In race for Dunes City mayor, candidates disagree on issue of short-term rentals

Voters in Dunes City will decide next month whether a one-term incumbent mayor returns to office in January in the first contested race for the role in nearly 20 years.  

Christopher “Chris” John, a retired engineer and project manager, is running against Mayor Edward McGuire in the Nov. 3 general election. McGuire, a civil engineer who’s been mayor since October 2023 when he was appointed to fill a vacancy, was previously the director of public works for the city of Henderson, Nevada.

McGuire told Lookout Eugene-Springfield that John is a “nice guy” and that he doesn’t take his candidacy “personally.”

“If the public wants a change, then the public can vote for a change,” McGuire said. “But I think I’m better qualified. I have 35 years of local government experience. This isn’t just a hobby for me.”

John says he’s running for mayor to bring greater accountability to Dunes City’s government and ensure all residents have a voice in critical city decisions.

The mayor presides over meetings of the six-member City Council, helps determine the order of business and votes only to break ties, while the city administrator manages the municipal government’s daily operations. The mayor serves two-year terms without pay, and there are no term limits.

In the November 2024 general election, 1,114 Dunes City voters returned ballots. More than 40% of those voters skipped the mayor race, where McGuire ran unopposed and won.

The last contested mayoral election in the coastal community of about 1,400 residents south of Florence was in November 2008, when now-former Mayor Eric Hauptman won the race against Robert Petersdorf by just 47 votes. 

Dunes City voters will also consider Measure 20-386 in the Nov. 3 election, and McGuire and John have expressed vastly different views on the ballot measure. If passed by voters, the measure would prohibit new short-term vacation rentals in the city and require existing rentals to have a host living on the property while guests are staying there, among other new rules. 

Lookout interviewed the two candidates running for mayor. Here’s what they said:

Edward McGuire

As mayor, McGuire says he’s helped Dunes City catch up on audits that the city was previously behind on, make city information easier for residents to find and improve the city’s purchasing procedures through free online bidding software.

McGuire said newly written purchasing and bidding procedures helped reduce the cost of a required annual audit from about $35,000 to $10,000. 

In addition to his work as mayor, McGuire works remotely as a part-time compliance officer for the Nevada Board of Engineers and Land Surveyors. He moved to Dunes City in January 2023 after a nearly 30-year career with the city of Henderson, Nevada, where he served in various leadership roles in the public works department.

McGuire opposes the vacation rental ballot measure, which he said could be difficult to interpret and implement. He questioned what “no new short-term rentals” would mean for the cap of 35 short-term rentals that the City Council implemented two years ago.

“Does no new mean we can’t ever have 36?” the 62-year-old mayor said. “If half a dozen people applied today, they could all be permitted before November. We could literally be at 35 on Election Day. Does [no new] mean the (previous) 27, now 26?”

Beyond short-term rentals, McGuire said documenting and mapping the city’s water rights is a major priority and “way more important to the average resident” than vacation rental issues. He said the rights affect about 400 of the city’s 900 homes and are “still in process,” which can make it harder for those residents to sell their homes because buyers can sometimes struggle to get mortgages without finalized water rights.

Documenting water rights is a “big, long process,” he said. “We don’t have an environmental engineer, so we rely on volunteers and hire people as we can afford it.”

Chris John

If elected mayor, John said he would draw on his engineering and project management experience to work collaboratively with people with different perspectives.

“I’ve worked with many people who have different viewpoints and found solutions that satisfy everybody,” the 64-year-old said.

John has lived in Dunes City for nearly 30 years and has served on the city’s road, water quality and planning committees. John, who retired in 2020, began his career in television engineering, installing and repairing broadcast systems at local stations, before moving into project management and supervisory roles. 

John supports the vacation rental ballot measure, saying short-term rentals should have someone on site to address problems. His wife, Linda John, proposed the ballot measure. At a short-term rental across the street from their home, large groups have often gathered on the deck into the late evening, making noise and disrupting the neighborhood, Chris John said, adding that he’s heard from residents about excess occupancy and other issues at short-term rentals elsewhere in the city.

John also said residents who have raised concerns about short-term rentals have often not felt supported by city leaders. He pointed to a February City Council meeting, where John said McGuire let an out-of-town vacation rental owner “berate, belittle and demean” an elderly couple who lived next to his rental property during public comment. The exchange went well beyond the usual three-minute limit, John said, and the couple felt so unsupported by the city that they put their home on the market and moved away.

According to a recording of the meeting, the owner spoke for nearly seven minutes and accused the elderly couple of allegedly telling city officials inaccurate information about his short-term rental in official complaints.

McGuire told Lookout that the vacation rental owner “had been previously maligned by a number of speakers.”

“(He) took his three minutes and his wife’s three minutes. At some point the crowd began jeering, and we cut him off,” McGuire said. “The reality is no one was demeaned, but the couple (John) was referring to had also each spoken for three minutes, so they got their six minutes for two meetings in a row. I wanted to make sure that all residents had ample opportunity to voice their concerns.”

Beyond vacation rentals, John said he wants to ensure that the water quality of Siltcoos and Woahink lakes — where many swim in the summer and rely on for household water — is tested regularly. He said the city should conduct testing more often itself, rather than rely on occasional testing by state officials and other organizations.

“It’s easy enough to do that testing,” he said.

Edward McGuire

Age: 62
Residence: Dunes City
Education: Bachelor’s in civil engineering, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 1992; associate degree in electronic engineering technology, College of Southern Nevada, 1986.
Occupation: Works as a part-time compliance officer for the Nevada Board of Engineers and Land Surveyors 
Prior elected experience: Dunes City mayor since 2023
Family status: His wife of 29 years died in 2020; he has three adult children.

Christopher John

Age: 64
Residence: Dunes City
Education: Vista High School
Occupation: Retired engineer and project manager
Prior elected experience: None
Family status: Married