Dunes City Council    Approved MINUTES    September 29, 2011 at 5:00 pm

Special Session

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1.     Call to order     

Mayor Rebecca Ruede called the meeting of the Dunes City Council to order at 5:07 pm .  

2.     Roll call

Roll Call was taken by City Recorder Fred Hilden .

Present:  Mayor Rebecca Ruede , Council President Jamie Mills , Councilor Troy Sathe ,
Councilor Richard Koehler , Councilor Richard Anderson and Councilor
Ed Scarberry.  

Absent:  Councilor Duke Wells was absent and excused.  

Also Present:  City Recorder Fred Hilden and several citizens.  

3.     Pledge of Allegiance  

All who were present stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.  

4.     Approval of the agenda  

Councilor Anderson made a motion to approve the Agenda as presented.  The motion was seconded by Council President Mills.  Discussion followed with Councilor Koehler expressing concern that this meeting was originally identified as a work session, but is now identified as a special session, and that with 45 pages of support information, insufficient review time was not given.  Councilor Mills asked what information required a great deal of review, since most of the information distributed was existing City Code and Ordinances.  Mayor Ruede explained how the session would be conducted.  Mayor Ruede called for the question and the motion passed by a vote of 4 to 1 with Councilor Koehler voting nay.  

5.     Consent Agenda – None  

6.   Announcements / Correspondence – None  

7.   Citizen Input  

Susie Navetta , Dunes City resident:  Spoke about losing committees, stating that it would be a stupid thing to do to get rid of committees.  The benefit of input from citizens is valuable to the City.  In the past, the time and effort put into activities on behalf of the City by volunteers is monumental.  It is time to return to constant committee meetings being held the way they are supposed to be held, at least once a month.  The City has not been following those rules and they need to go back to doing that.  Water Quality Committee has a provision that allows for getting rid of members who fail to attend meetings.  She stated she is on the Parks and Rec Committee and there are people on that committee that don’t believe we should have tourism.  I don’t know what they believe in if they don’t believe in tourism.  These people shouldn’t be on that committee.  They should be on another committee, but not that committee.  She believes that the City should take a look at the committees and bolster them, rather than destroy them.  

John Stead, Dunes City resident:  I would like to commend all of you for undertaking this work that you are doing right now.  I notice that you are looking at six ordinances.  I didn’t total the number of pages, but there is at least 30 pages of legal-ese that you’re supposed to figure out what you are going to do with it and that takes a lot of work.  Another thing I wanted to mention that it seems like for the last 10 years the City has periodically talked about the need for a municipal judge.  Nothing has happened, so I prepared for you this evening a one-pager that spells out what the City Charter says about the municipal judge and how the City can appoint an officer to serve as the municipal judge.  The municipal judge is a state-wide organization, and many small cities are managing it this way.  I sit on the finance committee for the City and one of the things we look at and discuss is how is the City is going to do what it needs to do as far as ordinance enforcement and perhaps generating some revenue to support those kinds of activities.  Many cities use their municipal judge as a revenue stream.  Perhaps it is time for Dunes City to participate along those lines.  

The City Recorder read a letter from Jerry Curran into the record.   

8.  Committee/Commission Reports – None  

9.  Public Hearing – None  

10.  Unfinished/Old Business  

Standing Commissions and Committees – Council President Mills gave some background information and explained why the Ordinance Review Committee asked for this work session to be scheduled.  She went on to explain that the Ordinance Review Committee is looking at possibly standardizing the language for the committees as to the basics like what is a quorum, does the Chairman vote, etc.  

Water Quality Committee:  Council President Mills stated that she believes the Water Quality Committee is one vital to the community and that it should continue doing the job that it is doing, and that she hopes the Ordinance Review Committee will work itself out of a job.  

In reply to Council President Mills’ comments, Mayor Ruede stated that when she was Chairman of the Communication and Education Committee, it was very laborious to get a newsletter published by the Committee.  At that time, her Committee members expressed their opinion that maybe the need for the Committee had passed, in that there is other media available and that each Committee could do their own communication.  

Councilor Sathe suggested that the Ordinance Review Committee use the Road Commission’s language as a sample as far as quorum, the Chairman voting, etc.  It took three months for the Road Commission to hammer out that language and get it passed.  

Council President Mills explained that all the Ordinance Review Committee is looking for is an idea of what committees should continue and which are no longer needed, expressing her opinion that some committees should actually be a function of the Planning Commission, and don’t necessarily need to exist.  She asked that the discussion on the Site Review Committee and Conservation Committee be put off until the discussion of Code Enforcement.  

Councilor Koehler expressed his opinion that all language for the committees should be the same, especially the clause that exists in some committees that addresses members that aren’t attending and other problems, and that should be part of the standardized language.  When talking about eliminating communication, it is really a danger zone.  He supports strengthening that committee, rather than eliminating it.  He also expressed the need to establish set goals.  Councilor Koehler asserted that when those that are supposed to be leading the committees do lead and get input from the members of the committee, it works.  

Mayor Ruede also pointed out a need to standardize the terms of the committee members, as some now expire with the fiscal year on June 30, and some are January 1, the calendar year. Mayor Ruede asked if there were further comments regarding the Water Quality Committee.  Hearing none, discussion turned to the Planning Commission.  

Planning Commission:  Councilor Sathe stated his only concern with the Planning Commission is that there is one more member on the Planning Commission than what is provided for by Ordinance.  Councilor Sathe expressed his opinion that the additional member should stay, given all the work the Commission is doing right now.  Discussion followed with the City Recorder clarifying that the Planning Commission is required by state law so it can’t be done away with, but standardizing the language as to a quorum, when the Chairman votes and doesn’t vote, the voting powers of the Vice-chairman while acting as Chairman and so on, should be addressed.  

Road Commission:  Councilor Sathe explained that the Road Commission has pretty much gone through its ordinances and has gotten all its language cleaned up themselves.  He doesn’t believe there is much to talk about on the Road Commission.  

Parks and Recreation Commission:  Councilor Koehler explained that Parks and Recreation Commission has a problem.  A couple of members over the past six months, haven’t been able to attend, which puts the committee in jeopardy because it can’t hold meetings.  I have been sick for the last couple of months, so there have been problems with that.  As Ms. Navetta noted, some members don’t believe we need tourism.  I think that is an impediment to progress, because the primary issue with parks is that we need to deal with recreation.  With that comes the motels and information on a grander scale through the web and our newsletter.  I would like to see that continue and to be able to include in the re-vamped ordinance, the ability to remove members when they are not present.  

Mayor Ruede asked if it would be helpful to add additional members so it would be easier to get a quorum.  Councilor Koehler responded maybe, but there is little workload.  Since the parks have not been legitimized on a county map, we can only deal with recreation.  What it does is allow people that are interested in recreation that goes beyond conservation, site review, and water quality - people that are artists, to have a part in the community.  That is the essence of all committees; to be able to have people of different backgrounds contribute in different ways.  

Councilor Sathe stated that if we had auxiliaries for everybody, then if you didn’t have enough members, one of your auxiliary members could create the quorum.  Even though the Council didn’t allow this before, Councilor Sathe stated he still has people in the audience of the meetings every month and then when there are open seats, we have people who were up to speed to fill those slots.  If we had auxiliaries for every committee, we would have a group of prepared individuals that could be up to speed on everything and step right in.  

Mayor Ruede expressed concern on insurance issues with regard to auxiliaries and why not just add a couple members to each committee.  She stated auxiliary members might be considered the step-child.  

Councilor Koehler stated it is incumbent upon the chair of the committee to whip up the enthusiasm of the members.  Usually if there are things on the agenda to be done and the rest of the committee members don’t do it, the chair does it, which is okay, but it is important that the chair elicits some contribution from others.  

Mayor Ruede asked Councilor Sathe to explain the auxiliary idea in more detail.  Councilor Sathe complied, pointing out that when a group gets together to do something on the roads, they all sign in at City Hall and when finished, they sign out so that it is all covered by insurance.  We need to make sure that as chairs of a committee we don’t take over and make them feel unimportant.  We need to make sure our members feel special and want to come to every meeting.  

Communication and Education Committee.  Councilor Anderson pointed out that once again the City is not consistent because the resolution states there shall be two members we have to get from outside the Council.  Councilor Anderson suggested that the Communication and Education Committee be split into two committees because if you look at the duties, which he listed, that’s a pretty tall order for a small committee.  If Dunes City was to divide the committee into two, it would be more manageable.  Also, I would like to see the reference to “managing the website” changed to “oversee the website” because people on the committee may not be qualified.  I think that some of these events that have been done in the past were done by prior committee chairman, with help, of course.  (Susie Navetta added from the audience that it takes about 60 people to put on the Festival of the Lakes and that you certainly wouldn’t want 60 people on your committee.)  

Mayor Ruede said regarding the newsletter, each Councilor is responsible for getting their report for the newsletter and on the last newsletter we had a volunteer, Mary Jo Leach, who did a lot of work.  City Recorder Fred Hilden did all of the layout and design.  City Recorder Fred Hilden interjected that it took 10 to 20 hours of volunteer time.  

Councilor Koehler expressed concern to Councilor Anderson that he only has one member on his committee at this point and asked how he elicits contributions from other people?  The answer is through the newsletter.  Councilor Koehler concurred that the duties of the committee are many, but stated that what it does to bring the community together is outstanding.  

Mayor Ruede asked Councilor Anderson what he would like to see happen.  He stated he was just throwing out an idea for consideration and that he is unsure.  Councilor Anderson went on to say that overseeing the website could be easily managed, but that the other duties should be separated out into two committees so we don’t overload people.  

Mayor Ruede suggested that anything that has to do with planned events should be taken over by the Parks and Recreation Committee.  The website is overseen by office staff through the City Recorder.  She stated she believes communication could be done by each individual Committee.  Mayor Ruede went on to say she would like to see more enthusiasm for the community by news releases to the Community at large as to what we are doing, and news releases to the media like the radio and newspapers.  She added a progress report could be done by each committee for the newsletter.  Councilor Anderson inquired on more detail.  The Mayor elaborated.  

Mayor Ruede asked if the Community could be better served by doing away with the Communication and Education Committee and restructuring its duties in other ways?  

Councilor Sathe stated his greatest concern is putting more work on City staff and that he would not vote for anything that would put more responsibility on City staff.

Councilor Koehler asserted the need to establish goals.  

Mayor Ruede asked if the City Recorder had input to add.  The Recorder indicated he feels that doing away with the Communication and Education Committee would be a huge mistake.  He elaborated on reasons.  He added that the newsletter advertising could be a money-maker for the City and pointed out that the City has obligations to advertisers of the last newsletter.  

Council President Mills commented on the division of the committee into two separate committees, stating that it makes sense to her.  As far as communication goes, we all know that our policy is that nothing gets communicated to the public until it comes to the Council for approval first, so that would work.  Regarding education, Council President Mills suggested that since each committee probably has something that needs to be communicated to the citizens.  She stated that perhaps an education component needs to be included in each committee duty description.  Education would be covered by all the committees and communication would be a separate committee.  That way the committees would avoid “stepping on toes”, and each committee could go through the budget process to receive funding for whatever educational project they have in mind, or seek grant funding or sponsorship on its own.  

Mayor Ruede pointed out that it was the membership of the Parks and Recreation Committee that suggested that the planning of events task be taken over by the Parks and Recreation Committee.  

Councilor Anderson expressed a desire to know just how many people actually read the newsletter, because he knows so many who just throw it away.  That’s a shame.  Also, do we have a way to know how many hits we get on our website?  Councilor Koehler said it was difficult to do.  

Councilor Sathe stated that the Road Commission would like to see a blog on the website where people could post questions and those questions could be answered.  Councilor Koehler indicated he would look into it.  

Councilor Anderson inquired as to progress in getting email addresses, as it would cut the costs down.  Discussion followed.   The City Recorder pointed out that typically the advertisers want printed copy.  

Mayor Ruede announced a break from policy to allow comment from the audience.  

Susie Navetta:  I would like to share some information on why you have the committee in the first place.  She gave a brief history, pointing out that the Comprehensive Plan requires education.  Later, in conjunction with the water right, the water department demanded that we give people ideas on water conservation.  So we had to do the education and we thought what better way to do it than with a festival that was fun, so we combined education with fun.  It worked extremely well.  The newsletter was what was used to promote the festival.  

Councilor Koehler pointed out that all of the newsletters, back to 2000, are on the website.  

Councilor Sathe asked if the Parks and Recreation Committee could handle the festival, the pot luck and the Christmas Party.  

Councilor Koehler said his time commitments probably would not allow him to take on those duties, but it is an idea that involves more people.  It is too much of a burden on one or two people.  

Discussion occurred regarding mandates to committees such as the festivals, events, etc.  The Mayor stated her belief that it should be left up to the committees whether such events should take place.  Councilor Anderson suggested that we use Susie Navetta to head up that portion.  The Mayor pointed out that it should be the committee chair who seeks out those special volunteers.  

The membership of the Communication and Education Committee was discussed with the City Recorder indicating that the Committee had been operating outside the mandates of the Resolution for the last couple of years in that it has three members in addition to the chair, rather than two as is set out in the resolution.  

Councilor Mills pointed out that the draft language of the Ordinance to create the Communication and Education Committee that was never adopted contains language that allows for the appointment of other volunteers for special purposes.  Perhaps that language should be included in the language for all committees.  The City Recorder pointed out that the language is in the current Resolution as well.  

Councilor Anderson inquired if that means we are leaning toward keeping the current duties as they are?  

Council President Mills stated that all of the ideas that are being discussed will be taken to the Ordinance Review Committee, who will come up with language that will be brought back to the Council to hash out and decide.  

Regarding whether or not to include mandates, Councilor Anderson stated that it should be a decision of the Council on an annual basis, rather than mandating, as things change.  Council President Mills stated that brings it back to the goal setting.  She asserted her support of annual goal setting sessions.  The City Recorder pointed out that due to various changes in elected officials, the two pending lawsuits, and the re-organization of the office due to the loss of the planning secretary position, the Council has had a lot on its plate, but should be able to schedule a goal setting session after the first of the year.  

Council President Mills offered to take the comments made this evening regarding the Communication and Education Committee back to the Ordinance Review Committee to draft language and bring it back for discussion at a future date.  

Councilor Koehler stated that it cannot be done until after the goal setting session.  Councilor Sathe stated that at the request of the Mayor, earlier this year each committee was asked to develop a mission statement and list the annual goals of the committees.  

Council President Mills stated her concern with waiting was that the Planning Commission and the Ordinance Review Committee are on a deadline because of the grant and we would like to get everything in to be codified, so that any changes will be incorporated into the codification.  I think by spring of next year is the goal and I don’t think there would be time to wait.   

The Mayor expressed her opinion that the creation of this committee by Resolution is sufficient.  Councilor Koehler believes it should be in ordinance form, since we’re doing ordinances anyway.  

Revenue Committee.  Councilor Scarberry reviewed the Formation Ordinance.  He pointed out that currently there is a vacancy on the committee that has caused some problems in getting a quorum.  The Committee has discussed the possibility of a municipal judge and some if its members believe the City needs some sort of “fine” process.  The one thing the Committee hasn’t tackled is the grant writing.  At this point, Councilor Scarberry continued, the Committee has basically done its duties.  He raised a question about the mandate to hold monthly meetings, because, at this point, it seems redundant.  He suggested a change in the meeting scheduling to at least quarterly, rather than monthly.

Council President Mills asked Councilor Scarberry if he felt the Revenue Committee was necessary.  He indicated that he had asked himself the same question and explained why.  Councilor Scarberry doesn’t support doing away with it completely, but go to a quarterly schedule or something.  Mayor Ruede suggested that if we did do away with the Committee, if a need arises at a later date, we could always create an Ad Hoc Committee to do the project.  Councilor Scarberry prefers not doing away with the committee but cutting back on the frequency of meetings.  

Councilor Koehler said grant writing is of vital importance and doing away with the committee is a bad idea.  He suggested meetings every two months.  He would suggest more concentration on grants.  

Councilor Sathe added that the Formation Ordinance does not provide for voting privileges of the chairman, establishment of a quorum and other basics that should be addressed.  

City Recorder Fred Hilden suggested that perhaps the name of the committee should be changed to include a reference to the grants portion.  He suggested the Revenue and Grants Committee.  

Councilor Sathe asked if that was something Gary Baker might do.  The City Recorder responded.  Councilor Mills suggested the Planning Commission should do the DLCD grants.  Councilor Mills also believes that grants should also be a part of every committee.  

Mayor Ruede called for a five minute recess at 6:45 p.m. Mayor Ruede called the meeting back to order at 6:55 p.m.  

Code Enforcement Ordinance.  Councilor Anderson pointed out that there are a number of inconsistencies in the present Conservation Committee Ordinance and the Planning Commission is working on making changes.  He asked for clarification of the resolution provision that mandates site review for any permit on a site contiguous to a lake or Class F fish bearing stream.  The way the resolution is written, there is no indication of a requirement of close proximity to the lake or stream.  

Council President Mills expressed her opinion that the Conservation Committee has two duties.  One is to do site review and make report back to the Planning Commission regarding building issues and the other is code violations.  She indicated she would like to see changes made so that the Conservation Committee, in its capacity as review for building, should be a subcommittee of the Planning Commission, not to the City Council.  Regarding Code Enforcement, Councilor Mills would like to address separately as Code Enforcement in Dunes City and not a part of the Conservation Committee or Site Review Committee.  

Discussion was had regarding which streams are considered Class F fish bearing streams.  

Council President  Mills asked if the Council could hear from the Planning Commission.  In the absence of Planning Commission Chairman Lee Riechel, Mayor Ruede called Planning Vice-Chairman George Burke to come forward.  

Planning Vice-Chairman George Burke , representing the Planning Commission:  There is no problem right now with the way the Ordinance is written and we do need the oversight of the riparian and shoreland areas as far as building goes.  The task before the Planning Commission right now is to make our Code clear and objective.  One of the biggest problems we have had pointed out is the City’s liability for having untrained volunteers going out on properties and making decisions or recommendations.  The Oregon League of Cities has said we have a huge liability for what we are doing.  As the Planning Commission goes through Chapter 155, especially Chapter 4 that deals with the Conservation Committee and the Site Review Committee, I’ve stricken all of the Site Review Committee because it is totally unenforceable because we have no standards.  When I talk about standards, clear and objective standards, I mean something like:  “If you need more than 10 feet then you have to get a variance.”  That’s a clear and objective standard.  There are no clear and objective standards for site review.  Zero, because it is based on volunteers going out and making a decision.  There are no clear and objective standards for site review to follow.  There are also no clear and objective standards for conservation to follow, other than make a review and report to the Planning Commission.  The Commission is still reviewing all of this.  As we go through, when we have something that isn’t clear and objective, we try to make it clear and objective.  The Planning Commission is meeting every Tuesday in addition to our Thursday meeting.  There is a lot of work to be done and we are under a huge deadline to get things done.  

Mr. Burke continued regarding the question on the Conservation Committee, we have been warned by the League of Oregon Cities that having volunteers going out and making decisions and recommendations on land use issues and going onto peoples’ properties is a huge problem.  That will be up to the City Council to decide, but we have a memorandum from them stating so.  Councilor Anderson inquired if that relates to shoreland violations as well.  Mr. Burke answered in the affirmative.  

Mr. Burke explained his preference.  We need a Code Enforcement Officer to replace the Site Review Committee and that should be the City Recorder.  Everything else can be done through the permit application process and our contract with The Building Department.  Some things can be added to the Building Department’s contract, but the code violation stuff will have to be done in-house by our staff.  That is what is being discussed and will be brought to the Council later in the year.  

Councilor Anderson asked if the Committee could go with the Code Enforcement Officer.  Mr. Burke responded that in his mind the recommendation will be the Code Enforcement Officer or the Building Department.  We have a pretty clear code regarding vegetation, so it’s a pretty clear thing for an inspector to go out and see what the property owner wants to do and tell them what permits they need and how to go about applying.   

Councilor Sathe expressed his disapproval of putting another job on the City Recorder.  If we had a Code Enforcement Officer, I prefer it be the head of the Planning Commission.  Mr. Burke responded that the City Recorder is already doing the work.  It isn’t going to be more work, the more work would be in the planning application process that would be put on The Building Department that we hire to do our planning work.  The Planning Commission doesn’t have it all worked out yet, and the City Recorder is acting as the Secretary of the Commission while we are doing all this, so we are getting staff input at the same time.  

Councilor Sathe said, so the Building Department would go out when we have a barking dog complaint?  Mr. Burke said no.  Mr. Sathe stated, then the City Recorder would have to do it.  Mr. Burke pointed out that someone from the City is already doing it now.  The Site Review Committee isn’t doing it now.  Councilor Sathe stated that is the job of the Site Review Committee.  

Mayor Ruede summarized the situation and pointed out the memorandum included in the packets from the City Attorney which says the same thing as what Mr. Burke relayed from the League of Oregon Cities, and that is that sending volunteers out to do this work puts the City at risk.  She went on to point out that our job as Councilors is to ensure we do not put the City at risk.  

Council President Mills said the most important thing to remember is that we are talking two separate things.  One is the barking dog issue versus the permit or land use issues.  Conservation Committee is basically land use issues and would include complaints.  Site Review committee would be nuisance complaints.  She stated she understands what Councilor Sathe is saying about the Recorder’s workload, but pointed out that when she was chair of the Site Review Committee every time the Committee went out, the Recorder went with them.  She doesn’t know what Duke does, but office staff gets the phone calls and ends up dealing with most of those.  Before any move would be made, we would need to double-check and make sure office staff feels it can handle that additional load.  

Councilor Koehler expressed his opinion that he doesn’t see any liability.  He asked about the comment that there are no standards.  He stated that is what Site Review is supposed to do.  It dovetails into water quality.  

Councilor Sathe pointed out that the memorandum states it can be either a paid employee or an elected official.  That would mean Councilor Anderson and Councilor Wells could be the people who go after the Code violations.  He does not want any further burden on the City Recorder.  

Mayor Ruede reviewed the memorandum about the conversation with the City Attorney and stated that if the City is getting advice from its attorney, it should listen.  

The City Recorder was asked to comment.  He stated he is conflicted because he is involved in all of these things on a day-to-day basis.  He believes he should have an elected official involved.  Councilor Sathe, for example, is the elected official involved in every complaint regarding a City right-of-way, so Councilor Anderson and Councilor Wells could be involved on other issues.  If, however, it is one elected official, it would be a much clearer process.  He expressed his approval of simplifying the process and involving an elected official.  

Mayor Ruede stated that she is not in favor in going that direction because it leaves inconsistency on the table.  If you have a staff person that is extremely familiar with what the codes are, you don’t have that learning curve every time you get a new elected official.  City Recorder Hilden clarified that he meant the City Recorder should be involved, but with an elected official and not just alone.  

Council President Mills indicated that the process needs to be clarified.  The City Council needs to become the hearing body only upon appeal of a particular complaint.  

Councilor Koehler expressed concern that limiting the investigation to one elected official may set up a situation for bias, unless the requirements are set out specifically.  The problem with shoreland issues is there is such a wide variety of possibilities that they can’t all be identified.  Additionally, he stated his opinion that one elected official who goes onto a property with permission, isn’t a liability, as he sees it.   

Councilor Sathe asked if former Council member Peter Howison could be allowed to speak.  Mayor Ruede agreed to break protocol and invited Peter Howison to address the Council.  

Peter Howison, M.D., Dunes City resident, qualified his comments by stating that he hasn’t had much time to think about it.  He said he can see where there might be a problem and maybe having a paid employee or official of the City, who has the knowledge and is accountable, might be a good idea.  While a committee may make a decision that is totally rational, an attorney can come in and tear it apart.  We’ve seen this happen.  Unfortunately, the Court sees Dunes City as a big city.  Even though the law provides small cities the ability to prove to a lower standard, the Court ruled otherwise.  I think this is onerous and admire you for taking on this task.  

Councilor Sathe stated he thinks that the way the Road Commission complaints are being handled can serve as a model for setting up a process for the Site Review and Conservation Commission and have just a council member as the representative.  

Mayor Ruede confirmed what Councilor Sathe was saying.  The Site Review Committee would be replaced by the Recorder and the one councilor appointed to the position.

Council President Mills asked for an example of what would happen as the next step.  Assuming the Code Enforcement Officer and the elected official went out and found that yes, a violation occurred.  What is the next step?  

Councilor Sathe explained how it works with the Road Commission.  Council President Mills asked who makes the finding.  The reply was the Code Enforcement Officer and the elected official, who then, in the case of Conservation Committee, reports to the Planning Commission.  In the case of Site Review, there should be enough teeth in the ordinance to allow the Code Enforcement Officer to seek abatement, and then if the property owner disagrees, the only option is to appeal it to the City Council.  

Councilor Koehler stated he doesn’t see where that is any different than the Site Review Committee now.  He said what we have to concern ourselves with is a municipal judge.  John Stead presented information on appointing the City Recorder as the Municipal Judge.  This is a simple process.  The only question is if there is a conflict of interest if the City Recorder goes out with the Conservation Committee and then judges on it.  

Councilor Mills pointed out that what has been discussed under option 5 is only with regard to nuisances (the barking dog), not Conservation Committee.  

Councilor Koehler requested that we review this in time and come back at a later date for further discussion.  

Councilor Sathe asked if the Ordinance Review Committee will draft up language along the lines of the process being used by the Road Commission so we have something to go by.  

Mayor Ruede asked if it should be on the Agenda for the next regular Council meeting.  Councilor Koehler suggested another work session.  Councilor Scarberry asked if we could have a work session immediately before the City Council meeting?

Council President Mills pointed out that could be a six hour meeting.  

Councilor Anderson suggested that we ask any of the retired attorneys in our community to serve as municipal judge pro bono.  Council President Mills stated there are certain requirements of municipal judges in the State of Oregon .  

Mayor Ruede stated she would invite Cindy Cable to come to a meeting of the City Council to tell us what is involved in getting a Municipal Judge.  

11.  New Business – None  

12. Unscheduled Items Not Listed on the Agenda – None  

13. Executive Session – None  

14. Adjournment

There being no further business to come before the City Council, Mayor Ruede declared the meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m.  

APPROVED BY THE DUNES CITY COUNCIL ON THE 13^th DAY OF OCTOBER 2011.  

[ Signed copy available at City Hall ]

Rebecca Ruede, Mayor  

ATTEST:  

[ Signed copy available at City Hall ]

Fred Hilden, City Recorder

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