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2005-08-04 Alert
SB 887B Update
It's now becoming more clear what the latest version of SB 887B includes.
First, from what we can see, the conference committee left the onerous Section 3 alone - no changes. It appears that all our pleas for common sense were ignored. In light of the passage of HB 2484, there was no legitimate reason to have retained Section 3 and multiple reasons to toss it out.
Section 3 provides cities with local "voter annexation" charter amendments a means to circumvent those requirements until January 2008 in situations where ORS-195 is selected as the method of annexation. The League of Oregon Cities, a number of city leaders and key representatives have all said that's not going to happen. The League has said that OCVA is just "raising dust" over this. I hope they're right - but many of us have dealt with irresponsible city councils that would like nothing better than to eliminate the public from annexation decisions. Our goal for ORS-195 reform never included eliminating city voters from the decisions - only to put those in the unincorporated areas on equal footing. HB 2484 did that, and that's why Section 3 - which does eliminate city voters from ORS-195 decisions until January 2008 - serves no legitimate purpose. The two provisions are therefore at odds with each other. Both solve the ORS-195 problem, but SB 887B Section 3 does it in the wrong way!
SB 887B so blatantly smacks of unfairness (by granting only 4 big companies long-term immunity from forced annexations while denying the same benefit to everyone else) that its original sponsor, Sen. Charlie Ringo, reportedly wasn't even going to hold a conference committee hearing on the bill, but just let it die on the vine. However, The Oregonian reported that following a meeting between Nike representatives and Senate President Peter Courtney, Ringo was ordered to move the bill. If there were ever any doubt about the influence of big money in Salem, this should lay those thoughts to rest.
The bill also establishes the oft-discussed "work group" to study state annexation procedures and make recommendations to the 2007 Legislative Assembly. How serious the sponsors are about the chance of any meaningful outcome from this will become apparent when the group membership is selected. And with its only redeeming provision, the bill puts a moratorium on forced annexations by the City of Beaverton until January 2008…but does not extend that protection to any other city.
On Tuesday, the Senate narrowly re-passed the bill 17 - 13. Re-passage in the House is all but assured. So unless the Governor decides to wield his veto pen, SB 887B will become law.
SB 887B was aptly described by an Oregonian article as "bloated as 5-day old road kill and smells just about as appealing." But it looks like we're going to be stuck with it. Our member communities will then need to watch their city governments closely to see if the multiple assurances we've received that there won't be any abuses of local VA ordinances hold any water. We also will not be surprised if other businesses challenge the measure on the grounds of "equal protection" under the Oregon Constitution.
Jerry Ritter, Secretary
OCVA
This page last modified on 2005-11-16 08:29.
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