Author: North Coast BBQ

Councilor Stock voted to approve Resolution 23-23 at the December 6, 2023 City Council meeting.

The staff report by the City Manager explaining the  City Hall loan agreement with Business Oregon that the Council was voting on with Resolution 23-23 stated   ” At the end of construction, the interim financing of the project is recommended for inclusion in a future Bond Bank sale. Once the bonds are sold a permanent rate will be locked in and the interim financing contract will be replaced with a permanent financing contract.” 

Councilor Stock and now Mayor Stock  has been on Council during each of the examples of the public record that I cite in my post that reference the permanent financing of the City Hall debt through the Oregon Bond Bank yet announced that she was “surprised that we were going to the Bond market.”

I appreciate and can understand Ms. Tinnin coming to the defense of her spouse in this matter. I will pass on trying to understand or explain what Mayor Simmons, the war in Iran, gas prices, mortgage rates and tariffs has to do with Mayor Stock’s surprise reaction on how City Hall financing through the Oregon Bond Bank was being explained to us for the past 3 years.

Walnut Studiolo on Highway 53 is hosting a booth at the Manzanita Farmer’s Market about once a month this summer: August 7 and September 4 are our last dates.

This week, we’ll have:

-Geoff’s handmade wood spatulas and spoons: new batch and two beautiful new designs!

-Handmade tins of Flax Wax care for wooden spoons and utensils

-Representation of the over 50 leather goods available on our website (travel games, leather handles/pulls and wraps, bicycle accessories, and more)

-Valerie’s handmade granola and instant cereal packets

-NEW FOR AUGUST 7TH: Must-go sale on Valerie’s harvest of garden-grown dried herbs: catnip, chamomile, raspberry leaf, spearmint, peppermint, and yarrow. (With free tiny herbalist recipes for inspiration!)

-NEW FOR AUGUST 7TH: Handcrafted garden harvest-baskets made from up-cycled workshop materials

We’ll be at the market to meet and greet the community. If you’ve ever wondered about that brown sign on Highway 53 near the Grange, stop by our table to see what we do!

Our travel games and driftwood cribbage boards are available for sale at REVIVAL in Nehalem and we also offer free local pick-up for orders on our website, including monograms.

See you at the market!

Valerie & Geoff Franklin

Walnut Studiolo

Original Modern Designs and Handcrafted Leather Goods Since 2009

36005 Highway 53, Nehalem, OR 97131

Phone 503-447-6889

Email walnutstudiolo@gmail.com

URL walnutstudiolo.com

The public record of how the long term City Hall debt financing was publicly described and would be paid is pretty clear:
1. November 2023 Staff Report to Council. “Debt service payments will begin when the loan is sold to the Bond Bank and permanent financing is in place”.
2. November 2023 hand out document for public explanation on City Hall financing plan. “Sold to the Bond Bank at that time a permanent rate will be set”.
3. 2025/26 Budget. “Ultimately the loan will be sold to the Oregon Bond Bank..”
4. September 2025 Council meeting explanation by City Manager. “It will get sold to the Oregon Bond Bank”.
4. 2026/27 Budget. “the City intends to convert the interim construction financing to long term debt through the Oregon Bond Bank”.

If the Mayor was surprised that the debt financing of City Hall was going to be through the Oregon Bond Bank, imagine the public’s reaction. After 3 years of an unequivocal explanation, we now find that what we were told is not happening.

The City in fact chose not to enter into a long term relationship with Business Oregon which they could have done by approving a 20 year long term loan rather than pursue a Bond sale. What the City did accept from Business Oregon was quite clear by approving an agreement concluding that “long term financing provided through the Oregon Bond Bank”.

This has become a pattern of Manzanita City government. Tell citizens one thing and then tell us or do something completely different and trust that no one will notice.

I share my observations about our City officials because their actions impact those of us who reside here. My observations may cause discomfort for City officials and routinely elicit spasms of outrage among some in the community including a fair number who don’t live in Manzanita.

Words matter. Let’s all hope that those running for City Council this November genuinely appreciate this fact when communicating with us.

Or maybe it’s more appropriate to quote Chicken Little, “The sky is falling. The sky is falling.”

Manzanita City Hall financing discussions were led in June 2023 by Mayor Deb Simmons and a different City Council than we have today. Mayor Simmons and that Council voted for the City Hall financing options that led to the construction of the new City Hall.

“Manzanita City Council voted to green-light phase 2 for the construction of a new city hall at their June 7 meeting, electing to finance the project through a special public works fund loan.” Tillamook Headlight Herald 6/19/2023

The 2023 discussion centered on working long term with Business Oregon, with an option of selling the loan to the bond market. Key information and Council discussion has been omitted in the “Sky is Falling” Kugler article.

In those deliberations by Mayor Simmons and the Council, there was discussion about what would the US economy look like in the next few years. No one could have anticipated that we would be in a war with Iran and that our economy would be knee jerked around by gas price swings, mortgage rates rising and crazy high tariff rates.

You can hear about next steps in the July Council meeting at the 41 minute mark on the recording.