Respect Resident Voices

 

Mayor Drinkwine, Members of the City Council, and City Manager Wagner,

I make positive assumptions about my fellow humans.  I assume you care about this community and those who elected you & you respect democracy. 

I assume you know Bellomo received 17% of our vote and it only takes 15% for a recall. I assume you will respect that residents of Estacada have already cast their votes for our representative.  I assume I’m preaching to the choir—that you were already going to appoint the person voters chose because that is your duty as representatives.  I assume this is just about putting it on record, not about debating whether to override the will of the people. However to support you in making the right decision we gathered & I signed a petition with 97 others, stating we, the voters have already chosen.  

But my assumption is this won’t be necessary because this elected Council will honor our will & represent us.

While Chapter 7, Section 32 of the Charter allows for appointments, the voters have recently made their selection. Ignoring that choice in favor of your own erodes trust.

I don’t want to rely on assumptions.  I want to believe you are the honorable men and Councilwoman Estacada needs.

On February 2, 2025, Councilor Metcalf spoke about leading the community.  But we do not elect leaders. We elect representatives.  Your job is to enact our will—not impose your own. While we have remedies available if you don’t respect our vote my mama always said: “An ounce of precaution is worth a pound of cure.”

That’s why I’m here—offering my ounce of precaution now, so I don’t have to bring a pound of cure later.

Written and given by Tabitha Basye on February 10th at City Council Meeting @1:45. Estacada Resident of 10 years Broadway Street

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Post Comment by Tabitha

I wanted to create a website that just showed what City Council said and in another column show what they actually did. But once the background information and social media posts were discovered I knew this was way too much for me to maintain. So some trusted internet contacts I have yet to meet… or at least I don’t know if we have met reached out to me because they saw this speech I knew I could turn it over eventually. I had to turn over the project fast than expected due to an injury and illness but I have not been disappointed. I know this group is not pulling any punches and they are willing to listen to the people and share our voices. I hope more take the opportunity to comment and share your experiences, public comments made to the City and speeches you have written and performed.

We are all Anonymous, this is our city and we deserve honest representation from our elected representatives. These backroom appointments need to stop, background checks need to be given to applicants on the budget committee and for council. Things need to change but first we must remove the corrupt politically motivated tyrants and elect people who are able to listen to us before they decide.

Metcalf and McElroy seem to have an invisible army that emails them but where are they? Why haven’t they signed petitions, sent in comments, why are they not speaking? My guess is because they don’t need to because these men are doing their dirty work for them and using their silence as an excuse to not support the voters right in front of them.

I know it has been shown all over this page that 905 voters chose voters chose Vincent Bellomo to represent them. The only person I recall voting for was Jonathan Dolezal, not sure if I voted for others but when I read the pamphlet again I remember thinking he sounded like a wise candidate. I couldn’t have been more wrong. He makes up numbers, votes against the people standing right in front of him. If these councilors don’t stand by statements people make in these pamphlets (which is how most of us choose) we can trust them?

I don’t dislike any of these men personally, I don’t know them but I have watched them over the past month and I am extremely concerned. They use a lot of empty words and phrases like they want to hear from us but its apparent they make up their minds before the hear from us. Its clear they are prejudiced and they have agreed with Matthew Blevens and claim the same values. His values and theirs are on full display on this site. These are not men of good character in my opinion. I know men who hold to their words, I know good, honest, loving kind Christian men who are disturbed by their words and deeds.

A special thanks to the group running this site and to everyone investigating. Email them at EstacadaInformed@gmail.com they have a team working on everything and are as transparent as they can be without sharing their identity.

Tabitha