10 A
SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2018
Policy
from 1A
Henry continued, “There is
none intended, and if we did
intend to do so, we would be pre-
cluded by several state statutes
from doing that.
“Since I have a number of
them in a closet at home, at least
while I’m the mayor, I will fight
any type of attempt to put any
type of gun legislation on our
agenda.”
Several dozen people in the
audience then applauded.
While Henry said that the city
would still hold public comment,
no one came forward to address
the council about the rumor or
other gun-related topics.
The issue of agenda items
again came up later in the meet-
ing while councilors continued a
discussion on council rules and
procedures with city staff and
input from City Attorney Ross
Williamson. The topic was a part
of several work sessions in
February.
City Recorder Kelli Weese said
that the council is reviewing its
rules and procedures to meet the
current needs of the City of
Florence. The last time they were
reviewed was a decade ago.
“This is a chance for the coun-
cil to look at, in a broad scale,
what you do and what your stan-
dard policies are to make sure
they fit the need of the city,”
Weese said.
The main change proposed that
will affect the public is the imple-
mentation of a speaker’s card for
people wishing to address the
council during open hearings or
public comment periods.
“We took those comments,
along with our current rules, our
charter and a draft from the
League of Oregon Cities, and
meshed them into what we felt
really worked for our city,”
Weese said.
Councilor Susy Lacer had a list
of several items that she wished
to clarify in the updated rules,
mostly in regard to the language
used.
Henry also wished to make a
change, saying that he thought
the councilors should discuss fur-
ther the option to keep items from
the agenda that are precluded by
state law.
“If we can’t do it, what’s the
sense in putting it on the agen-
da?” Henry asked.
Councilor Ron Preisler said, “I
think it would definitely inhibit
people from expressing their
views to the city council. That’s
my biggest concern. Some things
are legal, some things aren’t.
Who is going to make that deter-
mination? Would we need a
lawyer to come down and agree
on agenda items? I’m asking a
question, not giving my solu-
tions. I think a lack of transparen-
cy would be something that I
would be afraid of.”
“It makes sense, under our
rules for agenda items, to have
the ability to exclude those items
that clearly waste the council’s
time,” Henry said. “I’m not inter-
ested in listening to someone’s
opinion for three minutes about
something that is illegal under
state or federal law. That’s just
my personal opinion.”
City Manager Erin Reynolds
clarified that the mayor was
speaking about going through the
process of putting together agen-
da items for the council to
address. That would not include
public comment.
“We did talk about this at the
work session about items on the
agenda being in line with council
goals, the city work plan and
things that are in the budget —
and in the spirit of moving the
city forward and working on the
business agreed upon by the city
council,” Reynolds said. “Some
of that discussion was ensuring
that items on the agenda are those
in which the city council can
impact and make change in the
community, where you have that
authority, and can discourage
requests that are known to maybe
be outside the purview of the city
council, and outside of your tra-
ditional roles and responsibili-
ties.”
Under the current and planned
revisions to the council’s rules
and procedures, the council’s
agenda items are agreed upon by
staff and the mayor.
“If it becomes an agenda item,
it requires staff to do some work,
unless it’s just a discussion item,
which we have very few of,”
Henry said. “That was more
along the line of my thought.”
The council’s discussion on the
rules and procedures lasted about
an hour. At that point, councilors
and staff decided to wrap up the
topic until they can hold a vote at
a later time.
Councilor Joshua Greene said,
“I think we’re setting a template
(future city councils) can fol-
low.”
In the consent agenda, the
council approved Resolution No.
3, Series 2018, to authorize the
city to accept a Critical Oregon
Airport Relief (COAR) grant
from the Oregon Department of
Aviation for runway and taxiway
rehabilitation
and
lighting
improvements to the Florence
Municipal Airport.
This came up again when
councilors authorized Reynolds
to enter into a contract with
Century West Engineering to pro-
vide civil and environmental
engineering, professional land
use planning and related profes-
sional services for projects at the
airport.
Also at the meeting, councilors
approved some design choices
for the remodel of Florence City
Hall, including selecting a red-
brown color for the metal roofing
that will be part of the design.
For more information or to find
out where to access City Hall
functions, visit ci.florence.or.us
or stop by the Florence Public
Works Facility at 2675 Kingwood
St.
FACC to host talk
from superintendent,
school board member
On Wednesday, March 7, from 9 to 10:30
a.m., the Florence Area Community Coalition
(FACC) will host Andy Grzeskowiak, superin-
tendent of Siuslaw School District, and
Suzanne Mann-Heintz, president of the
Siuslaw Education Foundation, to speak about
current and future projects and events in local
schools.
The Siuslaw School Board and the superin-
tendent have established priorities in technolo-
gy, graduation rates, career and technical edu-
cation, and facilities upgrades.
The Siuslaw Education Foundation is work-
ing in conjunction with the schools both in
Florence and Mapleton, to raise funds to sup-
port these education priorities.
The featured agency for this month is KXCR
Community Radio. Participants are invited to
make donations to KXCR to keep this valuable
community resource up and running.
KXCR offers commercial-free radio to com-
munities throughout the Siuslaw region.
Some programs are produced locally; others
are subscribed to through networks of public
broadcasting agencies. It takes about $20,000
per year to keep KXCR on the air.
FACC hosts meetings on the first Wednesday
of each month at the Siuslaw Public Library. It
also hosts an annual Volunteer Recognition
Event, coming Wednesday, April 11, from 1 to
3 p.m. at the Florence Events Center.
This year, FACC celebrates its 30th birthday.
Plans are in progress for the second “Aging in
Place Forum” on June 22, from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. at the Florence Events Center.
For more information, call 541-999-2927.
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