Baker City manager discusses citizen comments

Published 3:19 pm Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Baker City Manager Jonathan Cannon told city councilors during their meeting Tuesday evening, June 22, that he had recently reviewed a city resolution that deals with citizen participating in council meetings.

Cannon said he looked at Resolution 3882 in part because there had been interruptions when residents have sought to speak to councilors.

Cannon didn’t cite any specific instances of interruption.

During the council’s April 27 meeting, former councilor Beverly Calder stood in protest when Mayor Kerry McQuisten declined to let Calder speak during a discussion about the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I reviewed these two sections in Resolution 3882 to clearly indicate the citizens have the opportunity to participate in the council meeting,” Cannon said on Tuesday. “Our citizens are not at liberty to speak out of turn, though, nor interrupt the meeting thus preventing council from fulfilling its obligations of conducting the business of the city.”

Councilors Lynette Perry and Heather Sells were absent Tuesday.

Citizens have the opportunity at the beginning of meetings to sign up and speak about any topic they desire, Cannon said.

They can also speak at the beginning of the discussion of any agenda item. These opportunities have time limits to ensure efficiency at the meeting.

“Sometimes citizens make requests to actually be an agenda item using the council-approved process for being added to the agenda,” Cannon said. “When this occurs, citizens are permitted additional time and opportunities to discuss with the council that particular agenda item. This is in addition to the citizen participation allowed at the beginning of each agenda item and at the beginning of the meeting.”

Cannon said the council rules state that the presiding officer — the mayor or acting mayor — is “responsible for and shall preserve decorum at council meetings between council members as well as from the public.”

“Unauthorized remarks from the audience, stamping of feet, whistles, yells, and similar demonstrations are not permitted,” Cannon said.

Cannon said, according to Resolution 3882, any person who refuses to abide by the rules of conduct, and, in the judgment of the presiding officer the meeting cannot be conducted effectively and efficiently in the presence of the offending person, the presiding officer shall inform the person they are in violation of the resolution and be directed to leave the council chambers.

Cannon said if the person does not leave, the presiding officer will inform the person that failure to leave may result in criminal charges of trespassing and that if necessary, the person will be arrested and removed by law enforcement.

He emphasized that that action is a last resort.

“I do not believe that any of us would relish the opportunity to arrest and forcibly remove someone from the city meeting,” Cannon said. “I personally do not desire to be part of police trespassing somebody from city hall. Even so, if the presiding officer is unable to conduct the meeting because of the interruptions, I am prepared, as well as our sergeant in arms is prepared, to do just that.”

None of the councilors had any comments about Cannon’s discussion of Resolution 3882. The text is available on the city’s website, www.bakercity.com

Street paving request

In other business Tuesday, councilors discussed a request from residents in southwest Baker City to pave a section of Indiana Avenue west of Reservoir Road.

Gary McManus, chairman of a homeowners association in the neighborhood, and Chuck Peterson, the association’s treasurer, said they were requesting the city return the road to the way it had been before it had been torn up.

McManus initially made the request in a March 26 letter to McQuisten. The homeowners association includes 10 lots and eight homes near the city’s water reservoir, west of the intersection of Reservoir Road and Indiana Avenue.

In his letter to the mayor, McManus wrote that this short section of street “used to be paved but gradually deteriorated over the years. Pot holes developed and were never filled in properly till they finally became very large.”

McManus wrote that members of the homeowners association “would appreciate it if Baker City would pave this short section of the west end of Indiana Avenue.”

In a staff report to councilors for their May 25 meeting, Michelle Owen, the city’s public works director, wrote that when the city approved Scenic Vista subdivision about 20 years ago, the city allowed the developer to chip seal rather than pave the approximately 480-foot-long section of Indiana Avenue

The chip seal, Owen wrote, “did not hold up very well over time.”

Rather than leave the street as it was, the city converted it back to a gravel street and has paid to apply dust treatment the past couple years, Owen wrote.

Councilors did not make any decision on the matter Tuesday.

They directed Owen to contact homeowners in the area to see if they are interested in forming a Local Improvement District (LID) to pay to pave the street.

“In order to form an LID, you need 33.34% of the property owners to agree to participate before the council can form an LID,” Owen said.

In her May report to councilors, Owen suggested two paving options. One is to build the approximately 480-foot section of street to fully city standards, including base rock, for a rough estimate of $210,000. The second option is to apply two layers of asphalt, of two inches each, atop the existing gravel street, for an estimated cost of $50,000.

Also on Tuesday, councilors:

• Voted 5-0 to appoint Elizabeth Hardy to the Historic District Design Review Commission (HDDRC).

• Voted 5-0 to approve the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.