JOHN DAY — Shannon Adair has been cleared of any wrongdoing pertaining to her purchase of a 2.8-acre lot in the city of John Day’s Innovation Gateway following a 5-4 vote at the Friday, Jan. 5, Oregon Government Ethics Commission meeting.

Adair, a former John Day city councilor and owner of 1188 Brewing Co., had been under investigation by the ethics commission for more than a year over a complaint filed by community member Bob Pereira. The complaint accused Adair of using her position as a city councilor to enrich herself and failing to declare a conflict of interest when the council was discussing the sale of the property to her.

Adair purchased the lot for $122,840 with the intention of forming a new venture, 1188 Destinations, that would feature a distillery, restaurant, cabins for overnight lodging and a small outdoor pavilion that could host live music.

The ethics commission discussed the accusation that Adair improperly used her position as a member of John Day’s city council to enrich herself with the purchase of the property, coming to the conclusion that Adair did no such thing.

The concern for the ethics commission was whether Adair had access to information the general public did not, thus putting her at an advantage when seeking to purchase the Innovation Gateway property.

The commission determined that Adair did not have access to information that made it easier for her to purchase the land than it would have been for any other member of the community.

The conversation then shifted to whether or not Adair had declared a conflict of interest in the case.

After some discussion, a motion was made to proceed with an ethics investigation on the basis of Adair not declaring a conflict of interest in relation to the land sale. The motion failed on a 5-4 vote, leading to a dismissal of the case and clearing Adair of any ethics concerns associated with the land sale.

“Relieved” is the word that came to mind when Adair was asked how she felt following the ethics commission’s ruling.

“John Day is my home, so to have people talking about me being not ethical was really hard for me because I made every effort to not do that,” she said.

“It just feels real good that I can stand and say that even the ethics commission found that I handled it correctly,” she added.

Adair said that she was always confident that she’d done her best to do the right thing in navigating her role on the city council while trying to finalize the land sale.

“Being a public official is really challenging, and I’d never say that I was 100% confident that I did things 100% correctly ever because there is just too much, it’s too complicated and we’re doing the best that we can,” she said. “But I was confident that I’d done my best to make sure I’d done it right.”

With the ethics commission investigation over, some observers have wondered about Adair’s political future and whether she might throw her hat into the ring for the vacant mayor slot should Heather Rookstool be recalled as John Day’s mayor. Adair said she isn’t sure what her next steps will be but hopes that the mayor is elected rather than appointed should the recall of Rookstool be successful.

“Right now I am so worried about what is happening with John Day that I’d like to see the recall be successful and then we’ll move forward from there,” she said. “I would like to see more people involved, and I would really like to see the council have the next mayor elected. Whether I’m one of those people — I don’t know.”

Adair stressed that she’d like to see the community have a say in who the next mayor of John Day is should the recall succeed. “If the council appoints the next mayor if the recall is successful, then we have four appointees on a seven-member council and I don’t think that’s right,” she said.

The John Day City Charter notes that the mayor is a voting member of the city council and specifies that a vacancy on the council is to be filled by appointment of the remaining council members.