OCVA - 2005-05-01 alert

Oregon Communities

For a Voice In Annexations

Promoting and Protecting Citizen Involvement in Land Use Issues

Action needed

Hopefully, you've all had the chance to savor our recent victories - but now it's time to go back to work.

1. We now have to get HB 2484 assigned to a Senate committee ASAP. To help make that happen, please contact Senator Peter Courtney (Senate President) and Senator Kate Brown (Senate majority leader). Contacts:

The gist of the message (use your own words):

"HB-2484, designed to bring much-needed fairness to the ORS-195 annexation process, passed the House last week with a 45-13 bipartisan show of support. This bill is very important to us & thousands of our fellow citizens around the state. Please give HB-2484 a committee assignment as soon as possible, and we are asking for your support of this important legislation."

2. SB 887 (details covered in another of our recent up- dates) is now in Rep. Garrard's House Land Use Committee. We're told it is tentatively scheduled for a hearing on 5/11.

Something you all need to know about the workings of the Legislature: The testimony taken in one chamber is NOT automatically carried over to the other. Therefore, all the testimony we provided for SB 887 will not automatically be carried over to the House Land Use Committee.

Fortunately, all the committee members pretty much know the story here. But there are some potential glitches:

A) The ORS-195 reform language of 887 sunsets 1/08 while the ORS-195 reform in HB 2484 has no sun- set. How to reconcile both sets of language will be an issue. We, of course, would prefer that 195 be reformed according to HB-2484. Our opponents will fight that tooth and nail in the Senate, preferring instead to stick with 887 since it has sunset language. They will use 887 as a weapon in this regard. Since it appears they've concluded that, despite their efforts to stifle any reform, SOME reform may actually happen this time, they want it to be minimal - and they absolutely do NOT want it to be permanent.

B) The ban on "island annexations" in only one city and the granting of a 15-year moratorium on forced annexations for only a couple big businesses, while not granting those same rights to everyone, raise serious constitutionality issues (Article 1, equal protection) in my opinion. How we should handle this is open to debate. I do not want to jeopardize the entire bill by getting mired in a constitutional swamp. At the same time, these protections are needed all over the state - not just in Washington County. Let me hear your thoughts on this matter.

I also will contact Rep. Garrard and a couple of the other HLU Committee members. There's no need to inundate them with email if we don't need to. Again, they're all well aware of SB-887 and its relationship to HB-2484. Will keep you all posted.

3. If you haven't done it, please contact as many of the Senators as you can. Thank them for their "Yes" vote on SB-887 (all except Senators Schrader and Verger voted "Aye." Sen. Shields was excused). Advise them that HB-2484 is headed their way and ask for their support.

This is especially important for Senators Ringo, Beyer, Atkinson, Burdick and Shields of the Senate Environment & Land Use Committee where HB 2484 is likely to go:

4) Finally, if you haven't done so, thank the representatives who voted "Aye" on HB 2484. "No" votes were from Reps. Berger, Burley, Cameron, Dallum, Dingfelder, Esquivel, Hansen, March, Nolan, Tomei, Schaufler & Whisnant. Reps. Debi Farr & Jeff Kropf were excused.

It is every bit as important - perhaps even more so - to thank and recognize the Legislators who have voted in our favor as it is to lobby them for support on our bills.

We now have momentum - but we're running short on time. We need to do whatever we can to keep these two bills moving. You've all done a GREAT job so far - let's keep rolling!

Jerry Ritter
Secretary, OCVA

This page last modified on 2005-11-16 08:29.

2005-05-01 Alert

Action needed