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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 11, 2006 Money for parks may get a vote Department seeks formal city charter arrangement By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings The Ashland parks system could secure a guarantee of stable funding in the new city charter. The Ashland City Council currently is working to develop a draft city charter that ultimately would be put before voters for approval. On Thursday night, Ashland Parks and Recreation Commissioners came to the city council to ask that the proposed charter include language that the parks department receive sufficient funding. “One of the hallmarks of a strong department is the ability to do advance financial planning,” said Parks Commissioner Rich Rosenthal. Fellow Parks Commissioner JoAnne Eggers noted the parks department has added responsibilities. Beginning in July with the adoption of the 2006 fiscal year city budget, Ashland’s Senior Program came under the umbrella of the parks department. The Charter Review Committee also recommended that the city band come into the parks department, according to Parks and Recreation Department Director Don Robertson. “In taking on those programs, we are going to need reassurances we will have resources to run those programs adequately, or even better than adequately,” Eggers said. Early in Ashland’s history, residents granted special taxing authority to the parks department, assuring that the city’s ability to have a strong parks system would be enshrined in the charter, which is essentially the city constitution. But that guaranteed source of revenue was destroyed in 1997 when Oregon voters approved Measure 50, a property tax limitation initiative that wiped out the independent taxing authority. However, in a “gentlemen’s agreement,” the City of Ashland continued to allocate money for the parks system through the annual city budgeting process as if the older rules were still in place. Mayor John Morrison said he thinks it would be proper to memorialize the past city and parks system relationship in the charter. He pointed to the example of the Southern Oregon Historical Society, which used to have special taxing authority, and Jackson County. Following the passage of Measure 50, the county cut the historical society’s funding and the society then sued the county. “Those ‘gentlemen’s agreements’ generally don’t hold up over the course of time,” Morrison said. Parks commissioners said they will discuss the issue among themselves and consult with staff members to develop charter language that follows Measure 50 but also allows a city charter provision for funding the parks system. An early draft of the proposed city charter removes obsolete references to how the parks system is funded, but does not add in new funding language. Also Thursday night, Tom Sponsler — the city’s charter consultant who wrote the early draft according to city council directions and who also wrote the most recent version of the League of Oregon Cities Model Charter — warned that, under Ashland’s current and draft charter, just two councilors could take major actions such as firing the city administrator. The charter requires four councilors or three councilors plus the mayor to be present to make a quorum, which is needed before actions can be taken. But the mayor votes only to break a tie under the current and proposed city charter. Therefore, if three councilors and the mayor were at a meeting, just two councilors could approve an action because they would be in the majority against the one councilor, and the mayor would not vote. Sponsler said the new city charter could include provisions that if only four people were present at a meeting, all four would have to approve significant actions like firing the city administrator, adopting an ordinance or appointing a new city councilor to fill a vacancy. Alternately, the mayor could not count as part of a quorum, meaning four councilors would always have to be present and at least three people would have to approve an action. Sponsler also said there are problems with the current charter and the new proposed charter because the mayor does not vote except to break a tie and has veto power. The Charter Review Committee recommended that the mayor vote on all issues but lose the veto. However, the city council did not want that provision included in the new city charter Sponsler has drafted. The council also is not following the charter review committee recommendation that all council candidates be placed in a pool during elections, with the top three vote-getters taking office. Candidates currently vie for positions. The review committee recommended the city administrator become a city manager and gain hiring and firing authority over city department heads. The council directed Sponsler to draft that change as a separate amendment that would go before voters alongside a proposed new charter. Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or [email protected]. 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