DEPOE BAY — Still reeling from a costly legal settlement, successive resignations of two mayors and wholesale changes to the town council, City Hall is bracing for a new leader.

Joe Cannon, appointed in 2025 to fill a vacancy on the city council, is slated to be sworn-in as mayor Tuesday, July 21. Cannon’s selection was confirmed in a 6-0 vote after the disillusioned resignation of Valerie Sovern on July 1, herself appointed mayor in 2024 following the resignation of two-time mayor Kathy Short.

Depoe Bay has suffered from leadership missteps that culminated in the failure to produce audits for six years. Running on grants and room taxes, the accounting debacle has affected the city’s ability to finance capital projects.

“My aim is to figure out how not to go down these roads anymore,” Cannon told the Beacon. “I’ve been watching, learning, absorbing. I want to grow the town and get things right-sided. Many things need to be fixed and repaired.”

There are challenges aplenty, including a noticeably overworked sewage system and a water treatment plant that is gradually sliding into Depoe Bay Creek. With a $6 million general fund and no tax base, the margins are thin.

“We need a nucleus of forward-thinking people who will lock in on a project and finish it, and not focus on personal issues,” said Cannon, who observed there will be five city council seats on the November general election ballot, including the mayor’s.

A resident of the Little Whale Cove community, Cannon is a U.S. Air Force veteran (1975-79) whose military specialty had him fixing and running power plants deep inside the NORAD nerve center in a Colorado mountain. As a civilian plant operator, consultant and teacher, Cannon bought a home here in 2021 and retired to it in 2023.

After the service, his work in the energy industry included biomass power plants, alternate-energy solar and wind systems and natural gas-fired turbines the size of commercial jets. He currently serves on a city-authorized Energy Committee.

He said a “cornerstone” of any Cannon administration is to make Depoe Bay disaster-ready. Given the demonstrated potential for landslides, forest fires, ice storms and earthquakes, Cannon wants Depoe Bay to become self-sufficient with its own power sources, medical help and even a drone port to ferry supplies.

The general election is Nov. 3, 2026. The paperwork deadline for incumbents seeking reelection is Tuesday, Aug. 18; for all others including appointed city councilors, Tuesday, Aug. 25. For further information about running for office, call Deputy City Clerk Carla Duering, 541-765-2361, Ext. 3.

“I think there are a lot of good people out there who should run, and then it’s up to the citizens to do their part and elect the right people,” said Cannon.

The council is expected to appoint a new city councilor from a pool of three applicants to fill out the remaining five months of Cannon’s city council seat, Pos. 4. In that case, appointed councilors will outnumber elected councilors 4-3.