Incumbent Elisabeth Adams will face a challenger as she looks to secure a second, four-year term on the Astoria City Council in November’s general election.
The race for the Ward 3 seat, representing Astoria’s core downtown area, marks local photographer Justin Grafton’s first time running for elected office, but he told KMUN he has been considering running for some time.
“I think most of what we’re dealing with a lot of is just lack of communication,” Grafton said. “I feel like we need a little bit more transparency so that people understand the decisions that are being made locally, to help benefit Astoria and not hurt it all the time. I think sometimes it gets lost in the noise and I’m pretty good at helping people see through that noise.”
Grafton has worked in heavy construction and served on the local United Way board. If elected, he said he brings strong connections with Clatsop County and Astoria-based nonprofits and organizations such as Clatsop Community Action and Helping Hands Reentry.
Both of the Ward 3 candidates grew up in Clatsop County: Grafton in Astoria and Adams in Svenson. Both feel there needs to be some change to how the city interacts with and responds to the public.
For Grafton, that includes looking at how the city approaches development and developers. He believes the city should examine even things like the software it uses to track projects and keep everybody on the same page throughout a project.
Grafton has been frustrated with the city’s approach to permitting when it comes to a long-neglected building he now owns and has been fixing up on Astoria’s South Slope. His experiences there were a large part of what prompted him to seek public office.
“I want to get involved and see why I’m dealing with that and see if there’s a way for me to communicate with people that that shouldn’t happen anymore,” he said.
Grafton is friends with other candidates running for seats on the Astoria City Council this election: Laura Parker, who is one of four candidates running for mayor, and Jim Forrester, who is running for the Ward 1 seat along with contender Andy Kipp.
Grafton, Park and Forrester held a “meet the candidates” event together in August.
“I definitely want them alongside me,” Grafton said of Parker and Forrester, adding, “I trust those two explicitly.”
Grafton said he is not necessarily running in opposition to Adams, or because he has any particular issues with the current City Council. He said that when he began the filing process, he wasn’t aware Adams was already planning to run again. Now that she is, Grafton believes he can offer voters another option.
“I’ve lived here through the hard times and the good times,” he said. “I can tell you that today’s age doesn’t feel very warm and fuzzy like it used to and I think I know that I can create a solution that will help people see through that noise and figure out what exactly makes Astoria tick and quit punishing people for just wanting to live and work here.”
Adams owns Wild Roots Movement & Massage. She was elected in 2022 when she ran against general contractor Kris Haefker. She held a significant majority of the votes in that race and replaced former Ward 3 City Councilor Joan Herman who had chosen not to run for reelection.
In her 2022 campaign, Adams focused on her past experience as an advocate for people in poverty and for health and human services. She says many of her priorities around providing community services and advocating for small businesses and working parents remain the same. She hopes to also continue council work that has taken her beyond Astoria.
“I’ve been able to go to Salem and lobby for infrastructure funding for our water sewage treatment plant … and those relationships are really important because money is very scarce,” she said, adding, “Our city does an incredible job with grant funding, but we need help from the legislative process. I’m going to continue to work on those relationships and ensure that they know how…important it is to pay attention to Astoria’s infrastructure.”
It took Adams a while to decide to seek out a second term. At one point, she thought she might run for mayor or for county or state office. But she settled back on the Ward 3 seat.
“The first term is when you really just kind of get started and the second term is when you’re really able to flourish and come into your role even more confidently,” she said.
She also wants to see out some of the policies and policy redirections she’s helped launch. Like Grafton, she has concerns about how the city’s permitting system functions and how the city in general interfaces with the public.
She argues some of that work has already begun under her watch.
Recently, Adams was vocal in the push to suspend a portion of the city’s more recently developed system development charges, noting the impacts on new businesses. System development charges are an attempt to make developers help share the cost burden of key infrastructure as they increase the potential demand. Adams says the city will need to further revisit these charges in the future.
She also voted in favor of a controversial exclusion zone ordinance that would have temporarily banned certain people from the downtown area if they repeatedly broke the law and city rules around public camping.
The policy proposal came out of long-standing and, in some cases, growing complaints downtown about a small, but highly visible portion of the unhoused population. But a majority of the council voted Adams and Mayor Sean Fitzpatrick down and the exclusion zone ordinance did not advance.
Adams later worked with Councilor Andrea Mazzarella to develop the “shelter first” policy, a multi-pronged approach to addressing homeless camps downtown with a focus on directing people toward services. It also involved the hiring of a new homeless liaison to work with people on the streets.
Despite the unity with Fitzpatrick on the exclusion zone vote, Adams has often clashed with the mayor during her time on City Council. Back and forth comments and conversation at the dais have revealed division between the two city leaders — differences of opinion and personality that Adams acknowledges and says matter. She says they are both passionate people.
“I think that passion sometimes also can definitely create some tension especially when there is disagreement,” Adams said. “I think some of that is very healthy in a council and I think some of that is what we want to see, but we want to also see respectful outcomes to those conversations and that tension.”
Fitzpatrick is not seeking a second term. He ran unopposed for the office in 2022.
Candidates had until Aug. 28 to withdraw their names and not appear on the ballot. No candidates in City Council races have dropped out of their races.