Gresham Charter Review Committee Is Up & Running

By Lee Dayfield
Wilkes East Resident
Charter Committee Observer

Finally after almost a year and a half the new Charter Review Committee (CRC) is up and running. Currently there are 12 people on the Committee and two positions need to be filled.

The first meeting of the CRC was held by zoom on January 10th and the second meeting is scheduled for February 7th at 6:00pm. To receive notices regarding the CRC you must send a request to Margaria Contreras at Margaria.Contreras@greshamoregon.gov or Dara Halligan at Dara.Halligan@greshamoregon.gov. The webpage for the CRC on the City's website is https://greshamoregon.gov/City-Charter/. There you can find Meeting documents which should contain the agenda which has a link for the meeting. At some point they will be posting recordings of the zoom meetings and possibly minutes. A link to the Charter and previous changes is also on this page.

During the January meeting Joseph Andaya was elected Chair and Jack Ardner was elected Vice Chair. They agreed to allow for public comment at the beginning of meetings but it is unclear how to register for testimony at this time. It should be posted on the webpage at some point.

City Attorney reported that the City Council, by Resolution 3478, asked the CRC to specifically consider and recommend either an at large or district system of elections. A recommendation to be delivered to Council by Jan. 31, 2023. Currently we have an at large system.

Dr. Todd Lochner and Dr. Ellen Seljan from Lewis & Clark have been hired to assist the CRC. They are experts on election systems and will give presentations to the CRC on that topic. You won't want to miss this meeting.

The Urban Renewal Dept. wants to give a presentation to the CRC. My guess based on discussions I have heard at a City Council meeting is they want to discuss changing 36A Urban Renewal, (b)(1) which states "council shall refer to the electors any ordinance adopted after November 1, 1986, approving an urban renewal plan or a substantial change in such a plan."

There is a public discussion group on NextDoor regarding Charter Review with almost 200 people which has had some interesting discussions about the Charter.