Posting on behalf of Kim Rosenberg
loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com
I don’t usually use private citizen’s names in what I write unless the person is identified in public documents or identifies themselves as an expert in the community because of their former professional role.
Randy Kugler was the City Manager in Manzanita from 1988-1996 and in Philomath, Oregon from 1996 until he retired in 2014.
Mr. Kugler filed a referendum about monthly versus quarterly water billing, which will be on the ballot in November. Of the four initiatives he has filed, none meets all the criteria to go on the ballot, but he can resubmit any of the ones that were denied or submit new ones.
Each initiative requires legal time and staff time every time it is submitted. We pay for both. This month’s bill from Miller Nash is about $11,000.
In addition to legal fees for the initiatives, Randy Kugler, Will Stone and Laura Swanson, the editor of the Pioneer, are now suing the City of Manzanita to release the results of the investigation into the employee complaint against the former mayor.
There was a total of four requests to release those results and the Tillamook County DA denied all four.
I made a public records request to see if there were other legal costs associated with requests Mr. Kugler has made in the past two years. Most requests don’t necessitate the City Lawyer’s time, but from July of 2022 to June 28, 2024, the City has paid $15,112.50 in legal fees associated with Mr. Kugler’s requests. That doesn’t count staff time just legal fees.
In his July 10 email included in the July Council Meeting Packet, Mr. Kugler wrote, “One of the outcomes of my social media posts has been citizens taking opportunities to talk to me and sending me their comments and email addresses requesting to be kept informed of City activities.”
There are several ways a citizen can learn about the City’s activities from firsthand sources like attending meetings, asking questions of City Staff and Council, reading documents on the City’s website, and doing research to learn more about how local Oregon government works on any of a number of websites. You can do your own homework and form your own opinions. I’ve included links to the source material for this post.
After reading his post, some citizens who own homes and vote here asked to be added to Mr. Kugler’s email update listserv but weren’t.
Links to sources used:
Water billing post: www.northcoastbbq.com/?s=kim+rosenberg+splish+splash
July Council Packet (scroll past agenda to page 12 for Miller Nash legal fees and pages 32-35 for emails): ci.manzanita.or.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/July-10-Regular-Packet.pdf
July Council Meeting (discussion of bills and lawsuit in first part of the meeting):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ_beFRy1F8
Lawsuit document (cut and paste into your browser): drive.google.com/file/d/1UU1s_gk_fw5oyM05fK9Y-S0QXohcdGVa/view
loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com