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Gold Hill elects Eilefson as mayor By BUFFY POLLOCK GOLD HILL - About 23 percent of Gold Hill voters made council president Scott Eilefson the first mayor elected this millennium. Eilefson received the news at home Tuesday shortly after the 8 p.m. deadline for ballots to be returned. Since he has been serving as interim mayor, he said, the vote for him to permanently fill the seat spoke well of the entire City Council. "I think it's a vote of confidence for the whole team. I'm really just one member of the council, and this shows me that voters are generally pleased with the way things are functioning in the city." Eilefson won the mayor's seat with 128 votes. His opponent, Kevin Ryan, received 74 votes. Eilefson has served as interim mayor since January, after Tim Roddam's December resignation. Eilefson said, with the election behind him, he was "eager to move ahead with reaching some of the city's goals." "Public safety is at the top of the list," he said. "I feel confident we will be able to come up with a solution the city will be accepting of." Gold Hill has a contract with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department to provide law enforcement protection. City Council members voted this month to terminate the current contract effective June 30 in hopes of negotiating a lower hourly rate police services. Ryan offered his congratulations to Eilefson and said, although he was not elected, he hoped "to play an active role in the city and would be honored if an opportunity to serve on council were offered." "I'm glad to see people at least voting. I expected it would be a close race. Scott has a lot of constituents, and he's going to make a good mayor. I congratulate him." Jackson County Clerk Kathy Beckett said only 11 ballots were gathered from the drop box at the final pickup at Medford City Hall. Ryan had voiced concerns last week about a lack of locations for ballots in Gold Hill causing smaller voter turnout. Beckett explained that ballot boxes are not available in Gold Hill because of requirements involved with providing a "secure ballot box site" and due to the nature of mail-in elections. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.