Councilors navigate minefield of conflicts of interest

Personal biases and varying levels of potential conflicts of interest create an ethical minefield for members of the Sisters City Council.

Personal beliefs and biases are always a part of the package with elected officials and active members of any community - especially one as small and interconnected as Sisters - as they are exposed to potential conflicts of interest in their public service.

One council member in particular comes to the forefront in public perception of conflicts of interest: Sharlene Weed, who is the executive director for Sistes Habitat for Humanity and who has long been an active advocate for affordable housing.

"I think that there is a clear conflict of interest in that Sharlene (Weed) is being paid by Habitat (for Humanity)," said Shane Lundgren, president of Dutch Pacific Resources, who is in the process of developing Sun Ranch Business Park in Sisters.

"That is her day job, and she is using her position on city council to browbeat developers into putting affordable housing in their developments."

Weed believes that everything she has done is completely aboveboard and legal.

"I am very careful about conflict of interest and affordable housing. I have met with the city attorney about it and have been guided about potential conflicts and actual conflicts and received direction from him," she said. "When it came to Sun Ranch and Three Sisters (Business Park), I was able to advocate for affordable housing. I think that the people that checked the box for me last November wanted me in this position because of my advocacy for affordable housing."

Lundgren, for one, thinks that advocacy has gone too far.

"Our property was not a new residential, per se," he said. "And nobody along the line, from the planner, from the planning commission, anybody in the two-year process, ever said anything about including an affordable housing component.

"We were doing 40 homes as a mixed-use component to what we are doing in Sun Ranch. It was only to try to create a vibrancy in the community, not to create a residential subdivision. And she (Weed) came back and initially wanted to have an affordable housing component including the potential for loft apartments above the light industrial - and all those by nature will be economic housing," said Lundgren.

Eventually, Lundgren was required to add affordable housing units in excess of the 10 percent called for in the city's comprehensive plan; the development now has 16 percent "affordable" housing, though the mechanism by which they should be kept affordable has yet to be determined.

Councilor Weed agreed that there was a potential conflict of interest in that case.

"A potential conflict is one where Habitat perhaps might be involved in building some affordable housing in a specific development. It has not been discussed between me and the developer, but, let's say in the case of the Three Sisters Business Park and Sun Ranch, Habitat for Humanity was specifically named as someone who may build housing for their affordable housing piece. I declared a potential conflict of interest," said Weed.

Lundgren felt that he was over a barrel.

"So basically it was our whole three years of work that all of a sudden had a wrench thrown into the works because Sharlene wants affordable (housing). They had us by the throat, and we had to reengineer, rewrite the whole thing and account for an industrial lot that now had to be made residential to account for the affordable housing," said Lundgren.

Lundgren regrets the loss of a potential business property to housing, as he believes that Sisters needs more commercial and industrial property to allow the city to develop a sustainable economy.

"I spoke with Brad (Boyd) about it separately from Sharlene (Weed), and he told me: 'It is what Sharlene wants, and what I want is less retail out there. If you want it approved, you will have to agree,'" said Lundgren.

Mayor Boyd agrees that the essence of the conversation is correct.

"I think that it was taken a little out of context," Boyd said. "I was trying to help him (Lundgren) to assess how the council would vote. But I can see how he could have taken it that way."

What Lundgren sees as undue influence and conflict of interest may simply be a case of political hardball. Weed and the city believe she was on solid ethical ground.

"I had to declare a potential conflict of interest and state that it was not influencing my position any way and so I could still vote. Legally, this is aboveboard," said Weed.