Bend City Council OKs Roats to take seat

After nearly three hours of discussion and questions to the top vote-getter, Bend city councilors voted 5-2 Monday evening to find Casey Roats qualified to take his seat in January, along with two other new colleagues.

The council held a special meeting to interview Roats and decide if he qualified to take the seat, despite having lived at his parents’ home outside the city for much of the previous year.

The voter-approved city charter dictates that a candidate for council must be a resident of the city for the 12 months before the election, though it does not define residency. The issue arose around the time ballots were mailed out, and also led to legal action.

Councilor Mark Capell made the motion to declare Roats qualified to be councilor, and the motion was seconded by Scott Ramsay — the two men who lost their bid for re-election this fall. Councilors Doug Knight and Mayor Jim Clinton voted no.

Nearly 30 people were at City Hall for the unprecedented special meeting, which was not a public hearing but focused on the record, the interview with Roats and a 12-page legal brief from City Attorney laying out the record, case law and issues to decide upon.

Winters spent the first 45 minutes of the three-hour session describing the information she gathered on the issues.

Councilors then asked her about other similar cases to clear up some issues. Knight asked whether it should be the current council that makes the decision, or the new one that would serve with him starting in January. It was determined the current one would make the decision.

“We stayed with them (my parents),” Roats told the council. “It was temporary. You know, all of our mail stayed in town. We never had any utility bills. It wasn’t a place we leased or rented. And again, as I’ve said, we were hoping it was going to be a shorter period of time, but it just took us longer to build it (the new home in Bend) than what we’d hoped.”

After councilors asked questions of Roats, they began making their arguments about what to do.

Clinton said it was very clear that the “plain text” of the charter should be what they uphold. He said if Roats had pitched a tent within Bend city limits, it would be a different story but because he actually slept in the county, he did not reside in the city and was thus not qualified.

Councilor Jodie Barram said because Roats kept his personal belongings in storage units in Bend and did not unpack boxes in his parents’ home, she felt it clearly showed his intent to live in his new Bend home, once construction was finished.

Colleague Sally Russell was not convinced until the end, saying midway through the discussion that it was an “awkward decision” for councilors to be faced with.

After the vote, Roats told NewsChannel 21’s Katie Higgins, “I’m very thankful the council took the issue up” and followed the rules set out in the charter to be “the final decision-making body,” rather than in court, dealing with it “in-house, like we’re supposed to, with our home-rule charter.”

The findings will be adopted Wednesday evening at the council’s regular meeting. More information on Council meeting agendas can be found at www.bendoregon.gov/councilagenda