Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home City Council voted 6-0 on July 28 to approve a requested increase in trash rates for Sweet Home Sanitation and took no action on proposed sewer and water rates.
The council initially rejected the trash rate request 3-3 during its regular meeting on July 14. Councilors voted to table the issue until July 28 and revisit the proposal.
Sweet Home Sanitation had proposed a 2.4-percent increase to rates, which amounted to 55 cents per month for the most popular can size, 35 gallons – from $22.35 per month to $22.90 per month.
Councilor Jeff Goodwin had opposed the increase and supported a smaller increase, 1.8 percent, a difference of about 15 cents.
Goodwin left last week’s meeting prior to the vote on the ordinance setting the rate. He said that he did not feel well and added that he would not be able to attend the Aug. 11 and Aug. 25 meetings because he had prior personal commitments.
Voting for the rate increase were Marybeth Angulo, Ryan Underwood, Greg Mahler, Mayor Jim Gourley, Dave Trask and Bruce Hobbs.
The council also rejected a sewer and water rate structure proposed by Goodwin. His motion to move his proposed rates to the council’s legislation portion of the agenda for a vote died for lack of a second.
Former Mayor Dave Holley told the council that he does not support rate increases, but he pointed out that the council passed a budget earlier this year that requires rate increases to meet the budgetary requirements for providing water and sewer services.
Goodwin’s proposal, along with others the council has discussed, although saving some customers money, did not guarantee that the city would meet those budgetary requirements.
Gourley explained that the proposal on the agenda that night was Goodwin’s and not the one prepared by Public Works.
“Then I’m confident at a subsequent council meeting you’ll be discussing water and sewer rates,” Holley said.
Mahler said that’s what he understands.
“That’s why we sat here motionless,” Mahler said concerning Goodwin’s proposal. “Because we weren’t going to put the city into bankruptcy.”
In other business, Goodwin found no second to move forward a proposal to include a moment of silence as a regular part of the council’s agenda.
Holley and Theresa Brown, another local resident, both told the council that moments of silence, meditation and reflection are special and to have them every meeting would lose that meaning. Mahler agreed, and Gourley said that a councilor could request moments of silence for specific reasons for individual council meetings.
The council also provided no second to move forward a proposal by Goodwin to add zoning ordinance penalties for illegal usage of property in Sweet Home.
“It’s something a lot of other municipalities have, and I think it’s missing,” he said.
As a zoning ordinance amendment, it would require the ordinance to follow the land-use process, said City Manager Craig Martin. Goodwin moved to send it to the Planning Commission, but no councilor gave the motion a second, killing the proposal.
“In my view all this is tied to the marijuana issue,” Holley said. “It’s all tied to the fact there’s a federal thing that makes it illegal, and if someone doesn’t get their way with the way things work, then they go in the back door. I think it’s a very slippery slope, I think for the council to get into. I don’t think you want to put the city attorney in a position to try and enforce something that is unenforceable.”
“This is not directly related to the marijuana issue,” said Goodwin, who is a local practicing attorney. “This is a broader issue.”
A pattern is visible in law enforcement and government of not enforcing different laws, Goodwin explained. Right now, opening a brothel does not violate the zoning ordinance, for example.
“I was surprised to find you could establish an illegal business in this city and have it be perfectly upright even though it’s an illegal operation in its foundation, its purpose and everything it does,” he said. “You can set up a criminal enterprise in Sweet Home, and unless someone stops and brings you in for the crime itself, you’re going to be allowed to do it.”
After failing to receive a second, Goodwin renewed his motion but still did not find a second.
“I’m disappointed that this City Council is not willing to stand up for basic lawfulness in the city,” he said.
Goodwin introduced a new proposal to increase the water billing cycle to 30 days, up from 15. He said he has been hearing complaints about how quickly people receive late notices for water and sewer bills.
Gourley sent the proposal to the Public Works Committee for consideration.
The council also approved 6-0, with Goodwin abstaining, a taxi cab license for Ace Medical Transport and Event Shuttle, Inc., to operate a taxi in Sweet Home during the Oregon Jamboree.