Given Julie Hoy’s serious lie, her future as Salem’s mayor seems bleak

Four days ago I wrote a blog post about how Salem Mayor Julie Hoy lied to the city council president, Linda Nishioka, about how Hoy had supposedly learned that a majority of the council wanted the City Manager, Keith Stahley, to resign. After Nishioka passed that falsehood on to Stahley, he resigned — setting in motion a fiasco that culminated in a recently-concluded investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.

The investigation found that instead of a majority, five, of the city council members wanting Stahley to resign, actually just one did: Mayor Hoy herself. Yesterday I talked about Hoy’s ethical lapses with Ken Adams on KMUZ community radio. I filed one of the two complaints that led to the Ethics Commission investigation. Here’s an audio file of the KMUZ interview, which also is available via this link.

Today the Salem Reporter published a story by Joe Siess about Hoy’s lie, “Mayor Julie Hoy lied to set in motion former city manager’s resignation, investigation shows.” Excerpt:

Salem Mayor Julie Hoy lied to Council President Linda Nishioka by telling her a majority of the city council supported asking Salem’s former city manager to resign, a state ethics investigation shows.

Hoy’s conversation in early February led Nishioka to warn Stahley that most councilors wanted him gone, leading Stahley to resign abruptly.

But in interviews with an Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigator, seven city councilors at the time said they never told Hoy they wanted the city manager gone. That’s according to the investigator’s report, released last week, which will be considered by the commission on Oct. 10.

A petition is circulating that calls on Mayor Hoy to resign immediately. It is sponsored by the Marion County Democrats.

Salem residents deserve a mayor who serves the public interest, not special interests. Since taking office, Mayor Julie Hoy has demonstrated a troubling pattern of ethics violations and conflicts of interest that undermine trust in our city government.

Expensive Campaign, Questionable Loyalties
Mayor Hoy’s election came after the most expensive mayoral race in Salem’s history, with wealthy special interests spending over $300,000 to secure a volunteer, unpaid position. This raises serious questions about who she truly represents.

Ethics Violations
Before even being sworn in, Mayor-Elect Hoy was censured by the Salem City Council for violating Section 62 of the Salem City Charter, preventing members of Council from making decisions involving campaign donors of $501 or more. She failed to recuse herself from a decision that directly benefited one of her campaign donors.

Serial Communication Scandal
Within one month of taking office, Mayor Hoy violated Oregon law by orchestrating serial communications with every City Council member about removing our former city manager. This illegal coordination has now triggered Salem’s first-ever widespread ethics investigation of the City Council.

Costly Deception
The state ethics investigation showed Mayor Hoy lied to Council President Nishioka about the results of her serial communications, falsely claiming that a majority of councilors supported the city manager’s resignation. In fact, only Mayor Hoy wanted him gone. Julie Hoy’s BIG LIE cost us a capable city manager who wasn’t given a fair opportunity to improve. It also cost us $250,000 in severance payments and destroyed our trust [in] her leadership.

I signed the petition. But I don’t expect Mayor Hoy to resign, nor, really, do I want her to. Here’s why.

The Salem mayor is elected every two years. Julie Hoy was elected in May 2024. Currently it appears that the May 2026 campaign for mayor will be between Mayor Hoy and Councilor Vanessa Nordyke — a very strong and capable candidate. (If a candidate wins more than 50% of the votes in the May election, they win outright; if not, there’s a November runoff between the top two vote getters.)

Given Nordyke’s charisma, talent, and popularity, she’d be favored to win even if Julie Hoy wasn’t hobbled by the Ethics Commission finding that she violated Oregon’s Public Meetings law. Lying isn’t illegal, but Hoy’s lie to Nishioka was so egregious and costly, I’m confident that it will feature as prominently in Nordyke’s campaign as it did in the “Hoy must resign” petition.

Trump has a unique ability to lie incessantly without being unduly punished by voters. Here in Salem, I’m pretty sure that voters aren’t going to be as forgiving about Hoy’s lie. We expect more from our local politicians than from the leaders in Washington, D.C.

So I doubt that the Marion County Democrats are going to shed any tears if Julie Hoy decides to pursue reelection as Salem’s mayor. It’s difficult to imagine a weaker conservative candidate than Julie Hoy. The  anti-Hoy campaign ads will practically write themselves. Julie Hoy claims she is for law and order. But the Oregon Government Ethics Commission found she violated our Public Meetings Law and lied about what she did. Hoy can’t be trusted, so don’t trust her with your vote.

Salem Republicans would be wise to urge Hoy to not run for reelection, which would enable them to run a conservative candidate without Hoy’s baggage. The good news for us Democrats, though, is that MAGA’ism has infected the GOP at all levels of government, and a key MAGA tenet is never apologize, never admit you’re wrong, never back down.

Those words are music to the ears of those who back Vanessa Nordyke for Mayor.