Wednesday, February 2, 2022 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
CLASSIFIEDS
NOTICE OF PUBLIC
HEARING
Notice is hereby given that the
City of Sisters Planning
Commission will conduct a
public hearing regarding the
applications listed below. The
hearing will be held according to
SDC Chapter 4.1 and the rules of
procedure adopted by the Council
and available at City Hall.
Prior to the public hearing,
written comments may be
provided to Sisters City Hall at
520 E. Cascade Avenue, Sisters
(mailing address PO Box 39,
Sisters, OR 97759) or emailed to
eshoup@ci.sisters.or.us.
Comments can be submitted until
3 pm on February 17, 2022 and
should be directed toward the
criteria that apply to this request
and must reference the file
number. For additional
information, please contact
Emelia Shoup, Assistant Planner
at 541-323-5216 or
eshoup@ci.sisters.or.us.
The staff report and
recommendation to the hearings
body will be available for review
at least seven (7) days before the
hearing. All submitted evidence
and materials related to the
application are available for
inspection at City Hall. Copies of
all materials will be available on
request at a reasonable cost. Due
to continuing COVID-19
concerns, the public hearing
will occur virtually, via Zoom.
Meeting information, including
the Zoom link, will be posted on
the Planning Commission
Agenda and can be found on
www.ci.sisters.or.us/meetings.
PUBLIC HEARING: February
17, 2022 at 5:30 pm
FILE #: Sun Ranch Lofts / City
File no. SP 21-05, SUB 21-02
APPLICANT/Gerald Johnson &
Layne Cook Johnson
OWNER:
LOCATION: 300 E Sun Ranch
Drive, Sisters OR 97759, Taxlot:
151004BD00200
REQUEST: The Applicant is
requesting approval of a
Subdivision of the 1.12-acre
parent parcel (Lot 11 in Sun
Ranch) resulting into four
±11,000 square feet daughter
parcels. The applicant is also
requesting approval of a Site Plan
Review for four 1,500 SF
mixed-use commercial buildings
with lofts units.
APPLICABLE CRITERIA:
City of Sisters Development
Code (SDC) Chapter 2.14 3
North Sisters Business Park
District; Chapter 2.15 3 Special
Provisions; Chapter 2.11 3
Airport Overlay District; Chapter
3 3 Design Standards; Chapter
4.1 3 Types of Applications and
Review; Chapter 4.2 3 Site Plan
Review; and Chapter 4.3 3 Land
Divisions.
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SUCCESS: Traffic
patrols, enforcement
increased in Sisters
Continued from page 1
and three deputies to be sta-
tioned in Sisters. City staff
interacts directly with Lt.
Chad Davis, who reports
to the sheriff. The deputies
are all assigned full-time to
Sisters, rather than a variety
of deputies rotating through,
which was stipulated to cre-
ate the kind of community
relationships Sheriff Nelson
referred to.
The DCSO patrol vehicles
all carry the City of Sisters
logo to foster that community
identity.
Nelson acknowledged
the results of a recent city-
wide public safety survey
that called out wildfire and
traffic as local residents9 top
concerns (see <Wildfire, traf-
fic top citizen concerns,= The
Nugget, January 26, page 1).
The Sheriff9s Office plays a
secondary roll to fire districts
and the U.S. Forest Service in
regards to wildfire. In regards
to traffic, Nelson sited a near-
doubling of traffic stops year-
over-year from 2020 to 2021.
The year 2020 saw 793 traf-
fic stops; in 2021 there were
1,472. He noted that traffic
stops don9t equate to tickets;
most stops result in a warning.
Residents in Sisters have
noted a considerably more
visible patrol presence on
Sisters9 streets and in high-
traffic zones. The public
survey showed that 74.9 per-
cent of respondents believe
that the Deschutes County
Sheriff9s Office contracted
law enforcement service is
very or somewhat effective.
Asked whether he is satis-
fied with that rating, Sheriff
Nelson said, <We always try
to improve what we do.=
The Sheriff9s Office does
not set speed limits. Nelson
acknowledged that the City
of Sisters is strongly consid-
ering a reduction in speed
limits. A recent traffic safety
audit recommended reducing
speed limits across Sisters to
20 mph.
Nelson said that patrol
deputies will adjust their
patrol response to whatever
limits the City sets.
<When it comes to speed
limits, I9ll leave that to the
local community,= he said.
Nelson said that the cur-
rent contract provides suf-
ficient law enforcement
coverage even as Sisters is
poised to grow, with the new
Sisters Woodlands develop-
ment adding some 359 new
housing units in the com-
ing years. However, he said,
if the City of Sisters wants
more deputies on hand as the
community gets more popu-
lous, he is open to that dis-
cussion. He also noted that
DCSO is doubling the size
of the Community Action
Target Team (CATT), which
can conduct focused patrols
in areas where problems are
identified 4 including traffic
issues, vandalism, and illegal
drug activity.
Interest in law enforce-
ment as a career has taken a
hit in recent years, due to an
intense social and cultural
climate. In 2020, DCSO con-
ducted three back-to-back
recruiting drives. Nelson
acknowledged that recruiting
for DCSO continues to be a
challenge, though he cited
some improvement.
<We9re actually having
higher success rates in filling
open positions,= he said.
However, he said, <The
interest in going to work in
a law enforcement agency
appears to be down.=
Nelson also said that there
is a 75 to 80 percent <wash-
out= rate for recruits either
in the background check or
the field-training phase of
recruitment.
<And that9s a good thing,=
he said, <because you want
the best people in this difficult
work.=
Maintaining the Deschutes
County Jail is a manda-
tory element of the Sheriff9s
Office9s role. According to
information provided by
DCSO, the jail is 12 sworn
positions short of full staffing
of 93 sworn deputies. Some
citizens have expressed con-
cern that the staffing shortfall
raises safety concerns for both
staff and inmates.
< We 9 r e a d e q u a t e l y
staffed,= Nelson told The
Nugget. <I know very few
agencies that ever reach full
staffing, because it9s fluid.=
COVID-19 safety has
complicated operations, with
the jail required to reduce
capacity to meet proto-
cols. Nelson said that there
are options when staffing
becomes an issue. He said
DCSO can call back retired
staff or transfer patrol depu-
ties into the jail.
<Forced release (of
inmates), that9s an option I9d
rather use as a last resort,= he
said.
(Editor9s note: The Nugget
will more closely examine how
the Deschutes County Jail
operates in coming weeks.)
Sheriff Nelson, who was
appointed to the position of
Sheriff by retiring Sheriff
Larry Blanton in 2015 and
ran for the office success-
fully in 2016, has come under
heavy media scrutiny in
recent weeks. Oregon Public
Broadcasting ran a lengthy
piece on Dec. 14, 2021,
depicting what it called <a
culture of retaliation= in the
Sheriff9s Office.
In 2016, Nelson was chal-
lenged by then-DCSO Deputy
Eric Kozowski, who alleged
cronyism, workplace harass-
ment, and retaliation. Nelson
won the election with 55 per-
cent of the vote. Kozowski
was fired in 2018, after mul-
tiple internal affairs inves-
tigations, characterized in
the OPB story as focused on
<minor violations.= Kozowski
sued Nelson and Deschutes
County.
In August 2021, a fed-
eral jury awarded Kozowski
more than $1 million, finding
that Nelson retaliated against
Kozowski for running against
him.
Bend police officer Scott
Schaier also questioned
Nelson9s leadership and the
culture of DCSO in an unsuc-
cessful 2020 bid for the office.
In interviews with The
Nugget, Nelson has consis-
tently argued that multiple
personnel issues portrayed
by opponents as evidence of
turmoil in the Sheriff9s Office
are actually representative
of a focus on accountability
and transparency, in what he
considers to be insistence on
aligning with the values of the
Sheriff9s Office.
21
One of those values is fis-
cal responsibility. A local citi-
zen recently asked why <fis-
cal responsibility= had been
removed from the DCSO mis-
sion statement. Queried on
that by The Nugget, Nelson
acknowledged that he did
make that change, instead
placing it amongst the values
of <Integrity= in the DCSO
statement of mission and
values.
He said that fiscal respon-
sibility is based in the values
of the individual personnel of
DCSO.
<Fiscal responsibility is
huge to me, but whether you
have it in the mission state-
ment doesn9t mean you have
it or not.=
He noted that DCSO
strives to use <only what
is needed= of the perma-
nent funding allotted to the
Sheriff9s Office by voters in
2006.
<Money is better left in the
taxpayer9s wallet,= he said.
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