Uncontested City Council race means this south Salem ward knows its next councilor

This is part of a series of stories on the candidates running in the May 21 primary election. Ballots will be mailed to voters May 1.

With no challenger qualifying for the May 21 primary election, incumbent City Councilor Vanessa Nordyke is set to return to the Salem City Council for her second official term.

Nordyke was appointed to the City Council in 2019 following Sally Cook's resignation due to a loss in her family. She was elected the following year. The 2020 race to represent Salem's southwestern ward drew big donors and contentious campaigning, with Nordyke being outspent by more than $40,000.

Despite the gap in campaign funding, Nordyke won by 13% points.

According to the city recorder's office, Iman Al-Baqsami, a private contractor, filed to run for the Ward 7 seat this election but did not qualify for the ballot.

City Council wards alternate elections, so half of the seats — wards 1, 3, 5 and 7 — are up for election this year. Nordyke is the only incumbent councilor seeking reelection in 2024.

'This is my hometown, and I care deeply about its future'

A longtime Salem resident and former assistant attorney general with the Oregon Department of Justice, Nordyke now serves as the executive director of CASA of Marion County, a nonprofit organization that advocates for abused and neglected children in foster care.

Since she began volunteering at age 13, Nordyke said her service includes work in homelessness, veterans, mental health, drug addiction and higher education.

She's served with the City of Salem Youth Advisory Commission, Social Services Advisory Board, Community Police Review Board and the Citizen Budget Committee.

Nordyke also co-founded the Marion County Veterans Treatment Court and served as the youngest elected president of the Oregon State Bar, where she started a statewide wellness movement within the legal profession.

Nordyke said she is seeking a second term on the council to continue the work she's started.

"I spent the last three years working across the aisle to get real results for Salem," she said, highlighting her efforts to increase affordable housing, support workforce development, behavior and medical services to people in crisis, support businesses and economic development, and connect to community partners that serve vulnerable communities.

Nordyke said she's developed a track record as a pragmatic leader.

"I meet people where they are," she said. "I listen. I welcome different points of view. I meet with neighborhood groups several times a month, and I hold annual town halls. This is my hometown and I care deeply about its future."

Top issues: Homelessness, affordable housing, growing demand for city services

With a looming budget crisis, the increased cost of living and hundreds living unsheltered, Salem faces several key issues in the coming years. The Statesman Journal asked candidates to list the top three issues facing the city and what they would do to address these problems.

Nordyke called out homelessness, affordable housing and the growing demand for city services as her top three issues.

"We have hundreds if not thousands of renters living paycheck to paycheck," she said. "As City Councilor, I have voted to approve hundreds of affordable housing units. We need more, and we need it now."

She said the city also needs to help people without a home, which includes seniors, families, children, domestic violence survivors and wildfire canyon survivors.

As a councilor, she voted to build permanent supportive housing for hundreds of people experiencing homelessness, create low-cost managed shelter sites with services, fund Salem's first-of-its-kind Navigation Center, and create low-income housing for seniors, veterans and people with disabilities and serious mental illness.

She said the city is doing a lot of positive work to create more affordable housing and address homelessness, like creating tax incentives to help developers build affordable housing into their projects and selling unused land to the United Way of Mid-Willamette Valley so they could build cottages for low-income seniors.

Nordyke was critical of the handling of the payroll tax proposal, calling it a "breach of trust."

Nordyke said the tax placed too much of the financial burden on low-income workers, and the city missed an opportunity to have a conversation with the community about budgetary needs by not taking it to the voters first.

But she acknowledged action needs to be taken to address the growing demand for city services.

"Our city is growing rapidly," she said. "My residents want more city services: more park staff, more librarians, more garbage patrols, more first responders, more neighborhood services, ​more homeless shelter staff, and more services for persons struggling with mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness."

Nordyke said the city is doing good work in implementing the voter-approved $300-million infrastructure bond, maintaining more than 90 parks that are free for all to enjoy, and attracting more tourism with the return of commercial air service and downtown revitalization.

She said she wants to remain on council to continue this good work and help address the challenges ahead.

More information on Nordyke can be found at electvanessanordyke.com.

For questions, comments and news tips, email reporter Whitney Woodworth at wmwoodworth@statesmanjournal.com call 503-910-6616 or follow on Twitter at @wmwoodworth.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Vanessa Nordkye runs uncontested for Salem City Council Ward 7