Dunes
City Council
Approved MINUTES
September
29, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Special
Session
Printable file
1.
Call to order
Mayor
Rebecca Ruede
called the meeting of the Dunes City Council to order at
5:07 pm
.
2.
Roll
call
Roll Call was taken
by City Recorder
Fred Hilden
.
Present:
Mayor
Rebecca Ruede
, Council President
Jamie Mills
, Councilor
Troy
Sathe
,
Councilor
Richard Koehler
, Councilor
Richard Anderson
and Councilor
Ed Scarberry.
Absent:
Councilor
Duke Wells
was absent and excused.
Also
Present: City Recorder
Fred Hilden
and several citizens.
3.
Pledge of Allegiance
All
who were present stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.
4.
Approval of the agenda
Councilor
Anderson
made a motion to approve the Agenda
as presented. The motion was
seconded by Council President Mills. Discussion
followed with Councilor Koehler expressing concern that this meeting was
originally identified as a work session, but is now identified as a special
session, and that with 45 pages of support information, insufficient review
time was not given. Councilor
Mills asked what information required a great deal of review, since most of
the information distributed was existing City Code and Ordinances.
Mayor Ruede explained how the session would be conducted.
Mayor Ruede called for the question and the motion passed by a vote
of 4 to 1 with Councilor Koehler voting nay.
5.
Consent Agenda
– None
6.
Announcements / Correspondence – None
7.
Citizen Input
Susie Navetta
,
Dunes
City
resident: Spoke about losing
committees, stating that it would be a stupid thing to do to get rid of
committees. The benefit of input
from citizens is valuable to the City. In
the past, the time and effort put into activities on behalf of the City by
volunteers is monumental. It is
time to return to constant committee meetings being held the way they are
supposed to be held, at least once a month.
The City has not been following those rules and they need to go back
to doing that. Water Quality
Committee has a provision that allows for getting rid of members who fail to
attend meetings. She stated she
is on the Parks and Rec Committee and there are people on that committee
that don’t believe we should have tourism.
I don’t know what they believe in if they don’t believe in
tourism. These people
shouldn’t be on that committee. They
should be on another committee, but not that committee.
She believes that the City should take a look at the committees and
bolster them, rather than destroy them.
John
Stead,
Dunes
City
resident: I would like to
commend all of you for undertaking this work that you are doing right now.
I notice that you are looking at six ordinances.
I didn’t total the number of pages, but there is at least 30 pages
of legal-ese that you’re supposed to figure out what you are going to do
with it and that takes a lot of work. Another
thing I wanted to mention that it seems like for the last 10 years the City
has periodically talked about the need for a municipal judge.
Nothing has happened, so I prepared for you this evening a one-pager
that spells out what the City Charter says about the municipal judge and how
the City can appoint an officer to serve as the municipal judge.
The municipal judge is a state-wide organization, and many small
cities are managing it this way. I
sit on the finance committee for the City and one of the things we look at
and discuss is how is the City is going to do what it needs to do as far as
ordinance enforcement and perhaps generating some revenue to support those
kinds of activities. Many cities
use their municipal judge as a revenue stream.
Perhaps it is time for
Dunes
City
to participate along those lines.
The
City Recorder read a letter from Jerry Curran into the record.
8.
Committee/Commission Reports – None
9.
Public Hearing – None
10.
Unfinished/Old Business
Standing
Commissions and Committees – Council President Mills gave some
background information and explained why the Ordinance Review Committee
asked for this work session to be scheduled.
She went on to explain that the Ordinance Review Committee is looking
at possibly standardizing the language for the committees as to the basics
like what is a quorum, does the Chairman vote, etc.
Water
Quality Committee: Council
President Mills stated that she believes the Water Quality Committee is one
vital to the community and that it should continue doing the job that it is
doing, and that she hopes the Ordinance Review Committee will work itself
out of a job.
In
reply to Council President Mills’ comments, Mayor Ruede stated that when
she was Chairman of the Communication and Education Committee, it was very
laborious to get a newsletter published by the Committee.
At that time, her Committee members expressed their opinion that
maybe the need for the Committee had passed, in that there is other media
available and that each Committee could do their own communication.
Councilor
Sathe suggested that the Ordinance Review Committee use the Road
Commission’s language as a sample as far as quorum, the Chairman voting,
etc. It took three months for
the Road Commission to hammer out that language and get it passed.
Council
President Mills explained that all the Ordinance Review Committee is looking
for is an idea of what committees should continue and which are no longer
needed, expressing her opinion that some committees should actually be a
function of the Planning Commission, and don’t necessarily need to exist.
She asked that the discussion on the Site Review Committee and
Conservation Committee be put off until the discussion of Code Enforcement.
Councilor
Koehler expressed his opinion that all language for the committees should be
the same, especially the clause that exists in some committees that
addresses members that aren’t attending and other problems, and that
should be part of the standardized language.
When talking about eliminating communication, it is really a danger
zone. He supports strengthening
that committee, rather than eliminating it.
He also expressed the need to establish set goals.
Councilor Koehler asserted that when those that are supposed to be
leading the committees do lead and get input from the members of the
committee, it works.
Mayor
Ruede also pointed out a need to standardize the terms of the committee
members, as some now expire with the fiscal year on June 30, and some are
January 1, the calendar year. Mayor Ruede asked if there were further
comments regarding the Water Quality Committee.
Hearing none, discussion turned to the
Planning
Commission.
Planning
Commission: Councilor
Sathe stated his only concern with the
Planning
Commission is that there is one more member on the
Planning
Commission than what is provided for by Ordinance.
Councilor Sathe expressed his opinion that the additional member
should stay, given all the work the Commission is doing right now.
Discussion followed with the City Recorder clarifying that the
Planning
Commission is required by state law so it can’t be done away with, but
standardizing the language as to a quorum, when the Chairman votes and
doesn’t vote, the voting powers of the Vice-chairman while acting as
Chairman and so on, should be addressed.
Road
Commission: Councilor Sathe
explained that the Road Commission has pretty much gone through its
ordinances and has gotten all its language cleaned up themselves.
He doesn’t believe there is much to talk about on the Road
Commission.
Parks
and Recreation Commission: Councilor
Koehler explained that Parks and Recreation Commission has a problem.
A couple of members over the past six months, haven’t been able to
attend, which puts the committee in jeopardy because it can’t hold
meetings. I have been sick for
the last couple of months, so there have been problems with that.
As Ms. Navetta noted, some members don’t believe we need tourism.
I think that is an impediment to progress, because the primary issue
with parks is that we need to deal with recreation.
With that comes the motels and information on a grander scale through
the web and our newsletter. I
would like to see that continue and to be able to include in the re-vamped
ordinance, the ability to remove members when they are not present.
Mayor
Ruede asked if it would be helpful to add additional members so it would be
easier to get a quorum. Councilor
Koehler responded maybe, but there is little workload.
Since the parks have not been legitimized on a county map, we can
only deal with recreation. What
it does is allow people that are interested in recreation that goes beyond
conservation, site review, and water quality - people that are artists, to
have a part in the community. That
is the essence of all committees; to be able to have people of different
backgrounds contribute in different ways.
Councilor
Sathe stated that if we had auxiliaries for everybody, then if you didn’t
have enough members, one of your auxiliary members could create the quorum.
Even though the Council didn’t allow this before, Councilor Sathe
stated he still has people in the audience of the meetings every month and
then when there are open seats, we have people who were up to speed to fill
those slots. If we had
auxiliaries for every committee, we would have a group of prepared
individuals that could be up to speed on everything and step right in.
Mayor
Ruede expressed concern on insurance issues with regard to auxiliaries and
why not just add a couple members to each committee.
She stated auxiliary members might be considered the step-child.
Councilor
Koehler stated it is incumbent upon the chair of the committee to whip up
the enthusiasm of the members. Usually
if there are things on the agenda to be done and the rest of the committee
members don’t do it, the chair does it, which is okay, but it is important
that the chair elicits some contribution from others.
Mayor
Ruede asked Councilor Sathe to explain the auxiliary idea in more detail.
Councilor Sathe complied, pointing out that when a group gets
together to do something on the roads, they all sign in at City Hall and
when finished, they sign out so that it is all covered by insurance.
We need to make sure that as chairs of a committee we don’t take
over and make them feel unimportant. We
need to make sure our members feel special and want to come to every
meeting.
Communication
and Education Committee. Councilor
Anderson
pointed out that once again the City is not consistent because the
resolution states there shall be two members we have to get from outside the
Council. Councilor
Anderson
suggested that the Communication and Education Committee be split into two
committees because if you look at the duties, which he listed, that’s a
pretty tall order for a small committee.
If
Dunes
City
was to divide the committee into two, it would be more manageable.
Also, I would like to see the reference to “managing the website”
changed to “oversee the website” because people on the committee may not
be qualified. I think that some
of these events that have been done in the past were done by prior committee
chairman, with help, of course. (Susie
Navetta added from the audience that it takes about 60 people to put on the
Festival of the Lakes and that you certainly wouldn’t want 60 people on
your committee.)
Mayor
Ruede said regarding the newsletter, each Councilor is responsible for
getting their report for the newsletter and on the last newsletter we had a
volunteer, Mary Jo Leach, who did a lot of work.
City Recorder
Fred Hilden
did all of the layout and design. City
Recorder
Fred Hilden
interjected that it took 10 to 20 hours of volunteer time.
Councilor
Koehler expressed concern to Councilor Anderson that he only has one member
on his committee at this point and asked how he elicits contributions from
other people? The answer is
through the newsletter. Councilor
Koehler concurred that the duties of the committee are many, but stated that
what it does to bring the community together is outstanding.
Mayor
Ruede asked Councilor Anderson what he would like to see happen.
He stated he was just throwing out an idea for consideration and that
he is unsure. Councilor
Anderson
went on to say that overseeing the website could be easily managed, but that
the other duties should be separated out into two committees so we don’t
overload people.
Mayor
Ruede suggested that anything that has to do with planned events should be
taken over by the Parks and Recreation Committee.
The website is overseen by office staff through the City Recorder.
She stated she believes communication could be done by each
individual Committee. Mayor
Ruede went on to say she would like to see more enthusiasm for the community
by news releases to the Community at large as to what we are doing, and news
releases to the media like the radio and newspapers.
She added a progress report could be done by each committee for the
newsletter. Councilor
Anderson
inquired on more detail. The
Mayor elaborated.
Mayor
Ruede asked if the Community could be better served by doing away with the
Communication and Education Committee and restructuring its duties in other
ways?
Councilor
Sathe stated his greatest concern is putting more work on City staff and
that he would not vote for anything that would put more responsibility on
City staff.
Councilor
Koehler asserted the need to establish goals.
Mayor
Ruede asked if the City Recorder had input to add.
The Recorder indicated he feels that doing away with the
Communication and Education Committee would be a huge mistake.
He elaborated on reasons. He
added that the newsletter advertising could be a money-maker for the City
and pointed out that the City has obligations to advertisers of the last
newsletter.
Council
President Mills commented on the division of the committee into two separate
committees, stating that it makes sense to her.
As far as communication goes, we all know that our policy is that
nothing gets communicated to the public until it comes to the Council for
approval first, so that would work. Regarding
education, Council President Mills suggested that since each committee
probably has something that needs to be communicated to the citizens.
She stated that perhaps an education component needs to be included
in each committee duty description. Education
would be covered by all the committees and communication would be a separate
committee. That way the
committees would avoid “stepping on toes”, and each committee could go
through the budget process to receive funding for whatever educational
project they have in mind, or seek grant funding or sponsorship on its own.
Mayor
Ruede pointed out that it was the membership of the Parks and Recreation
Committee that suggested that the planning of events task be taken over by
the Parks and Recreation Committee.
Councilor
Anderson
expressed a desire to know just how many people actually read the
newsletter, because he knows so many who just throw it away.
That’s a shame. Also,
do we have a way to know how many hits we get on our website?
Councilor Koehler said it was difficult to do.
Councilor
Sathe stated that the Road Commission would like to see a blog on the
website where people could post questions and those questions could be
answered. Councilor Koehler
indicated he would look into it.
Councilor
Anderson
inquired as to progress in getting email addresses, as it would cut the
costs down. Discussion followed.
The City Recorder pointed
out that typically the advertisers want printed copy.
Mayor
Ruede announced a break from policy to allow comment from the audience.
Susie
Navetta: I would like to share
some information on why you have the committee in the first place.
She gave a brief history, pointing out that the Comprehensive Plan
requires education. Later, in
conjunction with the water right, the water department demanded that we give
people ideas on water conservation. So
we had to do the education and we thought what better way to do it than with
a festival that was fun, so we combined education with fun.
It worked extremely well. The
newsletter was what was used to promote the festival.
Councilor
Koehler pointed out that all of the newsletters, back to 2000, are on the
website.
Councilor
Sathe asked if the Parks and Recreation Committee could handle the festival,
the pot luck and the Christmas Party.
Councilor
Koehler said his time commitments probably would not allow him to take on
those duties, but it is an idea that involves more people.
It is too much of a burden on one or two people.
Discussion
occurred regarding mandates to committees such as the festivals, events,
etc. The Mayor stated her belief
that it should be left up to the committees whether such events should take
place. Councilor
Anderson
suggested that we use Susie Navetta to head up that portion.
The Mayor pointed out that it should be the committee chair who seeks
out those special volunteers.
The
membership of the Communication and Education Committee was discussed with
the City Recorder indicating that the Committee had been operating outside
the mandates of the Resolution for the last couple of years in that it has
three members in addition to the chair, rather than two as is set out in the
resolution.
Councilor
Mills pointed out that the draft language of the Ordinance to create the
Communication and Education Committee that was never adopted contains
language that allows for the appointment of other volunteers for special
purposes. Perhaps that language
should be included in the language for all committees.
The City Recorder pointed out that the language is in the current
Resolution as well.
Councilor
Anderson
inquired if that means we are leaning toward keeping the current duties as
they are?
Council
President Mills stated that all of the ideas that are being discussed will
be taken to the Ordinance Review Committee, who will come up with language
that will be brought back to the Council to hash out and decide.
Regarding
whether or not to include mandates, Councilor Anderson stated that it should
be a decision of the Council on an annual basis, rather than mandating, as
things change. Council President
Mills stated that brings it back to the goal setting.
She asserted her support of annual goal setting sessions.
The City Recorder pointed out that due to various changes in elected
officials, the two pending lawsuits, and the re-organization of the office
due to the loss of the planning secretary position, the Council has had a
lot on its plate, but should be able to schedule a goal setting session
after the first of the year.
Council
President Mills offered to take the comments made this evening regarding the
Communication and Education Committee back to the Ordinance Review Committee
to draft language and bring it back for discussion at a future date.
Councilor
Koehler stated that it cannot be done until after the goal setting session.
Councilor Sathe stated that at the request of the Mayor, earlier this
year each committee was asked to develop a mission statement and list the
annual goals of the committees.
Council
President Mills stated her concern with waiting was that the
Planning
Commission and the Ordinance Review Committee are on a deadline because of
the grant and we would like to get everything in to be codified, so that any
changes will be incorporated into the codification.
I think by spring of next year is the goal and I don’t think there
would be time to wait.
The
Mayor expressed her opinion that the creation of this committee by
Resolution is sufficient. Councilor
Koehler believes it should be in ordinance form, since we’re doing
ordinances anyway.
Revenue
Committee. Councilor
Scarberry reviewed the Formation Ordinance.
He pointed out that currently there is a vacancy on the committee
that has caused some problems in getting a quorum.
The Committee has discussed the possibility of a municipal judge and
some if its members believe the City needs some sort of “fine” process.
The one thing the Committee hasn’t tackled is the grant writing.
At this point, Councilor Scarberry continued, the Committee has
basically done its duties. He
raised a question about the mandate to hold monthly meetings, because, at
this point, it seems redundant. He
suggested a change in the meeting scheduling to at least quarterly, rather
than monthly.
Council
President Mills asked Councilor Scarberry if he felt the Revenue Committee
was necessary. He indicated that
he had asked himself the same question and explained why.
Councilor Scarberry doesn’t support doing away with it completely,
but go to a quarterly schedule or something.
Mayor Ruede suggested that if we did do away with the Committee, if a
need arises at a later date, we could always create an Ad Hoc Committee to
do the project. Councilor
Scarberry prefers not doing away with the committee but cutting back on the
frequency of meetings.
Councilor
Koehler said grant writing is of vital importance and doing away with the
committee is a bad idea. He
suggested meetings every two months. He
would suggest more concentration on grants.
Councilor
Sathe added that the Formation Ordinance does not provide for voting
privileges of the chairman, establishment of a quorum and other basics that
should be addressed.
City
Recorder
Fred Hilden
suggested that perhaps the name of the committee should be changed to
include a reference to the grants portion.
He suggested the Revenue and Grants Committee.
Councilor
Sathe asked if that was something
Gary Baker
might do. The City Recorder
responded. Councilor Mills
suggested the
Planning
Commission should do the DLCD grants. Councilor
Mills also believes that grants should also be a part of every committee.
Mayor
Ruede called for a five minute recess at
6:45 p.m.
Mayor Ruede called the meeting back to order at
6:55 p.m.
Code
Enforcement Ordinance. Councilor
Anderson
pointed out that there are a number of inconsistencies in the present
Conservation Committee Ordinance and the
Planning
Commission is working on making changes.
He asked for clarification of the resolution provision that mandates
site review for any permit on a site contiguous to a lake or Class F fish
bearing stream. The way the
resolution is written, there is no indication of a requirement of close
proximity to the lake or stream.
Council
President Mills expressed her opinion that the Conservation Committee has
two duties. One is to do site
review and make report back to the
Planning
Commission regarding building issues and the other is code violations.
She indicated she would like to see changes made so that the
Conservation Committee, in its capacity as review for building, should be a
subcommittee of the
Planning
Commission, not to the City Council. Regarding
Code Enforcement, Councilor Mills would like to address separately as Code
Enforcement in
Dunes
City
and not a part of the Conservation Committee or Site Review Committee.
Discussion
was had regarding which streams are considered Class F fish bearing streams.
Council
President Mills asked if the
Council could hear from the
Planning
Commission. In the absence of
Planning
Commission Chairman Lee Riechel, Mayor Ruede called
Planning
Vice-Chairman
George Burke
to come forward.
Planning
Vice-Chairman
George Burke
, representing the
Planning
Commission: There is no problem
right now with the way the Ordinance is written and we do need the oversight
of the riparian and shoreland areas as far as building goes.
The task before the
Planning
Commission right now is to make our Code clear and objective.
One of the biggest problems we have had pointed out is the City’s
liability for having untrained volunteers going out on properties and making
decisions or recommendations. The
Oregon League of Cities has said we have a huge liability for what we are
doing. As the
Planning
Commission goes through Chapter 155, especially Chapter 4 that deals with
the Conservation Committee and the Site Review Committee, I’ve stricken
all of the Site Review Committee because it is totally unenforceable because
we have no standards. When I
talk about standards, clear and objective standards, I mean something like:
“If you need more than 10 feet then you have to get a variance.”
That’s a clear and objective standard.
There are no clear and objective standards for site review.
Zero, because it is based on volunteers going out and making a
decision. There are no clear and
objective standards for site review to follow.
There are also no clear and objective standards for conservation to
follow, other than make a review and report to the
Planning
Commission. The Commission is
still reviewing all of this. As
we go through, when we have something that isn’t clear and objective, we
try to make it clear and objective. The
Planning
Commission is meeting every Tuesday in addition to our Thursday meeting.
There is a lot of work to be done and we are under a huge deadline to
get things done.
Mr.
Burke continued regarding the question on the Conservation Committee, we
have been warned by the League of Oregon Cities that having volunteers going
out and making decisions and recommendations on land use issues and going
onto peoples’ properties is a huge problem.
That will be up to the City Council to decide, but we have a
memorandum from them stating so. Councilor
Anderson
inquired if that relates to shoreland violations as well.
Mr. Burke answered in the affirmative.
Mr.
Burke explained his preference. We
need a Code Enforcement Officer to replace the Site Review Committee and
that should be the City Recorder. Everything
else can be done through the permit application process and our contract
with The Building Department. Some
things can be added to the Building Department’s contract, but the code
violation stuff will have to be done in-house by our staff.
That is what is being discussed and will be brought to the Council
later in the year.
Councilor
Anderson
asked if the Committee could go with the Code Enforcement Officer.
Mr. Burke responded that in his mind the recommendation will be the
Code Enforcement Officer or the Building Department.
We have a pretty clear code regarding vegetation, so it’s a pretty
clear thing for an inspector to go out and see what the property owner wants
to do and tell them what permits they need and how to go about applying.
Councilor
Sathe expressed his disapproval of putting another job on the City Recorder.
If we had a Code Enforcement Officer, I prefer it be the head of the
Planning
Commission. Mr. Burke responded
that the City Recorder is already doing the work.
It isn’t going to be more work, the more work would be in the
planning application process that would be put on The Building Department
that we hire to do our planning work. The
Planning
Commission doesn’t have it all worked out yet, and the City Recorder is
acting as the Secretary of the Commission while we are doing all this, so we
are getting staff input at the same time.
Councilor
Sathe said, so the Building Department would go out when we have a barking
dog complaint? Mr. Burke said
no. Mr. Sathe stated, then the
City Recorder would have to do it. Mr.
Burke pointed out that someone from the City is already doing it now.
The Site Review Committee isn’t doing it now.
Councilor Sathe stated that is the job of the Site Review Committee.
Mayor
Ruede summarized the situation and pointed out the memorandum included in
the packets from the City Attorney which says the same thing as what Mr.
Burke relayed from the League of Oregon Cities, and that is that sending
volunteers out to do this work puts the City at risk.
She went on to point out that our job as Councilors is to ensure we
do not put the City at risk.
Council
President Mills said the most important thing to remember is that we are
talking two separate things. One
is the barking dog issue versus the permit or land use issues.
Conservation Committee is basically land use issues and would include
complaints. Site Review
committee would be nuisance complaints.
She stated she understands what Councilor Sathe is saying about the
Recorder’s workload, but pointed out that when she was chair of the Site
Review Committee every time the Committee went out, the Recorder went with
them. She doesn’t know what
Duke does, but office staff gets the phone calls and ends up dealing with
most of those. Before any move
would be made, we would need to double-check and make sure office staff
feels it can handle that additional load.
Councilor
Koehler expressed his opinion that he doesn’t see any liability.
He asked about the comment that there are no standards.
He stated that is what Site Review is supposed to do.
It dovetails into water quality.
Councilor
Sathe pointed out that the memorandum states it can be either a paid
employee or an elected official. That
would mean Councilor Anderson and Councilor Wells could be the people who go
after the Code violations. He
does not want any further burden on the City Recorder.
Mayor
Ruede reviewed the memorandum about the conversation with the City Attorney
and stated that if the City is getting advice from its attorney, it should
listen.
The
City Recorder was asked to comment. He
stated he is conflicted because he is involved in all of these things on a
day-to-day basis. He believes he
should have an elected official involved.
Councilor Sathe, for example, is the elected official involved in
every complaint regarding a City right-of-way, so Councilor Anderson and
Councilor Wells could be involved on other issues.
If, however, it is one elected official, it would be a much clearer
process. He expressed his
approval of simplifying the process and involving an elected official.
Mayor
Ruede stated that she is not in favor in going that direction because it
leaves inconsistency on the table. If
you have a staff person that is extremely familiar with what the codes are,
you don’t have that learning curve every time you get a new elected
official. City Recorder Hilden
clarified that he meant the City Recorder should be involved, but with an
elected official and not just alone.
Council
President Mills indicated that the process needs to be clarified.
The City Council needs to become the hearing body only upon appeal of
a particular complaint.
Councilor
Koehler expressed concern that limiting the investigation to one elected
official may set up a situation for bias, unless the requirements are set
out specifically. The problem
with shoreland issues is there is such a wide variety of possibilities that
they can’t all be identified. Additionally,
he stated his opinion that one elected official who goes onto a property
with permission, isn’t a liability, as he sees it.
Councilor
Sathe asked if former Council member Peter Howison could be allowed to
speak. Mayor Ruede agreed to
break protocol and invited Peter Howison to address the Council.
Peter
Howison, M.D.,
Dunes
City
resident, qualified his comments by stating that he hasn’t had much time
to think about it. He said he
can see where there might be a problem and maybe having a paid employee or
official of the City, who has the knowledge and is accountable, might be a
good idea. While a committee may
make a decision that is totally rational, an attorney can come in and tear
it apart. We’ve seen this
happen. Unfortunately, the Court
sees
Dunes
City
as a big city. Even though the
law provides small cities the ability to prove to a lower standard, the
Court ruled otherwise. I think
this is onerous and admire you for taking on this task.
Councilor
Sathe stated he thinks that the way the Road Commission complaints are being
handled can serve as a model for setting up a process for the Site Review
and Conservation Commission and have just a council member as the
representative.
Mayor
Ruede confirmed what Councilor Sathe was saying.
The Site Review Committee would be replaced by the Recorder and the
one councilor appointed to the position.
Council
President Mills asked for an example of what would happen as the next step.
Assuming the Code Enforcement Officer and the elected official went
out and found that yes, a violation occurred.
What is the next step?
Councilor
Sathe explained how it works with the Road Commission.
Council President Mills asked who makes the finding.
The reply was the Code Enforcement Officer and the elected official,
who then, in the case of Conservation Committee, reports to the
Planning
Commission. In the case of Site
Review, there should be enough teeth in the ordinance to allow the Code
Enforcement Officer to seek abatement, and then if the property owner
disagrees, the only option is to appeal it to the City Council.
Councilor
Koehler stated he doesn’t see where that is any different than the Site
Review Committee now. He said
what we have to concern ourselves with is a municipal judge.
John Stead presented information on appointing the City Recorder as
the Municipal Judge. This is a
simple process. The only
question is if there is a conflict of interest if the City Recorder goes out
with the Conservation Committee and then judges on it.
Councilor
Mills pointed out that what has been discussed under option 5 is only with
regard to nuisances (the barking dog), not Conservation Committee.
Councilor
Koehler requested that we review this in time and come back at a later date
for further discussion.
Councilor
Sathe asked if the Ordinance Review Committee will draft up language along
the lines of the process being used by the Road Commission so we have
something to go by.
Mayor
Ruede asked if it should be on the Agenda for the next regular Council
meeting. Councilor Koehler
suggested another work session. Councilor
Scarberry asked if we could have a work session immediately before the City
Council meeting?
Council
President Mills pointed out that could be a six hour meeting.
Councilor
Anderson
suggested that we ask any of the retired attorneys in our community to serve
as municipal judge pro bono. Council
President Mills stated there are certain requirements of municipal judges in
the State of
Oregon
.
Mayor
Ruede stated she would invite Cindy Cable to come to a meeting of the City
Council to tell us what is involved in getting a Municipal Judge.
11.
New Business – None
12.
Unscheduled Items Not Listed on the
Agenda – None
13.
Executive Session – None
14.
Adjournment
There being no further business to come before the City Council,
Mayor Ruede declared the meeting adjourned at
7:50 p.m.
APPROVED
BY THE DUNES
CITY
COUNCIL
ON THE 13th DAY OF
OCTOBER 2011.
[ Signed copy available at City Hall ]
Rebecca Ruede, Mayor
ATTEST:
[ Signed copy available at City Hall ]
Fred Hilden, City Recorder
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