Marion County Oregon - Measure 24-292: Changes form of Marion County government:
The proposed charter would: increase the number of commissioners from three to five; establish five districts of generally equal population; make the offices nonpartisan and elected by district, rather than at large; limit initial commissioner salaries to 2009-10 level; require appointment of charter review committee every ten years; change procedures for adoption and effective dates of ordinances; disqualify county employees from election to county office.
Last weekend, I attended Linfield's Powershift Symposium sponsored by Greenfield, a student environmental activist organization. They did a tremendous job, and the workshops and panel discussions I attended were quite worthwhile. Even though "Powershift" refers to shifting our dependency from coal & oil to safer alternatives like wind and solar, keynote speaker, Riki Ott, environmental activist from Alaska, spoke of a new people's movement to amend the U.S. Constitution and "shift power" back to the people. Specifically, Ms. Ott referred to the Supreme Court's decision to grant corporations personhood. Please visit www.MoveToAmend.org for more information about this movement. There will be a petition to sign. We must "work together to abolish Corporate Personhood and regain control of government of, for, and by The People."
Posted by: Liz Marlia-Stein | March 05, 2010 at 11:49 PM
See also http://www.ofbyandfor.us/yamhill-county-or-board-of-commissioners-topic-board-size/ especially the section "arguments in favor" from Kris Bledsoe's race against Leslie Lewis.
There are tradeoffs to the at-large vs districts that make me less sure of the elect-by-district approach, since you have to draw the boundaries and revisit periodically, which may be more difficult in a small county to get similar concerns in each area vs all at large but with rotating liaisons to different areas.
It would be a time to review the Surveyor, etc. to see which should be elected, which appointed, etc.
Posted by: Will Neuhauser | January 31, 2010 at 12:03 PM
Bill Bordeaux and I attended the Marion County DemsForum last Thursday in Salem. The topic of discussion was their proposed Home Rule Charter (Measure 24-292) which the county will vote on in May. We went there very skeptical about Home Rule Charters, especially since hearing that the Conservative Friends of Yamhill County felt it would be a good idea for our county. We came away, however, with a very different perspective. In fact, we wonder what Neal Lockhart's view of a Home Rule Charter will be once he realizes that we think it has great potential. :) Five other counties in our state currently have adopted this form of government--three large ones--Multnomah, Washington, and Lane, and two small ones--Hood River and Clatsop.
A major reason for adopting this structure was to modernize county government. They feel that after 150 years of growth--from a few thousand in 1857 to over 300,000 today, Marion County needs a "21st Century Structure."
They feel that a three-member Board of Commissioners creates a "quorum problem" where only two individuals are needed to make HUGE policy decisions that affect an entire county. Also, because of the Oregon Open Meeting Law, the commissioners are not allowed to have discussions privately via the phone, email, etc. They have proposed a five-member board with each needing to live in the district they would represent. This should improve responsiveness and decision making and give citizens better access to the Board of Commissioners.
As we struggle to improve representative government, the Home Rule Charter and five-member board idea seemed brilliant to me!! There may be some disadvantages to weigh, but all-in-all, the concept made sense. I will be anxiously waiting to see the results of the May election and how effective a Home Rule Charter works for Marion County, and I will be contacting the other five counties to get their impressions.
Any comments?
Posted by: Liz Marlia-Stein | January 30, 2010 at 11:28 PM