The King City City Council is nearly at the finish line for filling two open positions on the City Council. Mayor Ken Gibson and Councilor Dave Platt both resigned effective Dec. 31 with one year left in their terms, and the council held a special Zoom meeting Dec. 29 to interview the three residents who applied for the seats.
Joe Casanova, Marc Manelis and Laurie Petrie had submitted application forms by the Dec. 17 deadline; the form included 12 questions, which were asked again at the meeting by Gibson, Council President Jaimie Fender, and Councilors Shawna Thompson, Smart Ocholi, Micah Paulsen and Kate Mohr.
Joe Casanova
Casanova, who has lived in Edgewater on the Tualatin since July 2019, is a mechanical engineer and certified project management professional (PMP). His local volunteer work includes serving as both the Edgewater HOA president and the lead on the Architectural Review Committee, and he is currently serving on the King City Planning Commission.
His professional experience includes working in a broad range of work disciples in the energy and industrial sectors along with legal and regulatory compliances.
Casanova said the Kingston Terrace (the future development in the city’s urban growth boundary) will have a major impact on the Edgewater community. He wants to work on solving community concerns and being an advocate for the community.
Marc Manelis
Marc Manelis was eligible to be on the Planning Commission when he was living within the King City urban growth boundary and was appointed to that body in March 2017. City Council candidates or applicants must have resided within the King City city limits for a minimum of six months, and Manelis and his family moved into Edgewater on the Tualatin in late May/early June of 2021, so he was eligible to apply for the City Council in December.
Manelis, a project manager, said in his application, “I want every resident of King City to feel that their voice is heard. I am passionate about King City and want to work with all the residents to continue the great place we live.”
Laurie Petrie
Laurie Petrie, who has lived in the King City Civic Association since 2013, worked for 40 years managing customer service for third-party logistics and transportation companies and then went into hospice care.
In King City, she has served on the Planning Commission since 2016 and is currently the chair. She also has served on the Budget Committee for the last several years. Petrie has been active in her Garden Villas HOA, serving for four years on the board, including three years as president. She is currently vice president of the KCCA Board of Directors.
She said her work experiences have prepared her well to serve on the various boards and commissions, and she is interested in being involved in the Kingston Terrace Master Plan process.
Dec. 17 City Council Meeting
At the Dec. 17 City Council meeting, which was the last regular meeting of the year, Chief Ernie Happala reported that due to many complaints about speeding traffic, a three-day traffic study was conducted over a recent weekend in the 19000 block of King George, roughly between 116th Avenue and Queen Elizabeth.
According to Happala, 467 vehicles drove through the area during the 72-hour period at an average speed of 15.8 miles per hour; only nine drove over the speed limit; and the highest rate of speed was 29 mph. “It’s perception versus reality,” he said. “The actual speed is not what people think it is.”
Happala also discussed the future use of body cameras for police officers, expected to be up and running in July.
“The biggest eye-opener to me was the redaction issue,” he said. “This is where you blur faces or mute juveniles and block tactical information.”
Happala learned that another police agency spent eight hours on redacting for every hour of footage released to the public. “It is mind-boggling,” he said. “It points to an issue we will have with manpower hours. We will have to come up with a new fee structure to pay for this. We were more worried about storage issues.”
City Manager Mike Weston said that the city received the final draft of the Transportation System Plan on Dec. 4, but it still needs some final revisions
Annie Paulsen, vice president of the King City Community Foundation, announced that founder Jaimie Fender was stepping down as president, she was becoming president, and Director Veva Goehler was becoming treasurer. Also, Heather Wakem has joined the Foundation.
“We look forward to Jaimie being a friend of the foundation,” Paulsen said.
No one wanted to make a motion to end the meeting that ran nearly 2 ½ hours because it was the final one for Gibson and Platt, but eventually it ended.
