Scappoose looks to Eastern Oregon for next city manager

The city of Scappoose is on the verge of officially naming its newest city manager.

The city council, at its June 27 special meeting, voted to direct Mayor Joe Backus to issue Ben Burgener, currently city manager of the small town of Stanfield, a letter of intent to become Scappoose city manager.

Stanfield is in Umatilla County, a 10-minute drive from Hermiston. It had a 2020 population of 2,144, considerably smaller than the population of Scappoose, which was estimated at 8,230 in 2022.

The city looked at three other finalists for the position: Jake Boone, currently the assistant city manager of Cottage Grove; Peter Boyce, recently serving as city administrator for the city of Woodland, Washington; and W. Scott Jorgensen, who, since 2020, has been city administrator for Rainier.

“The interviews went really well; we were very pleased with the candidates,” Backus said. “We had a wide range of experience … they all had good qualities that I was looking for.”

Backus said he was pleased with the council’s choice of Burgener.

“The experience that we required, or wanted, was there,” Backus said. “He has been a city manager for Stanfield for at least the last five years.”

Backus noted that in the small town of Stanfield, Burgener had many responsibilities, such as running human resources, overseeing the police department and involving himself in land use issues.

“In his past experience, he had a lot of parks and rec experience through the state of Utah,” he said. “I thought that was really intriguing. We have all these parks and lands that we really want to develop … he wrote a lot of grants and raised a lot of money for parks and rec, so I thought that would be very beneficial for us.”

Backus also noted that Burgener had experience with the Utah Department of Transportation.

“I think that would translate here with having to deal with the Oregon Department of Transportation, the highway, the rail,” he said.

Backus said Burgener has signed the letter of intent, and now the city is in the process of developing an employment agreement.

“We are looking at, probably, a Sept. 1 start date,” Backus said. “In the interim, Dave Sukau, our public works director, is acting city manager. He can definitely cover the city for that time period.”

Interim City Manager Larry Lehman has left the city, with his contract expiring on Friday, June 28.

“He was great,” Backus said of Lehman. “He had other commitments and starting to do some traveling … we knew, timing wise, it was going to be tight.”

Lehman replaced former City Manager Alexandra Rains, who left Scappoose to become assistant city manager in Oregon City.

The naming of Burgener is nearly official. It’s just a matter of crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s.

“He hasn’t signed on the dotted line of a contract at this point (at press time), but I think we’re both very excited in moving forward, so I don’t see any reason that it won’t get done,” Backus added.