Remarks by Mary Starrett
59 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 3
“So the definition of a motel that was brought up, what is the definition of a motel, hotel? Is that something that needs to be addressed here, or is the fact that there were nine rooms allowed, that's enough?”
“So if today, and this is separate, if today someone were to apply for a residence with that many bedrooms, and then we know maybe the plan would be to change into a, you know, rental, short-term rental, we would have to approve it today.”
“Right. We would have to, unless things change.”
“I haven't seen you in a while. It's been a while. I know.”
“OK, I think that's what we were looking for.”
“I would like to say that I have appreciated the folks from Friends, even though I have probably only agreed with you on one time. And that's OK, because your passion is wonderful. I also know that when I heard about this particular property and what was going on, I thought, boy, this is a tough one. We're looking at basically a hotel, whatever you want to call it. But I also know that this board is tasked with doing one of two things, and that is looking at the rules and the regulations and saying, does this comply with what our zoning ordinance says and with what the state requires. So as…”
“So I want to piggyback on that. The shooting in Bend highlighted a couple of things, and I think that really has to do with the overwhelming disappointment I have with our legislators on both sides of the aisle. We have seen the most restrictive gun laws increase and make it difficult for law-abiding citizens to protect, for instance, in this case. We had not only a shooter who was intent on killing people, which he did, he shot a seven-year-old wheelchair bound girl in the face. He killed a five-year-old who was planning on dressing as a bunny for Halloween, shot an 11-year-old, 25-year-old…”
“I was just going to ask County Council to clarify a couple of things. number one this is nothing that's going to be adopted today correct and this is just really preliminary for our input and then after that it goes back to the planning commission and there will be a public firing public hearing with notices and everything else at which point they will make a recommendation send it back to us with findings with findings I have a couple of comments. Go for it. But just in terms of there was an original plan by Wendy Kellington early on where she made a recommendation that allowed for roads,…”
“So a quick question. What would your response be? You would have to basically deny this short of a fix. And what would the fix be that you would recommend?”
“In other words, you're also going to put that, you know, lay that over for include additional adjacent properties.”
“Well, in other words, if we want to really do a fail safe, put some safeguards, could you then add language that says also adjacent properties would be subject to the same scrutiny in terms of a farm impact study?”
“again the planning commission is where um all the sausage is going to be made and there's going to be a lot of public input and i i respect all of the input because they've been through this for so many years i want to make sure that what we do here is not going to undo years of of trying to make things right with regards to farm impact studies on any of the rezoning that we do”
“thanks all right uh i believe we had uh we had a discussion during the board came before the board uh during that uh i don't know where's ken he left but do you remember that yeah and it was a it was a spirited discussion was it i do remember that all right so i lost track motion's been made motion's been made all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye all right motion passes unanimously thank you very much”
“I wanted to read a little bit about what was written about him. They said, as Rojo entered the later stages of his career, he's begun experiencing the natural effects of aging. I feel your pain, Rojo. And a decline in mobility and overall stamina. Retiring him at this stage allows him to conclude his career with dignity while he remains healthy and able to enjoy a high quality of life. Waiting until his physical condition significantly deteriorates would not be in the best interest of Rojo or the sheriff's office. And I thought they were writing about me because I'm on my way out. But it's so…”
“And bottom line regarding the the this we've talked a lot about how we tried to be really respectful of. of our finances in terms of not going out for a bond, but we had a certain amount and we've done a lot of different things to mitigate what this is on on top of the county correct So how does this impact that. In terms of we've had a we had a dollar amount with a dollar amount for. you know, the, you know, retrofitting and a lot of the work that we did here, how is this going to impact where we started from?”
“So yeah, I just, so this is not in addition to, this is included in.”
“That's really why he's asking. That's the only reason he cares.”
“Yes. Well, there's all the talk both at local government advisory committee and also the CCO is all the changes related to H.R. 1 in terms of SNAP benefits and Oregon Health Plan. So a couple of things have been mostly how are we going to have more of a cohesive message? Because a lot of these changes are are very, very complicated. And we want to make sure that folks know the changes are coming. So bottom line, September 1st, OHA started a statewide media campaign called Stay Connected, Stay Covered. And then members who are receiving Medicaid benefits through the CCO, Oregon Health Plan are…”
“Yeah, but it's been interesting because we've had to stand down on this because one of us has been on the ballot. So we can't really vote on something that would allow us to increase the square footage of a sign if one of us is on the ballot. So hurry up and get it done.”
“Chair, I'm going to move that we remove this. And I'd just like to add a few comments about if the process was not followed to advertise this vacancy or this change. And also, we're going to add other members. It needs to be advertised. If we look at the bylaws, it talks about Uh, we will advertise the openings and newspapers of general circulation on both the county and yct ycta websites. And then the appointees will will submit the appropriate application. So I just want to make sure that we're getting it out widely.”
“Right. I did speak to Frank Sheridan. He's been on the board. Yeah, yeah. for quite a long time and was kind of perplexed as to why he was being removed, was kind of, you know, he's been on it. He represents the West Valley and he's been on the committee for a long time. So I did have some reservations about that, but there's nothing about that. But I just, there were a couple of things that in emailing Cynthia, I think you might've been copied on those. The application is kind of hard to find, and she's going to ask them to add it to the website. But to find it, it's a little onerous. You…”
“Yeah, because then Cynthia sent out an email to Jessica, who had applied, and said she wanted to speak with her a little bit more. So I think this might be a little premature. I just want to make sure that we're doing everything according to what the bylaws recommend.”
“What if we get up on the mic? Is that better? That's better?”
“Thank you, Chair. And our HHS director, Lindsay Manfred, is here to sort of flesh out the details. But the reason why this is so important is since June, we've had this discussion, had discussions with Marion County, and we've also talked about it on our local government advisory committee through HHS, talking a little bit about some of the concerns that OHA is really not being receptive to the concerns we have about safety issues. So what this is really doing is asking them, it is a petition to require them, OHA, to do a public comment period to take input about some of the concerns about…”
“And the really important thing is really safety to the staff because this doesn't, the way it's written now is something has to happen to someone before you can take action, a staff or the organization can take action. Now we're saying, hey, wait a second, if it's looking like there's a threat here, we need to be able to have the ability to say this might not be an appropriate placement.”