We’ll get to the Ellis issue in a moment, but first a quick note about three local blood drives this week – supplies are currently dangerously low.

What is happening is that blood products are being sent to hospitals faster than donations are coming in. And, importantly, the supply of Type O blood is so low that distributions have been reduced below what hospitals expected. Since July 1, the Red Cross’s national blood supply has fallen by more than 25%.

Here are two dates and three places where you can donate blood this week…

August 14, 2024: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., Natural Grocers, 1235 NW 10th St.

August 14, 2024: 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Corvallis Clinic Corvallis – Aumann Building, 444 NW Elks Dr.

August 16, 2024: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., Corvallis Library, 645 NW Monroe Ave.

The city’s legal expenses to remove a popular city councilor amount to nearly $175,000

At the end of July, the city’s legal costs in the Ellis case totaled $174,600.98 – more than enough to rent a two-bedroom apartment to eight needy families for a year.

According to Zillow, the average price for such an apartment in Corvallis is $1,728 per month. The calculation of the legal fees comes from Patrick Rollens, the press spokesman for Corvallis.

Okay, maybe you’re not sure what the Ellis thing is…

Here is the overview: In addition to being a councilman, Ellis also chairs the city’s Climate Action Advisory Board (CAAB). The city staffer who once supported the CAAB left in April to take another job and was never replaced. Boards like these are typically made up of a mix of community volunteers and elected members like Councilman Ellis, and often require the assistance of paid staff to identify opportunities and challenges and ensure the board complies with open meeting laws. They often create agendas, take minutes, and post meeting videos for public access.

Ellis wanted to address the staffing need at CAAB and began talking with her CAAB colleagues about whether she should ask the City Council to instruct City Manager Mark Shepard to find a replacement for the departing employee, first by advertising the position and then by reporting progress to the City Council on an ongoing basis. One CAAB member moved this, another seconded it, and the motion passed.

At that time, several board members expressed their impression that the city’s senior staff did not consider the CAAB and thus the climate a priority.

Five days later, on September 18, Ellis brought the matter before the City Council, but her motion never came to a vote because the City Attorney pointed out that directing the City Manager to make a hire would violate the City’s charter. Instead, the Council approved a motion directing the City Manager to ensure that the CAAB received the necessary City support for monthly meetings.

Wait, what does this have to do with trying to exclude Ellis? Well, someone approached a member of the City Council’s Executive Committee and complained that Ellis’ actions violated the City Charter. We asked all of the Executive Committee members to identify the complainant – all of them responded, but no one identified the complainant by name.

Here is the section of the Charter that the complainant and/or the leadership committee allege Ellis violated.

Section 23(f) of the city constitution states: “Neither the mayor nor any member of the council shall in any manner, directly or indirectly, by suggestion or otherwise, attempt to influence or coerce the manager in the appointment or dismissal of any officer or employee, or in the purchase of supplies; or attempt to extract from any candidate for manager any promises with respect to any appointment, or discuss directly or indirectly with the manager the question of any particular appointment to any city office or employment. A violation of the foregoing provisions of this section shall result in the forfeiture of the offender’s office. Nothing in this section shall, however, be construed to prohibit the council, during a public meeting, from discussing fully and freely with the manager anything affecting the affairs or interests of the city, or from making suggestions to him.”

In short, the Leadership Committee has scheduled a due process hearing to determine whether Ellis has lost her seat on the Council.

Here’s who was on the leadership committee: The members of the Leadership Committee at the time the Ellis matter was placed on the agenda were Mayor Charles Maughan, City Manager Mark Shepard, City Attorney James Brewer, former City Council President Tracey Yee and City Council Vice President Hyatt Lytle.

Yee has since resigned and was replaced by new City Council President Paul Schaffer, who has publicly opposed Ellis’s expulsion. Brewer has since retired and it appears Lytle will not seek another term.

Two opinions we published at The Advocate: We have published a statement letter from 17 former Corvallis City Council members, one of whom later became mayor, who believe the current City Council has no basis to take action against Ellis. Click here to read their letter.

We also published our own editorial calling for the matter to be dropped and advocating for recordings of future leadership committee meetings to be made publicly available. Click here to read our editorial.

What’s next: The city has not backed down and the matter is still pending, leaving it in the hands of the court. In the meantime, Ellis filed his candidacy for another term in November and is currently unopposed.