30
Wednesday, March 4, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
FOOD CARTS:
Planners have offered
to review food carts
Continued from page 1
commission, and want to see
the decision revisited and/or
unwound.
Laura Cooper, the attorney
retained by Boyd, sent a letter
to the Council in which she
made Boyd’s position clear.
Because no appeal of Porter’s
decision was made within
the 14-day appeal period, the
approved final land-use deci-
sion may not be revoked.
“…if the City takes any
action that would revoke the
approval or that would other-
wise prohibit or impede my
client from developing and
using its property pursuant to
the approval, my client will
take legal action against the
City. Such legal action would
include a lawsuit for damages
resulting from such revoca-
tion, prohibition or interfer-
ence,” Cooper’s letter stated.
It went on to say, “Since
the improvements my client is
contemplating would have a
useful life of at least 20 years,
we would seek damages of as
much as $3.5 million.”
Attorney Michael
Peterkin, who was retained
by local citizens, had earlier
rendered an opinion that the
final approval “has legal and
ethical concerns and is pro-
cedurally deficient. The deci-
sion was never finalized by
serving a copy on the plan-
ning commission.” He backs
up those conclusions citing
case law.
The City Council was
faced with public outcry
regarding the approval pro-
cess and interpretation of the
code as well as a perceived
conflict of interest on the part
of Boyd as the then-seated
mayor, who was part of ongo-
ing discussions regarding
transient merchant licenses.
At the same time, city
attorney Steve Bryant advised
Council that there is nothing
in state law allowing them to
unwind the approval process,
as it is final. He cautioned
that if they were to attempt
to do that, they have already
been told Boyd will sue the
City. Bryant believes there is
a “high probability” that the
City would lose the lawsuit
and warned that insurance
carried by the City would
not cover the costs of a loss
because Council was acting
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outside its authority.
At this point, the possi-
bility of losing a lawsuit is
hypothetical, and it couldn’t
be determined by press time
whether insurance actually
would or would not cover
such a loss.
... improvements my
client is contemplating
would have a useful life
of at least 20 years, we
would seek damages of
as much as $3.5 million.
— laura Cooper
Councilor
Nancy
Connolly referred to a letter
from absent Councilor David
Asson in which he indicated
support for seeking a third
legal opinion, given the dif-
fering views of Bryant and
Peterkin. Connolly supported
that view, indicating it might
be money well spent in an
attempt to regain citizen trust.
Her motion to that effect died
for lack of a second.
Mayor Chris Frye, while
attempting to summarize the
discussion, stated that Council
already had three legal opin-
ions (including Boyd’s attor-
ney) — to which members
of the public responded with
boos and catcalls.
General consensus of the
Council appeared to be that
they don’t have the legal
authority to reverse or rescind
the final approval given to
Boyd’s application for food
carts on his property. There
was a desire by Council to not
possibly jeopardize the finan-
cial viability of the City with
a threatened lawsuit. Frye
indicated his regret over the
situation.
“I wish from the get-go
this application had gone to
the planning commission,” he
said.
The Council is hopeful
they can put this issue to rest
and move forward to con-
sider changes to the devel-
opment code to allow for
specific food cart regulation.
Frye indicated that the plan-
ning commission has already
offered to take on the entire
public process regarding food
cart regulation, much as they
have with the formula food
issue.
In addition, Council has
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recently agreed on policy that
will require not only notifica-
tion of owners of buildings
within 250 feet of a proposed
land-use project, but also the
actual business owners, who
will be notified by the Sisters
Area Chamber of Commerce.
A second amendment will
explicitly require that staff
notify the planning commis-
sion of all Type II decisions,
allowing the commission
to decide on a case-by-case
basis if they want to conduct
reviews.
Connolly, who agreed
to go along with the major-
ity opinion of the Council to
not seek a third legal opin-
ion, reminded the citizens
assembled in the chamber that
they had just had the oppor-
tunity to witness the process
the Council went through in
reaching their decision. She
went on to encourage people
to run for office and volunteer
for citizen committees when
openings occur. The mayor
joined Connolly in encourag-
ing everyone to stay involved.
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