FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 5
Local
City Council hears
from citizens about
marijuana odors
• GRAFFITI
ORDINANCE GETS
2ND READING,
LANGRELL AND KEE
END MEETING IN
SQUARE-OFF
BY GINA K. SWARTZ
Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Mayor Mosier called to
order the regular session
City Council Meeting at 7
p.m. Tuesday night. Coun-
cilor Lewis led the group
in the Pledge of Allegiance
and invocation followed by
roll call administered by
Julie Smith, Management
Assistant, filling in for an
absent City Recorder Luke
Yeaton.
All Councilors were
present with the exception
of Councilor Downing.
Public Works Direc-
tor Michelle Owen, City
Manager Mike Kee and
Police Chief Wyn Lohner
were also present for the
meeting. Council first
directed its attention to
the consent agenda with
Councilor Abell making
a motion to accept and
Councilor Thomas second-
ing the motion. Council
voted to unanimously in
favor. Mayor Mosier called
for citizen participation—
there was none, allowing
Council to move on.
Sam-O Swim Center
Discussion
Owen updated the
Council on what transpired
at the last Sam-O Swim
committee meeting held
just the night before.
She advised that the
committee felt that simply
replacing the showers was
only the tip of the iceberg
of what needed to occur
there.
She stated that the com-
mittee felt there were ADA
projects to be completed,
not that they are not in
compliance with ADA
regulations but there are
changes that could be
made to benefit the com-
munity at that level.
Randy Daugherty has
garnered support of six
citizens willing to pledge
$500 each to get the show-
er replacement project
completed by February 1.
Gary Dielman addressed
council as well, as one
of those that has pledged
money toward the fix. He
stated if Council chose not
to move forward with the
shower replacement im-
mediately and let the com-
mittee address their other
concerns another time, he
would be withdrawing his
pledge.
In his opinion, the show-
ers have been leaking and
in a state of disrepair for
far too long and found it
disgraceful to reside in a
City that was allowing this.
“Finally after dragging
Ms. Owen in the men’s
locker room to show her
how bad the leak was,
they’ve gotten a little
better. But frankly, I’m
ashamed,” he said.
Owen said she was look-
ing at the shower options
as the committee had di-
rected her to do, but since
that directive just came the
evening before, she had
not had time to research as
needed.
She suggested that she
could do that and get back
to the committee quickly
to make a decision and get
the ball rolling.
Ordinance #3346 Graf-
fiti Ordinance Second
Reading
Much discussion was had
regarding the graffiti mat-
ter among Council.
Augenfeld feels this
ordinance needs to address
public art as well, while
Langrell questioned the
need for the ordinance at
all. He feels that property
owners should not be held
responsible in any way,
as it is not their fault. His
opinion is that the police
department should do a
better job at locating those
responsible instead.
After a lengthy and
heated discussion, Mosier
called for a motion to have
a second reading. There
was none.
“Hearing none, the mo-
tion fails,” she said.
Kee asked for direction
from the Council on the
matter, to which another
discussion ensued where
Mosier reminded her fel-
low councilors that the
amendment in the ordi-
nance was to simply give
another avenue for busi-
ness owners to use before
being cited.
Abell then made a mo-
tion that was seconded by
Councilor Lewis to hear a
second reading.
Council Voted 4:2 with
Langrell and Augenfeld
against the second read-
ing. Passing this time, the
ordinance was read for the
second time by title only.
Resolution #3763 Con-
nect Oregon Grant
Owen again addressed
Council regarding the
grant. She stated the Air-
port Commission had iden-
tified a plan to improve the
apron at the airport. Right
now the project is only in
the design phase, but the
FFA is willing to fund a
large portion of that recon-
struction project.
Connect Oregon is
grant funded by Oregon
Lottery dollars that could
be used to meet the 10%
the FFA is requiring.
The grant application for
Connect Oregon is due No-
vember 20, and as part of
that grant application they
request acknowledgement
that the public body, in this
instance the Council, is in
support of the project.
“What I have before you
is just a resolution of sup-
port,” said Owen.
This grant would al-
leviate the City’s need to
spend any dollars on the
reconstruction project.
Owen also mentioned
increasing tanks at the
airport for gasoline citing
the need for the increase as
difficulty splitting deliv-
eries with neighboring
airports and the increase
for demand as seen with
the increase of air traffic
this summer with firefight-
ing efforts.
Owen indicated this as
beneficial to the City as
the airport could sell more
fuel and the City could see
more revenue from the gas
tax.
Lewis motioned to ap-
prove the resolution with a
second by Augenfeld.
Council voted quickly
and unanimously to
approve the resolution.
“Can’t they all be that
simple?” said Mosier.
The Council then moved
on.
New Street Closure Re-
quirement Discussion
Chief Lohner addressed
Council stating he had
been contacted in the past
by business owners who
were unaware of street
closures, and felt it had
adversely affected their
business because they were
not able to plan around it.
Lohner is suggesting
a change be made in the
application to close a street
for an event that would
require the event organizer
to notify business own-
ers before even submit-
ting the application to the
police department, which
currently requires a three-
week advance notice.
Council agreed this was
a good idea and did not
necessarily need to be done
face-to-face—an email or
phone call could suffice.
Abell asked if there was
some type of list that could
be accessed.
Lohner offered to create
and maintain that list.
Marijuana Odor Dis-
cussion
Since the legalization
of marijuana, there have
an increased number of
informal complaints from
people who have come into
contact with officers in the
field, in reference to the
odor of marijuana.
Lohner said, “Just to
clarify, this is not the
burning marijuana, people
smoking it, but growing it.
When they (plants) start to
bud out, the odor coming
from those buds can be
fairly overpowering.”
Lohner said he brought
this discussion before
Council for informational
purposes only, to see if the
issue was something they
wished to look at further,
or construct an ordinance.
Several citizens ad-
dressed Council concern-
ing the matter. First to
speak was Rodney Shaw.
Shaw said, “The first
thing I’d like to point out is
taking us back to when we
Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press
Public Works Director Michelle Owen and Baker City Police Chief Wyn Lohner.
were first having these dis-
cussions about the dispen-
saries in Baker City. On
two different occasions,
Mayor, you told the medi-
cal community that it was
not the Council’s inten-
tion to restrict the medical
community as far as their
abilities to grow.
“We took you at your
word on that. If we’re
going to start dealing with
offensive odors, I happen
to live across the street
from the fair grounds and
I have to put up with some
very offensive odors. But
I don’t complain about it.
I just deal with it. If you
put an odor ordinance in,
you’re going to be pulling
more away from those that
need it because you’re go-
ing to restrict more grow-
ers from being able to help
needy patients.
“We let diesel trucks
come into town and just
idle—that odor is offen-
sive. People within our
city limits raise chickens—
that odor is offensive. So,
I don’t think that we can
really discriminate against
marijuana users simply on
odor.”
Next to speak was Carol
Free. “Just a pleasure to
be back,” she began. “You
all know me well. I’m a
grower and I was robbed
this summer, so I only
stunk for a while. I did go
to all my neighbors behind,
front and to the side. The
majority of my neigh-
bors are retired, widows,
grandmothers, that came
to my house to my grow.
They were all okay, not
offended.
“Let’s just educate our
neighbors, show them it’s
not a fearful thing, the
smell thing. It’s almost
appalling and joking.
It’s ludicrous. I have a
daughter-in-law that is so
deathly allergic to mint,
and she lives next door to
a mint field. As it grows,
her eyes swell shut, but
that is somebody’s crop. I
personally like the smell
of pot. Skunks are all over
Baker. A lot of people find
that smell offensive. What
are we going to do? Go
on a skunk rampage? And
capture all the skunks?
Not everything in this town
is going to please every-
body. I think we all need
to learn to live all together,
and accept each other, a
lot of things bother me but
why can’t we just live in
peace in the this commu-
nity. This is just ridiculous
and hateful and mean.”
After Carol Free spoke,
she left the room and,
Al Free spoke, reiterat-
ing much of what Carol
said, but asking Council,
“Where will it all end?
There are 10,000 people
about in Baker City and
some smell and some
stink and we’ve just got
to learn to live with each
other. You can make your
blood alcohol and you can
measure noise, how are
you going to measure the
stink? How can you sub-
jectively say that the stink
that citizen A makes is any
better or worse than the
stink citizen B makes? In
conclusion, I would like to
say I don’t need no stink-
ing ordinance, I don’t want
no stinking ordinance, I
will not obey any stinking
ordinance!”
Free then went on to
personally attack Lohner,
claiming he had a personal
vendetta against marijuana.
Mosier smoothly interject-
ed, asking Free to allow
others to speak as his time
was up.
Next to speak in support
of an ordinance were Jared
and Tricia Wood who both
said that they and family
members were suffering
from respiratory issues due
to the growing of marijua-
na in the neighboring yard.
Corrine Vegter also spoke
out against the odors.
All three mentioned sell-
ing their property to move
away from the odor, but
none felt they should be
punished by other property
owners, or as in Vegter’s
case a renter, simply due to
this issue.
Council took both sides
under advisement to ad-
dress at a future meeting.
Lohner said he would
speak with other munici-
palities such as Pendleton
and Medford that have
passed ordinances concern-
ing marijuana odor to see
how those ordinances are
working and what they
entailed, and report back to
Council his findings.
City Manager Recruit-
ment RFP Review
As of Tuesday, Kee said
there had only been one
RFP received regarding
manager recruitment. The
closing date to accept those
RFPs was Friday so he
hoped more would come.
He asked Council if
three would be willing to
look at those proposals and
score them along with two
staff representatives.
City Manager/Director
Comments
Owen had no additional
comments. Kee stated his-
torically Council only met
once in December because
of the holiday season and
asked if Council wanted
to do the same this year.
Council agreed they did.
Council Comments
Abell mentioned the
feasibility study being con-
ducted at the Crossroads
Art Center. She urged her
fellow councilors to attend
one of the outreach meet-
ings.
Lewis mentioned she
would like to see the
Council participate in more
work sessions, and posed
the question of exposing
our youth more to City
Government as done in the
past.
Langrell then addressed
Kee, directly calling for
him to answer why, in
Langrell’s opinion, Kee
refused to follow City
Ordinances in regard to
the double billing of city
water and sewer regarding
his neighboring property
owners, considering the
outcome of Langrell’s
recent lawsuit against the
City over that same matter.
He asked for Kee to
report those reasons to
the City Council. Kee
replied that he did what he
believed was directed by
Council. A debate ensued
as to if direction had been
given during executive ses-
sion, as decisions are not
made in that forum.
Langrell and Kee argued
at length over the matter
with Kee finally telling
Langrell he worked for all
seven councilors not just
one, and if it was the direc-
tion of the Douncil, the
whole council, he would
fulfill Langrell’s request.
Mosier finally broke
into the argument and
adjourned the meeting.
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