CC discussion on additional debt for JR

Short answer: there was zero discussion.

Sonia Andrews read the long title of the resolution:

CONSIDER A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BEND, OREGON, AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION AND DELIVERY OF AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT, TAXEXEMPT FINANCING AGREEMENT, ESCROW AGREEMENT, AND RELATED SALE DOCUMENTS; AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION AND DELIVERY OF THE CITY OF BEND, OREGON FULL FAITH AND CREDIT OBLIGATIONS, IN ONE OR MORE SERIES, IN AN AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $5,000,000 TO FINANCE STREET REALIGNMENT AND IMPROVEMENTS; ACQUISITION OF A STORM WATER MAINTENANCE VEHICLE; THE CONSTRUCTION, REMODELING AND EQUIPPING OF AN EXPANSION TO CITY POLICE FACILITIES; THE ACQUISITION OF FIRE AND INTERFACE ENGINES AND OTHER PUBLIC SAFETY EQUIPMENT; AND TO AUTHORIZE, EXECUTE AND DELIVER FULL FAITH AND CREDIT REFUNDING OBLIGATIONS, IN ONE OR MORE SERIES, TO ADVANCE REFUND ONE OR MORE SERIES OF OUTSTANDING FULL FAITH AND CREDIT OBLIGATIONS; AUTHORIZING SUBMISSION OF AN ADVANCE REFUNDING PLAN TO THE OREGON STATE TREASURER; DECLARING INTENT TO REIMBURSE; DESIGNATING AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVES AND DELEGATING AUTHORITY; AND RELATED MATTERS.

And the council members kind of laughed at its length, and then promptly passed it 5-0. The title reading took longer than the vote. Just like that, another $3.725 million for the Les Schwab driveway.

The only other mention of it the entire night was my own rather muddled statement imploring the Council to delay this funding measure until Les Schwab actually delivers that Contingency Removal Notice and we know they are going to actually buy the land. It fell on deaf ears.

Of course, since I broke my lower partial eating Thanksgiving dinner, I am feeling pretty shy in public and look pretty stupid. Hopefully I'll have that corrected by Christmas.

I also had a couple of discussions with Bend City Attorney Pete Schannauer about the validity of bloggers as members of the press. He basically thought it was a joke when I tried to get into the Executive Session with my Press Pass. He also approached me after the Regular Meeting, just as they were going back into Executive Session, and talked about how I wasn't being picked on because their had been someone on the Chamber of Commerce that had a "little newsletter" that was also refused entry as media into Executive Sessions. His take was that the number of readers has a direct effect on whether he considers someone legitimate media or not. Still, he seems like a nice enough guy.


I looked up the law and it says:

"...person connected with, employed by or engaged in any medium of communication to the public.."

I am researching it further. Pete gave me his number if I wanted to discuss it further, and stated that a couple of days notice would be nice. It's something to work on.