Salem Reporter is publishing a profile of both candidates running for mayor in 2026. Vanessa Nordyke’s profile will run Friday, May 1. Salem Mayor Julie Hoy says she can stay the course on the city’s newfound financial stability by focusing on core services and public safety should voters ree lect her on Tuesday, May 19.  As she defends her seat against a challenge from Salem City Councilor Vanessa Nordyke, Hoy and her supporters say the mayor offers Salem voters a steady-handed fiscal conservative who balanced the city’s budget, and addressed issues related to public safety and homelessness through shrewd pragmatism. The mayor serves a two-year term as the de facto leader of the city council, running meetings and serving as a city figurehead. Salem’s mayor has one vote, the same as any councilor. The position is nonpartisan and unpaid. Election guide: Read more about the 2026 city election here and find your ward here. Hoy is firmly supported by the city’s business and developer community who view her as a vehicle toward a more economically viable and financially stable future. “I think that Mayor Hoy is the captain of that ship and will continue on that path,” commercial real estate investor and Salem Planning Commission member Nate Levin told Salem Reporter in an interview.  Levin is among the donors who have together contributed six figures to the mayor’s reelection bid. As of Thursday, April 30, she’s raised $157,000 since 2025, with a substantial portion coming from real estate firms and developers. She is backed by Marion + Polk First, a group supporting conservative candidates for local office. Hoy has a practice of ignoring or declining interview requests from Salem Reporter and only occasionally responds to written questions. She is the sole candidate seeking city office who did not respond to a request from the news organization to be interviewed about her campaign, and who skipped Salem Reporter’s March 31 election Town Hall. She claimed the news organization’s prior mayoral debate in 2024 was unfair to her. She did not respond to an email with draft excerpts of this story sent to her to review for accuracy.  Julie Hoy Age: 60 Education: Phil Mattson School of Music Occupation: Owner, Geppetto’s Italian Restaurant Prior governmental experience: Mayor of Salem, 2025 – present, Ward 6 city councilor, 2023 – 24 Top five campaign donors: Mountain West Investment Corporation, $27,000; Marion Polk First PAC, $15,463 cash and in-kind; Businesses for Community, $12,500; Larry Tokarski, $10,000; Richard Withnell, $7,638.60 Total raised: $157,038 Total spent: $122,166 Cash on hand: $36,724 Campaign finance data is from the Oregon Secretary of State as of Thursday, April 30. Totals include 2025 and 2026 and are rounded to the nearest dollar. Hoy also skipped other public forums she was invited to, including those hosted by the North East Salem Community Association and East Lancaster Neighborhood Association, and retirement community Capital Manor. Her detractors, including Nordyke, have said her unwillingness to show up and talk to her constituents in various settings should be disqualifying.  “If you are the mayor of the capital of Oregon, you must respond to questions from the public, you must make yourself accountable,” Nordyke said at the Town Hall. “You shouldn’t be able to just read off a script.” Hoy said publicly during a recorded interview on Jan. 28 with What’s Happening Salem host Jacob Espinoza that she’d prefer not to be campaigning because it takes up too much time and energy from her work.  “I’m doing the job. I know what we are doing and want to continue the progress and … two-year terms make for a fast turnaround and so we’re running,” Hoy said. “I’m not going to lie, I kind of wish it wasn’t happening because it feels like a distraction to the progress.” Despite her preference to avoid speaking in many public settings, her supporters view her as an accessible leader.  “She might be the most humble of all of the public servants that I have come across,” TJ Sullivan, a former city councilor and the president of the Salem Main Street Association, said. “She definitely leads with humility and definitely has a servant’s attitude. And when you bring something up, I mean she really, probably to her detriment, she takes it a little bit too seriously. And she’s done a good job making some tough decisions and asking tough questions.”  Salem Mayor Julie Hoy speaks at the Qingming celebration in Salem on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (ALAN COHEN/Salem Reporter) Hoy’s first term Hoy successfully campaigned for mayor in 2024 on a platform of no unnecessary tax increases. Before that election, she’d served a little over a year as a city councilor representing Ward 6, east Salem.  She is the owner of Italian restaurant Geppetto’s on Northeast Lancaster Drive and is also a musician who has released several albums of Christian music. She rode a wave of discontent after Salem voters overwhelmingly rejected a payroll tax that the previous council, led by then-Mayor Chris Hoy, no relation, voted to impose in 2023.  Hoy told voters at the time that the city was squandering taxpayer dollars on homeless services and other unnecessary programs. If elected, she promised to get to the bottom of things and set city finances straight. As mayor-elect, she served on a team reviewing the city’s methods for budget predictions. That group concluded the city’s forecasts were too conservative, and the deficit was smaller than previously stated. Shortly after becoming mayor, and after an outside commission of local business leaders reviewed the city’s books, Hoy changed her tune.  She joined her liberal colleagues on the council in telling residents that the city was in fact squeezing more services out of scant resources compared to its peer cities like Eugene.  Julie Hoy hugs a supporter following the mayoral debate on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at the Elsinore Theatre (LAURA TESLER/For Salem Reporter) She also voted to ask Salem residents to back a property tax increase to save city services like the library, Center 50+ and parks and recreation. Voters approved the five-year tax increase in May 2025, tossing the city a financial lifeline to avoid deep cuts. In her first months as mayor, Hoy also acted to get rid of then-City Manager Keith Stahley, a state ethics investigation showed. After an unfavorable review of the city manager’s office identified issues with Stahley’s job performance, Hoy reached out to her colleagues on council in an effort, she said, to bring attention to the matter.  After speaking with each councilor individually, Hoy told Council President Linda Nishioka that the majority of councilors wanted Stahley to resign, the state’s ethics commission concluded. Nishioka then met privately with Stahley to warn him, prompting him to resign.  A months-long ethics investigation found not a single councilor told Hoy they wanted Stahley gone. Nishioka told investigators that Hoy wanted to see Stahley removed even prior to her election as mayor in 2024.  Hoy has maintained Nishioka lied to the ethics commission and refused to concede she violated state law by speaking with councilors privately. It wasn’t the mayor’s first brush with ethics concerns. As a city councilor, Hoy failed to recuse herself in a land use appeal vote that benefited one of her campaign donors. Hoy was censured by a majority of her colleagues.  Prior to that, Stahley admonished Hoy for coming close to violating city ethics rules after she promoted a local tire business for a city contract.  With Stahley gone, the council appointed longtime city employee Krishna Namburi to serve as interim city manager. Namburi immediately set about cutting costs. Hoy referenced city working conditions in a questionnaire submitted to the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce seeking the group’s endorsement. “I’ve also helped city staff to have a more functional workplace from which to serve the community,” she wrote. The mayor now claims credit for steering the city back on course financially. “At my request, the city budget process has been shifted to allow for more frequent check-ins and information is shared so that the public can better understand how their government functions,” Hoy said in the questionnaire. The mayor also claims credit for efforts to prioritize public safety and livability downtown.  She worked with business groups to secure a private, largely anonymous donation to cover more police officer positions. That money became part of a larger plan put forward by Namburi to expand homeless camp cleanups and outreach, and stand up a fire department crisis team. Hoy maintains a close relationship with Marion County leaders, particularly Commissioner Danielle Bethell.  She said that’s allowed her to make inroads on joint services like the new crisis team. “My predecessor was unsuccessful in building partnerships with Marion County – the behavioral and mental health authority in our area,” Hoy said in her chamber questionnaire. “I have been able to begin helping that coordination to occur. Much work is happening and will continue.”  Commissioner Kevin Cameron said under Hoy’s leadership, previously chilly relationships between city and county government are improving. “Between the county, and the city, at least at the mayor’s level, and the city manager’s level, I think progress is being made,” Cameron said. From left, Salem Mayor Julie Hoy, Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell and Salem Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Hoffert at the Jan. 24, 2025 opening of The ARCHES Nest family shelter. (ABBEY MCDONALD/ Salem Reporter) Her pitch to voters Hoy’s stance as the election approaches is that she will continue to prioritize core services like police and fire and focus on being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. “Additional taxation should pause. Residents and employers are stretched thin. First demonstrate disciplined, transparent use of existing revenues and measurable outcomes,” Hoy said in her chamber questionnaire. “Once voters see us do the hard work to live within our means, then we can have a conversation about what additional services, if any, they would like to pay for.” She has at times deviated from that approach, voting Feb. 9 to allocate $200,000 to reestablish a city social services fund in part to aid Salem residents impacted by immigration enforcement. The vote frustrated some supporters. “That money could have been better spent on core services. Absolutely. And it’s money they had to pull out of somewhere,” said Mike Slagle, chair of Marion County Republicans. Hoy claimed during a What’s Happening Salem forum in March that she is doing “God’s work.” On homelessness, Hoy’s general perspective on the issue is in line with other conservative council candidates, calling for compassion paired with accountability. However, she and others have rarely expounded on what that would mean practically for people who refuse services. In her chamber questionnaire, she said the work requires a regional approach. “Support should require progress on treatment, recovery and behavioral expectations where appropriate,” she said. Mayor Julie Hoy pauses during the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce mayoral debate on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026.(HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter) Many times when pressed in public about her stances on homelessness, Hoy tells personal stories about encounters with homeless people.  At the chamber’s mayoral debate, Hoy was asked how she would deal with the issues of drug addiction, homelessness and mental illness.  In response, she told the audience about a time she saw a Pioneer Trust Bank employee cleaning feces from the bank’s entryway. She also told a story about mistaking a housed person for an unhoused one.  “I made my way to my car to find an entryway to apartment living where there was an empty liter of Tanqueray and a bunch of cardboard and clothing items, and a woman. And I saw the woman and I thought, ‘Is she going to pick up her garbage?’” Hoy said. “Then she used her key to enter the residence and go upstairs. I mistook her for someone who left that behind. We have to stop this behavior. We have to help those who need our mental health assistance and addiction services.”  Hoy last year was a chief petitioner for a proposed ballot measure that would make it easier for counties and cities to remove homeless people and their belongings from public spaces. That initiative, dubbed the “The Local Control Safety Act,” is currently gathering signatures to appear on the November ballot. Hoy said the initiative gives agency back to local jurisdictions to take action over what the petition called a detriment to “tourism and economic growth.” She also mentioned affordability as a major issue facing Salem residents and employers, and said more housing is one of the primary needs. She said she is committed to incentivizing more housing as opposed to simply trying to facilitate state housing goals, and that she wants to streamline city processes.  However, she stopped short of expressing support for prioritizing affordable or low-income housing and said making housing more affordable is outside of the city’s control.  In an email to Salem Reporter, the mayor said she supports affordable housing and believes the city needs to develop housing at all levels, and that more housing supply is what’s needed to drive down costs. “The city can’t solve interest rates or other global forces driving up the cost of housing,” Hoy said in the chamber questionnaire. “That said, we can reduce uncertainty and delay, encourage infill and mixed-use housing and keep city departments aligned so applicants get timely, predictable decisions.”  When it comes to moving the dial on development, developers view Hoy as the best means to that end.  “I would think that Mayor Hoy would be more willing to push for innovation and change through, I don’t want to speak dramatically, but the red tape,” Josh Kay of First Commercial Real Estate told Salem Reporter. “I would think there would be more alignment in the building and development community with Mayor Hoy than with Nordyke, and I think that’s just on the party lines thing.”  Mayor Julie Hoy, center left, and representatives of Dalke Construction and Deacon Development celebrate the start of construction on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, at the site of Citizen Apartments, a 105-unit downtown complex expected to be completed spring 2027. (HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter) Supporters and detractors Hoy’s focus on balancing the budget and focusing on economic growth in Salem earned her a chamber endorsement. Her husband, Roger Hoy, serves on the chamber board. The chamber previously endorsed Hoy in her 2024 mayoral bid, and also Nordyke when she ran unopposed for council in 2024. “Our organization aligns with Mayor Hoy’s economic policies, her ability to partner with fellow councilors and staff and her focus on promoting strategic efforts to ensure a safe, clean and healthy Salem,” the chamber said in its endorsement statement. She has also received the backing of the city’s police and fire unions.  Supporters and detractors generally agree the mayor takes her cues from Salem’s businesses and developers. They differ on whether that’s a positive. “Our mayor likes to talk about, ‘We need to go back to basics and go back to core services,’ and I’m not sure what she means by that but what I’m concerned about is that that might mean leaving our lower income residents out in the cold,” Nordyke said. “No social services. No affordable housing. Police and fire and nothing else. That’s what I fear she means by that. But since she doesn’t clearly articulate her vision and doesn’t make herself available to questions, I am left to speculate just like you are.” Nordyke has consistently pointed out the importance of speaking publicly and extemporaneously as an elected official, and has criticized Hoy for frequently appearing to be reading from notes during public appearances.   Detractors also consistently lambast Hoy for being too conservative. She rarely wades into national political matters on council. She has responded to concerns over federal immigration enforcement by saying everyone in Salem deserves to feel safe and the city isn’t involved in immigration enforcement. Progressive Salem, which is backing Nordyke, has sought to tie Hoy to President Donald Trump, claiming she attended his inauguration in a recent mailer. Hoy said in a text to Salem Reporter she was in Washington D.C. at the time of Trump’s 2025 inauguration for the National Mayor’s Conference. U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas’ office provided her and her husband with tickets for the inauguration, which was later moved inside due to weather. Hoy said she instead watched the event on a restaurant TV while eating brunch. Hoy’s supporters see her as a matter-of-fact and honest politician. “I find Julie to be honest. I really do. I think she’s an honest person. I mean, I haven’t seen anything that she’s said – she may have backwalked on a few things – but I haven’t seen her not tell the truth about something,” Slagle said. “She’s not wishy-washy about it, she’ll come out and say what it is that she is trying to do or that she is trying to say. And I think that shows her character and what she’s about.”    Her admirers credit her with readjusting the city’s approach to fiscal responsibility and governance. “Mayor Hoy, I think she’s done a great job in sort of repositioning the city on what we should be focusing on. And it makes sense, because she is a small business owner, and you can’t really be spending time on things that don’t have some kind of return,” former Salem City Councilor Jose Gonzalez said. “I mean, it’s natural. I think that’s where her leadership style comes from … expecting results.”  Managing Editor Rachel Alexander contributed reporting. Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected].  SIGN UP: “Thank you for your fair, thorough, and fearless reporting.” Subscribing to Salem Reporter helps sustain in-depth, local reporting that Salem depends on. Invest in your community’s news. Subscribe today. The post VOTE 2026: In her reelection bid, Mayor Julie Hoy ducks the spotlight appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less