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Salem City Club is pleased to have Mayor Julie Hoy and City Manager Krishna Namburi address the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the city as we move forward in interesting times. The community wants progress toward solving current problems and forward thinking about opportunities for maintaining a vibrant community. Mayor Hoy will give her assessment and address her priorities for actions the city is taking and will take to address challenges facing Salem's leadership and residents and the opportunities for sustainable action for the long term. City Manager Namburi will speak about the challenging job of managing day-to-day city operations given tight budgets, rising expenses, revenue shortfalls and possible funding cuts. Actions taken by the mayor, city council, and city manager impact us all. Mayor Hoy and City Manager Namburi are leading the charge. We look forward to hearing what they have to say.
Speakers:
Krishna Namburi, City of Salem City Manager
Background
Cities across the country are struggling with complicated and persistent issues including but not limited to a shortage of affordable housing, homelessness, economic uncertainty, food insecurity, increasing costs of providing city services, and possible decreasing assistance from federal, state and county governments. We are not alone. Cities are the innovators of government. Those tasked with addressing the issues have their own eyes and ears and those of their neighbors reporting on the problems and the outcome of actions taken by government. Cities can be and often are the test ground for new approaches to persistent problems.
A 2025 Community Priority Survey was conducted for the City of Salem in September by DHM Research. As reported by the Salem Reporter, 70% of residents were generally satisfied with the city's services and facilities, including police, fire, utilities and parks. However, 59% of those responding believed the city was on the "wrong track". At 43%, homelessness and poverty in Salem are by far the most important issues that respondents "would like the City of Salem to do something about" with crime and drugs of much lower concern at 15%.
To see results of the 2025 Salem Community Satisfaction Survey conducted by DHM Research September 9 -16, 2025, please go to: https://www.cityofsalem.net/Home/Components/News/News/1732/15. Click on the linked text Community Satisfaction Survey, scroll down the page to the "Documents" section and click on, Community Satisfaction Survey Results to see detailed survey results from 2017-2025.
Event Details
Doors Open at 11:30 am
Program Begins at 112:00 pm
Featuring Mathew Boulay, Executive Director of the Salem Art Association, and John Olbrantz, Founding Maribeth Collins Director of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. They will give us an inside view and history of their respective organizations.
Willamette University’s Hallie Ford Museum of Art is the third largest art museum in Oregon and has about 30,000 visitors a year. It opened in 1998, and it exhibits collections of both art and historical artifacts with a focus on Oregon related pieces of art and artists, including Indigenous contributions. It also hosts lectures, films, panel discussions, artist demonstrations, and workshops, and awards fellowships to artists.
Founded in 1919, the Salem Art Association is a non-profit arts organization serving the mid-Willamette Valley and is one of the largest community arts organizations in Oregon. SAA achieves its mission with multiple programs: the Annual Salem Art Fair and Festival in Bush Park, community arts education, art workshops for adults, and SAA Artists In the Schools Program. In so doing, SAA engages with more than 7,000 people per year.
Speakers
Matthew Boulay enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1997 and served in Iraq in 2003. After coming home, he served as the Director of the Fund for Veterans' Education and the Campaign for a New GI Bill. In this capacity, he designed and managed a national scholarship program for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and successfully lobbied Congress to pass a new GI Bill. In addition to his work with veterans, Boulay founded the nonprofit National Summer Learning Association in 1993, and has written and edited a number of books on the subject of summer learning and educational excellence. He is a practicing artist and has served as the Executive Director of the Salem Art Association and the historic Bush House Museum since 2021. Boulay holds a BA in History from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in Sociology and Education, from Teachers College, Columbia University.
John Olbrantzis the Founding Maribeth Collins Director of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art and is an Associate Professor of Art History, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon. Since 1998 he has been responsible for overall operations of the HFM including collections development, temporary exhibitions, education and outreach, just to name a few. Throughout his professional career, John has held numerous and various non-profit management positions in Washington, California, and most recently, in Oregon. He has been Director of the Bellvue Arts Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, and the Whatcom Museum of History and Art in Bellingham; he also helped found two museumsof art. A specialist in ancient and American art, he is particularly interested in Roman art, the history of archaeology, contemporary American art, and the history of museums.
John’s education includes a BA and MA in Art History from Western Washington University and the University of Washington. He did post graduate work at the University of California Berkley and at UC Santa Barbara. Here’s additional information about John Olbrantz and the Hallie Ford Museum
Contact Us
Salem City Club
PO Box 2283 | Salem, OR 97308
office@salemcityclub.com
