Working on smoothing out cooperation between the two governing bodies

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news 

Ashland City Council and Parks & Recreation Commissioners concluded a joint study session Wednesday evening another step closer to an ordinance that promises to smooth out cooperation between the two governing bodies. 

“We would like to foster a collaborative culture in elected leadership based on mutual respect and shared understanding of unique governing structure,” Bachman said. 

This time Ashland City Council and Mayor Tonya Graham joined the Parks Commissioners at their study session with APRC Commissioner Chair Jim Bachman leading the meeting, but over time each body will take turns hosting each other, Bachman said. There will be more meetings of both bodies and a continuation of “small group” meetings composed of Councilor Paula Hyatt, Mayor Tonya Graham, Chair Bachman, and Commissioner Justin Adams. 

The small group has already met several times to create a roadmap of how the two bodies could work together to hire key positions such as the city attorney or parks director or how they should come together to resolve disputes related to operations, potential lawsuits or the city charter, according to meeting materials.

For the position of city attorney, both governing bodies came to consensus they should share in the hiring process to ensure the potential attorney would be prepared to advise both bodies and all elected officials would have a chance to weigh in on the candidate. The potential hiring process for a city manager could include an “informal meet and greet” to ensure all elected officers have a chance to meet the candidate without creating an unnecessarily intimidating interview process. The final decision would rest with councilors because they hold fiduciary responsibility for the city, Bachman said.

“We want to be a department in every respect, to be within the city umbrella like a normal department, except that we are governed by a separate elected body,” he said. 

Both bodies agreed on a process to iron out disagreements with the exception of those related to the city charter’s proper interpretation. Disputes related to funds, labor contracts or other smaller matters should be resolved through a joint meeting with experts or relevant staff present. In the event such a disagreement involves the city charter, the draft document proposed taking the issue to the voters. 

Councilor Eric Hansen stated taking an issue to the voters is expensive, time consuming and would unnecessarily burden the people with elected official’s work. Councilor Jeff Dahle agreed and stated the city attorney should be a reliable source for interpreting the city charter. 

Councilor Gina DuQuenne spoke in favor of keeping the proposed mechanism because the composition of each elected body will change and the voters should have the final say. 

Bachman stated he was leaning toward removing the provision from the ordinance but would leave the discussion to be carried on by the small group. 

Commissioner Stefani Seffinger stated the ordinance would need to be able to withstand previous memorandums of understanding created between the City Council and APRC commissioners in how the groups work together or how funding is allocated and controlled. Bachman stated the ordinance being drafted would be intended to replace all the previous memorandums of understanding in this detailed document. 

The small group will work over edits discussed throughout the meeting, then the edited document will again be discussed in joint session before being turned over to city staff to be turned into an ordinance, Graham stated at the close of the meeting. An additional joint session to work with a potential ordinance was tentatively planned for September. 

In other business Wednesday, both bodies heard a detailed presentation on the Envision Bear Creek Greenway project and a potential to create a new governance structure for the multi-modal pathway in the hopes of leveraging more funding and cooperation to complete a series of goals including enhanced public safety, ecological restoration and fire prevention, said Steve Lambert, roads and parks director for Jackson County. 

Envision Bear Creek’s two-year long work with focus groups, public input, specialist input and committee brainstorming has come to a series of recommendations intended to address public hopes and concerts for the Greenway, Lambert said. First, local control but a steady stream of tax funding could be secured by creating a county service district with an accompanying intergovernmental agreement including the five cities — Medford, Central Point, Phoenix, Talent and Ashland — in conjunction with the Oregon Department of Transportation.

 The associated tax levy from the service district would be roughly 20 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, he said. The envision project estimates it will cost $2.1 million annually to create a park ranger-based law enforcement team specific to the Greenway, conduct the necessary amount of riparian restoration for habitat and wildfire prevention and complete necessary repairs and facility upgrades. 

Additional information on the Greenway is available on the Jackson County website or the Greenway Facebook page. 

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at morganr@ashland.news.