Bend council will decide if Roats qualified

The Bend City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to hold a Dec. 1 special meeting to hear from top vote-getter Casey Roats why he believes he’s qualified to join the council, despite having lived outside the city for much of the past year.

The Bend City Charter dictates that candidates must be a city resident for the 12 months preceding the election, but in the final weeks of the campaign, Roats acknowledged he had stayed with his parents at their home just outside the city for much of that time while his new home in the city was being built.

The city charter also says it’s up to the city council to decide if someone is a qualified candidate, should an issue arise. So it will meet at 3 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 1 to “give the candidate Roats the opportunity to present evidence and argument as to why he believes he is qualified,” according t the motion made by Councilor Victor Chudowsky and seconded by colleague Scott Ramsay.

“The council may ask candidate Roats questions regarding his qualification to serve as a councilor,” the motion read; Chudowsky noted that it won’t be a public hearing, and councilors won’t talk to attorneys involved in the matter.

“After giving candidate Roats the opportunity to present his case, the council will deliberate and decide whether he was a qualified candidate,” the agreed-to motion stated.

“If the council determines that candidate Roats was a qualified candidate, the council will make findings and proceed with certification of elected councilors at the December 3 council meeting. the motion concluded.

Ramsay noted that the discussion will not entail “whether he’d be a good city councilor,” only whether he is qualified in light of the residency issue and related issues about addresses given on voter registration forms.

Bend lawyer Charlie Ringo, supporter of unsuccessful council candidate Lisa Seales, has filed a lawsuit against Roats and the city recorder, asking that a judge declare him ineligible to serve.

But as councilors noted Wednesday night, the city charter makes clear it’s a city council decision, no matter how uncomfortable or awkward that might be.

Mayor Jim Clinton noted that the city of Bend operates as a municipal corporation, and that courts decide issues that are not in the carter — but this one is. And as a result, he changed his views on the matter and believes it’s up to the council to interpret what “resident” means in the charter.

“When it first came up, I thought it would be not great to have the city council deciding” who takes a council seat, Clinton as it “sounds like an insider situation, after a contested campaign — a lot of political considerations, legal considerations.”

But the mayor added, “My feelings toward that charter position are irrelevant. That’s what the charter says, and that’s what we will do.”

In fact, Clinton said the issue goes beyond Bend, as they “have an obligation to other cities to protect the authority of other cities. I don’t think it’s appropriate for the courts to be in the middle of this thing. It’s our responsibility.”

“As far as I know, we have never been in this situation before” in Bend, the mayor added.

The Roats matter took only a few minutes, and only one resident — regular councilor speaker Keith Scott — spoke to the big issue on many minds in Bend: the job done plowing roads after the recent snowstorm. He pointed out the high, wide berms left at the end of many driveways. City Manager Eric King laid out what the city had done at the end of the night.

After a detailed presentation of a sewer infrastructure advisory group’s recommendations at a work session, the lengthiest discussion of the night came in testimony and deliberation about the makeup of a 23- — make that 24-member Vacation Rental Task Force, to tackle the issues that have many residents up in arms and worried about the hollowing out of established neighborhoods.

Several residents of neighborhoods with many short-term vacation rentals raised issues about the chosen group, made up of citizens who requested appointment (among 50 applicants) and invited representatives of Visit Bend and the Bend Chamber.

Critics said they felt the task force was being stacked with too many pro-tourism and pro-business advocates — and some councilors did suggest they’d be open to removing the Chamber or others to what could be an unwieldy committee, in terms of its size.

In the end, the council made one change adding bed-and-breakfast owner Anne Goldner as a full voting member, rather than just the alternate, non-voting position recommended by the city’s planning commission and two councilors.

The task force, which holds its first meeting Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. at the North Fire Station on Jamison Street, will make recommendations to the planning commission and ultimately city council on ways “to protect neighborhood livability from the impacts caused by a changing tourism/vacation market,” as the city’s resolution stated.

Learn more about the task force plans and find a link to the agenda and documents at this page on the city’s Website.