Salem Mayor Julie Hoy must have a desire to follow in Donald Trump’s lying footsteps. That’s a difficult task, given Trump’s almost constant battle against the truth, but Hoy is showing that when it comes to spouting political falsehoods, she deserves the title of Mayor Liar.
These are the lies Hoy has inflicted upon the public in regard to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission conclusion that she violated Oregon’s public meeting law in her quest to have City Manager Keith Stahley forced to resign last February.
Lie #1: Hoy claimed that in her illegal private conversations with members of the City Council, a majority wanted Stahley to resign. Actually, the Ethics Commission investigation found that zero city councilors wanted him to resign. Only Hoy favored this.
Lie #2: Hoy claimed that she never told council president Linda Nishioka a majority of the city council wanted Stahley to resign. The Ethics Commission investigation concluded that this did happen, confirming Stahley’s statement to that effect in his resignation letter.
Lie #3: Hoy claimed that her motivation in talking with city councilors about Stahley’s employment status was his performance audit that showed some deficiencies in his management style. But this wasn’t true, since Hoy wanted Stahley gone for reasons that had nothing to do with the performance audit.
We know about the third lie because Joe Siess of the Salem Reporter wrote a great recent story, “Months of private counseling between Julie Hoy and former city manager preceded his abrupt resignation.”
Salem Mayor Julie Hoy was at odds with former Salem City Manager Keith Stahley months prior to her orchestrating his resignation, according to newly-released documents from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission and interviews by Salem Reporter.
The new information provides more detail about events that led to Stahley’s surprising resignation earlier this year. The interviews and documents chronicle behind-the-scenes activity that ended with a costly departure, unhappy city councilors and ultimately state ethics sanctions.
…The commission stuck with its findings earlier this month despite Hoy’s adamant claims that she was a victim of lies, that she didn’t seek a purge of the city manager. She has said she only was concerned with a performance review critical of Stahley.
However, the mayor’s explanation is at odds with newly released ethics commission records and interviews with Nishioka and former Mayor Chris Hoy.
The documents show that Councilor Vanessa Nordyke and Nishioka both described to ethics investigators the animus Julie Hoy had toward the city manager.
Nordyke recently announced she is running for mayor against Hoy.
Chris Hoy told Salem Reporter in a recent interview that the city manager confided in him, sharing that his relationship with the incoming mayor was problematic from the start.
…Nishioka, the current council president, described to ethics investigators the strain evident even then between the restaurant owner and the city manager.
“Even when she (Julie Hoy) was running [for Mayor], I knew that she would do everything possible to try to have him removed,” according to an ethics investigation account of her March interview.
Nothing is certain in politics. However, it sure looks like Julie Hoy is going to have her lying ass kicked big-time by Vanessa Nordyke in the May 2026 mayoral election. If a candidate wins over 50% of the vote in May, they’re elected outright rather than being part of a top-two runoff in November.
Nordyke was a much stronger candidate than Hoy prior to Hoy’s ethical lapses that earned her a rebuke from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. If Hoy had apologized for violating the Public Meetings Law, she would have minimized the political damage.
Instead, Hoy has made things much worse for herself by blatantly lying about her machinations to have Keith Stahley removed as City Manager. Nordyke campaign ads are practically writing themselves with every new lie that comes out of Hoy’s mouth. A 70-30 win by Nordyke next May seems entirely possible.
There will be pressure on Mayor Hoy to drop her re-election bid and allow a stronger conservative candidate to take her place. But since Hoy seems eager to follow Trump’s lead in lying, I suspect she will also follow Trump’s style in not backing down and not admitting she did anything wrong.
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