Mayor Schnitzler fights recall effort
She wants Willamina voters to look at what city has accomplished
By George Robertson
Editor, The Sun

Willamina Mayor Aileen Schnitzler wants city residents to remember what she has accomplished in the seven months she has been in the job before they decide whether or not to kick her out of office.

In a two-hour interview last week at her home overlooking Oaken Hills Park and the Cascade Range, she ticked off eight items:

• Stopping an order to install backflow devices on all homes, saving residents up to $200 in installation costs.

• Working with Brent Agee, public works leadman, to eliminate a $750 per month bill for paying to monitor the city’s water system.

• Working with Agee, Roy Zimbrick and others to develop a new fishing pond at a former log pond owned by Hampton Affiliates.

• Working with city staff and city attorney Jerry Hart to demolish the Bunn building.

• Seeking a $200,000 grant to develop a skateboard park and other facilities at Oaken Hills Park.

• Putting more local residents on city committees.

• Working with the city council to establish goals.

• Working to install a waterline that will ease water pressure problems in the Pioneer Heights area.

"We’ve done a lot. We’ve done as much as some mayors have done in a whole year," Schnitzler said.

Two members of the city council, however, have been gunning for Schnitzler.

Councilor Stanley Buck, who placed third in last November’s mayoral election, launched a recall campaign against Schnitzler last month. Councilor Dwayne Mattson has asked the state to investigate Schnitzler’s personal use of a city-owned cell phone.

In addition, the Willamina Coastal Hills Chamber of Commerce and Schnitzler have locked horns over people living a downtown commercial building.

When Schnitzler recorded a chamber meeting, chamber officials asked

police to investigate whether she had broken the law. District Attorney Brad Berry dropped the case but warned Schnitzler to make sure in the future that people know she is taping their conversation.

The chamber of commerce is also upset about the city’s plans for a two-story library building in downtown but hasn’t singled Schnitzler out for that.

Ironically, the chamber last year honored Schnitzler as "Volunteer of the Year," an award that is displayed in a hallway in her home.

Why have things changed so dramatically since January?

Schnitzler said the answers go back to when she was on the city planning commission in 1995 and asked Mayor Twila Hill for a copy of the city’s water master plan to make sure the city could handle new housing projects.

Schnitzler said both she and Rita Baller, another planning commissioner who is now on the city council, were booted off the commission for not going along with development plans.

Schnitzler recalled a 1997 letter in The Sun in which she warned that the city wasn’t ready for a housing boom. The letter also warned against going ahead with the Pioneer Heights subdivision.

"Now the city is being sued for two houses there for over $500,000 for land filled with organic soil that’s decomposing. There’s a huge problem with sinkholes," Schnitzler said.

The city’s insurance company is likely to settle the case out of court, she added. "I’m against settling. I think the developer should pay and his engineer and our engineer."

The Pioneer Heights fiasco, Schnitzler said, is just one example of poor decisions that were made before she was mayor. "I’ve been involved in fighting some of them and now these poor decisions are becoming a reality."

Schnitlzer and former mayor Hill have become political enemies. Schnitzler refused to appoint Hill to the planning commission -- even when she was the only candidate for the position.

Ironically, Hill and Schnitzler have a lot in common. Both are dynamic leaders who have spent a lot of time working for the city. And Hill, like Schnitlzer, got into political trouble as mayor -- she pushed a state prison as one way to help the city’s economic problems.

Schnitzler’s problems with Buck stem from a proposed new city library and the Tina Miller Teen Center. She complained that Buck operated on his own and without necessary engineering reports.

She got into hot water with Mattson when she blocked plans to clean out stumps at Lamson Park, across the street from Mattson’s home.

Schnitzler, 55, also wanted to clarify reports about her health.

She said she had an angiogram to clean out her arteries about three years ago and went into the hospital last year to correct a minor heart problem. She also has had fibromyalgia for about 15 years and diabetes for four years.

She insisted that her health problems don’t interfere with her job as mayor and pointed out she hasn’t missed a single council meeting this year.

But last week’s meeting may be her last as mayor. The next council session is scheduled for Aug. 30 -- two days after the recall vote.