Chuck Darnell Senior Planner |
My name is Chuck Darnell and I am the Senior Planner in McMinnville’s Planning Department. My work involves planning for future development and growth in the city and reviewing current development projects for compliance with city regulations. I really like working with people and helping them achieve their goals while getting through the sometimes complicated regulations and review processes.
I am originally from Minnesota, and made my way to Oregon when my wife accepted a transfer to her employer’s Newberg location. I spent most of my life in the Twin Cities area, but also lived in Duluth, MN on the north shore of Lake Superior while I went to college at University of Minnesota Duluth (go Bulldogs!). Duluth is a beautiful area if you haven’t been, but I recommend you go in the summer. Unless you can handle the months of below zero temperatures or really like playing pond hockey (Duluth is a big hockey town). After graduating from UMD I moved back to the Twin Cities to complete graduate school at the University of Minnesota main campus in Minneapolis. I have been married for 6 years and our family includes three spoiled dogs, Spencer, Scout, and Shirley. We have owned a home in McMinnville for a little over a year, and really enjoy now calling McMinnville home. I enjoy watching sports (favorites would be football, soccer, hockey, and baseball), and am still very bitter about the Vikings not being able to play at their home field in the Super Bowl. I also enjoy doing all kinds of outdoor activities – biking, running, hiking, camping, snowboarding, kayaking, to name a few. |
Sarah Sullivan Permit Technician |
McMinnville is my home, but I’m not originally from here. I was raised in Sunny Valley, a small rural town in Southern Oregon. I have had the pleasure of calling McMinnville my home for the last 20 years. I have worked for the City for nearly 18 of those 20 years, and not just with one department. My time with the city started out as temporary part-time employee in the Planning Department in early 2000, it was my 2nd part-time job at the time as I also worked for a clothing store. That was the situation that I found myself in when I graduated college. I needed to pay for school loans, and I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life in terms of a career, so I took the best opportunities’ I had at the time to earn some money. As it turned out, I enjoyed many of the people that I was working with and really liked the connection to the community that working for the City of McMinnville created. I soon started working with the Building and Engineering Departments, as a fill-in position (one of the employees, Katie, was having a baby, so I was asked if I could fill in for her). After about a year and a half I became a permanent full-time employee working for the Building, Engineering, Planning, and Finance Departments. As time has moved along, my job description has changed many times. As an example, starting in 2012, for just over 3 years I split my days/time between the Planning Department and the Fire Department. You can say, I’ve worn many hats in my 18 years, but am back to where I started, with the Building, Engineering, & Planning Departments as our City’s Permit Technician.
During my time here, I’ve gotten married (18 years this coming August) and have had 2 children (14 & 11). My job allows me to not only serve my community, but be a parent, which is my most important job. |
Katie Land Permit Technician |
Hi! My name is Katie Land, and I’m the Permit Technician for the City of McMinnville.
I’ve worked for the Building/Engineering Departments going on 23 years. I started as after school/summer help during my senior year of high school. Which progressed into a part-time position; turned full time. People … it’s why I LOVE what I do! It’s always an adventure; every day is something new! I’ve been married for 20 years, have two boys, and a crazy Australian Shephard. Love spending time with my family and all things outdoors! |
Rob Reygers Building Inspector/ADA Coordinator |
It seems like yesterday that I was running the rat race working 60-80 hours a week (including nights and weekends) operating my own business as a general contractor. It’s been about 38 years that I’ve maintained that pace. Throughout those years, I’ve developed a passion for ADA and those with disabilities. In June of 2015, I looked into getting my ADA Coordinator as a consultant for my business. On June 6th, I signed up with ACTCP through the University of Missouri and on August 8, 2016, I completed my certification. Little did I know that this certification was a start to a whole new career and life. After completing my ADA Coordinators Certification, I had mentioned it to a building inspector friend of mine who encouraged me to become a building inspector. As fate would have it, I received some information from Oregon’s Building Code Division showing their inspector classes. I enrolled in their Structural / Mechanical class and loved it; and that’s all it took for me to jump all in, going pretty much full time four days a week completing all my certifications in Residential. However, the real excitement for me was getting a call from Heather Richards with a job offer. Without hesitation, I accepted, but told her, if you hire me you’ll have to bury me because I don’t plan on leaving and want to make McMinnville our home. I love my job, and honestly, it’s the best job I’ve ever had. Recently, I had an inspection with a correction, and the lady thanked me for watching out for her. The joy and satisfaction for me, is helping the home owner or contractor produce a safe home or environment.
My journey began in McMinnville on August 7th, 2017. I come with my lovely wife and our year and a half Standard Poodle. It’s still a three-hour commute, but hoping to be here permanently by 2019. I pretty much enjoy anything that has to do with the outdoors. I used to run a lot (last 25 yrs.) from 5k’s to marathons and the yearly Hood to Coast Relay. Today I’m slowing the pace down by trying to do more biking, swimming, hiking and enjoying those walks on the beach. My newest adventure will be exploring all that McMinnville has to offer and being a part of this wonderful community. |
Rebecca Holmes Permit Technician |
Hi, I’m Rebecca Holmes. I’m a part time Permit Technician with the City of McMinnville. I have a background in planning. I studied Public Administration with an emphasis in Planning at Georgia State University.
I worked for Gwinnett County, Georgia as a planner for several years before relocating to Oregon. I grew up on the West Coast, so Oregon feels like home. Every day brings something different in my job here. Coming from a large jurisdiction, working and living in a small city is a breath of fresh air. I like that I can walk around town and run into people who I know, and that people in the office know many customers by name. I have two children and a cat. In my spare time, I like reading, running and being outdoors. I look forward to saying hi to you. |
Jamie Fleckenstein Associate Planner |
Hi! My name is Jamie Fleckenstein, but around the McMinnville Planning Department where I am an Associate Planner, I’m known as “Kevin Bacon”. I haven’t gotten an official explanation of exactly why this is, but I’ve been wondering, why?
I thought, maybe it’s because I recently moved from the big city (Seattle) to a small town. Perhaps my co-workers think I want to challenge a local anti-dancing ordinance. Anyone who has seen me dance knows this couldn’t be true, and if you have seen me dance, I apologize. And, as far as I can tell, dancing is permitted in McMinnville. Maybe it’s because Kevin Bacon’s father was a planner, architect, and educator. I’ve taught at the University of Washington (Go Dawgs!), I am a licensed landscape architect and now a planner in McMinnville, so there’s some similarity there. But my co-workers wouldn’t have known that my father was an architect and teacher, just like Edmund Norwood Bacon. Perhaps it’s because they consider me to perform well under pressure. I’ve had to guide my family through a chronic health issue and navigate the health care system – no easy task! Hopefully I’m never in a position to have to return my co-workers to Earth from a botched trip to the moon, or from hungry underground wormlike-monsters. But if I were, I like to think I wouldn’t be the worst person to have in their corner. As I’ve been getting familiar to my role in the Planning Department (which is planning for future development/city growth and reviewing current development projects for compliance with city regulations) and meeting all the people I’ll be working with in my position, I think I know why I’ve earned the “Kevin Bacon” moniker. When I’m introduced to new colleagues and strike up conversation, it seems I have very few degrees of separation to many of the people I meet, very likely less than the 6 degrees of separation you have to the actual Kevin Bacon. I’m an avid mountain biker and ride regularly with a group of long time locals. Maybe you know one of them? Maybe you know me from my kids’ school, Memorial Elementary, where you may have seen me at pick up, drop off, or helping out in the classroom. Or perhaps you know my wife’s family, residents of McMinnville for over 10 years, and the people we moved from Seattle to be closer to? So when we meet, let’s play “Six Degrees of Jamie Fleckenstein”, my guess is that it won’t take that long. |
Tom Schauer Associate Planner |
Hi, I’m Tom Schauer. I started working for the City of McMinnville Planning Department as a Senior Planner in July. I came from Grants Pass where I worked as a Senior Planner and led a wide range of comprehensive planning projects and other special projects.
I was born in Oakland, California, and grew up in Houston, Texas. You might detect a hint of an accent once in a while. I studied architecture at the University of Illinois, including a year abroad in Versailles, France. After graduating, I returned to Texas where I worked for a residential design firm and attended Texas A&M University for my master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning. After graduate school, I moved to the northwest and began my career in planning. I am passionate about urban design and “placemaking.” Research continues to reveal how our surroundings influence our health and well-being and inform how we can plan and design accordingly. I look forward to learning what is important to you as the community plans for how to manage change, and sharing inspirational ideas and influences. I look forward to helping develop plans which reflect broad-based community support, and I enjoy helping people through development review process to carry out those plans over time. I believe it is important to communicate the vision, plans, and policies which are implemented through development review, and ensure the process makes it easy to achieve the desired outcomes. I love to travel, explore the outdoors, and discover the unique, vibrant places that make each community special. I’m excited to work within a two block walk of such a charming Main Street that has been honored time and time again. It takes a special community working together to nurture such a special place. The heart of a community says much about the people and what the community values. |
Nic Miles
Code Compliance Officer
John Barnes GIS/Autocad Specialist |
I’m the GIS/AutoCAD Specialist in the Engineering Department.
My job includes developing mapping applications with our mapping software and updating our record drawings using AutoCAD as well as providing staff with technical support using our mapping and AutoCAD applications. The mapping part includes creating spatial data used for map documents, tabular data information associated to the special data and customizing the user interface and map application functionality. This also includes an online interactive mapping website (http://gis.ci.mcminnville.or.us/intragis/). The AutoCAD part includes adding new assets to our record drawings(i.e., partition plats, subdivision plats, sewer lines and manholes etc.) and keeping them up to date. I also provide the public with maps when requested. I’ve worked for the City of McMinnville for 21 years coming here from the City of Hillsboro in 1996. In my spare time I enjoy participating in triathlons and running events. But I would give all that up just to play more golf. I’ve been married for 29 years to my wife Tammy and have two children. A daughter 24 married for two years, a son married for 7 months who is also a Marine Reserve for the past 2 years. |
Jeff Collingham
Plumbing Inspector
Randy Rathert
Building Inspector
Lauren Blincoe Public Affairs Specialist |
Hi, my name is Lauren Blincoe and I’m the Public Affairs Specialist for the Community Development Department! I started my role in September 2017, after moving from Virginia where I previously lived for 11 years. I’m a proud Virginia Tech graduate (go Hokies!), and have found lots of adventure in the short year I’ve lived in Oregon. As a Public Affairs Specialist, I spin many different plates: creating visuals, writing articles, sending out press releases, taking pictures, managing social media, maintaining our section of the website, making Google Maps for our construction notices, and generally keeping the public informed about what projects we’re doing and how it applies to them! It’s a very diverse role, and sharing a building with both MEDP and the Planning Department makes for great cross-functional relationships. My favorite part about my job is coming up with new and fun ways to get information or education out to the citizens of McMinnville. This could mean designing a flyer for an event, making a video about what a pipe busting looks like, or creating infographics explaining the Wastewater Reclamation Facility.
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Claudia Martinez
Code Compliance Officer
