Meeting, settlement ends Bend gas tax language challenge

A settlement meeting Wednesday led to a compromise that resolved a challenge filed by opponents to Bend’s proposed gas tax to one sentence in the March ballot measure’s explanatory statement.

Bend attorney and former mayor Jeff Eager, hired by area fuel retailers to assist their opposition effort, had filed a challenge Wednesday to a sentence in the statement that said “Over 20 cities in Oregon have adopted a motor vehicle fuel tax.”

Eager argued the sentence was “misleading,” in that 24 of the state’s 242 cities have enacted local gas taxes.

Deschutes County Clerk Nancy Blankenship, who received the challenge, had scheduled a Thursday morning hearing for both sides and a ruling by Friday, to stay on a timeline for voters pamphlet and ballot mailings for the March 8 election.

Bend City Attorney Mary Winters said in an email that she, Associate City Attorney Ian Leitheiser and County Legal Counsel David Doyle met with Eager Wednesday afternoon at the county officers, at Doyle’s suggestion, to see if a “compromise solution” could be reached before Thursday’s hearing.

Eager put the agreement in writing that the city was willing to stipulate to modification of the explanatory statement, replacing the challenged wording with, “Presently, 24 cities in Oregon have adopted a motor vehicle fuel tax.”

Winters said she would not have agreed to any larger change without council approval, “but on talking it over with the mayor and city manager, with this minor language change, the explanatory statement remains accurate, clear and impartial and is consistent with our other election materials.”

Even before the campaign really begins, opponents of Bend’s proposed 5 cent per gallon gas tax are raising objections, filing a challenge Tuesday to one line in the city’s ballot measure explanatory statement that they consider misleading.

The original language, Eager wrote to Blankenship, “is not impartial. It is, in fact, misleading,” as “there are 242 incorporated cities in the state of Oregon.” Based on records and media reports, he said, there are now 24 cities in Oregon with a city fuel tax, or less than 10 percent.

Eager added that the use of “over” by the city “fails the impartiality test. That language could mean any number of cities, including all 242. This is clearly not an impartial way of explaining the fact that only 24 out of 242 cities in Oregon have adopted a fuel tax.”

The attorney recommended that Blankenship substitute this language for that line: “Twenty-four of the 242 incorporated cities in Oregon have adopted a motor vehicle fuel tax.”

In response, City Recorder Robyn Christie told NewsChannel 21 by email, “City staff believe that the language in the explanatory statement is factual and unbiased. It will be up to the county clerk to make that determination.”

Blankenship, following county code, scheduled a challenge and review hearing at her office at 10 a.m. Thursday. She said Tuesday it would have been the first such hearing held by the county clerk in 13 years and the first of her tenure in office.

City Councilor Doug Knight took Eager to task over his complaint, pointing to the subject line in Eager’s email, which read, “Fewer than 10 percent of cities in Oregon have adopted a fuel tax.”

“If he describes saying ‘more than 20 cities’ is ambiguous, than certainly saying ‘fewer 10 percent’ is just as ambiguous, if not as inflammatory.” Knight told NewsChannel 21.

“He can shoot shots across the bow, but no way this is going down,” the councilor added.

Blankenship said she is anxious to stick to the deadlines for the March 8 special election, which includes a Jan. 23 mailing of voters pamphlets to overseas military voters, 45 days before the ballots are counted.