Cunningham best fit for Mac City Council

Furniture maker Chaz Gibbins made an encouraging first impression with our editorial board in his endorsement interview. We have no question about his sincerity in offering his services to his adopted hometown of the last five years.

However, unlike the other two prospective council newcomers on this year’s general election ballot, McMinnville Planning Commissioner Dan Tucholsky and McMinnville Third Street Improvement Project, Budget Committee and Downtown Association veteran Scott Cunningham, he lacks in the area prior public service.

If Tucholsky weren’t running unopposed, he would clearly, in an estimation informed through long experience evaluating candidates, be odds-on for endorsement. We find the same qualities in Cunningham, who we believe could step in and begin making an immediate difference, which earns him our nod over Gibbins.

Assuming the electorate feels likewise and Cunningham prevails, we would urge Gibbins to pursue appointment to the planning commission or budget committee, both traditional council stepping stones. It would broaden and deepen his knowledge of the array of challenging issues the city is facing, and thus better prepare him to hit the ground running in any subsequent council service.

Cunningham has spent the last 25 years in the hospitality industry, a mainstay in McMinnville and its historic downtown. He holds a degree in government from the University of Redlands that he has put to good use in his local governmental service.

A long-time local, he owned and operated downtown’s Community Place for more than 10 years and is now partnering in another downtown dining venture, Capo Pizza. On the home front, he and his wife have become foster parents and permanent child guardians in recent years.

He served on the Downtown Association Board for seven years and completed a tour as president. He has been playing a key role on the Downtown Improvement Project advisory committee. He has also lent his fiscal expertise as a successful small business owner to the city budget committee, working hand in hand with the city’s manager, mayor, councilors and department heads.

Cunningham is thoughtful, collaborative and conversant with the full range of city hall players and issues. He has useful insights in how things could have been handled better in the past and could be handled better in the future.

As an example, he suggested the city should have followed the lead of most others around the state, including neighboring Newberg, in dedicating any utility fee it chose to assess to a specific, directly accountable need. Simply folded into the general fund, he said, such a fee lacks purpose and stirs opposition.

Gibbins was stirred to action by a hostile park interaction with an element of the local transient population. He came to channel his interest in addressing the city’s long-festering homelessness issue through mayoral candidate Kim Morris’ McMinnville Community Task Force.

Like many in the community, he expresses concern about city taxes, fees and spending, a key talking point of the campaigns of both Gibbins and Morris, who have endorsed each other’s efforts.

Holder of a degree in philosophy from Arizona State University, Gibbins is articulate in espousing his concerns about the way homelessness and finances are being handled under the current administration.

When Jessica Payne was appointed to Drabkin’s old council seat two years ago, the council turned a shade or two more conservative. And the council’s conservative anchor, Chris Chenoweth, is facing no opposition in his re-election bid.

Tucholsky replacing Garvin is probably a push on the political spectrum, but the council newcomer is not only a high-ranking business executive, as head of engineering at A-dec, but also the city’s only solo-certified reserve police officer.

Cunningham would provide a nice balance to the new-look council, bringing the moxie and experience to carve out an independent niche. We don’t see him settling for service as anyone’s cheerleader.

We see him as having the confidence and clout to help steer the council in the right direction at a juncture where its membership is undergoing major change with the departure of fixtures Kellie Menke and Adam Garvin.