NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
A3
Chamber president unhappy with
new TRT proposal from John Day
New option would give John
Day 6% and chamber 4% of
room taxes collected in city
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
The city of John Day’s third alternative
plan for the transient room tax ordinance
raised concerns from the Grant County
Chamber of Commerce president.
The third proposal would raise the TRT
rate, a tax charged on travelers at lodging
facilities, to 10% for lodging establish-
ments within the city limits of John Day.
The current TRT rate for the county is 8%.
The three options would only apply to
operators in the city of John Day and not
to other cities in the county. The options
previously presented were the city add-
ing its own rate of up to 4% on top of the
county’s, or the city replacing the coun-
ty’s rate with its own 8% rate. The cur-
rent county rate supports operations at the
chamber.
In the new proposal, the 10% would
be divided up into three parts: 4% dedi-
cated to the city’s Community Develop-
ment Fund for tourism and tourism-re-
lated facilities; 4% remitted to the Grant
County Chamber of Commerce to pro-
mote regional tourism; and 2% held in the
city’s general fund for general govern-
ment operations.
The city’s legal counsel is currently
reviewing the proposals.
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Sherrie Rininger was installed as pres-
ident for the Grant County Chamber of
Commerce July 16.
“This is what we decided we would
offer, and if it was declined, we decided
that we would go after all of it,” said
Councilor Steve Schuette.
Grant County Chamber of Commerce
President Sherrie Rininger said she is not
sure how the chamber board feels about
the proposal because they just saw it, but
she said she is unhappy and feels like this
will open the doors for other cities to do
the same. She said she is under the impres-
sion that the city cannot override a county
ordinance, which the new proposal would
do.
“That is going to cause a can of worms,
and that will make the chamber go away,”
Rininger said. “You got Prairie City spaces,
Airbnb’s and all these things all over the
place, and if they start pulling theirs, we
can’t do our job.”
John Day City Manager Nick Green
said the city has been trying to communi-
cate that its needs have not been met when
it comes to tourism and tourism-related
facilities.
Rininger asked Green when a city rep-
resentative last came to the chamber for
assistance.
“If you need signs for things, if you
asked us, we’d be willing to do something
like that,” Rininger said.
Green said that’s where he thinks
the priorities are diverging between the
chamber and the city with the city focus-
ing on infrastructure investment on
Main Street.
Reninger said the chamber has a
$20,000 line item in its budget set for proj-
ects like that this fiscal year.
Another work session will be scheduled
between John Day, the chamber and hotel
operators on a date to be determined.
“So we’re going to attempt to compro-
mise and find a negotiated agreement,”
Green said. “While no one is going to be
super happy, we hope that we can achieve
some mutually beneficial outcomes. I
think part of this conversation is we need
to decide what kind of community we are
going to be and how we’re going to invest
in our mutual priorities, or we will have to
go at it alone and that’s not what the coun-
cil wants to do.”
Legislative leaders OK COVID-19 relief
funds over objections of half of lawmakers
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
The Oregon Legislature’s
most powerful panel approved
a plan to use federal funds to
buy $105 million of personal
protective equipment, despite
objections from over half of all
lawmakers.
“I feel like I have been beat
over the head on this issue over
and over and over again,” said
Sen. President Peter Courtney,
D-Salem, who presided over
the of the Legislature’s Emer-
gency Board on Monday.
Courtney chaired the some-
time tense one-hour meeting of
the board, a panel of 20 legisla-
tive leaders and key lawmakers
from both chambers and both
parties that can make decisions
while the Legislature is not in
session.
The Emergency Board on
Monday approved a plan to
purchase $105 million in equip-
ment to distribute to counties
and cities.
The approval came despite a
letter signed by 47 of the Leg-
islature’s 90 lawmakers call-
ing for the money to go directly
to local governments to spend
on their COVID-19 priorities
instead of having the agenda
dictated by the state. Among
those signing were at least 18
Democrats.
The letter said that the state
has made only $200 million
available to local governments
through a reimbursement pro-
gram controlled by the state.
“By keeping a dispropor-
tionate amount of the funds,
the state has created inadequate
resource distribution with sig-
nificant statewide inequities,”
the letter said.
The letter supports an earlier
letter from a coalition of 17 civic
groups, including the Oregon
Business Alliance, Bend Cham-
ber of Commerce, League of
Oregon Cities and the Associa-
tion of Oregon Counties.
Oregon received about
$1.63 billion in coronavirus
relief funds. Under the federal
directive, some local govern-
ments received their allocations
directly — about $247 mil-
lion was sent to Portland, and
to Washington and Multnomah
counties.
Other local governments
were to receive $625 million,
with the federal directive say-
ing the money should be allo-
cated to local governments on
a per capita basis.
Instead, the Legislature and
Gov. Brown have controlled
the process. About $200 mil-
lion was put into a state-run
account in which local gov-
ernments could apply for
allocations.
“In short, they are getting
short-changed,” said Senate
Minority Leader Fred Girod,
R-Stayton, a member of the
Emergency Board.
While the $105 million
expenditure was the official
reason for the meeting, the
underlying tension was over
the opinion of many lawmak-
ers that Gov. Kate Brown,
House Speaker Tina Kotek,
D-Portland, and Courtney
were rushing spending through
the process with little consulta-
tion with other lawmakers.
Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scap-
poose, said that the Emergency
Board was being “reduced to a
rubber stamp for expenditures
decided somewhere else” for
deals hammered out before they
even came to the Emergency
Board.
“We are pushing through
items we spent a billion dollars
on without any testimony or
even time for thoughtful analy-
sis,” she said.
Most Republicans and some
Democrats said the allocation of
federal dollars so far seems tilted
in favor of the Portland area.
Rep. Greg Smith, R-Hep-
pner, said he respected the
efforts of legislative leaders and
wished that they had worked
more “arm-in-arm” with local
governments. While wishing
there was a way to vote yes,
Smith said he was receiving
strong signals from his Eastern
Oregon district that the process
had been unfair to local govern-
ments east of the Cascades.
“I represent five counties,
multiple, multiple cities,” Smith
said. “I am representing doz-
ens and dozens of officials who
have all expressed to me to vote
no today.”
Democrats who supported
the allocation said the process
was the best way to leverage
state buying power to help local
governments.
Eagle file photo
The John Day City Council meets in July. Councilors opted
against enacting a panhandling ordinance.
City opts against
panhandling ordinance
Councilors cited
the cost, lack of
a problem and
First Amendment
protections
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
John Day city councilors
decided not to draft an ordi-
nance or resolution against
panhandling after receiving
a letter from business own-
ers expressing concerns.
The letter signed by 15
business owners sent to the
city council states they are
concerned about a possi-
ble problem of panhandling
facing John Day in the near
future. They said they would
like to see something put in
place to prevent panhandling
or begging on the streets of
John Day.
“We feel that if we are
proactive in this we can have
something in place should it
become an issue,” the letter
states.
A family recently pan-
handling on the intersec-
tion of highways 395 and 26
is what prompted business
owners to bring their con-
cern to the city.
“Etc. A Unique Bou-
tique” business owner Sherry
Rininger, who submitted the
letter to the council, said the
panhandling family fit the
description of an all-points
bulletin that went out shortly
after they panhandled in
John Day because they were
scamming people in other
cities as well.
“The people I spoke to
... don’t want to see that
in John Day,” Rininger
said in a interview with the
Eagle. “Maybe it’s not an
issue now, but let’s not let it
become one.”
Rininger said she would
like to see the city establish
an ordinance or resolution
so panhandlers avoid beg-
ging for money on the street
corner and are directed to
resources that can help them
out.
“I’m all for helping these
people that are legitimate,
and we are a very generous
community, but it’s a shame
to see people try to take
advantage of that generos-
ity,” Rininger said.
Councilor Dave Holland
expressed concerns with
the plan because of the cost
involved with ordinances
and legal fees and the lack of
the problem.
He said it would be a
waste of money because
John Day does not have
the homeless population
where panhandling typically
occurs.
Councilor Elliot Sky
brought up the legal chal-
lenges that cities have faced
when attempting to deal
with panhandling because
the First Amendment pro-
tects Americans’ right to
free speech, which includes
asking strangers for money.
Another problem he had
was with the idea of fines or
punitive measures against
those in poverty.
Councilor Shannon Adair
suggested sending a let-
ter to business owners from
the city saying what can be
legally done in this situation,
information from John Day
Police Department Chief
Mike Durr on panhandling
in the city and the process
for an ordinance since this is
an issue that business owners
expressed concerns about.
“We can revisit it if it
becomes an ongoing prob-
lem here. We can always
write an ordinance in the
future,” Sky said. “I don’t
see the need to write an ordi-
nance preventively because
we can always revisit the
topic.”
HELLO, JOHN DAY
COMMUNITY
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The new name speaks directly to
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community always comes first.
150 W MAIN STREET | JOHN DAY | 833.920.1080
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