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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1970-1013 SPECIAL MINMINUTES FOR SPECIAL MEETING ASHLAND CITY COUNCI L OCTOBER 13, 1970 A special meeting of the City Council was held in the City Counc!l Chambers, City Hail, on'the above date. The meeting was called to order at approximately 7:30 p.m. by Mayor ~,~cKeen. Willst'at'ter Counc;Imen present' Bailer, Dodge, Jones, Robie, · · Couhcilmen absent: Roberts Mayor McKeen indicated that this spe'cial meeting was cai led as a~ oFo'~ public hearing for discussion and Council action on resolutions pro~,sing amendmenls !o the 1889 Charter of the City of Ashland, Jackson County, Oregon, as amended by the various charter amendments to date and further providing that said proposed charter amendments be sub.mitred to 1'he electors of the Cil'y of Ashland under bal.lot titles herein set forth for their approval or rejection at a special election c8l led and to be held on November 3, 1970, and declaring an emergency. A!' this time, City Administrator Almquist read a resolution establishing abal lot title to amend Article Xll I , Sections and 3 of-the 18S9 Charter of ti~e City of Ashland. It' was moved by Bailer, seconded by Jones that the rules be suspended and resolution passed t'o second reading by only. title Mr. Donald Pinnock indicated that he felt this matt-er was a "farce on the integrity of the voters of 1'he City of Ashland · . . a Trojan horse." He questioned 1-he Council's intenl-ions of adopting the resolutions on an emergency basis. He expressed dissatisfaction with not being able to review the content of the resolutions before the public hearing. M.r. Pinnock then reviewed the chain' of events whici~ eventually led to the present proposed amendments t-o the charter. He requested that study of proposed amendments take place in January 1971 by a group that "doesn't have any axes to grind." He e gain requested that the meeting be terminated at this time. the Fei lowing 'some discussion regarding the. legal il'y of the bal lol titles, Mrs. Connie Battaile indicated 1hat it makes it very difficult, for members of the Charter Revision. Committee to discuss the proposed amen-dments when copies cf the resolutions were not made available for public review. Mrs. Battaile asked if the amendment pertaining to appointive officers residing within the City. limits was meant to include boards and commissions. Dodge repl led that it was meant to include all appointive officers, Mrs. Battaile point,ed ou~ that the ORS states tha~' Planning Commissions may h'ave not more than two members living outside the Cit.y limits. Some discussion fol lowed on this matter. There was some discussion regarding the nonavailability of the proposed charter amendments. Robie asked if the a~nendments could be postponed to a special meeting in January. Several of the Council members replied that the voters ~:ould have three weeks to study the amendments before voting. Mayor ~'icKeen also expressed some concern that copies of the proposed amendments were not made available before the public hearing. Mr. Tommy Parker indicated that he was 'not necessarily opposed to the proposed amendments; however, he did question the manner in which Council was presenting them. He questioned the emergency in adopting the resolutions and asked that the people have more time to stud~ them. Mr. Donald Cleaver asked that the ballot title for the first resolution be divided into two separate ballot titles, since they are not rela±ed and voters may wish to cast conflicting votes for the two items included in the one title. Mr. J'ames Conklin asked the City Recordeor the cos't of a special election. Mr. Bartelt replied that it wouid be approximately $800-900. Robie moved that ~nspublic hearing be delayed until sometime in January 1971. - His motion was declared invalid due to a motion on the floor. Mrs. Connie Battai le questioned the amendment that would require all appointive officers to reside within the City limits. She pointed out that the Charter Revision Committee had studied this matter at some length and decided that it would be more desirable to leave that particular requirement out. She also pointed out that section 2 in the present charter was left out; she asked if i~ was the intent of the Council to leave it out and, if so, it should be reflected in the ballot title. There was considerable discussion regarding Council's adoption of the charter amendments earlier in the year.. Jones. and Dodge indicated that they were not given sufficient time to study the complete document. They pointed out that Council had been assured thai no major changes had been made to the completed document ~nd later they found out changes had been made. Others participating in the discussion were Roland McCannon, Ar~'hur Phi I iips and Emmit Whitham. Council Minutes -3- October 13, 195:0 Following more discussion, a representative of the 'Ashland Key Club indicated that he tried to ob~'ain copies of the proposed amendments at Mr. Scannel I's of'lice. He was directed 4'o the City Recorder's office and was told that copies were not available. He asked Council how they could conduct a public hearing when the public is ~ignorant of t'he resolutions. Following discussion, Robie requested that the ~layor asked 'the maker of the original motion if he would be ~iiling to withdraw h'i's moP'ion. The May'or then asked Jones if he would be willing to withdraw his second. Jones replied that he would not. Mr. Gary Afseth indicated that he felt it was irresponsibility on the part of Council to not make copies of the resolutions available for the public. At this ~time, read a letter concerning the is on file in requested that in Mr. Brigg's discussed Mayor McKeen requested that the City Administrator dated October 13, 1970, from Mr. William M. Briggs proposed amendments. (A copy of the letter the City Administrator's office.) Wii Istatter the City Attorney answer the questions brought in letter. Mr. Scannell replied to the five points in the Mr. Bri~g's letter. Following more discussion, Bailer amended his motion to create two separate ballot titles from the first resolution (Article X!!!, Section 2 and Article XI I 1, Section 3). Jones seconded the mol-ich to amend. Mr. D. Rounds asked Council to"explain their reasons for making these changes. Wi l lstatter repl led thai' the issue of restoring the pod:er to Council to remove any appointive officer ~as one of the changes he was in favor of originally and ,;as not included in the present charter. On roll call on Bai let's motion to amend his orig.~nal motion, carried unanimous i ~. On roll call to pass resolution to second reading by title only, carried unanimously. Following second reading by title only, it was moved by Bailer, seconded by Dodge that the resolution es~'aUlishing the ballot title to amend Article XI ! !, sections 2 and 3, be adopted, as amended. On roll call, carried unanimously. City Administrator Almquist read resolution establishing the bal lot ti?le fro amend Article VI. It ~as moved b~, Bailer, seconded by Wi list-at,er that 'lhe rules be suspended and resolution passed to second reading by title only. There was some discussion regard;ng the duties o~ the City Recorder. On roll call, carried unar. imous!y. Follo:.,'ing second reading by title only, it was moved by Bai let, s~::conde.d by Dodge 'lh~ the resolu'?io~ be adop~'ed. On roll call, c~rricd unanimously. Council Minutes -4- October 13, 1970 City Administrat title 1'o amend A Wi llstatter, sec resol'ut ion passe or Almquist read resolution establishing ballot rticle XVI, Sections I and 5. It was moved by ended by Bailer that the rules be suspended and d to second reading by title only. There was some discussion regarding establishing a percentage requirement of' votes in the matter of disposal of the electrical Power, water and sewer systems. Mr. D. Rounds asked if the establishment of a uti I ity district. would make provision for City service outside the City limits. There was considerable discussion on this matter. Wi I lstatter indicated that one of the thoughts behind the possibility of est-ablishing a public uti l ity district by a vote of the people, would be that it would "take it out of the political ring." Mrs. Audrey Hawk indicated thai- the original intent of this particular section was to protect the. water rights. There some'disc'ussion regarding this matter. Robie objected to the inclusion of the possibility of establishing a utility district. was On roll call on motion to pass resolution to second reading, carried unanimously. Following second reading by title only,- it was moved by Wi I lstatter, seconded by Jones that the resolution be adopted. On roll call, carried unanimously. Following some discussion, it was moved by Roble, seconded by Wi llstatter that 60 percent of the voters would have to be in favor of selling or otherwise disposing of the electrical power system before any such action could be taken. On roll call, defeated 4-1, with Robie voting in the affirmative. City Administrator Almquist read resolution establishing ballot title to amend Article i I i, Sections 2 and 4. I~ was moved by Bailer, seconded by Dodge that the rules be suspended and resolution passed to second reading by title only. Mr. Pinnock suggested that 'l-wo separate bal lot titles be created from the one sta~ed in the resolution. It was moved by Bai let, seconded by Wi ! Istatter to amend the motion to create two separate bal lot titles (Article I ! I , Section 2 and Ar-~icle I ! I, Section 4). On roll call, carried unanimously. Following second reading by ~itle only, it was moved by Bailer, seconded by Wi I lstatter that the resolution be adopted, as amended. There was some discussion regarding Council's decision to remove the time limit for filling a vacancy in office of Mayor or Council. On roll call, carried unanimously. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned subject t'o the c~il of 1'he Mayor. . -d / ~" '--'¢""/.' Cily P, ocordcr