New Bend City Council reflects on past year, begins setting 2021 goals

Councilors discuss how the past year has affected their 2021 goals

BEND, Ore (KTVZ) -- On a day when a new president took office, Bend's newly constituted city council reflected on its goals of the past year on Wednesday as it began efforts to lay out priorities for 2021.

"I think what's happened to me in the last 10 months is, I am motivated to be an elected official,” newly elected Councilor Rita Schenkelberg said.

The council, with four newly elected member, began two days of goal-setting sessions on Wednesday, before and after their first regular business meeting of the year Wednesday night.

The focus of the sessions was to figure out how to best address issues such as housing, transportation, pandemic assistance and race relations, within the context of the past year and progress made on the big issues.

The councilors spoke about their experience with the pandemic, racial unrest and political divide and how that has changed the way they look at local governance.

Schenkelberg spoke about how the protests over racial injustice inspired her to get involved.

"I ran and was elected on what I saw during the protests,” Schenkelberg said. “When I watched cities across the county and cities specifically, there is a missing piece of what its like to be BIPOC individual and a queer BIPOC individual within towns that are smaller like ours that are mostly white."

Veteran Councilor Barb Campbell reflected emotionally on the tremendous losses she has faced during the pandemic.

"First, I lost my business, and then I lost my mom, and then I lost my dad, through just neglect,” Campbell said.

Julia Novak, facilitator of the meeting, acknowledged that different experiences may cause different responses and that it’s just a part of politics.

"When all the facts are known, you all may disagree. And that's acceptable,” Novak said. “Once we have all the facts, we can come to different conclusions. And that's when you start to do politics."

While each councilor has a unique background and different responsibilities, the council emphasized their goal is to make sure every voice is heard.

"I wanted to have those conversations,” Schenkelberg said.  

“I wanted to be at the table so I could say, 'Hey, that doesn't serve me' -- and there are many me's, and I want to make sure the me's get to have a voice, and their needs are also being met by the city that they love and that they already live in."

The goal-setting meeting will resume Thursday morning with a more specific focus on policy goals.