Council-elect ready to get to work

Although the three newly elected city councilors will not be sworn in until January, each has already begun to prepare for the task at hand. Newcomers McKibben Womack and Catherine Childress are getting orientation classes from City Manager Eileen Stein, and attending briefings and ride-alongs with city staff covering the key issues, major projects and challenges facing the city.

Brad Boyd has been a council member and mayor, so his orientation will be much more focused on the current challenges and opportunities that have come up since he left office four years ago.

"I'm pleased and feel honored to be returned to the council by the citizens of Sisters," said Boyd.

"So far so good," said Childress, "I will be pleased when I see how the council works together for the good of the city."

She was heartened by the resolution to the controversy over the Cascade Avenue project.

"This is a very pivotal point and a real opportunity for the council to continue on a very positive note," said Childress.

Womack is ready to get into action.

"I'm very excited to get to work with Brad and Catherine and the rest of the council," he said. "My goal is for the council to hit the ground running in January."

None of the new councilors would share their thoughts on whom they would like to see as mayor. Each agreed that the mayoral selection process will send an important message signaling the "culture" of the new council. The city charter dictates that the mayor and council president are selected at the first meeting of the new council by majority vote. The first councilor to garner three votes gets the two-year position.

Each of the new councilors expressed their enthusiastic support for the annexation of the airport into the city, which passed with 85 percent of the vote.

"I want to make sure that the airport annexation process is a positive experience for the airport and for the city," said Childress. Boyd expressed the identical sentiment.

Womack will be focused on getting the city's economic development direction sorted out quickly. All three new councilors believe that the city should not be the employer of the economic development director. Womack and Boyd are wary of having a Sisters economic development manager funded by the city but reporting to the Economic Development of Central Oregon (EDCO). They both support housing the function with the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce. Childress favors the proposal of having the economic development manager report to EDCO with partial funding by the city.

All three councilors support the concept of the city providing a fixed level of financial support for the economic development effort, possibly splitting the transient room tax 50-50 with the chamber. It would then be up to the chamber to raise sufficient funds from the private sector to support the economic development director's position to whatever level the chamber could afford.

Recently retired economic development director Mac Hay and the current director, Patty Cordoni, have made a strong case for making the position full-time.

All three new councilors see the chamber taking full responsibility for aggressive recruitment of tourist traffic to Sisters, and each agrees that the city should be actively contributing to the chamber's efforts financially.

Speaking to the recruiting of new businesses into the city, Childress said, "I ran on the platform of bringing family-wage jobs to Sisters; I have spoken with a lot of business people in Sisters that support that concept. They are very anxious to see the 'proof of the pudding.'

"The city should be warm and receptive to anyone looking to put a business here," said Childress.

Boyd said, "The city doesn't need to be 'against' anything. We should not be trying to pick winners. We should be open to all options."

Each of the three new councilors expressed strong support for the Sisters school system, and each acknowledged the major contribution that Sisters' highly rated schools make to the local economic develop efforts. However, all three are not yet clear on what part the city can play regarding the local option renewal election in March 2013.

Shortly after taking office Boyd is hoping to initiate a facilitated, detailed and extended goal setting session for the council. He is also looking to the city to begin the collection of an historical database of key parameters of the downtown business core (occupancy, flow of tourists, etc.) to allow the city to spot trends, opportunities and challenges within the business community.

"The table is pretty well set for the council to continue to vigorously pursue economic growth and jobs, and I hope they do," said outgoing mayor and long-term city councilor Lon Kellstrom.