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McGrath will move to Mexico CENTRAL POINT � Longtime businessman, council member and former Mayor Rusty McGrath resigned his council seat with plans to head south of the border. At last week�s council meeting, city administrator Jim Bennett read a letter from McGrath tendering his formal resignation effective immediately. McGrath said he would move to Mexico when he sold his business, McGrath Racing and ATV, located on Front Street. "I just can�t take anymore," he said. "The taxes are too high and there�s a lot of real upset people in town. If I stick around here I�ll never be able to retire. I�ve just had enough." McGrath, who spent 10 years as mayor and council member, won an at-large seat in November. Known for his pro-growth attitude, McGrath leaves behind a colorful � and often costly � legacy to the city. In 1999, the city settled a lawsuit from a former city employee who claimed McGrath had harassed her. Sandy Lommell received a lump sum of $60,000 plus legal costs and attorney fees. In 1997, the city settled another suit for $20,000 plus legal costs and attorney fees brought against McGrath by a former city employee. Susan Wilson Broadus said McGrath and then-City Administrator Dave Kucera "threatened, intimidated and micromanaged" her. During a meeting in 1995, in an apparent reference to Wilson Broadus, McGrath waved his finger at her and said, "There�s a lot of tempers right now around the valley really flaring with this titty ..." McGrath later said he had said "city," and apologized to Wilson Broadus. Also that year, McGrath remarked that city officials and builders should "sit down like real white people" during a council meeting � a statement many considered racist. In 1989, McGrath was arrested and charged with soliciting a sex act from a policewoman posing as a prostitute in Eugene. He later pleaded guilty. Also in 1989, more than 100 neighbors collected signatures protesting parked vehicles and debris on the lot beside McGrath�s Freeman Road residence. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.