Voters to decide on Home Rule

Like the legendary phoenix rising from the ashes, the Home Rule Charter is once again being presented on the Deschutes County ballot. It has gone down in the flames of defeat the three previous times it has faced the voters; the last time was in 1998.

The Home Rule Charter is a guiding document that allows residents of the county to tailor government to their particular needs and attain a degree of independence from the Oregon State Legislature. Passing of this proposal means that local voters can decide how to set up their county government, within limits set by the state.

Sisters resident and Home Rule Charter committee member Leonard Knott said, "I approached the task with an open mind. I was willing to accept or reject what we were doing if it didn't look like it was the best for the county."

As Knott began to understand more fully the significance of the home rule charter, he became a true believer, although it was not all roses and chocolate in the earlier stages - or during some of the later conflicts either.

The charter committee set its course to develop the blueprint of how home rule would work in Deschutes County, and the changes are important. At present, Deschutes County has three commissioners who each work full-time for a salary in excess of $60,000 per year.

Under the new charter that will appear on November's ballot, the commission would consist of five part-time commissioners working for the smaller recompense of $30,000 each. Part-time commissioners can be used because the charter would strictly limit their role to policy-setting. All administrative duties would be carried out by a full-time county administrator.

Each of the five commissioners under home rule will represent a geographic district. The five districts are: Sisters; Redmond; Southern Deschutes County (including La Pine and Sunriver); and Bend which is halved and will have two commissioners.

This form of representation is designed to guarantee that concerns of the entire county are heard. Additionally, the increase in the number of commissioners will make it more difficult to bring about any de facto changes, for example, increasing taxes.

The main points of contention for the committee, according to Knott, were the issues of part-time versus full-time commissioners and keeping the commissioner positions as non-partisan.

"It was finally decided that it would be easier to move to a full-time position from a part-time if it proved necessary; however, it would be very difficult to go from a full-time to a part-time, if it appeared that full-time positions were not necessary," Knott said.

The other main point of contention was keeping the commissioner positions as non-partisan. In the end, the consensus was to keep the commissioner positions as non-partisan, which is much to the dismay of the mainstream political parties.

The political parties have fought to make the new commissioner positions partisan everywhere that home rule charters have been introduced.

Nine out of Oregon's 36 counties have elected to adopt home rule - Benton, Clatsop, Hood River, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Multnomah, Umatilla and Washington.

In addition to Knott, the charter committee included former Bend City Councilor Kathie Eckman, Redmond Police Chief Lane Roberts, appraiser Dana Bratton and Leland Smith, a member of the county's budget committee. State legislators chose former Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch, engineers Jim Carnahan and Scott Waters, as well as Knott.

Andrea Blum became the ninth member and Ted Scholer, designated alternate, replaced Carnahan on the committee.