Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home City Council voted 6-0 to send three members to Washington, D.C., for the upcoming national tree lighting
ceremony to be held on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol.
A fourth councilor’s plans to travel there will not be sanctioned by the council based on concerns over potentially violating Oregon public meetings law, councilors decided.
Councilor Dave Trask, Councilor Susan Coleman and Mayor Greg Mahler will travel to Washington, attending events and representing the city, while Councilor Lisa Gourley told the council that she intends to go on her own.
Gourley abstained from a vote on who would represent the city based on what she believed might be a conflict of interest in the vote. The remaining councilors approved the trip. Councilors noted that Coleman and Trask served on the Christmas tree committee, with Coleman carrying the heaviest load in planning a daylong series of local events on Nov. 9. Councilors also said the mayor should attend the events in Washington, D.C., representing Sweet Home.
The city has budgeted funds for the trip, but Mahler said he would pay his own way.
The events are centered around the Capitol Christmas tree, which is coming from the Willamette National Forest. Four of five tree candidates are from the Sweet Home Ranger District, with one on the Middle Fork Ranger District. The tree selection will be announced in late October.
Sweet Home’s Christmas
celebration and parade will be held on Nov. 9 when the tree is shipped out of Sweet Home. The tree will travel cross country for a lighting ceremony and other events at the nation’s Capitol.
Coleman said that some events are open to the public, while others are invitation-only.
The council began discussing who would attend at its regular meeting on Aug. 14. Members held off on a decision then to allow City Attorney Robert Snyder to look into whether four councilors, which is a quorum capable of conducting city business, would violate public meetings law if they all attended the event. The council resumed the discussion during its regular meeting on Aug. 28.
Snyder told the council that councilors can attend social events, but “you’ve got a duty to avoid discussion about city business.”
Collecting information without making decisions also is considered a public meeting.
Snyder warned that the councilors do not want to get into a situation where they discuss any city business and end up having a meeting.
“It’s a purely social gathering, just like going to a football game, just like going to a parade,” Gourley said.
City Manager Ray Towry said that councilors may not intend to have a meeting, but if any of them discusses city business, “it becomes a meeting.”
“You cannot tell a councilor they cannot attend this event,” Gourley said.
That’s a violation of the law, she said, and she did not give up her First Amendment rights when she took the job as city councilor.
Trask said he would hate for the public to perceive that the councilors held a meeting while in Washington, D.C., and he would hate to be sitting in a restaurant socially as a quorum and then begin talking about city business.
While he wasn’t saying Gourley cannot go, Trask said that the mayor should go along with Coleman and Trask, who served on the Christmas tree committee.
Gourley told the council that a foursome can happen here in Sweet Home. Councilors attended the Health Fair, she said, and they were capable of not discussing city business. She noted that they’re careful not to form a quorum in the parking lot following a council meeting or at the store.
“Are we not allowed to go (to the Harvest Festival) because we’re going to be in the same park?” Gourley asked.
Mahler said he had every intention of going, but Trask and Coleman should attend the event because of their work on the project.
He would step aside to allow Gourley to attend and avoid accidentally forming a quorum and having a meeting that violates public meeting law. Trask is the president pro tem and could represent the mayor on the trip.
He told the council he would leave it up to the council to decide.
Councilor Diane Gerson said she agreed with Trask that he and Coleman should go and the mayor should join them.
“I agree with Councilor Gourley that we’re all responsible adults,” Gerson said. “But I also think the perception (of impropriety) could cause us criticism that isn’t necessary.”
If Gourley were to go, Gerson said, she should stay as far away from the other councilors as possible.
“So you’re censuring me,” Gourley said.
She said she is planning to pay her own way to celebrate Sweet Home, she said, but the council is telling her to stay away.
Trask explained that if the councilors were to set up a meeting with Oregon’s senators or Sweet Home’s congressman to talk about city issues and four councilors are in the room, the council will have issues.
The councilors will meet public officials and will discuss city business, which isn’t ethical, Trask said.
Gourley said the city would just need to provide public notice for a meeting.
“I disagree,” Towry said. “I don’t think the notice does you any good.”
The council cannot hold official meetings outside of its jurisdiction, Snyder said, which means the city cannot simply provide notice of a meeting in Washington, D.C.
Gourley told the council that meeting with other public officials isn’t part of the scope of her trip.
Councilor James Goble said the people who put in the legwork on the tree and the mayor should attend, noting that Coleman, who has chaired the planning committee for the tree celebration and has put many hours into the effort, “needs to go – she put her heart and soul in.”
“I’m going on my own, just like any citizen,” Gourley said following the council’s vote to send Mahler, Trask and Coleman.
Attending the meeting were Bob Briana, Coleman, Gourley, Mahler, Trask, Goble and Gerson.