Summary:
Matthew Otto Blevens was appointed by 4 council members without transparency or deliberation. Blevens was appointed to a 4 year term against the will of 905 voters, 98 petitioners, and 10 public comments to council. Merely 1 resident advocated for someone else during council meeting. Council appeared to have made up their minds without debate or explanation. Blevens was the least qualified of the 5 applicants having no board experience whatsoever. No oral public statements from applicants were made and only 1 question from Councilor Prokop was asked of the candidates.
Why this is important:
Members who appointed Blevens cited “values”. Blevens, himself, claimed the “City of Estacada voted in a certain type” during his closing statement. He has made racist, transphobic, misogynistic, ableist and vulgar comments on Twitter (Blevens_Matt or Thorviathan). 3 videos of the comments are added to this site.
Background
· November 5, 2024 Michael Crossett was elected with 1119 votes to sit on the Estacada city council.
· November 8, 2024 Michael Crossett was injured
· January 13, 2025 council seat was voted vacated by city council using City Charter chapter 7, section 32 as cause. (Technically should have waited to be voted on this until January 23, 2025.) https://www.cityofestacada.org/wp-content/uploads/CityCharter.pdf
· February 10, 2025
- 5 applicants submitted
§ Vincent Bellomo – on 11/5 ballot received 905 votes (151 less than Dolezal); 1 year/2 years board chair of Estacada Parks and Recreations Commission board member. 4 years Estacada Budget Commission
§ Matthew Blevens – LEAST QUALIFIED – no local board experience, a lot of words, little substance. Army, small business owner, god. Words do not align with stated values.
§ Vicki Bellacosa – Estacada High School Boosters, 7 years on Estacada Youth and Football boards, served as Secretary for youth baseball. Has lived in Estacada 28 years.
§ Melissa Hill – worked for public schools 3 years, gave good examples of conflict resolution, is currently in the role of Office, Events and Accommodations Manager for Camp Colton: oversees permits, venue use, operational policies to comply with local regulations.
§ Debbie Pullman – Has served on 2 HOA boards as Secretary. Recently attended the City of Estacada’s newly formed Civics Academy. Previously worked on a 5 – state regional committee.
o 10 residents wrote to council in favor of voter’s choice
o 0 residents wrote to support other candidates
o Petition began 1/20/2025 circulating online for council to appoint someone from the November ballot – 64 residents inside city limits and 34 residents inside the school district signed in just 15 days to meet the February 4th deadline to be included in the packet.
· At the meeting:
§ 1 resident spoke for the voter’s choice to be respected
§ 1 resident spoke and asked for council to consider someone similar to Crossett’s voter pamphlet message
§ 1 resident read petitions
o Before the vote Councilor Prokop asked – Taken from YouTube transcript: https://youtu.be/lanFJuwzGS0?feature=shared
§ 47:57 um I have a question for all the candidates could you all raise your hand so I know that here okay thank you um and thank you for taking the time to apply to be on this Council uh to serve the community and the city my question is
§ 48:13 are any of you against the values that were mentioned on behalf of Mr. Crossett that appeared in the voters pamphlet and those values uh include but are not limited to Integrity, commitment to community, hard work, safety, sensible growth, fiscal responsibility, uh infrastructure improvements, prudent financial management, justice, moral compass; maintaining town cultural identity? Uh so the community has expressed that they want someone that has the same values as Mr. Crossett I’d like for any of you to speak up if you are against any of these core values.
o Mayor responds – § 48:50 I don’t think you’re going to get a lot of speaking up there…
(THIS IMPLIES THE MAYOR RECOGNIZED ALL APPLICANTS MATCHED CROSSETT’S VALUES)
- Motion for Bellomo, was quickly struck down without deliberation.
- Motion for Blevens was quickly decided (McElroy, Metcalf, Dolezal and Mayor Drinkwine in favor) (Tenbush and Prokop opposed)
- No others were motioned, none were debated.
o Blevens was sworn in and seated
- There was NO transparency. This decision was clear cronyism pure and simple
- Blevens’ answers to the questions had a lot of words but didn’t say much. He clearly showed his lack of experience with his answers.
o Statements made during the council meeting suggests McElroy, Metcalf & Dolezal personally know Blevens.
o Council DID NOT deliberate and only Councilor Prokop asked a single question of candidates before votes were cast.
Statements by Council
o Blevens said he thinks his, “values align with Crossett’s” and “City of Estacada voted in a certain type.”
o Dolezal said, “It would be disrespectful if not a slap in the face to appoint someone to the open seat that lost so badly.” He also claimed “It’s going to be a wild ride” referring to the future. Dolezal beat Bellomo by 151, Crossett beat Bellomo by 214 votes (this was not a massive defeat)
o Metcalf said, “I believe he (Blevens) represents the values under the ticket under which we ran. Quite frankly as it was mentioned it’s not a runoff and this is the direction we’re going. I believe that you (looking at Blevens) represent the values of this community and what they spoke for… please make us all proud and do as well as I know you will.”
o McElroy didn’t think 21% who voted for Crossett would vote for Bellomo. (However 3 votes for candidates suggests it is more than likely people who voted for Crossett also voted for Bellomo.)
McElroy(@1:19 YouTube) said he welcomes a recall and believes Crossett will agree with the appointment. He further made a straw-man argument that just appearing on the ballot is why so many from the community were advocating for Bellomo. NO ONE made that argument. The argument made by residents was 905 voters already chose Bellomo and 4 men should choose who voters had already supported rather than someone they politically agree with or personally like.
o Both Prokop and Tenbush said their votes represented what the voters chose and it wasn’t personal.
o Mayor Drinkwine stated, “This isn’t political” but gave no reason for his choice. It appears if it wasn’t “political” then it was a personal choice and that is not what voters elected him to do.
o Voters choose 3 candidates from the voter pamphlet or write someone in. 3 seats = 3 votes.
· Blevens Twitter Feed
o Blevens had locked down his other social media accounts pretty well but forgot about his Twitter account.
o It was discovered that aside from extreme political views (not relevant as council are allowed to have political views) Blevens has made racist, transphobic and misogynistic, ableist and vulgar posts.
o These disgraceful posts make it apparent why the 4 who voted for him also voted against diversity, inclusion and equity.
o These posts make it apparent these 4 believe Estacada Values are racism, misogyny and transphobia.
- Further Conflicts
- As OPB noted in their article February 25, 2025 titled Estacada city officials dissolve DEI committee, echoing national rhetoric people with known ties to the Proud Boys attended the Estacada council meeting February 24, 2025.Posts had circulated in conservative circles before the meeting requesting people to show up and suggesting there would be a BLM gathering from 4-5PM. There was no planned gathering of black lives supporters.
- The majority of council members cited national concerns over local concerns even though many had previously said they stand for “Estacada first”. Not one member who voted against the DEIC would use the words “inclusion”, “equity” or “diversity” with Metcalf actually saying these were “evil intent.”
Estacada Informed 