City changing contracting practices

While expressing concerns about the potential of increasing the costs of local projects, the Sisters City Council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance that will allow the city's contract review board to give additional weight to bids for municipal work (over $2,000) for local content and local investment.

"We want to keep the taxpayers' money in the community," said councilor Pat Thompson. "We want to use local resources who have made an investment locally." Thompson clarified that "local" meant the tri-county area, not just Sisters.

Councilors Weed and Holzman indicated that they had heard concerns from a number of their constituents that this ordinance had the potential to increase the city's cost of doing business.

While there seemed to be a general agreement that paying a premium to use local resources was worth the investment in the local economy, the amount of that premium was a concern.

Councilor Weed pointed out the positive multiplying factor that each dollar invested locally has in stimulating the local economy.

To address concerns about overspending, councilors Holzman and Weed added an addendum to the ordinance that requires the city to prepare a report at the end of each year that details the hard and soft costs incurred in applying this new ordinance.

Holzman said, "I want to keep this process public and transparent."

The "hard" costs would be the difference between the cost of the qualified low bid and the cost of the weighted bid that was accepted. The "soft" costs would be the additional city staff time taken to prepare and apply the weighting factors for the bids.

Councilor Thompson suggested that the hard costs might actually be less in using local contractors.

In other business, the council approved a 20-year parks plan developed over the last year by the Eugene architecture consulting firm of Cameron McCarthy. The firm interviewed some 300 Sisters residents in preparing the plan, which was enthusiastically recommended by the planning commission and approved by the city council.

While the consultants found overall satisfaction with the current parks, based on national averages, according to the plan, Sisters needs an additional 3.4 acres of park land now, and would need an additional seven acres in the next 10 years (based on projected growth to 4,000 in the next 20 years). Based on the report's recommendations, the projected budget over the next five years would be $1.8 million. Grants and increased system development charges (SDCs) would decrease the pressure on the city's general fund.

There will be a county workshop hosted by Sisters to review the 20-year plan for widening Highway 20 between Black Butte Ranch and Sisters. The September 28 workshop will be held at Sisters City Hall from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Peter Russell, senior transportation planner for Deschutes County, and Jim Bryant, principal planner for ODOT Region 4, will take questions and concerns.

The deadline for the Cascade streetscape project survey has been extended to September 6.