Thank You Tigard

Being mayor has been one of the hardest and most rewarding things I’ve done. 

It’s also been an act of hope. A hope that I could make a difference for my daughter’s hometown.

I’m proud of the work that I’ve done, bringing millions of dollars back to the city, making serving our community more accessible, elevating the city’s profile regionally and nationally, showing up where I’ve been asked, and making people feel like their government and city is more welcoming, accessible and family friendly to name a few things. 

I’ve been able to do amazing things like representing our city at the White House, standing up for Tigard at the local, regional, state, and federal level, meeting with our youth all over the city, and helping open so many businesses, community spaces, and celebrate non-profits. We’ve also had our fair share of challenges I’ve tried to navigate with humanity and fairness. I’ve met with mayors across the country and shared our wins and challenges and brought our city to the forefront through leadership opportunities I’ve said yes to. We’re a city that punches above our size and I’m proud to be a part of that.

All this work comes at a personal cost to myself and my family. While I don’t regret that choice, my mental and physical health have deteriorated. And I’m not alone, as I’ve shared my struggles with other mayors it’s clear that this is all too common, especially for female mayors. 

They say there are three versions to a story, one for each side, and the truth. After I reported another councilor in April of this year for crossing a line by asking me on my personal phone how much I paid another councilor to say something nice about me during the April 8, 2025 city council meeting, an investigation was opened for complaints made against me. I was not made aware of this investigation until June. 

Despite advice against participating, I had hoped that truth and fairness was the goal. Since then, steps made by the city and the investigator have not been with the search of truth and fairness, but with the assumption of guilt and a goal of punishment. I had to hire a lawyer to be told what I was being accused of. 

The report findings will inevitably come out whether if it's released by the D.A. or from councilors talking, despite assurances from the city that the goal wasn’t for public review. Councilors are already talking about it with other people in the region. From the outside the Tigard City Council has looked like a functioning body, but behind the scenes has been unravelling into cliques, power struggles, petty fighting, and goals of destruction.  I am not a perfect person and I vented to people in places I probably shouldn’t have and I own that. I also own that trying to juggle being a mayor, a mom, having a career to be able to afford living here, and be a wife and friend has been extremely challenging thing and it can be hard to try to schedule time with me. 

The role of mayor is to be the people’s voice in city hall and to represent the community’s voice in decision making, not the staffs. City staff’s job is to implement those decisions and here in Tigard, we’ve lost our way. We’ve lost our way when the staff try to push electeds in a direction and attempt to censure opinions. 

From the city staff, complaints were made against me where I tried to hold staff accountable for mistakes or I stood up for the community. Under former city managers the city lacked a culture of accountability. Staff were caught sending out emails from my email address “from me” without me ever seeing them or approving them, without any way of me knowing or being able to track the history (Unauthorized Emails). I still don’t know how many were sent out with my name on them. I was also signed up for a conference that I never said I would go to and when I asked why I was signed up, that employee reported me as hostile (Conference Registration).

Earlier this year staff decided to take reasonable access to healthcare away from council based on their interpretations. Healthcare is a demonstrable value of our community and state. We’re fighting the federal government on healthcare and we shouldn’t also have to fight our own staff. Complaints were made when I disagreed with staff and accused them of breaking the charter that said only council can decide on compensation changes. Despite the city council voting every year that demonstrates a city policy of maintaining the benefit, city staff interpreted the information in the city’s favor.  When I was told of this change in policy, staff said they told me because they were worried that I would see the dollar difference in the budget and they didn’t want me caught off guard. I can’t imagine telling anyone that stripping away their reasonable access to healthcare is a budget issue, while never addressing the change in benefit mid-year only for the city council, or the impact it might have on anyone affected who may not be able to afford healthcare anymore. They way they emailed the council is not the way that they informed the individual members of the council that it was changing.

The staff also complained that I spoke to community and business members about staff when they fell short. One of the complaints was that I apologized to a community member during public comment at a council meeting for their interaction with the utility billing department and the staff were upset (March 19, 2024). I come from a background of hospitality and working in hotels, I can’t tell you the number of times for my previous jobs and as a city councilor or mayor I’ve apologized for things that weren’t my fault. I apologize trying to ensure that people felt heard and in my attempts to diffuse situations. I am also allowed to have an opinion on when the city falls short and to share that opinion with the city and with the community – despite the staff trying to limit my speech and by proxy the community’s opinions. I was elected to be one of the community’s voices to city hall and sometimes that means disagreeing with staff. Another complaint is that I tried to change city policy, yet what I was doing was asking over and over for the city staff to help a disgruntled community member get access to historical utility bills that took 4 months to resolve and me having to ask over and over.

The city has a history of trying to force city council to follow their policies and directions. Elected officials are not employees and are not subject to the whim of what the staff wants. Once again we’ve lost our way when the staff pushes electeds in a specific direction. It should be concerning to councilors and the community the way the staff has tried to control and limit the city council over the years. 

There were also complaints made against me from other councilors that included age discrimination claims and general behavior complaints. As far as age discrimination, I’ve said repeatedly that councilors who are new are inexperienced, just like anyone else starting out a new job in a new industry or specialty. When discussing the review process for council’s direct employee reports, and there was a councilor who sent an email stating it’s not standard practice in the private or public sector to group employee reviews at one time - yet their own city currently holds all employee reviews in June. In my opinion that shows inexperience and false authority on a subject. There are also members of council who believe that maintaining memberships with any organization outside of the state of Oregon is a waste (March 18, 2025 Council Meeting). Statements were also made that our membership organizations didn't interact with that councilor, despite encouragement from myself to attend their conferences and regular emails from the organizations to all members of the council.

I’ve always been a direct, honest communicator. Many of you have told me that’s what you love about me, that you know I’m telling you the truth when I can share information. One community member shared the first time she met me she knew that I wasn’t the type of person to roll over and take it and she appreciated that I had the community’s back. 

I’ve spent the last year or so wondering every day what is going to come at me from the council or staff. It’s impacted my family, friends, and mental and physical health. It’s been exhausting and demoralizing.

I wish I was fighting and standing up for Tigard against all the things going on outside our city instead of spending all my energy on the infighting within the city. I can’t stand up for a team that openly praises me during international women’s day, while behind the scenes are trying to limit my speech and actions to those they agree with. I can’t keep spending every day wondering how the council will continue to try to take away mayoral authority instead of working on the issues that have a real impact our community. We are not serving the community the way they asked us to when they elected us.

A few months ago, my daughter asked me randomly why I wanted to be mayor and I told her that I didn’t think I wanted to do it anymore. Her response? So don’t. Sometimes kids really boil it down to the basics and bring clarity to a situation.

I’m not resigning because I’m guilty or that I’m afraid of whatever the council wants to do to “punish” me. I’m doing it because I’m in a system that’s broken and I’m setting a boundary that for the first time in a long time prioritizes me and my family instead of my council and mayor work. I’m leaving on my terms because the broken system isn’t allowing me to do the work you’ve asked me to do and the community, and I, deserve better.

I’ll miss being your mayor, but I’ll love being a mom more. We are all so much more than titles or positions.

To the community, thank you for your support, your words of kindness and encouragement, and your honesty when you disagreed with me. We’re all better when we have open discussions and dialogue about the best path forward. Thank you for making me a better public servant.

To my friends who have stood beside me and seen firsthand how this role has impacted me, I love you and I appreciate you and I’m so thankful to have you. Thank you for stepping up when I needed help and for stepping in for me and my family when I had to leave to serve the city. 

 To my husband and my daughter, you’ve been my pillars of strength and the reason I’m able to do this job. Creating a better future is why I was doing it - not just for our family, but every family that calls Tigard their hometown. I love you and I can’t wait to spend more time with you. Maybe I’ll finally be able to teach the dogs some new tricks. 

And with that, I officially resign as Mayor of Tigard, effective immediately.