WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
NEWS
Bounds no longer candidate for judge
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
Hermiston native Ryan Bounds
will not become a judge on the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell withdrew his nomi-
nation shortly before a scheduled
vote on Thursday.
McConnell did not appear to
have enough votes, according
to national media outlets, after
Republican
Sen.
Tim Scott of South
Carolina expressed
reservations.
Bounds’ nomina-
tion had come under
fire after the lib-
Ryan
eral advocacy group
Bounds
Alliance for Justice
brought to light col-
lege writings from the Stanford
Review in the mid-1990s, when he
criticized student groups for eth-
nic minorities, mocked the idea
of “sensitivity” after a gay pride
statue was vandalized and argued
that universities should not dis-
cipline students accused of sex-
ual assault unless it was proven
“beyond a reasonable doubt.”
After the Alliance for Justice
report Bounds apologized for the
“overheated” writings and said
they did not represent the views
he held as a grown-up. But Demo-
cratic senators Ron Wyden and Jeff
Merkley declined to return a “blue
slip” of approval customary from
home-state senators and took to the
Senate floor last week to speak out
against Bounds’ nomination.
Bounds, who graduated from
Hermiston High School, drew
local support and endorsements
when he was nominated. Mayor
David Drotzmann said in an email
Thursday night that it was “unfor-
tunate” to hear Bounds was being
pulled from consideration as a
“victim of the ugly, partisan poli-
tics” in Washington, D.C.
“The senate had an opportunity
to appoint a good person to the 9th
circuit with a long history of great,
and moderate decisions,” he wrote.
“Hermistonians and all Orego-
nians lost today. A circuit court jus-
tice should be able to interpret the
spirit of the law that best respects
the points of view of ALL people
in that region. Mr Bounds would
have done that fairly and honestly.”
HERMISTON
City may loosen rules for food trucks
Extra licenses,
food pod approval
headed for council
vote Aug. 13
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
City staff are drawing up
changes to the city’s mobile
vending rules and looking
at options for a food truck
pod after the Hermiston City
Council decided it’s time to
allow more food trucks in
town.
The council directed staff
to bring back an updated
ordinance for a vote at the
next meeting that would
increase the number of
licenses for mobile ven-
dors from the current cap of
three.
The number of basic
year-long licenses available
would be raised to six, with
an option to appeal to the
city council for an additional
license if the six are already
in use.
The city would also add
temporary 90-day licenses,
which would be available for
food trucks but also allow for
push-cart operations like a
hot dog stand. And city plan-
ner Clint Spencer said the
license cap would not apply
to public property, meaning
a food truck “pod” (a gath-
ering of mobile vendors in
one place) on city property
would not count toward the
license maximum.
“We’ve had people
express interest,” Spencer
said of the pod idea.
He said staff were look-
ing at the city-owned lot on
Orchard Avenue across from
the post office for a possible
pod, and would like to put
out a request for proposals
to have a third party manage
the pod instead of the city,
similar to how Mitco Invest-
ments is running the farm-
er’s market this year.
Mayor David Drotzmann
said he liked that idea, so that
people could bring in some
different business plans for
the council to consider.
“We’re flexible, if it’s
reasonable and affordable,”
he said.
The recommendations
were based on the results
of an online survey that had
more than 900 responses.
Eighty-six
percent
of
respondents were in favor
of increasing the number of
mobile food vendor licenses,
and even higher percentages
of people were in favor of
the other suggested changes.
Water tower
financing
On Monday the city
council only had four of its
eight members present, plus
the mayor, which gave the
council enough of a quorum
to conduct some business
but not enough to pass an
ordinance. Two ordinances
on the agenda — a new noise
ordinance and an ordinance
regulating accessory dwell-
ings — were tabled until the
council’s next meeting on
Aug. 13.
The council was able to
authorize the mayor and city
manager to sign a $4.5 mil-
lion loan, however.
The funds will be used
to build a 1 million gallon
water storage tank north-
east of town off Punkin Cen-
ter and add approximately
two miles of transmission
mains. According to infor-
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Alex Benitez (left) and Javier Diaz fill orders in a Tacos Xavi food cart on in Butte Park during the Fourth of July Celebration in Hermiston.
mation provided by the city,
the project will increase the
city’s water storage capac-
ity by 25 percent and make
housing development more
affordable on more than 300
acres of developable resi-
dential land.
Assistant city man-
ager Mark Morgan said the
15-year loan will be paid off
much earlier than 15 years
because the city and Uma-
tilla County have pledged
to each contribute their
$500,000-per-year
pay-
ments in lieu of taxes from
Lamb Weston’s expansion
(which should start in 2019).
The county will contrib-
uted $2 million over four
years under that plan and the
city will cover all expenses
beyond that, estimated at
about $2.5 million.
County
commissioner
George Murdock couldn’t
make the meeting due to
illness but expressed in an
email to the East Oregonian
that the county was “solidly
behind the project” that will
use Lamb Weston funds to
promote economic devel-
opment in the community
where the food processor is
expanding.
“Both the City and the
County clearly identified
housing as the major issue,
which is why we were able
to forge an agreement that
as we see it will begin with
infrastructure and capacity
and then lead to hundreds
of new homes,” he wrote.
Councilor
resignation
One absence on the
council dais Monday was
a reflection of the resigna-
tion of councilor Clara Beas
Fitzgerald, who submitted a
letter of resignation earlier
this month. She stated in her
letter that she had become
overwhelmed with her
duties, including a full-time
job, various committees and
caring for an ailing family
member, and decided to step
back early from the council
to make way for someone
who could give the position
more of their time.
The council voted to
accept her resignation, and
Drotzmann said he knew
that Beas Fitzgerald would
continue to represent the
city of Hermiston well on
other committees she is on,
including the Oregon Com-
mission for Women.
“We’re always sad to
lose a city council member
that has been a good, hard
worker for the city,” he said.
City manager Byron
Smith said usually the coun-
cil would take applications
for two weeks and then have
a committee review them
before choosing someone to
fulfill the remainder of the
term. However, in this case
there are only about five
months left in the term, and
voters already chose Roy
Barron to fill the seat for the
new term starting Jan. 1. As
a result, he suggested voting
to suspend the council rules
and name Barron to fill the
remainder of the year.
Councilor John Kirwan
said he wasn’t comfort-
able suspending the council
rules with so many council-
ors absent, and the council
agreed to hold off on a vote
until the next meeting.
Smith said he had met
with Barron and Barron
had said he was willing to
fill the seat early. The two
had another meeting set for
Barron to take a tour of city
facilities and get up to speed
on city issues.
City finances
On Monday the council
also listened to an informa-
tional presentation by city
finance director Mark Kraw-
czyk about the 2017-2018
fiscal year, which ended
June 30. He said the city had
until the end of August to
settle outstanding bills but
not much should change.
Krawczyk, who started
with the city in December
after former finance direc-
tor Amy Palmer left, said
he was extremely impressed
with the city’s handling of
its finances.
“I would put our results
at year end — regardless of
size of operation — against
anyone in the country,” he
said.
The city’s investments are
performing well, it brought
in more revenue than pro-
jected and every department
in the general fund spent
under what was budgeted.
“Everyone is under bud-
get. Nobody is over that’s
made up for by somebody
that was under,” Kraw-
czyk said, noting that was
extremely rare for a city. “...
That tells me we have an
exceptional staff.”
The general fund’s end-
ing balance came to about
$3.37 million — well above
the $1.7 million minimum
the city has set, despite the
city shelling out hundreds of
thousands of dollars extra in
2017-2018 toward the new
senior center and for equip-
ment at the Eastern Ore-
gon Trade and Event Cen-
ter. Smith said the city
couldn’t afford to spend like
that every year but had the
money available to spend
down some of the general
fund this past year while still
staying comfortably above
the minimum reserve.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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