Oregon Public Broadcasting

Tuesday is the deadline for Grants Pass residents to submit their ballots in a citywide recall of five councilors.

The election comes just 9 months after those councilors took office. They ran on a slate -- promising fiscal responsibility and greater oversight of the city’s growth.

But the city’s old guard, including the Chamber of Commerce, has been unhappy with the new council and supported the recall.

From Grants Pass, Ethan Lindsey reports.

Along the green, lush banks of the Rogue River, the political fight in Grants Pass has turned ugly.

Bill Kangas is the council president, and one of the councilors facing possible recall.

Bill Kangas: “This community has been tore up by this recall. We have neighbors against each other, family members against each other. We have friends, longtime friends, who won’t talk to each other anymore.”

The former city manager has been fired three times, he’s resigned twice, a handful of lawsuits have been threatened, and now five city councilors could lose their jobs.

Mike Murphy is the mayor of Grants Pass. He was threatened with a recall himself, but petitioners failed to gather enough signatures.

He sits on a wood porch he built in his backyard. And he muses  that this recall trumps all the work he's done to get people to notice Grants Pass.

Mike Murphy: “We just got a million-dollars worth of free publicity, most all of it with ‘What is going on in Grants Pass?’ Here it is you work for years to create an image, and we just got a new one, that we didn’t exactly want.” 

Demographics -- and growth -- are driving much of the political upheaval. The city’s population has skyrocketed from 20,000 just a decade ago to 35,000 today. And it’s still growing.

The question at the heart of political debate is how to manage that growth.

Grants Pass isn’t the first city to experience political upheaval in the face of growth.

In most of these local debates, the argument is not liberals versus conservatives.

For example, in Grants Pass, the lines seem to be drawn between the city’s long-time political elite who supports growth and economic expansion, and a new group of  populists who won an unexpected victory in November.

Local business owner Rick Chapman is an outspoken supporter of the councilors elected last year – the same people in danger of being recalled now.

Rick Chapman: “It was like Goliath, what’s that story?/David and Goliath/And the Davids won! And the Goliaths went down, forever forgotten. But guess what, they weren’t forever forgotten here.”

Chapman says as soon as the other side lost it began planning how to retake control of the council.

And he says a recall became a convenient way to do that.

The new councilors have filed an appeal with the Secretary of State’s office.

They say the recall is frivolous and based on lies.

The Secretary of State says she is reviewing the case – and that it could become a test case on what makes a recall legitimate.

That could have major ripple effect on other communities  in the state, where growth is also fueling political debate.

Right now, opponents are gathering signatures to recall the mayor and a councilor in Baker City.

Growth issues also prompted political recall threats in Bend, as it grew from a 20,000 person timber town to an 80,000 person hot spot in just 15 years.

In 2000, Bruce Abernethy was elected as part of a group of four councilors hoping to push back against the growth.

And months into his term, he helped pushed out Bend’s city manager.

Bruce Abernethy: “As candidates back in 2000, we really attributed a lot of the city’s growth to practices and policies of the city manager. So, when we got in, we basically let him go.”

Abernathy, who is no longer the mayor, now regrets the way things played out.

Bruce Abernethy: “And I realized, 8-9months down the road, it was not only a mistake, it was traumatic to the psyche of the city. I had a different understanding as a candidate than I did as a council member.”

Many in Grants Pass says the new council members had a lot to learn here as well.

In his backyard, former city manager David Frasher says the current council’s inexperience has been downright embarrassing at times.

Frasher resigned in July, under pressure.

David Frasher: “I’m not what I’d call a ‘lifetime investor’ in this corporation, but there are people here who have put their life’s work into the community and they are concerned about the city’s reputation, and I am too.”

On the drive out of town, signs and posters for both sides dot the city’s main street.

City leaders and school officials say the political fight has slowed down some key decision-making.

And one city councilor compares the experience to a bad divorce.

William Powell is a marriage counselor in town.

His office stands across the street from a series of large, red ‘no recall’ signs.

William Powell: “In a town as big as we are you can have multiple sides in conflict. Marriage is very different. In marriage, we want to be friend. In a community, we don’t have to be friends.”

Powell says, as a voter, the heated political debate isn’t necessarily a bad thing.