A new public safety building and the comprehensive plan were among the topics at a candidates’ forum on Oct. 8 for the Gearhart City Council in the November election.

In the mayoral race, Mayor Kerry Smith is facing a challenge from developer Robert Morey. City Councilor Sharon Kloepfer and former Clatsop County Commissioner Patricia Roberts are vying for Position 4. Former Mayor Paulina Cockrum and artist David Savinar, who was not present at the forum, are competing to succeed City Councilor Reita Fackerell in Position 2.

Virginia Dideum, a Gearhart planning commissioner who moderated the forum at Seaside City Hall for the Seaside branch of the American Association of University Women, asked the candidates about one of Gearhart’s most contentious issues: how they would pay for a new public safety building.

Roberts said the question should go to voters.

“Everything’s done by a bond measure,” she said. “And what is going on right now, is that the current group is trying to get an accurate cost estimate, but they have not gone to the voters and asked an advisory vote if they’re even willing to support any new building.”

Kloepfer disagreed, stating that the City Council had held numerous town halls and that the majority of attendees indicated that they agreed with the need for a new fire and police station. At this time, she said, the city has an engineer and architect looking at proposals for the public safety building to get more information to residents.

Cockrum supported a $14.5 million bond measure in 2022 that would have financed a new firehouse off Highlands Lane along U.S. Highway 101. The measure was overwhelmingly rejected by voters.

Cockrum said better data is needed on what voters are willing to spend on a new public safety building.

Smith said city leaders are gathering information in order to go to the public with honest answers to questions regarding the cost and scope of a project.

“Now we’re looking at what the people want, what the people are willing to pay, and that’s why we’re taking our time and trying to get it as close to right as we can,” he said.

Morey, who opposed the 2022 bond measure, said he liked how the city was going about drafting a proposal this time around, citing a focus on the downtown area and a smaller site than what had previously been proposed.

Morey has offered to donate a portion of the former elementary school grounds, which he purchased in 2020, as a place to build the public safety building and a public works building.

Candidates were asked if they would support updating the city’s comprehensive plan, which was created decades ago.

Smith and Morey both said they would work toward an update. Smith said he would not change much, but that a citizens’ committee could be a great way to go about the review.

Roberts said that while a citizens’ committee was a possibility, she believed it might be more interesting to open it to the public and invite them to participate.

“You might get some very surprising answers, and it doesn’t mean you have to follow them,” she said. “But it might involve the community at a larger level than just a little tight circle.”

Kloepfer agreed that the comprehensive plan should be updated, describing it as the “glue that keeps our community what our community is, and they would not want to lose that.”

Cockrum said she would probably not be in favor of taking a look at the comprehensive plan. While she said there may be some portions that could be corrected, she described it as “opening Pandora’s box.”

“If I was going to update anything, I might look at, maybe, a section of the zoning code and see if that needed to be updated in some way,” she said. “Leave the comprehensive plan as it is.”