Commission candidate · City of Oregon City · November 3, 2026
James Nicita
Historian, retired attorney and former city commissioner.
Reach the campaign
As published in their City filing.
In their words
Said: In respectfully submitting my candidacy, I offer policy and design thinking informed by an historian’s long view of Oregon City’s remarkable history.
Pamphlet p. 39
Candidate statement · November 2026 edition; extracted September 21, 2026
Clackamas County voters’ pamphlet · PDF page 39 ↗Nothing skipped: the statement opens with running prose. Verbatim opening of the candidate's own statement; publication by the county does not verify the claims.
The verbatim opening of their voters’ pamphlet statement, the same rule for every candidate. We chose nothing.
What they say they would do
Our summary of their platform, in our wordsProposes changes to urban renewal, city legal services and economic development, with historic preservation and opposition to data centers.
- Redirect urban-renewal tax resources toward police or smaller public-designed projects.
- Create an independent charter office of city attorney.
- Explore a food hub, solar district and Metro partnership for Water Board Park.
Our reading
Our interpretation, not their wordsHis agenda changes both spending priorities and governance; charter changes, a Metro partnership and redirecting urban-renewal money need votes beyond one commissioner.
Where they stand
Rent and homes
Park Place, North Village- What
- Said: Would defend the Park Place Concept Plan and develop its North Village, the planned neighborhood area on the city’s edge.
- How
- Not in their sources
- Measured by
- Not in their sources
Camps, crime and who responds
Renewal money to police- What
- Said: Would fully fund police by restoring tax dollars now diverted to urban renewal (a district that keeps part of property-tax growth for development projects).
- How
- Not in their sources
- Measured by
- Not in their sources
Your bills and taxes
Vote on urban renewal- What
- Said: Would redirect urban-renewal tax dollars to police or to small citizen-designed projects, and keep residents’ right to vote on urban renewal.
- How
- Not in their sources
- Measured by
- Not in their sources
Streets, buses and air
No data centers, solar- What
- Said: Opposes data centers, would create a solar-generation district in the North End and build the Holly Lane Connector road.
- How
- Not in their sources
- Measured by
- Not in their sources
The choices this office faces
Every candidate in this race is asked the same 6 questions. James Nicita is on record on 4, with 2 still open. A question without an answer is a research gap, not a position.
No answer we could findMove the city’s Caring Court into the Caring Place services hub, and keep the downtown civil-exclusion zone?
Nothing on this exact choice in the sources we reviewed.
Give ODOT five more years, to 2031, to stage I-205 bridge work in two riverfront parks, and keep pressing the state to strike tolling from statute?
Nothing on this exact choice in the sources we reviewed.
Adopt a temporary moratorium on data centers while the city rewrites its code?
Said: Says “No to data centers” alongside yes to historic preservation, and would make the North End a solar-generation district.
Close the general fund’s structural gap by raising the property-tax rate or the $6.50-a-month public-safety fee, or by cutting?
Said: Would fully fund police by restoring tax dollars diverted to urban renewal; the tax rate, the $6.50 fee and any cuts are unsaid.
On the topic; the exact choice is unsaid.
Keep the urban-renewal district (about $3.2 million a year in tax increment) and try again to loosen the charter’s voter-approval rule, or wind it down?
Said: Wrote the 2012 right-to-vote amendment and says he led the 2023 and 2025 opposition to agency plans to extinguish it; if urban renewal continues, would prioritize small citizen-designed projects. Closing the district is unsaid.
Ask voters for a parks bond to build a new aquatic center and rebuild the End of the Oregon Trail center?
Said: Wants first-rate parks and a partnership with Metro to make Water Board Park a regional park; a bond for the pool and the trail center is unsaid.
On the topic; the exact choice is unsaid.
A question the evidence leaves open
Which proposal comes first, and how would you handle existing urban-renewal obligations?
Sources (1)
- Clackamas County voters’ pamphlet · PDF page 39Candidate statement · November 2026 edition; reviewed September 18, 2026Written by the candidate or campaign. Publication by the county does not verify the claims.