Melissa Fireside, pictured during her run for Clackamas County's board of commissioners. She has been charged with eight felony counts.
Courtesy of the Fireside Campaign
Clackamas County announced Thursday that 59 applicants sought to replace Melissa Fireside, the county commissioner who resigned amid felony theft and forgery charges mere months into her tenure, but five names rose to the top.
The county said it will consider five finalists: Metro Councilor Christine Lewis, former Lake Oswego City Councilors Jeff Gudman and Jackie Manz; former Damascus Mayor Diana Helm and Happy Valley Mayor Tom Ellis.
The current four-person board of commissioners selected the finalists at a meeting Thursday. The board will interview the candidates May 19 and expects to make a decision that day. The replacement will be on the commission through 2026. In 2026 another election will determine who will serve the remainder of Fireside’s four-year term, which was slated to end in 2028.
Fireside faces felony theft and forgery charges. She resigned March 7.
Fireside, a Democrat who was elected to office in November, is accused of stealing $30,000 from an 83-year-old man. She’s also accused of forging the signature of another Democratic lawmaker, April Dobson.
Notably, the commission will not interview Mark Shull, whom Fireside ousted in the November election. Shull was elected to the commission in 2020 but quickly became embroiled in controversy, following revelations of xenophobic, racist and transphobic Facebook posts. The commission voted unanimously to censure Shull and called for his resignation back in 2021, but he remained on the board until losing to Fireside in November.
The Wilsonville Spokesman first reported Lewis’ candidacy for the commission.
Lewis represents District 2 on the Metro council, which includes Gladstone, Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Happy Valley and other cities. She was first elected to the Metro council in 2018 and was reelected in 2022. Gudman was a Democratic candidate for Oregon State Treasurer in 2024, a bid he lost to Elizabeth Steiner.
