Document text
LEGISLATURE '99 Patridge wants to boost cities' power to zone sex trade By PETER WONG SALEM -- Medford's hand in regulating sexually oriented businesses would be strengthened under legislation that state Rep. Rob Patridge considers one of his priorities this session. But unlike other priorities mentioned by Patridge and other first-term representatives from Southern Oregon, all Republicans, the legislation would require approval in a statewide vote. Patridge said his model is a 1993 proposal, which the House cleared but the Senate let die in committee, that would have allowed cities and counties to use zoning to keep a sexually oriented business at least 1,000 feet away from another such business, school or residential neighborhood. "We're trying to work out the language and work for bipartisan support," said Patridge, who was president of the City Council when Castle Superstores moved into a vacant grocery store on Progress Drive last year. A statewide vote would be required to change the Oregon Constitution, whose free-expression provision is broader than the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to allow for local regulation of such businesses. Medford now has a proposed ordinance for regulation of sexually oriented businesses, similar to what the Legislature considered in 1993, that a special panel is reviewing for legality before the council hears it Feb. 4. Its critics, including the lawyer for Le Dolls nightclub on Riverside Avenue, say it's unnecessary. Patridge spoke last week to a Portland group concerned about the location of a Castle Superstores in its neighborhood. Though Patridge is not on the House Judiciary Committee, he said he is working with its members on that proposal and another to create a crime of felony drunken driving, which would result in an 18-month mandatory prison term upon conviction for a third offense. "The Medford Police Department is doing a phenomenal job with drunken-driving offenders," said Patridge, a former deputy district attorney. "But we are not doing enough to curb repeat offenders." Rep. Jason Atkinson, R-Jacksonville, has a few priorities aimed at freezing property taxes for older homeowners on fixed incomes, extending a capital gains tax break to family farmers and expanding notices to rural landowners. Homeowners 62 and older may defer property taxes, the amounts payable after death. "I'd like to put a freeze on them if I can, but we'll see if it's feasible," Atkinson said. He comes to Salem with no long list of ideas to turn into legislation. "Some members will go for quantity, but I really want to have quality," he said. "I do not want to go back home after the session and say I introduced 100 bills -- and none of them passed." Rep. Susan Morgan, R-Myrtle Creek, said she's happy that her committee assignments will give her a voice on natural resources issues important to her largely rural district that extends into northwest Jackson County and northern Josephine County. "I have no bills yet that I'm going to be nursing through this session," she said. "I am looking at a couple of things people asked me to keep an eye on. I am eager to protect the rights of rural property owners, do what we can to keep small businesses strong and create family-wage jobs." Rep. Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, also said he's happy with committee assignments dealing with education and general government.The House Education Committee, which Wilson sits on, may be a hotbed of controversy this session because its chairman (Republican Ron Sunseri of Gresham) opposes Oregon's new student performance standards for public schools. "I think the reforms are going to stay," Wilson said the day after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to them. "But in some cases they have to be redirected, because I am concerned about the effectiveness of many of them." As chairman of the House Committee on General Government, Wilson is the only one of the four first-termers from Southern Oregon to head a committee this session. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA