Sean C. Morgan
Prompted by a new proposal by Councilor Jeff Goodwin, Mayor Jim Gourley has asked the council’s Admin and Finance Committee to develop a mechanism the council can use to handle proposals by councilors.
Goodwin submitted a proposed resolution to the council during its regular meeting on May 12 to include a brief moment of silence, 15 to 20 seconds, to allow people to reflect or pray, to the council’s agenda following the Pledge of Allegiance.
Changing the agenda requires an ordinance, Gourley said, and the council needs to talk about how it wants to handle resolutions and ordinances proposed by councilors.
Sweet Home voters elected Goodwin, a local attorney, in November. He took office in January, and since then he has introduced several draft ordinances prohibiting and regulating marijuana, which becomes legal in July based on Measure 91, passed by voters in November. He also proposed a zoning ordinance that would make illegal activity on a property a zoning violation.
At this point, Gourley said, the council will handle Goodwin’s resolution proposal like he had planned some of his proposals on marijuana, by voting at the next meeting, May 27, whether to put it on the agenda for June 9.
With the marijuana ordinance, the council decided to hold a public meeting instead of placing it on an upcoming agenda. Since then, the council has scheduled a work session of June 2 to discuss regulating marijuana in Sweet Home.
The city’s charter allows councilors to introduce legislation, Gourley said, but it doesn’t describe a specific process. That leaves the council the option of following Robert’s Rules of Order or spelling out a process.
“I think it’s easier if we spell it out in a policy,” Gourley said. “I think we had a way to do it, but I wanted to make sure we get it into some sort of written policy.”
Normally, ordinances and resolutions aren’t introduced to the council that way. At least for the past two decades, ordinances have been introduced by staff members or come to the council by way of a committee recommendation, often based on discussions generated by staff members, issues referred to a committee by the council or issues raised by concerned citizens and referred to committees or staff members.
Present at the meeting were councilors Greg Mahler, Dave Trask, Goodwin, Bruce Hobbs, Gourley and Ryan Underwood. Marybeth Angulo was absent.
In other business, Gourley issued a proclamation declaring last week “Police Week,” with flags flown at half-mast on Friday. May 11 was Peace Officer Memorial Day.
The council also named winners in the annual “If I Were Mayor” contest. Winner of the poster contest was Laura Britton, with Hailey Armendariz placing second. Emily Ramsey placed first in the video contest, and Jessica Wolter was first in essays. Ramsey’s, Britton’s and Wolter’s work have been submitted to the state “If I Were Mayor” competition.