2005-05-11 Alert

SB 887A Hearing Report

LONG day in Salem today! Lots to report, so please bear with me. Also, some new ACTION is requested.

SB 887A was heard by the House Land Use Committee. The hearing ran until about 5 PM. Much of the time was spent trying to digest the many amendments put forth (we now have -13 amendments with more in the pipeline).

The amendment proposals have significantly complicated things. During the testimony, reps from public entity after public entity - the usual bunch plus a few - testified along four common themes:

1. We MUST retain the ability to annex islands
2. Don't make it more difficult for us to annex
3. UGB people are subsidized by city residents
4. Punish Beaverton if you must, but leave us alone

SOSDD (same old story, different day). We testified in support of the bill in its current form - in the interest of timeliness and not overly endangering it - but expressed 4 areas of concern:

1. How do we reconcile the ORS-195 reform in HB 2484 with the different language in SB 887A? We don't want any sunset clause attached to ORS-195 "double majority" reform.
2. Island annexation is not just a Beaverton problem. Any moratorium should not be limited to one city.
3. Immunity against forced annexations shouldn't apply to just two big businesses. (NOTE: The business community is not happy about this one: Everybody wants that protection!)
4. If there's going to be a task force, there needs to be a "hammer" provision that implements at least some meaningful reform automatically if the task force fails to achieve any agreement.

Surprisingly, several of our strongest opponents: the League and the Oregon Homebuilders Assn., also testified in favor of the bill in its current form. What ALL the public entities as well as some in the business community are up in arms over is a proposed permanent repeal of ORS 222.750 - the "island annexation" law. In its current form, the bill puts a 2-year moratorium on island annexations by Beaverton...no other city is affected. The key public reps & the business reps indicated they can live with that. Some even acknowledged the abuses by Beaverton that have brought these issues into a bigger spotlight.

But the -12 amendment, put forth by Rep. Greenlick, would outright repeal section 750. It also removes the ORS 195 reform language of the bill - which would mean that HB 2484 would have to clear the Senate & the Governor to get us the "double majority" change we all want.

Some of the other proposed amendments are by businesses other than Nike that want immunity too. Another proposed amendment would extend Nike's immunity deadline to 2040 instead of the current 2020.

Interestingly, ORS-195 was off all of these people's radar screens today, which was encouraging.

The Chairman had harsh words for Beaverton. The city apparently just forcibly annexed another business about a week ago. The chairman seemed to interpret this as a nose thumb at what the Legislature is trying to do on annexation reform - and he's clearly not happy about it.

Both Reps Greenlick & Garrard also expressed belief that any task force should have "teeth." It is clear that the opposition will never budge from its position. I believe the only reason some of them support the bill in its current form is its sunset provision and the absence of a "hammer" clause. That means 2 years from the formation of the task group (if the bill were to be adopted in current form) it'll be business as usual again, absent some modifications.

It is also clear that if the -12 amendment is included as it is currently written, the bill would rise to the top of the hit lists of a number of the state's most "powerful lobbyists" (one of them clearly didn't like me using that term) and its chance of completing its journey would be seriously compromised. Given the importance of island annexation reform to so many people, this presents the biggest potential stumbling block.

In short, there is a lot of work the committee has to do on this bill. MEANWHILE, given what happened today, I think we need to turn some of our focus back to HB 2484. This is our bill to interpret the voting provision of ORS-195 as meaning "double majority." Having passed the House 45 - 13, it now sits in the Senate Environment & Land Use Committee.

So please do the following - and remember, it's NUMBERS of contacts that count: Contact Senator Ringo (sen.charlieringo@state.or.us) and ask him to please schedule a hearing on HB 2484 soon. Please pass the word to everyone in your respective citizens' groups.

I had a nice talk with Rep. Gordon Anderson after the hearing. He expressed his appreciation of our efforts and our willingness to get involved. Rep. Ackerman, also on the committee, is very focused on this project and will continue to be a key player on our behalf, as I believe will Reps Krummel, Avakian, Garrard and others.

Thanks for wading through all this. As I've noted previously, we're a long way from home - but we're farther along on the road than we've ever been. We all need to "stay the course."

Jerry Ritter
Secretary, OCVA

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