Bend councilors repeal city’s plastic bag ban

It was a busy Bend City Council agenda for this Wednesday night’s meeting, including a repeal of the city’s ban on single-use plastic bags in the wake of the Legislature approving a similar statewide law that begins Jan. 1.

Back in December, the council adopted a plastic bag ban, to begin July 1 with an education campaign and enforcement in 2020.

Then, a few months later, state lawmakers passed a similar law that would ban single use bags across the state, starting next January.

The two bans are similar, but the biggest differences are the city’s ban allows for a 10-cent minimum charge for a reusable bag, where the state ban would only charge 5 cents.

Despite some citizen calls to keep it in place, councilors decided unanimously (a 6-0 vote, with Mayor Sally Russell absent) to repeal the city’s ban, saying they feel the state-wide ban achieves what they set out to accomplish.

Several councilors also said that following the statewide ban will likely help cut down on confusion surrounding the rules.

Councilors also approved settlement of a long and costly legal fight over expansion of the city’s water reclamation plant.

About six years ago, the city contracted with a Washington company, Apollo Inc. But the city said Apollo quickly fell behind, so they decided to move on and reduce their role in the project — to “de-scope” the firm, as Councilor Justin Livingston said Wednesday night in outlining the situation.

They held back some money for work already done, which led to legal action, and eventually to mediation. Apollo, in turn, came after the city for money lost.

Under the settlement councilors agreed, the city will pay $3.2 million to Apollo, and the engineering firm CH2M-Hill will pay them $1.4 million.

“I believe the settlement agreement is fair for all parties, recognizes the city’s damage that we had, recognizes some design issues the city and contractor had with the designer,” Livingston said.

Changes were made in how projects go out to bid and contract, and “other projects turned out very well,” he said. “We’ve learned some lessons. Sometimes, jobs go bad. I think we have a reasonable resolution to that.”

City Manager Eric King said the mess did lead the city to change some of its practice, moving away from low-bid contracts on such projects to an alternative bidding process, or the construction manager/general contractor partnerships, “so we don’t get into these adversarial relationships.”

Councilor Bill Moseley said he knows some in the public will say, “Oh, the city is paying a lawsuit again.” But in this situation, he said, “I believe the council is doing the right thing. We could have paid $2 million in legal fees just to get to the next step, and risked far greater losses” if the case went to trial.

Councilors also held a second reading and gave final approval to a move to allow creating temporary parking restrictions for parts of the city.

The city manager will be able create the temporary parking restrictions in areas that are within 500 feet of the Deschutes River and between Mt. Washington Drive and Reed Market Road, as well as areas zoned for industrial uses.

The code will allow for restrictions to be put in place, as well as distribute permits when deemed necessary.

City Streets and Operations Director David Abbas said the goal is to help minimize problem areas in the city during an interim period. The city plans to establish a Parking Services Division that will be able to better oversee parking needs in the city.

“This temporary parking restriction area is kind of a quick strike,” Abbas said. “The idea is that these places potentially become permanent, it’s not a guarantee. But up to two years, anything longer than two years needs to be approved by council. So it’s kind of a quick strike and additional tool until that Parking Services Division is really able to get up and running.”

One of the areas Abbas identified is the streets around McKay Park. He said as other problem areas arise, the city will work to create solutions.