Lincoln City Mayor Susan Wahlke challenged for second four-year term by Councilor Marci Baker in Nov. 3 election

By SHAYLA ESCUDERO/Lincoln Chronicle

LINCOLN CITY – A city councilor is seeking to unseat the incumbent mayor for a four-year term leading the city in the Nov. 3 general election.

Both candidates hold similar attitudes equating local government to volunteerism, have ties to local businesses, and have lived in Lincoln City for decades.

Councilor Marci Baker is running a campaign that emphasizes public engagement while Mayor Susan Wahlke is running a campaign that emphasizes her years of experience.

Baker filed to run for mayor after finishing third in a four-way race in the May primary to complete the final two years of the Lincoln County commission seat held by Claire Hall, who died in January. If Baker does not win the mayoral race, she will no longer be on the council because her term expires at the year’s end.

When Baker decided to run for mayor she sat down with Wahlke to let her know as a gesture of respect, she told the Lincoln Chronicle.

“It’s always good for people to have a choice,” Wahlke said.

Mayor Wahlke

Susan Wahlke has seldom heard her first name over the past five years she has served as mayor. Everyone just calls her “Mayor”. That’s been the most surprising thing about taking the position, she said.

When she first applied, she knew what she was getting into. She was an employee in the city attorney’s office and the police department before she served on the budget committee and the city council. When then-Mayor Dick Anderson was elected to the state senate, she was appointed in 2021 to fill the rest of his term. She was elected the following year to serve a four-year term.

She’s lived in Lincoln County for more than 30 years, raised her two children here, looks forward to the days she gets to watch her grandson play soccer and attends as many events as possible – in her official capacity as mayor and as a volunteer.

“I just got this at an event over the weekend,” Wahlke said as she pointed to her cheek, donning a sparkly pink ribbon temporary tattoo for breast cancer.

She is part of the Oregon Mayor’s Association board of directors, secretary of the Coastal Mayors Group, the Women’s Caucus board, Lincoln County Foundation, and Kiwanis Club of Lincoln City. During the last Lincoln City Community Days celebration she was awarded “leader of the year” for her volunteer work.

During her time as mayor, she is most proud of the building of the welcome center, which is under construction at the D River Wayside. She’s proud that the project wasn’t funded by the city’s general fund but instead used transient lodging taxes and Oregon Lottery funds.

If she is re-elected, she hopes to do more strategic planning where the city looks at goals and priorities with an eye to the future. The city has a new city manager, is actively hiring a city attorney and will have two new councilors, so it’s important to work collaboratively on a shared vision, she said.

She believes Lincoln city’s biggest issue is housing and empty storefronts, a problem that goes hand in hand. She believes the city can help with that problem by working with developers and incentivize them to build housing on city-owned land.

“We need housing on all levels,” Wahlke said. “But I think (middle housing) is the most critical at this point. If a business moves here and can’t find employees, then they’re not going to be successful.”

She also wants to try and work to bring a day center for unhoused people to the city. Lincoln County operates a seasonal night-time shelter and there are nonprofits that run shelter programs but are not low barriers – meaning there are requirements around sobriety that make it difficult for everyone to access.

“It’s not just at night in the winter that people need some place to be,” Wahlke said.

Wahlke didn’t see herself as running for mayor until she was encouraged by two councilors. Now, there are goals she still wants to see through, especially since there has been turnover with city staff including the city manager and attorney.

“I think people see things in me more than I see them in myself,” Wahlke said. “I’ve been told I am patient … experienced, measured, an active listener, reflective, thoughtful, well-read and fair-minded.”

Councilor Baker

Marci Baker is a local business owner, millennial, and looks at life with the eyes of a cultural anthropologist. This past year, campaigning for various positions in local government, she has felt terribly misunderstood.

Baker grew up in Lincoln City and attended Ocean Lake Elementary and Taft High School. Her father worked for North Lincoln Fire & Rescue for 22 years.

When Baker designed her Lincoln City restaurant, Kindred by Zest, she made it so the business would largely run without her so she would have free time to volunteer. And she believes that’s exactly what local government is – volunteer work.

She started on the Planning Commission where she learned to love the sausage-making of policy, knowing city code and making decisions that look years ahead into the future. Then she was elected to the city council in 2022 after being encouraged by a former councilor. When she saw two people file for her current seat she was happy that new people were interested in serving so decided to run for mayor.

“What I am most passionate about is making sure that we’re hearing from the community before we’re making decisions,” Baker said. “I don’t think that the community should be surprised by decisions that the local governing body makes.”

Her favorite part of the job is time helping residents understand the process of local government and connecting them with staff and resources, getting answers to their questions or encouraging them to come to council.

If she is elected she wants to take a good look at all the city-owned properties and think of the best use of those spaces — and include the community’s ideas.

Baker is most proud of the work she and other council members did to pass a resolution opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the community.

At first, the city modeled their resolution after the city of Toledo’s, but Baker felt that it only addressed a detention center when there were so many fears about ICE activity in the community that went beyond those concerns. So, she voted against the resolution the first time in order to have more time to get community feedback and get a more comprehensive list of ICE activity the city opposed.

“I felt very mischaracterized after that,” Baker said.

People seemed to know she had voted against the resolution the first time, but they didn’t hear why. And it snowballed – people made assumptions about her beliefs or that she was somehow tied to the effort to recall Commissioner Claire Hall when she wasn’t.

When she closed her first business, Marci’s Bar and Grill, people cried telling her it was one of the few places they felt safe, she said. “So to be labeled as someone that the people need to protect people from is so hurtful,” Baker said.

Baker believes Lincoln City’s greatest challenge is division. Baker studied Anthropology in college and thinks about everything in a cultural context, she said. She has seen people unite over shared hardship but she would like to see a shift in uniting over shared business – drinking water, the gravel roads that everyone drives on, budgets, and which nonprofits the city should support.

“If I had my way, I would take the people who disagree the most and all sit down together,” Baker said “… and find the common ground on the things that we’re actually making decisions on.”

To read the statements by Susan Wahlke and Marci Baker in the Lincoln Couunty voters pamphlet, go here

• Shayla Escudero is an enterprise reporter for the Lincoln Chronicle covering local governments, education, housing and social services and can be reached at [email protected]