Corvallis City Manager Mark Shepard has been selected to serve a three-year term on the League of Oregon Cities Board of Directors. Shepard will be one of just three city managers serving on the board, which is primarily made up of local elected officials from cities in Oregon.
Shepard was nominated for the Board of Directors position following a recommendation from the Oregon City/County Managers Association, where he has been an active member for 9 years. Following a competitive application and interview process with the nominating committee, Shepard was chosen for a term beginning in 2025 and running through the end of 2027.
The Board of Directors represents the issues and challenges of cities and municipalities in Oregon. The organization tries to help cities navigate changing regulatory landscapes, upcoming legal developments, and the impacts of legislation being considered at the state level.
For Shepard, who is approaching his 10th year as City Manager in Corvallis, the Board of Directors selection offers an opportunity to provide perspective and leadership on critical issues – and to represent Corvallis on the statewide stage. For Corvallis, it means a key position at an organization that influences state lawmakers.
“Many of the key issues confronting cities around Oregon are in fact challenges that Corvallis is navigating,” Shepard said. “I’ll do my best to represent the issues Corvallis is facing and ways we have been navigating them, and I’m also interested in gathering knowledge from the other professionals serving on the board with me.”
Over the last decade, the City of Corvallis has identified and implemented a number of revenue and funding measures that have put the City on a more sustainable financial footing than most cities in Oregon. Corvallis also weathered the pandemic without the hiring freezes and layoffs that other cities dealt with. More recently, the City launched a multi-year facilities project to address decades of under-investment in key public buildings in Corvallis.
During the final year of Shepard’s three-year term, he will serve as the senior City Manager on the board’s five-member executive committee.
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