News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The Sisters City Council, by a 3-1 vote, has simplified the way annexations will be placed on the ballot.
Under the new procedures, annexation requests will go first to the planning commission for a public hearing. The planning commission will make a recommendation and advise the city council on the issues it should consider before sending the matter to an election.
The city council will hold a second public hearing to gather additional public input and then may decide to put an annexation request before the voters. A vote of Sisters residents is required for any annexation.
The ordinance requires that those requesting an annexation "provide to the city any information necessary for the city to place an annexation question on the ballot."
The previous ordinance governing annexation votes included complicated information-gathering procedures which, Mayor Steve Wilson had argued, "are expensive and time-consuming even if they're not applicable."
The city has never actually applied those procedures, instead using an exemption clause in the old ordinance that allowed the council to put an annexation request on the ballot directly with a 3-1 vote.
Plans to simplify the ordinance had angered activists Howard Paine and Libby Bottero, who considered the effort an attempt to undermine the desire of Sisters' voters to have a say in annexations.
That controversy faded as the council included the procedures for planning commission and city council hearings in the ordinance.
Councilor Tim Clasen cast the dissenting vote, saying that the ordinance still does not require enough information for the public.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)