By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS – The Yachats city council has said no – for now – to establishing a citizen involvement committee to improve communication between the city and its residents and be able to weigh in more easily on projects, especially the Planning Commission.
The informal decision Wednesday came months after the council asked the Planning Commission to investigate whether the city needed a formal involvement committee. The seven-member commission wrestled with the purpose and wording for months before sending a proposal to the council.
“The recommendation came rather hard for us,” commission chair Lance Bloch told the council Wednesday.
Although it already has large, active commissions and committees involving dozens of volunteers, there have been complaints for at least two years about the city’s communication with the public. But turnover of city managers, staff and sporadic or incomplete use of the city’s website and newsletter has hampered getting the word out on city projects or issues.
And, sometimes most people don’t pay attention until an issue is well along its way.
Forming a Citizen Involvement Committee was brought up because the state requires larger cities to form them to help guide Planning Commissions, which every city is required to have. While Yachats is so small it falls outside of the requirement, several Planning Commission members and a citizens group formed to oppose a proposed motel on the south side of Yachats thought it could be of value.
So the council asked Planning Commission members to discuss the idea and make a recommendation.
The commission recommended that the group be an informal one, not tied to public meeting notices and minutes, and use much staff time. It would report to the city planner and involve the city’s other commissions as well.
Bloch said that while the city is full of able and willing volunteers, most “don’t want to do it under rules set up by the city or the state” but just simply work on ideas and pass suggestions along to staff or commissions. Some city commissions are struggling to fill vacancies, he said, and adding another formal committee may make it difficult to find volunteers.
After some discussion, council members said the best first step was for the city to improve its communication and accessibility to materials on its website, and decided to hold off on the citizen involvement committee.
“We do appreciate the work by the Planning Commission, but it’s not the way we want to go at this point,” said Mayor Leslie Vaaler.
In other business Wednesday the council:
- Decided to start gathering material, topics and categories and involving commissions to help create a comprehensive community survey on all sorts of issues. The last such survey was done in 2008. Several councilors encouraged the city to hire a consultant and spend the money to do it right;
- After hearing a short report on how other cities buy or sell property, asked city manager Heide Lambert to take a wider look at policies, do a staff report and make a recommendation;
- Decided it needed more information on a request by the Newport city council to join it in asking the League of Oregon Cities to advocate for a change in how cities can spend lodging taxes. The Newport council is asking that cities be able to spend up to 50 percent of lodging taxes on infrastructure and public safety. Because of how the state law has changed over the years and local changes to the tax amount, Yachats is able to direct 61 percent of lodging taxes to its general fund and 39 percent to tourist-related programs and projects;
- Put off a discussion initiated by Vaaler whether it should consider appointing a temporary councilor to replace councilor Greg Scott, who was absent Wednesday because of out-of-state travel. Scott has also told Lambert and Vaaler that he will miss meetings from mid-July to mid-September because of extensive travel plans interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and before he was elected. Councilor Anthony Muirhead was also absent Wednesday and Vaaler said she was worried about having enough council members available through the summer to conduct meetings. Councilor Ann Stott said discussing a temporary replacement for Scott “is a little premature” until they know his schedule and that of others.