Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
He told people the reason he did it was to spruce up his obituary.
In the process, he dealt with issues ranging from pest beavers and finding a snowplow driver to freeing a ball of baby-wipes stuck in the sewer lift station — all the while adapting to the workings of the state after 26 years as a business owner.
Farmington’s Ron Dugan, 73, will complete his 21 months as mayor Dec. 31.
When appointed in April 2012 as the sole applicant to replace Laura Hokenson, he said he would serve out the remainder of her term, would not run for re-election and would not take a salary or reimbursement for expenses.
He did those things, and will now spend the last days of his mayorship informing his replacement, James Woomack, who was elected in November, running unopposed.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not gonna say anything, except I’m glad I did it and I’m glad it’s over,” Dugan said. “That really summarizes the whole thing.”
A retiree, he spent an estimated 50 hours a week on the job.
“I guess the biggest surprise is that it’s basically endless. You can do as little as you want or as much as you want,” he said. “There’s so much we haven’t gotten done – the renovation of the church, dredging Pine Creek, improving the roads, codification of ordinances.”
On the last item, Dugan said it entails putting all of the town’s ordinances into a book organized under headings.
“Now, if we want to see if we’ve got an ordinance on something we can’t remember, we just have to start going through the ordinances,” he said.
Dugan became mayor after living in Farmington for eight years.
He and wife Yvonne moved to Whitman County after he sold his stake in Capitol Industrial Supply Co., which had locations in Wilsonville, Salem, Eugene and Bend, Ore.
When asked about that status of his faith in government now compared to before being a mayor, he had a quick answer.
“As long as I’m in charge, I’ve got a lot of faith in it,” he said. “The state simply does not give people enough responsibility to make local decisions that are obvious, but they have to go through the system to get approved… They do (what they do) because they want to do things right, but they make things inefficient.”
He cited an example in accounting.
“State accounting systems stress accountability. Their main emphasis is on protecting public funds,” he said. “Business systems also deal with accountability, but their primary focus is on providing data that assists managers in making good decisions. The difference may be subtle but nevertheless exists.”
He also mentioned the process of removing beaver dams on Pine Creek, saying it took weeks to get approval to do what a representative of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife told them from the start.
Overall, Dugan concluded that the process of working with the state made him adapt.
“I’ve become more patient, more accepting of the way the state works,” he said.
Dugan noted his biggest accomplishments were the building of Farmington’s new basketball court and increasing the town’s cash position from $110,000 to $150,000.
A small part of that was the $150 per month mayor’s salary that was not dispersed.
“We didn’t spend money we didn’t have,” Dugan said.
One area he could be criticized on, he suggested, was not spending enough on maintaining roads.
“I don’t regret it, it’s just something I could be criticized for,” he said.
He added that his biggest weakness was in mechanical aptitude.
“That was the hardest part for me. The mayor in a small town has got to be a fix-it guy,” he said.
As far as what he’ll remember most from being mayor of Farmington, Dugan said it was the people.
“The people in town who are really dedicated to volunteering and helping the town. Some people just have this inner desire to help the town out,” he said. “And most people don’t, but some do. You see it in any organization, any group of people. I don’t think mayors can operate without them… That was the most inspiring part of being mayor.”
Now that he concludes his term, Dugan will stay on as part of an informal advisory committee on the waste water system.
“That’s the biggest issue for the town going forward,” he said. “It’s 30 years old, on a 20 year-life, new regulations have been passed, we have to upgrade it to be current. This thing is gonna take years to resolve.”
Before his time running his business in Oregon, Dugan grew up on a farm in Geyserville, Calif. and graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He spent two years on ships in Alaska and California, and later got an MBA from Harvard.
He’s now ready to conclude his experience as a mayor, helping to prepare Woomack for the job. Dugan said he’ll have good help at the town hall.
“Barb Dial is an extraordinary clerk, very competent,” he said.
From there, Woomack will have various information to refer to.
“I sure have created a lot of paper in 21 months,” Dugan said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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