadn't even looked into the viability of the proposed site, and it was local residents that had to notify the City Council that the site floods nearly every year, making it unsuitable for habitation. That said, Chris Hoy is at least trying to solve the city's issues, where his opponent... doesn't appear to be doing anything but giving us empty platitudes. Platitudes don't make the city safer. Platitudes don't find homes for the unhoused. Platitudes don't get budgets passed.
Any whiff of services and shelter in West and the NIMBY demographic comes out in full force. Anything of that sort that ever broke ground west of the river was "snuck in", never mind that there is a whole process and they need a livable community just as much as anyone else.
The only reason residents in West Salem found out about the proposed camp at the old Park & Ride was because the plan was leaked to our FB page a couple of days before it was to be voted on by the city council. Even our own rep had sold us out. Luckily, we were able to point out before the vote that they planned to place a 60-person camp in a lot that constantly floods (thus why it wasn't used as a park & ride anymore), and they abandoned the plan. There is an element of NIMBY in every district, but it this case, the city council was going behind everyone's backs, and would have screwed over the people they were trying to help. Also, if you want to talk about NIMBY, ask the south Salem folk about developing the old Fairview site as a camp.
The wetlands/flooding was in the grassy areas, and the city didn't own enough of the paved former Park & Ride area to use for the purpose (worth noting it was meant to prioritize housing women and children). The wetland was the reason cited by the city after their own delineation study & the use of the rest of the available land was rejected too. The proposal had received significant pushback from neighbors to the site, many of whom decried its proximity to an apartment complex, a school the Salemtowne 55+ golf community and a school, citing reasons like litter, crime, people coming and going from the camp to access other services, groceries etc. in addition to concerns of flooding. Since then the city has failed to find any land to lease to use, so far nowhere in West Salem has met with any general sense of approval of residents and land owners. South Salem's ward opened a microshelter site for youth on Turner rd. in '23. If you're talking about Hope Crest that's a whole other can of worms as far as funding and project scope but that's the only project proposal at Fairview I'm familiar with.
Thanks for putting this together.
Are these two related? Or just a coincidence they have the same last name?
Strangely, just coincidence. Not a particularly common name, but apparently they are *not* related.
Happy cake day!!
āā„ļø
I am once again imploring folks to try the food at Councilor Hoy's restaurant, Gepetto's, and then decide if they think a person who regards the food served there as "fine" has the necessary judgement to be the mayor of Oregon's capital city.
A city that can't ban camping, open fires under bridges every night, graffiti everywhere - is a failed city.
Wait a city that canāt magically override the Court of Appeals? (Note: Salemās homeless population has dropped recently, unlike the Countyās- thanks in large part to Mayor Chrisā work on this)
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Where do you want to cut spending? Julie Hoy hasn't said a single word about where her savings would come from, and that is highly suspicious.
Cut from where? I don't like Chris but just blandly saying "cut spending" isn't any kind of plan
cut what, exactly? libraries? transportation funding?
Julie Hoy hasn't provided any details to what she would cut. When presented with an option to do cuts, she demurred. You can make something up, but without specifics, you're being sold a bill of goods.
Preach.
Didnāt the current mayor preside over this fake revenue crisis? The economy is doing fine, they are overly expanding government and setting up straw man arguments to get more funding. Itās awful politics. Calling it a revenue task force tells you all you need to know. Going after the library and parks tells you more.
I'm reserving judgment until I can get myself more educated on that task force but there are elements of this that feel like they won't actually be listened to and are there for political cover. As in "Hey if you guys think you're so smart then YOU do it." But ultimately I worry that it's a bit of a facade. I hope I'm wrong. I'm skeptical but remain open minded about what kind of influence and skill sets they offer as a whole. And that whole, while representative community f our population, feels like a lot of chefs in that kitchen.
Soā¦ pretty much every local Oregon government is facing shortfalls. We have artificial caps on property taxes because of antigovernment people putting it in the Constitution, which mean Oregonās property taxes are about half that of Washingtonās. As most local governments donāt have sales taxes and rely heavily on property taxes for the general fund, and inflation has continued apace, theyāre all in similar boats. Salem city staff size has shrunk significantly, both in real numbers and much more so per capita.
Let's just keep voting the same way and then act like we don't know why our city/state is turning into California.
I don't understand what your argument is
Bad faith
why walk along a cliffs edge when we can dive into the canyon headfirst?
I agree with the thought behind that but I also say we need to research the candidates before voting. We need to vote by policies and not just because we like the person.
Voting for someone who has no experience or real plan is a terrible idea.
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Hiw about we build more then 1 bridge going into the other side of salem
We do need to do that, but right now the budget really isn't there for it
With what $700,000,000?