Cottage Grove Mayor Candace Solesbee won't seek reelection this fall

Cottage Grove will head into the Nov. 3 general election with an open mayor’s seat after Candace Solesbee said she will not seek reelection, a shift that puts downtown vitality, housing, public safety, city services and family-facing decisions in the hands of the next mayor. Solesbee’s current term expires Dec. 31, and the ballot will also include council seats in Ward 1, Ward 3 and at large.

Solesbee announced June 9 that she was stepping aside and endorsed council member Greg Ervin as her preferred successor. She said she had been doing a lot of soul searching before deciding where she could be most effective in leadership, and pointed to work responsibilities and commitments already in motion as reasons the community deserves focused leadership.

Her departure closes a long run in Cottage Grove civic life. The city says Solesbee is serving her second term as mayor after winning election in November 2024. Before that, she represented Ward 3 on the Cottage Grove City Council from 2018 to 2022. The city’s biography also identifies her as a fourth-generation Cottage Grove resident and the owner of 5 Flying Monkeys Antique, Vintage, and Gifts and Shampoo Dolls in Historic Downtown Cottage Grove.

Solesbee’s footprint has extended well beyond elected office. The city says she has held advisory roles connected to Downtown Cottage Grove, the Cottage Grove Community Foundation and Lane Council of Governments. The Chronicle also lists service on the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Business Improvement District, the Budget Committee, the Mural Committee and the Artwalk Committee, underscoring how many of the city’s downtown and civic projects have run through the same small circle of active leaders.

That makes the mayoral opening more than a routine race. It is a test of who can manage continuity in a city where one office carries the weight of several overlapping priorities at once, from the downtown core to the volunteer-heavy boards that shape community life. Solesbee’s exit also comes as Cottage Grove looks toward two summer 2027 landmarks: the Walldogs mural project and the 50th anniversary celebration of Animal House.

City updates say volunteers are being invited to help with the Walldogs effort, and local reporting says the project is expected to bring about 300 artists to Cottage Grove and produce 15 murals in four days. The mural festival is linked to the Animal House anniversary, a cultural touchstone for the town. The city’s tourism history page says parts of the film were shot in and around Cottage Grove, and the community marked its 25th anniversary with a toga party on Main Street in 2003.

Ervin now sits at the center of the transition. The city says the Ward 4 councilor and council president has lived in Cottage Grove since 2012, was re-elected in November 2020 and again in November 2024, and has four children with his wife, Noelle. Previous election coverage also placed him on the Cottage Grove Community Foundation board, the Budget Committee and the Lane Economic Committee.

For Cottage Grove voters, the question this fall is not what Solesbee has done, but who is ready to take over the unfinished work she is leaving behind.