Six residents are running for seats on the Ontario City Council next month.
Two former councilors, two incumbents, and a pair of newcomers are vying for three seats.
The crowded field includes incumbents John Kirby and Eddie Melendrez, along with former councilors Michael Braden and Ramon Palomo.
The two newcomers are Adrianna Lorraine Contreras and Martin Hernandez.
Incumbent Sam Baker is not running for reelection.
Mayor Debbie Folden and Councilors Ken Hart, Susann Mills and Penny Bakefelt are not up for election.
All six candidates will appear on ballots in Ontario. The three with the most votes win the seats.
Councilors serve in nonpartisan roles and are volunteers who receive a monthly stipend. The council sets city policies, approves the city’s budget and supervises City Manager Dan Cummings.
Here is a look at the candidates:
Martin Hernandez
Hernandez, a retired United Parcel Service driver, said that Hart encouraged him to enter the race. Hernandez said since retiring, he has more time and wants to help the city where he can.
Hernandez, 40, said Ontario needs to become more sustainable, particularly regarding traffic congestion. The city needs to look at ways to make the infrastructure last longer.
“There’s so much traffic in this town throughout the day,” he said. “It’s too much.”
He said the influx of people crossing the border from Idaho to avoid paying sales tax at businesses in Ontario strains the city’s resources and services.
He said that as more people struggle with homelessness in Ontario, there has become a greater need to increase the police force. Hernandez said hiring additional officers is going to cost money.
He said he likes the idea of a potential fuel tax to fund police and other services, which came up in a candidate forum hosted by the Ontario Area Chamber of Commerce. Hernandez said the idea would be to potentially tax diesel instead of gasoline. That would mean less of a hit on residents, he said.
He said nobody wants new taxes, but well-kept roads and a well-funded police department are “necessities.”
Hernandez said he wants to be on the council to devise solutions for the city’s future.
“It’s all about coming up with ideas,” he said. “I don’t have every idea, but I do have some ideas that I think will work.”
Adrianna Lorraine Contreras
Contreras, 44, a vaccine coordinator at Valley Family Health, is the other newcomer to the council race. She said it’s important for the council to have new faces, so she jumped in the race.
“We want Ontario to be the best that it can be,” she said. “In order to do that, you need new ideas and new faces.”
She said the city supported the construction of Project Turnkey, a transitional housing project to help those struggling with homelessness get into permanent housing. Crews finished construction of the project last year.
Contreras said the city’s support of the project was one of the reasons she decided to run for council. She said she would like to see the city support more such housing and other initiatives to address homelessness in Ontario.
If elected, she said she would work to make addressing homelessness a higher priority on the council.
“We’re all communities, whether we have housing or not,” she said.
Contreras said she would like more businesses in Ontario to generate more jobs for those struggling with poverty.
Contreras said another key issue for her is public safety. She said she would like to see more police officers hired.
Contreras, a member of the Oregon Food Bank Policy Leadership Council, said she has lived in Ontario for most of her life. Ontario is where her family and friends are, she said.
“I love Ontario,” she said. “I only want what’s best for it.”
Eddie Melendrez
Melendrez, a community organizer, is seeking a second term to continue representing marginalized communities, particularly young Latinos and the unhoused in Ontario. He said he has often been that voice for those underserved groups without much support from other councilors.
Melendrez said continuing to work for people experiencing homelessness and other underserved groups stands to become more salient in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gives local governments a greater ability to enforce criminal penalties for public camping or sleeping in parks.
Currently, there is a
designated camping site for the unhoused in Ontario in a lot on Southwest 13th Avenue. That site, though, prohibits RVs.
Melendrez said he has balanced the “gap” on the council between the older and newer generations. He is excited to see that four out of the six candidates running are Latino, though he identifies as Mexican American. More than half of Ontario’s population is Latino, and he wants the elections to be more representative of that, he said.
Melendrez said when addiction or homelessness comes up, the conversation takes a negative turn. He said it turns into “what are we going to do to get rid of these folks.”
Melendrez said while some are traveling into Ontario from somewhere else for work or to find affordable housing, others are from Ontario.
“They’re our friends,” he said. “They’re our neighbors.”
Melendrez said he respects differing opinions on the council, but he said “harmful language” and “fear mongering” has come from some councilors is wrong. He said at a recent meeting, one councilor brought up Venezuelan gang members coming to the area. Melendrez said that information should have been verified with a city staffer first before talking about it at a public meeting.
“If it’s a real threat definitely bring that to the community,” he said. “But we should verify some of these comments first.”
He said the city needs councilors who care about the community and are not governing from a “fear-based” mindset.
Melendrez works as a community organizer and is an artist.
Michael Braden
Braden, a certified public accountant, previously served on the council but lost his bid for reelection in 2022. He said he is running again because he brings a combination of knowledge and networking to the table.
Braden said that toward the end of his term, he had reached the point where when a citizen came to him with a problem, he knew where to direct that person.
“I knew where to go, ask a question, where to exert the best influence to try and make what I felt was a positive change,” he said.
Braden said at the beginning of the year he was appointed to the Parks and Business and Loan Committees and Planning Commission. He said serving on those committees has given him more knowledge to come back to the council.
He said the city needs to repair its most traveled roads, especially near the Oregon-Idaho border, but doesn’t have the money. Braden said the city has set out to look at additional funding streams.
He said if city expenditures continue to increase, and revenues continue to stagnate the city might have to look at cutting services.
Issues like the budget, he said, will require experience, knowledge and the ability to network to find solutions.
“There’s always something that needs to be balanced,” he said.
Braden said he enjoys working on issues to find a “sufficient resolution” and “sound reasonable choices.”
Braden said this election cycle has great representation given that four of the six candidates running are Latino.
“Getting equal representation is very positive for our community,” he said.
With that, Braden said he doesn’t have a platform and he is “very okay” if he should lose.
“I’ve been in that position before, he said, and I want what’s best for the city,” he said.
John Kirby
Kirby, who is running for a second term, said it takes a couple of years to learn the role of city councilor.
“It takes two years to figure out what you’re doing,” he said. “So, that gives not four years of experience, but two.”
A lifelong Ontario resident, Kirby said he sold his hardware store business last year and serving on the city council is another way to stay involved with the community.
Kirby, 76, hopes he brings a sense of history to the table about “why things happened and why things are the way they are.”
Kirby said unlike other towns in Oregon, Ontario has a balanced budget. He said there might be some “tougher times coming,” but presently the city is financially solvent.
Kirby said that by 2026, expenses and revenue “will meet,” meaning the city will need to either cut services or find other revenue streams. He said for most cities that means a public safety fee or another type of tax where locals take the hit. Kirby said the city found itself in a similar situation before and made cuts to the library, golf course, recreation department and swimming pool.
Kirby said when he ran in 2020 there were three available seats and three candidates. This time around, there are six, he said.
“That means to me that I better pay attention,” he said.
Or, Kirby said, it could mean that the other candidates are younger than him and have a different world view, but he is not sure what has prompted the other candidates to run.
Kirby said that among the top complaints that come into the city concern cleanliness and adherence to city ordinances. Kirby said despite rewriting city ordinances to clean up the town, the ordinance office is understaffed.
He said he suggested at the Ontario Area Chamber of Commerce candidate forum that the city might consider having a community “serve day” to help people who might not be able to maintain their properties.
Kirby said he has the freedom to commit to public service since he sold his business and he is knowledgeable of most of the issues the city faces over the next few years.
Kirby said he would like to continue working with the current council.
“For the most part, we’re all heading in the same direction,” Kirby said.
Ramon Palomo
Palomo was on the council for one term. He decided not to seek reelection in 2020 to spend time with his grandkids. Now, he said they are older and he has time to commit to the position.
He said he wants to jump back in to help the community, especially the Hispanic and Spanish-speaking community, to get more people from that community involved. He noted a more diverse group of candidates this election cycle, which, he said, “is a good deal.” Palomo said that was not the case when he ran in 2016.
Palomo said he wants to see Ontario become a more attractive place to live and do business. He said he sees many people moving out of Ontario and more growth in places like Fruitland. He said he worries the city is falling behind economically.
Like the other candidates, Palomo said homelessness is one of Ontario’s biggest issues. He said he doesn’t have the answers, but he wants to help the city find solutions and communicate with other city or state leaders to help get people off the streets.
When it comes to addressing poverty, Palomo wants to see the city attract businesses.
He said the bottom line is more people need to get involved and work together. He said team stands for, “together everyone achieves more.”
News tip? Send your information to Steven Mitchell at [email protected].
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