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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (July 29, 2015)
30 Wednesday, July 29, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon HOLzMAN: Councilor cites daughter’s health concerns Continued from page 1 wreck that left her with fractured vertebra and other injuries. Now stabilized, she is coming to Sisters to recuperate. “Such catastrophic events immediately change your life and priorities. Mine has to be to help her in whatever way I can to achieve a com- plete recovery,” Councilor Holzman said. (See full text of Holzman’s resignation statement accompanying the online version of this story at www.nuggetnews.com.) Holzman is the third city councilor to step down in the past four months. Sisters City Councilor Bill Hall resigned his position in June, after less than a month on the job, citing undue levels of stress imposed by a conten- tious civic climate in town. McKibben Womack also cited the stresses of the polit- ical climate and the effect on family life in his own resig- nation last April. While the need to focus on her daughter’s recovery was paramount, Holzman, too, noted the civic climate. “Under normal circum- stances, I believe I could both continue on council and focus on my daughter and family as she returns to Sisters to continue her heal- ing,” Holzman stated. “But with the current ‘contentious and toxic’ political climate (as I’ve heard it described many times), I do not believe this is possible. In my almost nine years of involvement with our community, I have not ever witnessed this degree of lack of civility and disrespect, including public ridicule and personal attacks as in the past year or two. As a volunteer in my current situation, I find the stress beyond reasonable expecta- tion. Therefore, I am resign- ing from City Council.” Holzman, who was elected to a second term last November, cites advocacy for Fir Street Park as her proudest accomplishment as a councilor. “The thing I’m definitely proudest of is being an advo- cate from the very beginning for Fir Street Park and seeing that project completed,” she said. That project, combined with the Cascade Avenue improvements, has left downtown looking “fabu- lous,” she noted. She said that City staff played an important role in the posi- tive outcome of the Cascade Avenue project, citing City Manager Andrew Gorayeb and Public Works Director Paul Bertagna’s efforts to communicate with business owners and to solve prob- lems quickly and efficiently. “Andrew and Paul made that whole process go a lot more smoothly,” Holzman said. She acknowledged that the City fell down on public outreach concerning some significant proposed proj- ects, including an amphithe- ater proposal that was shot down by the public and plans for renovation of Creekside Park. “I think we should have gotten out in front of the public a lot earlier with the amphitheater,” she said. “I think we could have done more listening (in the begin- ning) with the overnight park as well.” However, she notes, those negatives have produced some positive outcomes. The amphitheater contro- versy led to the formation of a Community Assets Committee to vet potential projects and the Creekside renovation has involved con- siderably more dialogue with neighbors and interested citi- zens as it has evolved. As the City moves for- ward without her at the table, Holzman says that she is pleased with its direction and function. She noted that staff has been working on detailed analysis of needs and options regarding low-cost housing. “I’m very pleased that we are really taking housing more seriously,” she said. Holzman plans to con- tinue to work on “bike-ped” issues, which are near and dear to her heart, and she expects that she will eventu- ally step back into some kind of public role. “I’m not sure that means an elected position,” she said. “It just means community involvement somewhere.” More training urged for planning commission By Sue Stafford Correspondent There is one contention on which there was agreement by all parties during a highly contentious City Council hearing on McKenzie Meadows Village senior living facility: The Sisters Planning Commission made a procedural error in not con- tinuing the original June 18 public hearing as requested by the appellant’s attorney. In discussion of this point, during last Thursday’s appeal hearing (see story, page 1) there was concern on the part of the council about the message being sent if they ignored the mistake. Councilor Nancy Connolly said, “It was an unfortunate learning oppor- tunity for the planning commission.” Recent turn- over on the planning commis- sion, and a fairly new chair- man, as well as the absence of legal representation for the City at that hearing, could have all contributed to what the council believes was an honest mistake. Councilor David Asson opined, “It was not a mis- take that jeopardizes this project.” Council did encourage staff to provide more edu- cation and guidance to the planning commission, to hopefully reduce the chances for future mistakes. The general consensus was that the council’s de novo (from scratch) hear- ing was a “brand-new hear- ing with a brand-new deci- sion” that supersedes what occurred before. 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