70% of Troutdale voters vs the City Council monster

The conservative blog NW Republican has just posted Part II of "1001st Friend"'s Land Use Primer. The post highlights the Oregon Legislature's doomed-for-failure solution for addressing Oregon property rights after the passage of Measure 37.

The legislature, via Senate Bill 82, thinks that if we take $600,000 of your hard earned tax money and give it to a bunch of people familiar with Oregon's land use system, and then lock them all in a room for 4 years to develop some recommendations, everyone will play nice and magically solve the problem.

This is the same storyline as every Brady Bunch episode. Marcia and Greg Brady's dating problems are instantly solved the moment Alice the housekeeper takes the cookies out of the oven. And those cookies always come out of the oven about 27 minutes after the "Brady Bunch" theme song is played.

Only people smoking funny cigarettes could truly believe that 4 years and $600,000 worth of Alice's cookies would be enough for the 1000 Friends crowd to come to their senses and willingly give up their abusive restrictions on Oregon's property owners rights.

The problem especially comes to light here in Troutdale. Since January of this year when I began my term on the city council, I have been continually unsuccessful at persuading the rest of the city council to remove the huge, gigantic, and illegal $3000+ Measure 37 application fee. My fellow city councilors also have no interest in eliminating the long, expensive and illegal Measure 37 application process that was enacted at the urging of the League of Oregon Cities.

The rest of the Troutdale City Council, with the unanimous support of the city's staff and city attorney, are hell bent on intimidating anyone who would dare attempt to file a Measure 37 claim. Their stand is: let them take us to court.

This is an especially arrogant slap in the face to the over 70%--that's right--over SEVENTY PERCENT of Troutale voters who voted to approve Measure 37.

There is no joy in Troutdale tonight or any other night, for the mighty will of the Troutdale voters has struck out. Again and again and again.