Oran's Coronation as Savior of Bend

This morning featured the swearing in of Oran Teater as the seventh, tie-breaking City Councilor. Mr. Teater did not apply for the position, and was begged to become part of the City Council by Mayor Kathie Eckman less than an hour before the "emergency" meeting that voted on his "candidacy". This meeting was only noticed to select media, and notably not to our local progressive media at KPOV radio. A lawsuit is reportedly in the works from KPOV, as their reporter Tristan Reisfar was reduced to beating on locked doors trying to gain access to this supposedly public meeting.

Interestingly, Bill Robie, Central Oregon Association of Realtors lobbyist, was the only "public" individual present other than Councilor Jim Clinton's wife. Exactly three media outlets were present as well. A very small and select group were present for this very important vote.

Mr. Teater is also a member of the Juniper Ridge Management Board. He has a long history in Bend, with several years on the Council prior to 2004. He was also Mayor for a couple of years.

I sense very little commitment to even acknowledging a taxpaying citizen of Bend such as myself by Mr. Teater. He limits his interaction to those who he deems "important", while pointedly passing over those of us without an insider tag. He seems to be above "the little people", as if those who actually pay for city services are unimportant unless they hold a public position.

You can listen to the travesty of public process by downloading the MP3 recording. In this you will hear the increasing divide between the Good Old Boys and Girls group and those like Councilor Clinton who much prefer a real public process. Like what was occurring before this last minute vote.

Although Councilor Clinton was refused his request to know the agenda of the "emergency" meeting, candidate Don Leonard stated he was told a half-hour before the meeting that Mr. Teater was to be installed in the last Council position.

To quote Councilor Jim Clinton:

"...It's a slap in the face to the people who applied for these positions...now somebody's being brought in who wasn't even involved in it...now the majority has gone, [and] cooked up this back room deal...are railroading through [this name] just a few hours before the deadline...it's just wrong, it's just against what we are trying to do here make the City government open and transparent...cooking up this back room deal is just wrong."

I couldn't agree more. The Good Old Boys are back in charge. That feeling was strongly reinforced by all the glad-handing among the important people after Oran's swearing in. Whom were about all that were present.

Public process took a beating in Bend the last few days.

FLASH--Summit 1031 Bankruptcy Petition

Just received a copy. Here is the link. Right-click to download and save.

Couple of notes on first read:
1) It is dated 12/19/08, after the initial 12/15/08 statement.

2) The retainer was $275,000 or $250,000. It's unclear, as one clause says Sussman Shank has received $275,000 before the filing, and another states "...retainer in the sum of $250,000."

3) Of the 20 largest unsecured debts, all from unfinished exchanges, only three are from Oregon: the Tennant's in Portland, $1.035.266.66; Home Valley Bank in Grants Pass, $547,936.88; and the Miller's in Bend, $756,598.82. The other 17 are scattered around the west.

4) A rough tally of the total owed to the top 20 creditors is $21,560,550. The largest creditor is the Alessandro Family Trust, from Rancho Santa Fe, CA, at $2,999,961.

5) The four principals-Neuman, Stevens, Lyon, and Larkin-each own 25% of the company.

The matrix of debtors is not included, so there is a lot more not shown. I'll try to get it from the court.

After I run OCR on the filing I'll update the download with a copy that is searchable.

Many thanks to Ryan Frank at the Oregonian for forwarding this to me. He has a copy and a post about it on his blog as well: blog.oregonlive.com/frontporch/

More Layers Of Management Coming For JR

From the Bend Bulletin:

Manager sought for Juniper Ridge
Bend hoping to find development specialist for project

With a large amount of infrastructure work to complete, ongoing transportation-related holdups and a second business set to move in, Bend officials are looking for some outside help with the commercial development of Juniper Ridge.

Currently, the city’s 1,500-acre project in northeast Bend is managed by a large and sometimes confusingly structured group of people that includes the Bend City Council, city officials, the project’s former master developer and the Juniper Ridge Management Board, a five-member volunteer group of residents with experience in business, development and government.

But now, city officials are looking to bring in another person to serve as Juniper Ridge’s development manager, a contract position city officials said will be key in helping to organize future land deals with businesses interested the project and oversee other elements of its development...

This will be the fourth or fifth group brought in to move JR forward, depending on if you count the Juniper Ridge Management Board (JRMB). We are still paying Juniper Ridge Partners i.e. Ray Kuratek and Jeff Holtzman (JRP) 6% of every sale of the first 50 acres sold beyond the 20 acres that Les Schwab bought and optioned, per the Option Agreement. This is on top of the $2,515,000 paid to JRP for turning over the Master Plan they developed with Cooper-Robertson.

Three firms were interviewed on a full blizzard of a day in Bend: "James “Jim” Carnahan, a Bend development manager and engineer who formerly worked with David Evans and Associates; Dike Dame, the president of Williams & Dame, the Portland firm that developed the Broken Top golf resort; and David Ditz, a Colorado-based development company owner."

According to John James, Chair of the JRMB:

“The city wears two hats — the city’s normal situation is the regulator, which they do well, and also the developer, and they don’t do that as well,” James said.

“The idea is to get someone independent, from the development community to report to Eric (King) and this board and try to get all the infrastructure and entitlement issues taken care of, which are significant in 2009.”

City manager Eric King indicated the Development Manager would be paid from money budgeted for Juniper Ridge operations.

Due to the blizzard, I stayed home after seeing five accidents within six blocks of Brookswood. More when I speak with Mr. James and read the meeting minutes.

Unfortunately the minutes will probably not be available until after the selection vote by the City Council.

Abuse of Public Process by the City of Bend

The upcoming Bend Planning Commission meeting on Dec. 8th is a fine example of the abuse of public process by the City of Bend. The last item on the agenda of this meeting is one given little attention, one that is a gift to developers, and one with a preconceived outcome.

This item is a Code change that will give developers an unlimited number of extensions on their approved plans, even if there are changes in the applicable criteria.

The reason for providing additional extensions as needed is stated in the Transmittal Memo provided to the Planning Commission:

DISCUSSION: Because of the current economic crisis, many developers are unable to execute their approved planning permits, which requires the initiation of construction. These developers intend to build their projects and desire to keep their planning approvals active until the market allows them the financial ability to submit their building permits, pay their SDCs and commence construction. As the economic climate continues to stagnate, these developers are approaching the end of their one-year extensions. The proposed Code amendment will give the City Council the ability to recognize the economic environment of today as a reason to authorize one or more additional extensions.

So, in fewer words, developers are nearing two years since gaining their approvals, and still can't find financing with which to actually start building. They have already received a one-year extension on the original one-year approval period, and want more time. As much as they need.

Now this may be well and good for the developers, and perhaps even for the city if these developments, like Mercado, eventually gain financing and are built. The city stands to eventually gain income from permit fees and SDC fees when the developers finally find financing. If the underlying economic reasons for these developments continue to exist, of course.

But before we get to the question of the underlying economics to further development in Bend, lets look more closely at the legally required public process being followed to implement these code changes. From the already posted official Recommendation to the City Council

CONCLUSION
On the basis of this record, there is a public need or benefit for the requested text amendments to the City of Bend Development Code, the request is consistent with the applicable State land use law, and the request is consistent with the applicable Bend Area General Plan goals and policies.

So what exactly is this public record? After all, the first I have heard of this is in a comment on the BendBubble2 blog.

Looking at the recommendation again, it states before the conclusion that:

1. The applicant, City of Bend Planning Division, initiated the Development Code text amendment on November 5, 2008.

2. The application was submitted in accordance with Section 4.1.300 of the Bend Development Code. Timely and sufficient notice of the public hearing, pursuant to Section 4.1.315 of the Bend Development Code, has been provided.

3. On December 8, 2008, the City of Bend Planning Commission conducted a public hearing to accept testimony on the request. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Planning Commission voted to recommend that the Bend City Council approve the proposed text amendment. The Planning Division staff report and recommendation together with the testimony of the persons testifying at this hearing have been considered and are part of the record of this proceeding.

Re-read item 3, noting the date.

Yes, on the day this recommendation is going to be voted on and submitted to the City Council for a rubber stamp vote, a public hearing will be held and the city staff already knows what will be said in the public hearing. And they know how the Planning Commission voted.

Amazingly prescient. These city staff guys are good, no?

Or are they just trying to sneak something through without real public review, but only the appearance of a public process?

Let's look at the actual code change, to see what really is being proposed:

Proposed Bend Development Code Text Amendment
(New language is underlined; deleted language is struck-through)

4.1.1310(C) Extensions:

1. The Planning Community Development Director may grant one extension of up to one year for a land use development approval or a phase of a land use development approval, unless the applicable criteria have changed, if:

a. An applicant makes a written request for an extension of the development approval period; and

b. The request, along with the prescribed fee, is submitted to the city prior to the expiration of the approval period.

2. The Community Development Director may grant one or more additional extensions beyond one year if authorized by a City Council resolution which recognizes a city-wide need for an additional limited-duration extension. The additional extension may be granted if:

a. The applicant has exhausted all other extension opportunities; and

b. The applicant satisfies the submittal requirements of (1)(a) and (b) of this section.

So we see the power of granting unlimited extensions, even if "applicable criteria" change, devolve into the hands of a single person--Mel Oberst, Director of Community Development. To me, Mel is one of the good guys, but this is disturbing.

Is this good for Bend?

Should we have a more open public process before making such decisions that impact our city income and landscape?

If you think so, you should go to the City Council bio page, where you can click through to each members bio and email address, and tell them you ARE paying attention.

Also send emails to the following staff, asking them about the public process and how you can be involved:

moberst@ci.bend.or.us
citymanager@ci.bend.or.us

This ongoing trait of minimal public involvement in city decisions must come to an end if we are to survive the current financial crisis. With good management, realistic management, we will work towards filling all the commercial and residential real estate that is empty now, rather than trying to build our way out of this mess.

Sanity must prevail in the long run.

JRMB Meeting: Power Issues, Suterra PSA Still Unsigned

The Juniper Ridge Management Board met again today, along with a whose who of local developers: Mike Hollern, Todd Taylor, Bruce Kemp and Darren Powderly of Compass Commercial, etc. The subject of this part of the meeting was the absorption rate and pricing for JR. It was eventually established that absorption of 10-15 acres per year was probable, and that a $7 sq. ft. price was a good baseline. It seems that industrial dirt goes for closer to $4/sq. ft., while office dirt is/was closer to $30/sq. ft. All agreed that prices had gone down by 30% to 50% in the last 12 months.

A much more egregious issue is power to the site. As Chair John James noted, if they can't turn on the lights, they ain't going to come (my interpretation) and it ensued that Pacific Power is at least 18 months away from building a substation to provide power for anyone other than Les Schwab. Suterra is going to require a special temporary line, the payment for which will be an issue, for whatever power they end up needing. There was discussion of whether Suterra is expecting power to their property line. No one really had an answer. Angie from Pacific Power roughly estimated cost of a temporary solution at around $100,000.

Suterra seems to be very less than forthcoming with its power consumption figures. They are designing an entirely new manufacturing process, and although both the city and Pacific Power have been repeatedly requesting power load information, they just today supplied a partial answer. They don't seem to really know.

There was also a few minutes spent on the issue of architectural review of the Suterra facility. It was decided that city staff would lead this, and everyone else would rubber stamp it.

But the most interesting thing was that issue nobody wanted to talk about publically: there is still no Suterra Purchase and Sales Agreement signed by both parties.

Even though I was provided a copy that was signed by one Craig Cooper, SVP of Suterra, LLC. It was not signed by Eric King, City Manager.

Which seems very odd to me.

I was then booted from the room because they started an Executive Session to discuss this issue.

To be continued...

Suterra Progress Pics

Suterra was given an entry and grading permit before the sale was finalized. Knife River has had a crew out working for several weeks, so I went out to take a few pics over the weekend.

The pad looks finished:





Knife River heavy equipment all lined up and looking ready to load up:



Suterra hopes to start the foundation as soon as the zoning change being voted on Wednesday night is in force, perhaps as soon as Nov. 12. The city is responsible for running roads, sewer and water, at a projected cost of $3.5M.

My next post will go over some details of financing Juniper Ridge development and compare that to the cost to the General Fund, and how it affects the rest of the citizens of Bend.

Juniper Ridge Management Board Report

The Juniper Ridge Management Board met last Wednesday for about the seventh time, under the rather forceful guidance of Chair John James. City staff attending included John Russell and Jerry Mitchell, Mel Oberst, Sonia Andrews, Eric King, and several others. There was also an ODOT presence. The JRMB is aggressively moving forward with financial and physical planning to be ready if and when the ODOT/Cooley/97 issue is resolved. This issue, which will require $50M in identified revenues to overcome, is critical to any future land sales. This large amount of required monies is definitely on the radar of the JRMB.

One of the sources of this $50M will be the trip fees paid by users ranging from Suterra to Super Walmart. It is anticipated that their will be 2900 trips available, with a per trip cost of $9000. The City of Bend will pay $3000 of this fee. The total available from these fees is about $26M, a little over one-half of the required $50M. That means Bend taxpayers will be paying another $8.7M towards Juniper Ridge buildout in "helping out" the companies that want to build around Cooley/97. That includes Super Walmart.

This "co-pay" was first discussed in an Executive Session which was broadcast into the hallway by mistake, which I happened to overhear. That is illegal, and is definitely an issue going forward. As is calling in Suterra to an Executive Session to discuss their financing capabilities before the no public discussion, no public comment council vote on the sale of city land to Suterra.

This abuse of Executive Sessions simply must be confronted and stopped before the installation of the next City Council.

The city anticipates that the other $24M will come from land sales at JR and from bonds supported by the JR redevelopment district. However so far land sales have resulted in multi-million dollar losses due to the cost of infrastructure improvements agreed to by the city.

The next steps to developing JR including such mundane but detail specific items as overlaying streets, working with Pacific Power on a substation, and working with yet more consultants on design standards and CC&R's. The JRMB anticipates meeting at least twice a month through the end of the year to move these items along.

Also high on the agenda are two upcoming meetings with the Oregon Transportation Commission. For the first meeting on Nov. 13th the city plans to present a general overview of its plans to improve surface streets in the vicinity so less traffic will be pushed to Cooley/97. The second meeting in January will flesh this proposal out by identifying specific funding sources to actually build these streets. These meetings will be preceded by a North End stakeholders meeting on Nov. 6th, showing maps of the planned surface street and other improvements.

The next JRMB meeting is Nov. 10th. It is an open public meeting, and while not explicitly encouraged, the public is officially welcome. Meeting details are way down on the right side of this city web site: http://www.ci.bend.or.us/depts/urban_renewal_economic_development/index.html