Sean C. Morgan
Mayor Jim Gourley wants to reorganize – combining and shifting responsibilities among the various committees that advise the city staff and City Council.
Currently, the city has more than 14 committees appointed by the City Council, and it appoints city councilors to committees outside the city organization, including the Area Commission on Transportation, Cascades West Council of Governments and the Solid Waste Advisory Council. Some city committees include members of the council, such as the Parks Board and Traffic Safety Committee.
Others include no councilors, including the Library Board and Planning Commission. Still others include only councilors, such as the Public Safety Committee and the Administration and Finance Committee.
Most are advisory; an exception is the Planning Commission, which makes final decisions that may be appealed to the council.
Gourley said he intends to combine some committees and will put together a proposal in the next month. Some committees may restructured as a result and some may begin including members from outside the city limits.
Some committees already allow this. The Planning Commission is allowed to have up to two members from the Sweet Home area who do not live inside the city limits, for example.
During the council’s regular meeting on Aug. 23, Vince Adams, a Sweet Home resident, told the council that it should avoid appointing people who do not live in the Sweet Home community, no further than the School District boundaries.
Theresa Brown, who lives just outside the city limits, representing a new non-partisan group called the Sweet Home Area Voters Alliance, said that the council should start allowing residents living outside the city limits to serve, but the council should limit it to the School District boundaries.
The Voters Alliance would like to ensure that the city’s boards and committees are truly representative, consistently managed and foster inclusion for all area citizens, Brown said. Current documentation shows a lack of consistency in how descriptions, charters, membership criteria and responsibilities are defined for each committee.
“The current council has had an unusual number of controversies in the previous year, which we feel is due to poor communication between the Sweet Home City Council and the community,” Brown said. “The council has stated repeatedly they felt this is due to lack of community involvement.”
Committee member absences have resulted in decisions being made by less than a quorum of the committee present at meetings, Brown said.
The city has lost knowledgeable resources, which could have benefited Sweet Home, due to personality issues on boards, she said.
She suggested that the city define each committee in a consistent way and add a provision that a minimum of two members or one-third of any committee should be non-residents of the city, but to be eligible, nonresidents must reside in or own property within the School District boundaries.
SHAVA also suggests combining and merging boards, such as the tree and parks boards and the traffic, public safety and hazard mitigation committees, mergers that have already been discussed. The group also recommends assigning a councilor as chairmen on the committees.
“I think we’ve had trouble over the last few years with having enough people to keep our boards functioning correctly,” Gourley said, and as a result, he has been thinking about how to restructure committees this year.
It makes sense to combine some boards, particularly the tree and parks boards and the traffic safety and public safety committees, which work on similar issues, Gourley said. Others, like the Library Board, may not be modified at all.
With fewer committees, the pool of volunteers will be sufficient to fill the committees, he said, and it will involve citizens on committees that have only been councilors.
It’s a fine line balancing the number of people from inside and outside the city limits, Gourley said, but he’s interested in ensuring that people who live outside the city limits can be involved. It will need to be within guidelines and reason.
“It can be a very good tool for our city for guiding our growth and the direction we’re going by having people outside looking in,” Gourley said. He thinks the limit would have to be the School District boundaries.
School District boundaries reach from the Santiam Terrace-Mountain Home area to the west and the junction of highways 20 and 126 to the east. To the north it stretches to the Berlin area north of Marks Ridge.
Those residents use city streets, parks and businesses, Gourley said. Their children go to school here, and they work here.
“They travel in here,” he said. “They are part of what’s going on here.”
Gourley has been discussing the idea for several months, and he is trying to make sure he gets information and input from the public.
“I’m going to have a plan here in the next month,” he said.
For more information about city committees or to get involved, call (541) 367-8969 or stop by the city manager’s office in City Hall at 1140 12th Ave.