After announcing in late September that he had moved to Nevada, Republican state Rep. Bill Post submitted his resignation Tuesday from his position as the House District 25 representative effective Nov. 30.
“After further discussions with an elections attorney and talking it over with my wife, it appears that the best action I can take for my district and my family is to resign before my term is over and give my successor a chance to serve during the 2022 short legislative session,” Post said in a draft of a press release sent to the Keizertimes.
Post has served as state representative for Keizer, St. Paul and Newberg since 2014.
Post has been a resident of Keizer since 1994 and has served as state representative for Keizer, St. Paul and Newberg since 2014. While Post had announced in early September that he would not seek re-election, his current term wasn’t set to officially expire until January 2023.
Post’s resignation comes after he wrote on Facebook on Sept. 27 that he and his wife had sold their house in Keizer and moved to Nevada with 15 months remaining in his current term in office.
“I have to live in my district 183 days a year, which I have well over that in 2021 and the Legislature is virtual the rest of the year. I’m still looking at my options for 2022,” Post wrote.
Oregon Legislative Counsel Dexter Johnson said in an email Friday that there is no 183-day requirement and pointed to a provision in the Oregon Constitution that states that a person may not be a senator or representative if the person “is not an inhabitant of the district” they’ve been chosen to represent at all times.
In an interview with the Keizertimes Monday, Post said he can’t exactly remember where he got the 183-day requirement from and did not know about the provision in the Oregon Constitution at the time of his announcement.
Post said that it was his intent “to be open with my constituents about my move out of state and the steps I’d be taking to continue to fulfill my duties.”
When asked if his decision to move to Nevada would have been different had he known the residency laws, Post said, “I don’t know because I just had all intentions and purposes to do what I did based on the information that I had. So I don’t know, that would just be too much speculation.”
Republican precinct committee persons of District 25 will now be tasked with nominating between three to five Republican candidates to fill Post’s position for the next 15 months.
The boards of commissioners in Yamhill and Marion counties, both partially represented by state District 25, will interview the nominees and vote to appoint Post’s replacement. A replacement must be selected within 30 days of a vacancy.
Posted at Oregon Live by The Keizertimes on 10-12-21
Date: 2021-10-13 07:36
Sad to see him leave