Former Oakridge mayor dies

OAKRIDGE — Don Hampton, the longtime mayor of Oakridge and a former Lane County commissioner, who resigned his mayoral post last year amid fallout from the city’s much-publicized financial troubles, died on Thursday, two days after celebrating his 69th birthday.

The cause of death was chronic liver illness, said his wife, Judy Hampton.

Born and raised in Lincoln, Neb., Don Hampton arrived here in 1967 after earning his master’s degree in education from the University of Nebraska, his wife said. He took a job teaching English at the old Westfir Junior High School and then moved over to Oakridge High School. He taught there from 1969 into the 1990s and finished his career as the school district’s library media specialist before retiring in 1997, she said.

By then, Hampton had become a well-known fixture in the community for something else — serving as a city councilor since 1989.

A year after retiring from education, Hampton decided to run for mayor and was elected in November 1998, narrowly topping fellow councilor Sue Bond.

Hampton was re-elected in 2002, again beating Bond in a close vote.

In July 2003, Hampton was among 23 people who filed to fill the east Lane County commissioner post vacated by Tom Lininger, who had accepted a position on the faculty of the University of Oregon School of Law.

The Register-Guard endorsed Hampton that fall, saying in part that he was “a good fit” since Oakridge “embodies much of the district — rooted in the wood products industry, seeking new sources of economic vitality, and distant from centers of government power,” and that no member of the commission had ever come from Oakridge.

The newspaper endorsed Hampton again a few months later when he ran in the May 2004 primary against five others. Hampton won the primary, coming in ahead of challenger Faye Stewart, but lost the fall run-off to Stewart despite a third endorsement from the newspaper.

Two years later, Hampton became Oakridge’s mayor again when he beat Bond, who had been appointed in 2003 to replace him. He was then elected in 2004 and for a third time in November 2006. Hampton was elected mayor a fourth time in 2010.

Over the years he also served on the boards of the Lane Council of Governments and the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority and for a variety of economic development organizations.

His years in public service, however, came to an untimely end last June when he resigned almost a year after news first surfaced in the summer of 2011 that the city had an unexplained budget shortfall of $420,000.

The crisis led to the resignation in December 2011 of former City Administrator Gordon Zimmerman after a forensic auditor revealed that the city had spent $1.2 million more than it brought in over the previous 28 months, almost completely draining its reserves. A third of the city’s employees were laid off and the town had to borrow against future property tax revenues.

Hampton and three city councilors barely survived a recall effort that included lots of hard feelings and heated City Council meetings, and the fallout hurt him deeply, Judy Hampton said Saturday.

“He was very saddened by the attitudes of some of the citizens that not everybody could join together,” she said, breaking into tears over the phone. “ ‘I can disagree with you, but I don’t have to be mean to you,’ ” is how her husband felt about the situation, she said.

Current City Administrator Louis Gomez, the city’s former police chief, said he visited Hampton at home on Thursday afternoon, just a couple of hours before he died, surrounded by his wife, his son David Hampton of Ashland and his wife, Sage Meadows, and their son Sawyer, 2½. Don Hampton is also survived by a granddaughter, Sadie.

After being appointed city administrator last September, Gomez said he often called Hampton for advice. “Because he had been around for a long time,” Gomez said. “And he will be missed. Some people loved him, and some people didn’t. But, ultimately, his goal was to do the best that he could for this town.”

The city’s finances have stabilized, Gomez said. “We have money in the bank. A lot of the tension has settled down and we’re moving forward.”

Don and Judy Hampton met in 1980 after she moved to town to take a job as a counselor at the high school, she said.

“I think about how much he cared about the students and how much he cared about this town,” said Judy Hampton, who retired as Oakridge High’s principal in 2003.

“He loved being a teacher, and he felt that everybody could learn to be a good citizen … and everybody could learn to be a contributor to society. And that was important to him.”