New Election. Same Playbook. It's the Galas-Merten Show Again.

Curiously late-arriving forum rules revive familiar questions about a certain activist-organizer’s overlapping roles and varied claims to authority.

Linda Galas-Merten does not live in North Plains. She owns a winery miles outside of city limits. Over the past two years, however, she has involved herself in enough of its business to make the city look like a municipality she has appointed herself to supervise.

Growth boundaries. Council candidates. City staff. Business representation. Food Bank parking. Political action committees. Even the Senior Center’s sign.

Her established platform, as we understand it, used to be Washington County’s Community Participation Organization 8, covering Helvetia, North Plains and neighboring areas. As chair, Linda was a public official. But as TRFNP has reported extensively, she routinely and at times appeared to exclusively use that platform for self-directed political purposes.

Now comes Sunday’s Strong Towns candidate forum. Led by none other than Ms. Galas-Merten, the town's self-appointed leader chosen by precisely none of us.

The forum brings the overlapping roles together: an activist who has intentionally recruited candidates and vigorously lobbied city officials is now promising an impartial setting in which voters can honestly compare candidates.

A message signed by Galas-Merten, forwarded to TRFNP October 6, outlines a change to the event format and rules only five days before the event: six candidates, twelve questions, two-minute answers and thirty-second opportunities for each of the other five candidates to respond.

With openings, closings and all response opportunities, each candidate gets twelve minutes. The arithmetic is equal. The message leaves unexplained who selects and assigns questions, how response order works, and whether candidates can answer challenges made in rebuttals.

Galas-Merten promises an event that is “fair, unbiased and equal for all of you.” At this 11th hour, she now says that her fellow non-resident activist Dean Moberg would prepare a flowchart.

The forum has not happened yet. Its rules already need a diagram, written by an outside activist with no clear connection to the city.

Equal speaking time is only one part of a fair debate. Whoever selects the questions, assigns them to candidates and controls rebuttals can shape what voters hear. Strong Towns hasn't explained those safeguards.

To be clear, Galas-Merten's various organizations are attempting to prop up the incumbents Weber and Warrington, and to aid the campaign of their newcomer ally Axe. At first, only those three candidates were invited. A September 17 Smart Growth email heavily promoted only appearances by Melody, Anna and Don. After TRFNP cried foul, candidate Tera VanDyke said all candidates had now been invited.

TRFNP’s earlier forum report examined the three-candidate publicity and subsequent assurances of inclusion.

Linda's previous "forums" explain why those assurances deserve scrutiny.

In April 2024, after Washington County refused CPO sponsorship, Galas-Merten proceeded with an unsponsored growth-boundary forum. There, she described her agenda to recruit aligned Council candidates—and pursue a charter change allowing two Council members from outside city limits but within the 97133 ZIP code. The condition: “if we can get a city council.”

In other words, Galas-Merten and Strong Towns want representation without taxation. We pay, they decide.

That event was at Eagle’s Nest Reserve Winery, which is outside of North Plains. Sunday’s forum is at the identical location.

By October 2024, a CPO forum featured Ariel Goodwin, Aaron Dumbrow, Mandy Hagedorn and Katie Reding discussing the majority their election could create. All four won. All four had resigned by August 2026. TRFNP’s candidate-recruitment investigation documents the sequence.

The four candidates won a Council majority in 2024. All later resigned, but the political relationships continued: Don Weber joined Council by appointment and nominated Mark DeForge and Anna Warrington. Weber and Warrington are now among the candidates promoted alongside this year’s forum.

The organizing continued between elections. In December 2024, Galas-Merten used the official government CPO leadership account to send more than fifty people a Council action plan assigning objections and speakers as part of her own political effort. Ultimately now-Councilor Don Weber carried out the plan exactly as Galas-Merten outlined.

By 2025, Galas-Merten's CPO advocacy was directing readers directly to her other organization, Strong Towns. Washington County responded with gusto, ordering the advocacy posts removed, requiring future Board review of CPO positions and wholesale rejecting Galas-Merten's proposed shift toward email and social-media deliberations.

The County’s correspondence went so far as to remind Galas-Merten and fellow leaders Patti Perrin and Faun Hosey of their public-role obligations.

Then there was the bond dispute. In August 2025, before City Manager Bill Reid’s evaluation, Galas-Merten publicly claimed that Reid was not bonded as required by his contract. Reid’s October 17 memorandum reproduced the insurer’s clear statement refuting Galas-Merten's assertions.

Curiously, the insurer's memo also reported that a caller identified as Linda gave the impression she was authorized by the bonding agency to obtain billing information. Reid said neither Council nor staff authorized Linda or Strong Towns to contact the insurer.

In March 2026, while serving on the Food Bank board, Galas-Merten delivered proposed Council materials to Hagedorn’s home. Hagedorn reported the unsolicited packet to the city attorney. Galas-Merten later acknowledged delivering a resolution drafted by the Food Bank’s lawyer.

By the next month, Linda was giving herself another title: president of her own newly-incorporated North Plains Business Alliance, alongside incorporator and secretary Lora Dexheimer. Chamber President Russ Sheldon warned Council that the effort, which did not appear to have much in the way of connection to North Plains Businesses, raised serious questions about the group's intent.

By September, even the Senior Center’s new sign had Linda's attention. Speaking for Strong Towns, she acknowledged finding no policy prohibiting its City-logo use, yet nonetheless demanded removal and a retroactive policy. TRFNP’s Senior Center report documented the request.

These episodes matter because the organizer promising neutrality has repeatedly sought to shape who governs North Plains and how its business is conducted. Each organizational title has limits. None confers general authority over the city.

Before Sunday, Strong Towns should publish the complete rules, explain question selection and clarify rebuttal procedures. The forum is advertised for October 11, 4–6 p.m., at Eagle’s Nest Reserve Winery in Hillsboro.

Voters are choosing their government. They deserve to know who is setting the terms of the conversation.