City Council to interview candidates privately, then hold public meeting Friday to finalize choice

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news

The Ashland City Council will hold an executive session from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday to conduct city attorney interviews, according to an agenda posting. 

The council will hold a second executive session from 9 a.m. to noon Friday, followed by a business meeting from noon to 1 p.m. open to the public, according to the post. Both are billed as being about selection of a city attorney. 

The business meeting will be held in the City Council chamber at 1175 E. Main St. 

The city of Ashland has had three people serving as city attorney in the last three years. After 10 years of service with the city, Dave Lohman retired effective July 1, 2021. Assistant City Attorney Katrina Brown stepped in first as interim, then permanent city attorney. She left July 14, 2022, to take a job with the state of Oregon.

Doug McGeary stepped in as acting assistant city attorney after Brown assumed the lead role in July 2021. A year later, in July 2022, he became interim city attorney on Brown’s departure, and has remained interim city attorney since.

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].