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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2015)
FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015 4 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS Local / Opinion — Guest Opinion — County Commissioners Coordination CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Citizens’ Participation. Brown was given the floor first. He said, “Thi marijuana issue in Haines is very volatile at this point in time. In our community, people seem to have tunnel vision, and their minds are stuck on this issue of a medical dispensary.” He said there is confu- sion regarding dispensa- ries, and state law, and the Board discussed this issue with him, clarifying some points. Bennett said that later in the session Shirtcliff would be present to an- swer Brown’s questions more clearly, and Harvey said, “There’d be only one type of dispensary. There wouldn’t be one for medical, and one for rec- reation,” which answered one of Brown’s questions. Hardt, Anderson and Chase discussed briefly a situation between miners, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) around Galice Creek, west of Grants Pass, over who has the rights to the miner- als in the ground. Hardt said, “It’s going to come to a head.” Morrison voiced concerns about the Fizz Springs Timber Com- mercial Harvest proposal, discussed during the regu- lar Commission session on Wednesday, April 1, 2015, and Harvey explained where the parcel is located, possible revenue, and why the Baker County Parks and Recreation Department was involved. The Board is still gathering details. Forest Access. Harvey asked is there were any additions to the agenda, and Kerns mentioned a letter of sup- port for House Bill (HB) 1555, the Forest Access in Rural Communities Act of 2015, sponsored by Rep. Greg Walden. This letter, dated April 15, 2015, is addressed from the Board to Chairman Rob Bishop, of the Natural Resources Committee (NRC), Washington, D.C., and expresses agreement from the Board with the need to stop the implementation and enforcement of Travel Management Rule under Subparts A, B and C of Part 212 of Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations and Subparts A and B of part 261 of such title. Harvey read the letter aloud to the attendees, which is a request to the NRC for support of HB 1555. Bennett moved, and Kerns seconded, to ap- prove the letter. The mo- tion carried. Liquor License. An Oregon Liquor Con- trol Commission (OLCC) Liquor License Applica- tion for Scotty’s Hells Canyon Outdoor Supply in Halfway, was approved. The application was filed due to a change in owner- ship, from Diana and Scott E. Jensen to Christina and Scott C. Jensen. Assessor’s Office Savage and Berry presented an Assessor’s Department update, a de- tailed County Assessment Function Funding Assis- tance (CAFFA) 2015-2016 Property Tax Program Grant Application. The total expenditures for CAFFA consideration for Baker County is stated as $992,648. The application was approved. Marijuana. Shirtcliff, Ash, and Holly Kerns together discussed proposed Ordinance No. 2015-02, An Ordinance Regulating Marijuana Within Baker County; And Declaring An Emer- gency. The purpose of the ordinance is to prohibit the operation of commercial marijuana facilities/dispen- saries, as well as marijuana producers, processors, wholesalers, retailers and marijuana testing facilities within the county. Shirt- cliff explained that both readings of the proposed ordinance (there are only two required with a County ordinance, as opposed to a City ordinance, requiring three readings) would oc- cur during the Commission session on April 29. Morrison and Dielman voiced some concerns about complications re- garding hunting on federal lands and marijuana pos- session, and contradictions with state and federal law concerning marijuana activities. Dielman men- tioned a similar discus- sion at the Library Board meeting on Tuesday, and invited the commissioners to the next meeting. Blue Mountain Transla- tor District. Beach gave the Board a Blue Mountain Transla- tor District update. She explained that with a fiber optic upgrade to the net- work, more high-definition channels could be broad- — Contact Us — The Baker County Press PO Box 567 Baker City, Ore. 97814 Open Monday-Thursday for calls 9 AM - 4 PM Open 24/7 for emails Office location: TBA Phone: 541.519.0572 TheBakerCountyPress.com Kerry McQuisten, Publisher Editor@TheBakerCountyPress.com Wendee Morrissey, Advertising and Sales Wendee@TheBakerCountyPress.com David Conn, Advertising and Sales David@TheBakerCountyPress.com Published weekly every Friday. Subscription rates per year are $29.95 all areas, e-mail delivery. $39.95 print issue, home delivery, Baker City city limits only. $49.95 print issue, mail delivery, outside Baker City city limits only. Payment in advance. A division of Black Lyon Publishing, LLC Copyright © 2014-2015 casted, and the amount of channels offered in general could be tripled. She said, “We worked hard on our awareness,” explaining that increased revenue is needed to fund the regular operations of the system, as well as any upgrades. Beach explained the difficulty with collec - ing revenue, which is an annual fee of $100 to each property where individuals use an antenna to receive the television signals. She said, “I see them all over town,” but with lim- ited payments made from consumers. “Please help us support the District, or it will go dark.” She said if the statutes regulating District opera- tions were to be revised, it would help change the way fees are assessed, with the possibility of a flat fee for the membership area. Holly Kerns discussed with the Board Ordinance No. 2015-01, In The Matter Of Amending The Baker County Public Nui- sance Ordinance No. 2006- 02. This was the second reading of the ordinance, which addresses language issues, inconsistencies and confusing sections in the original ordinance. Order No. 2015-116, Appointing Members To The Baker County Natural Resources Advisory Com- mittee, was approved, with a motion from Bennett, and a second from Kerns. The following members were appointed: Eileen Gyllenberg, Jacob Bing- ham, Kody Justus, Cynthia Long, George Keister, Page Frederickson, Chuck Chase, Craig Ward, Doni Bruland, Emily Bras- well, and Ken Anderson. Depending on the sub- committees, their terms expire on March 1, 2016, March 1, 2018, or March 1, 2019. Hardt and Wanda Ballard expressed concerns about the efficiency of the committee with a larger number of appointees. Order No. 2015-115, An Order Directing The Baker County Sheriff To Make Sale Of County Property; Fixing The Minimum Price And Providing A Por- tion Of The Conditions And Terms Of Sale, was approved. The original motion included a mini- mum bid of $5,300 and was modified by Kerns, to a minimum bid of $5,300, and the stipulation that the building at 1716 Broadway be demolished. YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS President Barack Obama 202.456.1414 202.456.2461 fax Whitehouse.gov/contact US Sen. Jeff Merkley 503.326.3386 503.326.2900 fax Merkley.Senate.gov US Sen. Ron Wyden 541.962.7691 Wyden.Senate.gov US Rep. Greg Walden 541.624.2400 541.624.2402 fax Walden.House.gov Oregon Gov. Kate Brown 503.378.3111 Governor.Oregon.gov State Rep. Cliff Bentz 503.986.1460 State Sen. Ted Ferrioli 541.490.6528 Baker County Commissioners Bill Harvey; Mark Bennett; Tim Kerns 541.523.8200 541.523.8201 is effective with USFS By Sylvia Milligan Special to The Baker County Press With every passing day Americans are having to deal with issues that threaten to take away their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness. Most people are not even aware how fast their rights are eroding, and even if they become aware, they have no idea how to slow the process down, much less stop it. We rely on our elected officials to take care of us and protect our rights. However, they too are overwhelmed with the shear scope of issues, most made too difficult to understand given the language that is used, and the depth of the issues involved. There is a powerful, though little known tool that is available to our lo- cal governments that allow them to sit at the table and have an equal part in the decisions that are made by federal agencies affecting the public. This is a process called Coordination, which every federal government agency is required to follow when beginning any major federal action. A federal ac- tion means any action requiring NEPA (either EA or EIS). Coordination was defined in the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA) and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), and estab- lishes a process for land use with the BLM and the FS specifically allowing local governments to have a part in public lands management decisions, and to keep federal government agen- cies from running over local govern- ments. Coordination language is clear in that it requires the agency to become ‘consistent’ with local land manage- ment plans and policies when creating a project on public lands, providing that doing so does not violate federal law or policy. Allowing local gov- ernments to be involved in a project early, and often, with an equal seat at the table, is a great conflict resolution tool. To ensure that the local govern- ment is included in the process they must first invoke coordination, a very simple matter, and notify all other governmental agencies that they have done so, and that they expect to be invited to participate in any major fed- eral action on the public lands within their jurisdiction. The Coordination process is bind- ing, and can be done quickly. Should the need arise, for example, an agency refuses to coordinate, you have the ability to go to court on a simple procedural issue, the agency either did or did not coordinate. This has been tested many times in court and never failed. The federal government does not want to go to court on coordina- tion, so in most cases they will work with the local government. As a result of coordination many big issues have been resolved between two agencies without going to court. There have been two such cases in California, which did go to court, and in both cases the decision was the same, both parties needed to go back to the table and resolve their differ- ences by being consistent with local land use plans and policies. Letter to the Editor Policy: The Baker County Press reserves the right not to pub- lish letters containing factual falsehoods or incoherent narrative. Letters promoting or detracting from specific for-profit business- es will not be published. Word limit is 375 words per letter. Letters are limited to one every other week per author. Letters should be submitted to Editor@TheBakerCounty- Press.com. Advertising and Opinion Page Dis- claimer: Opinions submitted as Guest Submitted Photo Sylvia Milligan is founder and chair of Recreation Outdoors Coalition (ROC) in Northern California and has worked on forest issues for 25 years. Through coordination, her group has been successful in get- ting all unpaved county roads and the Shasta-Trinity National Forest roads opened for mixed use, thus providing a streamlined transporta- tion system in this forest. Coordination is not limited to a local government. For example, the county, but can be invoked by any agency that has an elected board such as a school district, cemetery district, water district, even an elected Sheriff. If your county commissioners will not consider working with the Forest Service through coordination, then by all means ask one of these other enti- ties. They can be trained quickly and easily, and they have an equally pow- erful seat at the table when coordinat- ing. Four tiny towns in central Texas, with unelected mayors, stopped the Trans Texas Corridor, the first leg of the NAFTA super highway, a tool road from Mexico with no U.S. customs along its entire length. Federal agencies do not like co- ordination and are working hard to convince local governments to adopt a cooperating agency status. While this process may be helpful in a number of cases, it should not be entered into without first establis - ing coordination between the federal agency and the local government. When a local government enters into a cooperating agency status they give away their power. The federal government can now do as they please on an issue and the local government has no power to require consistency with local plans and policies. They give up their rights to a speedy process on a plan, and to have input into the project. They must ultimately forfeit any rights to mitigation and be subject to the whims of the federal agency. The federal agencies will do any- thing to convince local governments that this is the route to take, but it is not. Local governments must not fall for this siren song, but must stand strong to protect the health and wel- fare of their constituents, and for the revenues the county generates from recreational use of the forest to sup- port their social programs. While there may be some projects that will benefit from a cooperating status after invoking coordination, it depends on the project and must not be used on any project that needs to be completed in a timely manner. Under a cooperation agreement, the federal agency can drag out a project forever, and the local agency has no power to do anything about it. It does not matter if you call the collaboration process collaboration or cooperation, in the end it will be one and the same when you attempt to make it work for you, because it won’t. Coordination is the only pro- cess with legally binding teeth. Opinions or Letters to the Editor express the opinions of their authors, and have not been authored by and are not necessarily the opinions of The Baker County Press, any of our staff, management, independent contractors or affiliates. Advertisements placed by political groups, candidates, businesses, etc., are printed as a paid service, which does not constitute an endorsement of or fulfillment obligation by this newspaper for the products or services advertised.
