After spending quite a few weeks considering when the right time might be to confirm what my closest friends have known for a long time, it’s with a heavy heart that I announce my retirement from elected service at the end of this year, which is also the end of my current term as mayor of this amazing city,” Palmer wrote.
Palmer served for eight years on the City Council, lost a bid for mayor in 2012, returned to the council in 2014 and was elected mayor by his fellow council members in 2017 after Lewis left to take Vic Gilliam’s spot in the Oregon Legislature.
Palmer was returned to the mayoral office by the voters in 2018 and 2020, but he said he had no intentions of a “permanent” political career.
“Right from the start, I made a promise to myself, and to my wife Julie, that the most I would ask this community for would be two additional terms, which I deeply appreciate the voters of Silverton granting to me, in 2018, and in 2020,” he wrote.
“The truth is I am absolutely not a politician, don’t enjoy campaigns and elections, and in my core, have always believed that everyone has an expiration date – a time when the body, the process, the staff, and the voters of the city are best served by new ideas, and new perspectives.”
And over the years, the commitment his official duties required produced strains on his family life.
“My two boys were in junior high when I was first elected, and are now in their 30s,” Palmer wrote. “My grandchildren will be 9 and 7 this year and my next door niece and nephew will be 3 and 8 this year.
“I’ve long had 2023 marked on the calendar as the year that I stop missing activities that have grown more frequent with their age. I’ll only have one chance to be there for the making of so many memories.”
Palmer also said that he is frustrated by the divisiveness and challenges of modern politics.
“Regardless of whom this community selects to serve us as our next mayor, and next members of City Council (not to mention school board members), I hope we can all take a moment to remember that we are all just your neighbors. Decent people that you may or may not agree with, but people nevertheless. While I’m not even sure what it would take to hurt or offend me anymore, that’s not something I’m necessarily proud of, and I’ve seen many good people who would make terrific representatives shy away from those opportunities because of how casually some will treat an elected official as just a figurehead and not as a person.
“It costs absolutely nothing to be kind and decent and I hope that can characterize the general election of 2022, at least in Silverton.”
