Last week, in the article Newberg City Council Spends Covid-19 Recovery Funds On Progressive Yamhill Members’ Private Businesses I exposed how Newberg City Councilors who are affiliated with Progressive Yamhill and its subgroup Newberg Equity in Education (NEEd) provided economic relief money to business owned by members of these groups without any discloses to the public about these connections. I also showed that Progressive Yamhill is a registered chapter of Indivisible.org, a nationwide group of radical extremist activists.
I can say the Indivisible movement are extremists not only because of what the group does nationally, but also based on their activities here in Yamhill County, such as the organized harassment campaigns against Newberg school board directors last year, and their funding and assistance to Antifa groups in Portland that attacked the federal courthouse in 2020. Members of NEEd are also responsible for curating the Newberg Public Library, which as I reported last week, is providing gay pornographic comics and other propaganda to children.
What many residents of Newberg still do not know about last week is that Jefferson Mildenberger was appointed on March 7th to the Newberg City Council District 4 seat vacated by former Councilor Bryce Coefield. Mildenberger is to be sworn into office on March 21st at 6:00 p.m. by Municipal Judge Larry Blake Jr.
You can watch the City Council meeting where Mildenberger was appointed via the City of Newberg’s YouTube channel. During the meeting Mayor Rick Rogers stated that Mildenberger was the only candidate to apply for this position. You can also listen to Mildenberger talk about how he believes he has “white privilege” and engage in other virtue signaling during his interview for the empty seat. During his interview he claimed that he is saddened by the “divide” in the Newberg community and stated he believed it was a result of extremes. He also stated he wanted to “embrace equity and inclusion” and that he wanted to embrace “middle roads”.
Jefferson Mildenberger works as a Business Consultant for Kaiser Permenante and is also a board member for Familias en Acción, a nonprofit that claims to advocate for healthcare for “Latin/x/e communities” but also engages in climate change advocacy as well. The nonprofits website uses many “equity” buzzwords in its program descriptions.
The Indivisible Ties Between Jefferson Mildenberger and Other Newberg City Councilors
Even if Mildenberger was the sole candidate to apply, there is still important pieces of information that was not disclosed during the meeting; Mildenberger is a member of NEEd, as are current Councilors Elise Yarnell Hollamon (District 1) and Stephanie Findley (District 6).
I have shown proof of Hollamon and Findley’s membership in prior articles (click here to see it) and here is the proof of Mildenberger’s membership,
This screenshot was taken from the master list of all members with an M in their name, which I captured last summer when I infiltrated the Indivisible Facebook groups. You can download that master photo for people with an M in their name by clicking here (open it in MS Paint to see all the names, as the file is very large).
You should also be aware that his wife, Melanie Mildenberger is also on the Citizen Rate Review Committee in Newberg, and she also is a member of NEEd as well. In fact, as shown by the above screenshot, she was the person who added her husband to the group.
You can download these spreadsheets to see the names of all the members of the local Indivisible groups here in Yamhill County, Oregon,
I point this out because at timestamp 17:20 in video of the City Council meeting where Mildenberger was appointed, Elise Hollamon stated she was proud that the council has been “nonpartisan”.
This is yet more proof that these meetings are nothing more than theatre, where Indivisible agents play a game of smoke and mirrors while withholding the truth from the public about the real loyalties and ties each member has to one another, and what their unified goals are.
It is probably also worth mentioning that Progressive Yamhill was very delighted about the appointment of Mildenberger, and announced it on their Facebook page.
As mentioned in last week’s article about the spending of Covid-19 relief funds, other Newberg City Council members Mayor Rick Rogers and Denise Bacon also have identifiable ties to Progressive Yamhill / NEEd, as they both had attended the Progressive Yamhill BBQ event for the candidates PY was canvassing for in September 2018.
(photos featuring the faces of minors has been censored)
Again, this is evidence of the close ties between politicians showing affiliation to the Indivisible extremist social activist group. These ties were not disclosed during the city council meeting. In my opinion this is a clear example of the culture of cronyism that has become all too commonplace in the City of Newberg government administration. This is extremely unethical and yet more evidence of the coordinated efforts by this Indivisible chapter to deceive local voters, as they pretend to be neutral objective people interviewing Mildenberger but actually are members of the same social activism group.
Appointment of Yet Another Indivisible Agent to Newberg Budget Committee
During this same meeting, City Council also appointed two new members to the City’s budget committee; Theodore Ebora and Steph St. Cyr.
Steph St. Cyr is a member of both Newberg Equity in Education Progressive Yamhill.
Here is the proof of her NEEd membership,
Here is the proof of her Progressive Yamhill membership,
Again, the ties to these groups between members of City Council was never disclosed. This is cronyism in action. The Indivisible agents in the City of Newberg are engaging in cronyism right before the eyes of residents.
Again, I suggest readers download my spreadsheets of their membership rosters and cross-reference the list against the people involved in meetings. This is the only way you will understand is actually occurring during these meetings.
What Can Newberg Residents Do?
Many readers of the Advocate‘s past articles about the takeover of City Council by this extremist group have asked me what they should do about this kind of behavior by Indivisible agents.
I believe the only thing that can be done is for the Indivisible agents to lose this year’s local elections for city council, which starts in May.
However, I will also say that people not applying for empty spots on committees and councils does not help matters. You don’t achieve anything if no one contests the appointment of Progressive Yamhill members to vacant seats committees; in writing this article I spoke to several people who had been interested in applying for these empty seats, but they exhibited a defeatist attitude, saying that even though they wanted to apply they felt they would not be chosen because of the culture of cronyism. But to this I point out, if no one stands up against this cronyism by applying for the positions, then you are allowing Indivisible agents to get away with the cronyism and validating your defeatism.
People must step forward to run against the Indivisible agents in Newberg’s government offices if they are to be removed from power over the residents of the city. Someone always has to be first in anything; you cannot lead others if you are not willing to stand in the front and be the first in the line. It does not matter if you are not chosen due to cronyism; what matters is that you took an active, meaningful role in resisting the cronyism and others see that. You cannot inspire others to do a thing if you are not willing to do the thing you want others to do.
Anyone who is interested in running for Newberg City Council has only a few months remaining to decide, and arguably, in my opinion ought to begin their campaigning as soon as possible. The Indivisible political machine is powerful and well funded, and they will not easily let loose their grip over the town of Newberg. It will take a concerted effort to beat them in the elections this year; I encourage moderate and conservative candidates to step forward and announce their campaigns so that other residents can rally behind them. If you are interested in running, you can use this interactive map to see what district of the city you live in.
As you say, non-Progressives should have ‘stepped up’. Sure, the council was going to select one of ‘their kind’ but it was a missed opportunity for someone to practice public interview skills. To hone talking points. To create some controversy. It would have been truly outstanding to have had 3-4 conservative candidates applying. When we don’t challenge, the other side is emboldened.