A6 The BulleTin • Sunday, May 2, 2021
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
When should Bend
councilors cut
speakers off?
M
uch of a Bend City Council meeting is pre-scripted,
tame drama. Staff talks. Councilors discuss.
Councilors vote. Then march through more agenda.
Decorum is the rule. There is the
occasional councilor versus coun-
cilor clash. Few cliffhangers.
The public comment section is
different. It can teem with surprise.
It gets edgy. People criticize the city.
What, though, should councilors do
when the comments cross the line?
And where is the line?
The Bend City Council rules sub-
committee met last week and plans
to meet again this week to talk about
how public comment might be im-
proved. How long should people
be able to speak? When should the
public comment be during the meet-
ing? And are there other ways the
council could gather public input?
Councilors have not made any
changes, yet. They just talked about
them. Some of the options discussed
include:
1. Allow public comment for an
hour at every meeting starting at
a set time, perhaps from 6 p.m. to
7 p.m. Then, it would end. That idea
seemed to be dismissed because
public comment doesn’t usually last
an hour, anyway.
2. Move public comment perhaps
to the end of the meeting. That also
seemed to be dismissed, because it
would make it hard on the public to
have to wait two hours or longer to
be able to speak.
3. Allow other councilors —
other than the mayor — to inter-
rupt a speaker making inappro-
priate comments. As Mayor Sally
Russell explained, she doesn’t know
what people will say until they say
it. And it can be difficult in the mo-
ment to decide if a speaker should
be cut off. One suggestion was to
also allow the Mayor Pro-Tem Gena
Goodman-Campbell to interrupt
a speaker. Another possibility is to
open that up to all the councilors.
Councilor Rita Schenkelberg made
an excellent point. She said the mayor
or others councilors should not get
into an exchange with that person
over what the person said or how the
person said it. The council could have
a short, standardized statement to re-
cite to end that person’s time and then
shift to the next speaker. Minimize the
drama. Sounds like a smart approach,
if used with discretion.
4. Create other ways for the public
to comment with the whole council.
The public comment section of the
meetings is special. It gives the pub-
lic an opportunity to speak before
the whole council. Live. A member
of the public knows almost for cer-
tain that they will be heard, which
is less certain when an email is sent.
Members of the public want to have
that ability to comment on the re-
cord, be recorded and allow others
to hear what they have said.
Previous councils have had office
hours. Usually two councilors would
set up in a meeting room in City Hall
or elsewhere and talk to whoever
showed up. We attended a couple of
those. We aren’t certain they were a
roaring success. They may have just
needed more time to take hold.
City Manager Eric King said staff
is looking for ways that councilors
could engage the public outside of
the council meetings. One thing in
particular that people seem to want
is to have a dialogue or discussion
with councilors on certain topics.
Councilors generally don’t do that in
the public comment section.
And it can be frustrating for
speakers to ask passionate questions
during a council meeting and get no
response.
We hope we haven’t given the im-
pression that councilors are gunning
to silence criticism. They are not.
Public comments are an important
check and balance on what the city
does. It’s the fabric of democracy. If
comments deteriorate into ugly per-
sonal attacks, the city does need to
have a smart way to hit the brakes.
Blind hiring might
be better for Bend
T
he first meeting of Bend’s Hu-
man Rights and Equity Com-
mission ended with a discus-
sion about the best way for the city
to conduct interviews.
Commissioner Jasmine Wilder
wondered if Bend city councilors
should have done blind interviews of
the potential commissioners. Would
it have meant that even more peo-
ple of color were appointed to the
commission?
There are several ways to do blind
hiring. Basically it is a way to hire
people to block out their personal
information that may bias a hiring
decision. One more famous example
was the effort of the Boston Sym-
phony in the 1950s to have musi-
cians audition behind a screen. That
way it was the performance that
mattered — not race, not gender nor
any number of other factors.
We’ll have to wait and see if the
commission is truly able to create
changes in city policy and in Bend.
It sure seems like the commissioners
are going to try.
Editorials reflect the views of The Bulletin’s editorial board, Publisher Heidi Wright, Editor
Gerry O’Brien and Editorial Page Editor Richard Coe. They are written by Richard Coe.
Robin Vora for Bend parks board
BY ROBIN VORA
I
request your vote for Bend Park
& Recreation Board Position 4. I
care deeply about our parks, trails
and recreation programs. As a board
member, I would look forward to be-
ing more deeply engaged in all aspects
of the district’s programs, and hope to
make a significant contribution to the
district and my community.
My priorities would be:
• Recovery from COVID-
19-related program suspen-
sions and closures.
• Completing river trails
and expanding Bend’s trail
network.
• Creating future parks in Vora
underserved neighborhoods.
• Maintaining the diversity of pro-
grams.
• Serving all population groups.
• Increasing native vegetation in
parks.
• Installing fish passage through
Mirror Pond dam.
I think community service is import-
ant and believe I can use my profes-
sional background in natural resources
and volunteer experiences on several
city of Bend committees to make signif-
icant contributions in parks and recre-
ation management. I have been closely
involved with many projects related to
parks and trails over the last 19 years,
starting as liaison with Bend Park &
Recreation when a board member of
the Orchard District Neighborhood
Association for 10 years.
In Bend, I:
• Am a regular advocate for parks,
trails, facilities and recreation pro-
grams and make periodic public com-
ments at Bend Park and Recreation
Board meetings.
• As the principal proponent,
GUEST COLUMN
worked with District staff for three
years to find a property for a neigh-
borhood park for the community be-
tween Butler Market Road and the ca-
nal, with Canal Row Park the result.
• Advocated for and assisted with
the acquisition and planning
of three other parks: Orchard
(with adjacent Latino res-
idents as a member of the
neighborhood association),
Goodrich, and Miller Land-
ing (financial contribution to
its purchase).
•
Served on a Park
& Recreation District Citizen
Advisory Committee.
• Worked 13 years with two school
principals to maintain public access to
Pilot Butte outside school hours, and
have advocated with State Parks for
rogue trail closures on the butte.
• Got a sidewalk around Marshall
High ball field.
• Got Park & Recreation to im-
prove the landscaping at the entrance
to Juniper Park off Franklin to better
keep headlights out of living room
windows across the street.
• Pull noxious weeds in parks.
• Assisted with adaptive recreation
for people with disabilities.
• Have benefited from district
classes and membership at Juniper
Swim & Fitness.
Prior to coming to Bend, I coached
youth soccer for seven years in Min-
nesota.
Further, I have dedicated my time
and expertise to our community in
other ways. I have served on several
city committees including Urban
Growth Boundary Expansion, Urban
I think we have a great Park &
Recreation District. I would like
the opportunity to continue to
contribute more directly as a
board member.
Renewal Advisory Board, Metropoli-
tan Planning Organization (transpor-
tation) and Historic Landmarks Com-
mission. I am on the Soil & Water
Conservation District Board. I over-
saw recreation programs as a manager
with the U.S. Forest Service and as-
sisted with youth environmental edu-
cation. I served on a Minnesota city’s
recreation committee. I volunteer at
the Tower Theatre and have been in-
volved with the Deschutes Land Trust,
East Cascades Audubon Society and
Habitat for Humanity.
I worked 39 years for the U.S. Forest
Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Ser-
vice in seven states as a forester, ecol-
ogist, wildlife biologist, and manager.
In addition, I completed assignments
in seven countries. I have master’s
and bachelor’s degrees in Natural Re-
sources from the University of Idaho
and U.C. Berkeley. I immigrated with
my family from India when I was 13.
I think we have a great Park & Rec-
reation District. I would like the op-
portunity to continue to contribute
more directly as a board member. I
am endorsed by the Oregon League of
Conservation Voters and Central Or-
egon Labor Chapter.
See me on Facebook: tinyurl.com/
RobinVoraforBend. Vote for Robin
Vora for Bend Park & Recreation, Po-
sition 4.
e e
Robin Vora is a candidate for the board of the
Bend Park & Recreation District.
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Elect people who care about the people who live here now
BY BILL EDDIE
L
et’s cut right to the point. Bend’s
growth and future planning is
out of control and taking us rap-
idly toward a dark future.
Our city planners projected in 2019
the need for 17,000 new houses or
apartments by 2028. If you assume
two cars for every house, this will put
34,000 more cars on our roads every
day. We certainly don’t need a traffic
“consultant” to tell us that our roads
are already crowded and parking is at
a premium. One can only imagine the
traffic nightmare in the near future if
we remain on this misguided path.
Bend has been “discovered.” No
more money promoting Central Or-
egon need be spent. The local trails,
mountains, lakes and rivers are
stressed to the max. The main water
storage facility for our area, Wickiup
Reservoir, has been reduced to a mud
puddle the last couple of years. Park-
GUEST COLUMN
ing on Century Drive has become
difficult, and this season the Forest
Service will charge daily fees to ac-
cess the “wilderness.” While we give
lip-service to the environment, we are
selling out Mother Nature on a daily
basis. We need to realize that our lo-
cal beauty is finite and impossible to
replace.
I always thought that the main job
of our local elected officials was to
serve the needs of the folks who ac-
tually live in the community. Instead
our current leaders are more inter-
ested in growth and planning for
those who don’t yet have a stake in
Central Oregon.
Why?
Does everyone need to live in
Bend/Redmond? Call me a NIMBY
(not in my backyard), but if the folks
Bend has been “discovered.” No more money promoting Central Oregon
need be spent. The local trails, mountains, lakes and rivers are stressed
to the max. The main water storage facility for our area, Wickiup
Reservoir, has been reduced to a mud puddle the last couple of years.
Parking on Century Drive has become difficult, and this season the
Forest Service will charge daily fees to access the “wilderness.”
who already live here don’t speak up
to preserve the beauty and uniqueness
of Bend, then who will?
I believe we need to elect some local
leaders who truly value the concept of
livability. This means stopping what I
view as “urban sprawl.”
This means stop building large
“box hotels” at the expense of beauti-
ful views and stands of long existing
trees.
Our city council and county com-
missioners should resist the idea of
expanding the Urban Growth Bound-
ary. The notion of more resorts like
Sunriver being built in Central Ore-
gon should be scrapped. Like we need
more congestion on our roads?
We need to preserve the rocks and
juniper trees that define the essence
of the High Desert landscape. Don’t
compete with other chaotic cities in
Oregon ( like the City of Roses) where
it’s become risky to venture down-
town.
Contributing to the growth and in-
stability is the ever increasing number
of transient camps which defy local
regulations and police oversight. We
should endeavor to create and pre-
serve our own unique vibe here in
Central Oregon.
I keep hearing about “housing
shortages” and “low inventory.” Re-
ally? It seems there is no end to new
homes being constructed in the Bend
area. I sometimes think the city plan-
ners would OK a permit to build a
home atop Mt. Bachelor if it meant
more property taxes. The natural
turnover of existing homes will con-
tinue to be driven by market forces
and no government subsidies should
be needed.
The only way to derail the cur-
rent madness is to vote for those who
agree that bigger is not better and will
work to enhance the city for those al-
ready invested in the area.
e e
Bill Eddie lives in Bend.