We have a choice to make...The choice is clear.

In the last 4 years, under Rick, St. Helens has obligated you, the taxpaying citizen, to a debt obligation increased from $8 million to more than $40,000,000. Rick admitted on public record in January 2024 that $13,000,000 of that debt was borrowed without his knowledge. $2.7 million of that money was wasted on plans to build a police station in a flood zone (That’s $35 a month on the water bill for every person in St. Helens for a year). $17,500,000 was borrowed on your credit for the roads project. There is zero oversight of that money. Costly construction delays and re-doing the curbs and gutter have cost you dearly. Under Rick, the St. Helens police department has the highest paid officers in Oregon – higher than Bend, Lake Oswego, Hillsborough, and Portland. Your price tag for Citizens’ Day in the park? $85,000. But our Building Department is down to one person. You paid $250,000 for change orders and cost overages Rick has voted that he would increase your water bill another $25.00 a month to partially pay the shortfall in the General Fund for police. The actual amount Rick has obligated you to pay by his negotiations is $40.00 a month, on top of the $10.00 a month on your water bill. Thus far, Rick has been mortgaging our future: over-cutting our timber and selling our property.

Steve’s Answer: I’ve run a successful business for 20 years. Making assumptions about money and overspending is a route to disaster. I don’t want to pay higher taxes. Wasting millions of dollars, the lack of oversight on spending, is no way to treat people’s hard earned dollars. Rick has hidden his mistakes from you by selling our properties and overcutting our timber resources. Where is the police station?

Under Rick, the City unlawfully sold its land to a pot farm (the Judge’s ruling), the City Council under Rick’s leadership sacrificed public safety by going against the recommendations of the Planning Department to unlawfully try to build at your expense a $20 million police station in a flood plain, legal action was taken against the City which it lost, there is still no police station even started, there is no plan for downtown development, the architectural standards have needed updating since 2021 with no progress, there is no parking plan for the downtown and none is being worked on, the construction downtown was an absolute mess for 160 days, causing the public and our businesses to suffer, our sewer infrastructure was never updated during his administration causing a near building moratorium (feces is at risk for running down the street in five year flood event), and we have not planned for power needs for the industrial park. These are just some of the shortcomings. Rick has a lot of excuses. We need a Mayor that gets things done. Our lack of ability to plan will continue if Rick is re-elected. Things are a mess and will continue to be a mess.

Steve’s Answer: We can learn from cities that have succeeded in their projects. We need to change the way we plan. It’s time to get our Planning Commission involved in planning. Budgeting and project expectations need to get out in the open. There needs to be accountability. Everything being done in secret behind closed doors needs to stop.

Rick has twice been written up by the State Ethics Commission for participating in unlawful meetings conducting secret discussions in executive sessions, Rick met the head of the Solar company who came from China wearing a ball cap and t-shirt, Rick passed a suppression of speech law Res. 1986 because he was jealous that a petition was signed urging the council not to allow homeless camping in our streets and parks (see article written by now Judge Aaron Martin), Rick’s style of leadership is to keep from the public the City’s plans and to bully all opposition.

Rick is a really nice person whose work in the community will continue, but we really cannot afford another 2 years of Rick Scholl as Mayor.