FEBRUARY 26, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A7
County goes
digital with
dog licensing
RULES,
continued from Page A1
Marion County Dog Ser-
vices now offers online dog
licensing.
Dog Services Director Ann
Potter said, “We know the
community wants an online
option and it’s become even
more necessary this year with
our lobby closed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.”
Online licensing can be
accessed from the following
link: bit.ly/MCDogLicense
To license online, dog own-
ers will need a copy of their
dog’s current rabies vaccine.
Photos of rabies certifi cates
may be uploaded directly to
the licensing program. Dog
licenses may not be purchased
for longer than the rabies expi-
ration date.
License fees are $20 annual-
ly for altered dogs and start at
$37 for non-altered dogs. Dis-
counted fees are available for
multi-year licenses and for se-
nior dog owners. For more in-
formation about Marion Dog
Services fees and hours, vis-
it www.mcdogs.net, call 503-
588-5233, or email dog@
co.marion.or.us.
Aside from the loss of
viewers, staff reports are taken
after the councilors report on
their activities, a process that
has taken an hour or more on
many occasions.
“After all the reports,
[Keizer Public Works Direc-
tor] Bill Lawyer would lead
a discussion about the road
striping that we were all get-
ting griped at over. But ev-
eryone would miss it because
they tuned out,” Smith con-
tinued.
Members of the council
agreed that updates from staff
should precede councilors’
individual reports once the
new rules are adopted, but it
was less clear what the body
would do to constrain the re-
ports from councilors.
The work group that con-
sidered updating the rules,
which included councilors
Laura Reid, Dan Kohler and
Smith, suggested a limit of
three minutes per councilor.
Councilor Ross Day pas-
sionately disagreed with lim-
iting councilors.
“That is foreign to me and
I don’t know any other body
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that limits the amount of
time that an elected member
can speak,” Day said. “I think
that’s a bad idea. If members
of the public get fi ve minutes,
then we should get at least
that if not more.”
Kohler said the decision
to limit the reports was less
about a specifi c time than
content.
“If you don’t have some
sort of limit, we end up with
a lot of redundancy and we
want the meeting to be en-
gaging for the public,” Kohler
said.
To trim the amount of
time spent on the reports
without setting a time limit,
Mayor Cathy Clark suggest-
ed focusing on meetings and
activities that were not Keiz-
er-sponsored and pulling out
single aspects that held the
most relevance to city resi-
dents.
Day, a land use attorney,
also took issue with a lack of
direction in the rules regard-
ing how items are placed on
the agenda. Since taking offi ce
in January, Day has expressed
doubt about the city’s ability
to place liens on properties
neglected by owners after the
city performed upkeep.
“Nothing in the city char-
ter or rules that explains how
items get placed on the agen-
da. The city manager has the
authority to place an item on
the agenda unilaterally and
we don’t have the same pow-
er,” Day said.
For the council to put
items on the agenda, at least
three councilors must agree
to do so.
There have also been times
councilors rejected requests
by citizens to place items on
agendas on the spot. In re-
cent years, the council was
approached by business own-
ers to permit a social gaming
club within the city and to
relax rules on distance re-
quired between marijuana
shops. Councilors took no
action on either request.
Mayor criticized legacy
rule in earlier talks
In fall 2020, Mayor Cathy
Clark called for a council-
or work group to consider
revisions of the Keizer City
Council’s rules and policies,
a document that dictates ev-
erything from what appears
on an agenda to what coun-
cilors can discuss via email.
The group, which includ-
ed councilors Laura Reid,
Dan Kohler and Elizabeth
Smith, reviewed a draft of the
proposed changes at a work
session Monday, Feb. 22.
Among the changes un-
der consideration is one that
would repeal a longstanding
tradition among Keizer city
councilors: who is selected as
the council president.
Since 1995, the council
has largely, but not always,
selected the councilor with
the longest continuous ser-
vice on the council who
had not yet served as coun-
cil president. At a meeting
of the work group on Jan. 6,
two days after passing over
Councilor Roland Herrera
for the role of council pres-
ident, Clark criticized what
became known as “The Mc-
Gee Rule,” after former city
councilor Jerry McGee.
“The automatic nomina-
tion (of a long-serving coun-
cilor) has created more hard
feelings and angst and broken
relationships than I can begin
to recount,” said Clark.
Clark recounted her own
“Each of you individual-
ly don’t have a lot of power,
but collectively you do,” Ep-
pley said. “It keeps individuals
from dictating the business of
the city.”
City Attorney Shannon
Johnson said the property
ascension to the role over
another councilor at the
time, David McKane. Clark
did not identify McKane by
name, but said the councilor
later ran against the mayor.
McKane was the only former
councilor to challenge a sit-
ting mayor since Clark began
serving on the council.
“There were a number
of diffi cult relationships, but
if there are things going on
when there is no trust or
there are not strong relation-
ships, the automatic nomi-
nation sets up a false expec-
tation,” Clark told the work
group.
The McGee Rule was
adopted in the wake of a
contested “race” for the role
that included McGee him-
self. McGee nominated him-
self and another councilor
nominated himself. McGee
won in a 3-2 vote. Nominat-
ing the longest continuous
serving councilor was later
adopted to avoid harming
future relationships on the
council.
Clark said the city was still
in its early days at that point
and the rule had outlived its
purpose.
“We should look at [the
council president] as the job
description so that people
understand it is more than
ceremonial. It is a working
and responsible position and
people need to understand
liens, while not mentioned in
the rules, come to the council
as the result of local ordinance
and penalties imposed at the
end of a much longer process.
One proposed change,
to remove a long-standing
method of selecting a coun-
that,” Clark said in January.
“It’s about assuring that the
person can assume the center
seat with as little hubbub as
possible.”
Clark’s testimony came on
the heels of council members
passing over Roland Herrera
for the council president role.
Herrera fell out of favor
for the position as discussions
about an inclusivity state-
ment grew heated in 2020.
Herrera vehemently called
for a bold statement while
other councilors remained
reticent.
Herrera expressed his re-
gret and apologized for his
passion during the discus-
sions on numerous occasions.
Kohler nominated Herrera as
part of the process on Jan. 4,
but Herrera declined. Smith
was selected as president in
a unanimous vote shortly
thereafter.
When Keizertimes’ sto-
ry on the selection of the
council president appeared
on Facebook, Clark recast
the decision to pick Smith,
writing, “Congratulations
to Council President Eliz-
abeth Smith, the youngest
Council President in recent
history who has the lived ex-
perience of a teen mom who
now is a leading producer in
a male-dominated industry.”
Herrera is the city’s fi rst
and only Hispanic city coun-
cilor.
cil president, passed by with-
out remark when the entire
council had an opportunity to
provide input. The matter re-
ceived lengthy airing during a
work group meeting in Janu-
ary. (See related story Mayor
criticized on this page)
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