Government work at its finest, City Planner Carol Lewis tells me the Department of Land Conservation and Development has a 20-year backlog of work at its current staffing levels.
The state legislature passes a law to help cut that workload, and the City of Sweet Home tells the state agency to take a flying leap.
The land use process isn’t very interesting in the details. It’s because it’s such a snooze item that no one ever seems to notice when their government agencies stick them with lame little rules limiting more and more what they can do with their property.
This one is probably no different. The decision to sidestep the end game in the state’s periodic review process won’t be made into a blockbuster movie anytime soon, but the decision is just too cool.
Corvallis has apparently been in the final part of the process for three years. Sweet Home was just ready to begin getting the state’s approval of its new Comprehensive Plan after already putting nearly six years into the process when the legislature and governor passed a bill exempting small cities.
Since DLCD had not commented during public hearings, it had no standing to appeal the final product within 21 days, at least not easily. The bottom line is that the city is now out of an absurdly long process that costs the city time and money.
Now we can hope the legislature will extend the law in 2007, and Sweet Home can continue to avoid the process. This doesn’t mean the work doesn’t get done, it just means Sweet Home won’t be forever planning for the state.
The city did a nice job on this one.
On the education front, the District 55 School Board is kicking around new ways for youth groups to disseminate information in schools. This includes possibly elimination of classroom handouts and the Boy Scouts’ 15-minute recruiting sessions each year.
The board should tell administration to let it lie.
Administration is concerned that the 15-minute sessions taken out of class time might grow into much more if other groups take advantage of it, and under a court ruling, the school would have to grant other groups the same access.
Administration is also concerned about the amount of class time spent handing out fliers.
In response, the administration and groups have suggested alternatives, such as a specific night where groups can set up booths for information. Other suggestions include using assembly time and put announcements in each school’s newsletter.
These are all fine suggestions, and the district should consider allowing them. At the same time, there is no urgent need to end current practice.
First of all, right now, it’s only the Boy Scouts taking up class time. Second, handing out fliers, especially if confined to one day a week, shouldn’t be much of an issue if groups have them counted out for each class ahead of time. The only time that would be taken up is in the classroom, just minutes.
The concern really seems to be that these things might grow into a mountain of extra work or lost seat time at some point. When and if more groups start taking up too much class time with their informational meetings or fliers truly become too cumbersome, then the district should consider limiting the groups; but it’s not as if all of these groups are asking for it. The chief concern is simply that the opportunity exists.
If there’s concern about content, then the district can pull the plug on all groups and allow no access to the schools during classtime. Still, it’s not as if the Ku Klux Klan or North American Man Boy Love Association is knocking on school doors.