Former longtime Tribal employee elected Willamina mayor

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff writer

Former longtime Tribal employee Vickie Hernandez has been elected city of Willamina mayor.

Hernandez, who retired from Human Resources in 2022 after 25 years, said she is enjoying working with city staff and fellow councilors, as well as “showing my grandkids you can go out and do all kinds of things even when you’re old.”

“They think it’s very cool,” she said.

Hernandez said she loved working for the Tribe. Her husband,  son, son-in-law and daughter are all employed with the Tribe as well, she said, and her children are Tribal members.

By 2022, Hernandez was ready to retire and enjoy a new phase of her life.

“It’s been wonderful,” she said.

Her retirement years involved spending time with her grandchildren and pursuing various interests. A couple of years ago, that expanded to include filling a vacancy on the Willamina City Council.

“My friend is the city manager, and they had a vacancy needed to appoint to city council, and she said, ‘Just do it,’” Hernandez said.

The appointment was only for a few months but once she was on board, the manager and her fellow councilors convinced her to run for election, according to Hernandez.

Hernandez said she has thoroughly enjoyed her experience serving on council.

“It’s a great group of people on the council; they don’t fight and everybody’s on there for the right reason,” she said. “And what a great group of staff. If it wasn’t for them, I’d have run the other way.”

Last year, then-Mayor Ila Skyberg decided she was ready to retire from the job and Hernandez was appointed as interim mayor through December, and then will be sworn in to serve her elected term of office.

“I think our biggest focus right now is revitalizing some of our town,” Hernandez said. “Re-engaging with our citizens, getting people excited to call Willamina home, not just, ‘Oh, it’s just Willamina.’ City staff is very excited about that.”

It’s also a goal of the city council to expand community involvement.

“Community engagement, I guess that’s the buzzword,” she said. “We want the townsfolk to know we’re on their side; we’re not the big, scary city council that makes decisions without them. We’re just people who live here, just like them.”

A recent community engagement process has provided feedback for the council to start working on 5 and 10-year plans with goals for housing affordability, working closely with local schools and other aspirations, Hernandez said.

Meanwhile, the city has also been working to make sure its water and sewer infrastructure is up to date.

“Of course, it all comes back to money,” Hernandez said. “We have a great city staff that’s amazing at finding grants and resources.”