A stark contrast emerged during a debate between a mayor seeking reelection who says she values stability and fiscal responsibility in government and her challenger, who said government needs to improve people’s lives. 

The distinction between Julie Hoy, the incumbent mayor, and Vanessa Nordyke, a Salem city councilor emerged during the debate on Tuesday, March 10, which was hosted by What’s Happening Salem and streamed live on YouTube.

The debate focused on topics like homelessness, downtown and public safety, city services, and the city budget. A lot of time was spent discussing how to improve the Salem business climate and how to cut red tape to ease development in Salem. Most of the questions were provided to the candidates in advance but some questions came from the studio audience at Capital Community Media.

Nordyke struck a more populist tone, telling voters the city must consider impacts on all residents when crafting its budget. 

Hoy told voters she was “in the right place at the right time”to continue as Salem’s mayor for another two years.

“Bottom line is, I’m a child of God, and I am doing his work, and I believe that,” Hoy said. “I will not waver from that.”

Hoy, a restaurant owner, served a partial term on the city council before being elected mayor in 2024.

Nordyke said she has a record of delivering for Salem’s working families, and said as mayor, she would serve as a “champion of the voiceless.”

She has served as a councilor since 2019. An attorney by training, she is executive director of CASA of Marion County.

“Salem, Oregon and the entire country is struggling with a K-shaped recovery,” Nordyke said in the studio setting. “At the top of the K going up are higher income people getting more income. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer.” 

She said that economic circumstance “is going to impact every decision that we make as a city, as a state and as a nation.” 

Hoy said the primary function of government is to manage taxpayer’s money and to provide basic services. She said wading into the latest national debate is outside the purview of the mayor and councilors. 

“These positions are supposed to be nonpartisan and when we don’t honor that we aren’t doing the city’s business … we found some financial stability and now we need to focus on core services: public safety, infrastructure – all of those things that help us to feel stable and functional as a city.” 

She claimed credit for improving conditions downtown and in northeast Salem after the city launched a pilot program in January that expanded police and cleaning crews, and initiated a mobile crisis response unit. 

The pilot program, called the Safe, Clean and Healthy Salem initiative, represents a more measured approach to city spending taken by Salem City Manager Krishna Namburi and was unanimously approved by Salem city councilors in October. 

Nordyke said since she came to council in 2019 she has advocated for a mobile crisis unit like the city’s new REACH team, which pairs fire department emergency medical workers with a county funded mental health worker. 

Hoy said she originally ran for mayor to bring the city back to basics and to refocus efforts on providing essential services. She said residents and businesses had expressed concern that the city had drifted from its core responsibilities. 

Hoy said she successfully led the city council toward quietly delivering progress that doesn’t make headlines.

Hoy said she once thought Nordyke would never vote alongside her to support law enforcement. 

Nordyke made clear she voted to expand the Salem Police Department’s Homeless Services Team. She addressed Hoy’s insinuation that she is anti-police. 

“Stating you never would have imagined me voting for more police shows you haven’t looked at my record,” Nordyke said. “Before you joined the council, I voted time and time again to increase our police budget. After you joined council, when other members of council voted to make cuts to our police department, I voted against those cuts.” 

Reducing government processes for businesses and developers is key to reform the city’s culture, Hoy said.

“For too long businesses trying to invest in Salem run into a city hall that feels like an obstacle course. Permitting, slow, unclear processes, and default answers of no. That’s not a regulation you can repeal. It’s a culture problem, and culture starts at the top,” Hoy said. 

Hoy said the city has made significant strides since Namburi stepped into her role about a year ago. 

She touted an influx of new permits for over 850 housing units as proof that the city’s culture is changing. 

Hoy said a day doesn’t go by that she doesn’t have conversations about developers’ concerns and how to make things easier for them. She said she brings those concerns to Namburi, who takes them seriously. 

Nordyke said Salem won’t overcome its shortage of housing without investment from developers, and agreed with Hoy that the city’s culture must change. 

“We need to stop vilifying partners and recognize them as partners and that includes our developers community,” Nordyke said. “In terms of overcoming the adversarial impression, we need to make sure that we are training our staff to help developers get to ‘Yes.’” 

Nordyke said she also routinely sits down with business owners and communicates their concerns to Namburi. She said concerns about the city’s sign code enforcement has led the city manager to temporarily pause city enforcement. 

Regarding long-term sustainability for Salem, Nordyke said one approach is to use her relationships with legislators to continue working out a deal with the state to pay its fair share for its outsized use of Salem’s public services. 

City leaders have tried that approach repeatedly without success in recent years.

“I have a lot of relationships in the legislature. I’ve been in politics for a long time. I know local legislators across the political aisle, I know legislators throughout the state,” Nordyke said. “I don’t know them all personally, I’m not going to try and say that I do. But I do have a lot of working relationships.” 

For Hoy, the long-term solution to a balanced budget is to invest in economic growth and to expand the city’s tax base. 

“We can’t tax our way out of the deficit. We need to grow our way out,” she said. 

Correction: This article was updated to correct the name of a police team. It is the Homeless Services Team, not the Homelessness Services Team. Salem Reporter apologizes for the error.

Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected]. 

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