Court upholds district in school financing dispute

The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld a trial court ruling that found that in March 2007 the Sisters School District properly issued Certificates of Participation (COPS) as a means of financing various capital improvements.

The appeals court also confirmed the trial court's ruling that Mike Morgan lacked standing in his lawsuit against the school district.

In his initial lawsuit Morgan maintained that in March 2007 the Sisters School District unlawfully authorized the issuance of $2.1 million Certificates of Participation (COPS) as a means of financing various capital improvements. Morgan maintained that since these COPS are backed by the full faith and credit of the district, they are bonds, not COPS, and they were unlawfully issued because the district failed to obtain voter approval.

The Sisters School District countered that the COPS were authorized by statute and therefore did not require voter approval.

The trial court concluded that the district's financing method was authorized by statute, and that Morgan lacked standing. Those rulings were affirmed.

To have standing, Morgan needed to show that in some special sense any injury goes beyond the injury that he would expect as a member of the general public, in this case, a taxpayer in the Sisters School District.

The appeals court ruling stated: "There are too many events that may or may not occur; whether they occur or not depends, in the plaintiff's own words, on 'a multitude of factors;' and nothing in the record implies the logical likelihood of their occurrence or provides a method to gauge that likelihood. In short, plaintiff has not established standing."