Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Last night’s meeting of The Dalles City Council got a bit of good news from City Manager Matthew Klebes:
“Q-Life will receive a preliminary award of just under $10.5 million, that is pending final confirmation, to expand fiber in our region, focused on our D-21 school district.”
The majority of the meeting focused on changes to the city ordinances regarding food trucks and temporary businesses. City Attorney Jonathan Kara outlined it this way:
“There are no new fees associated with this proposed amendment to the city code. The city adopts new fees as part of its fee schedule, which it adopts at least annually. That’s not on the menu tonight, but we do have some changes to fee waivers and adjustments in our code, along with other changes, to make this ordinance much more business-friendly.”
Councilors also passed three resolutions dealing with a ruling in May by the Oregon Ethics Commission that the city paying for food and beverage for employees, elected and appointed officials and volunteers would count as compensation and, in order for the officials to be allowed to accept it, there would have to be a contract or policy including a provision allowing them to accept.
Since the meals count as compensation, and since elected officials can’t vote themselves an increase in their current term, the Ethics Commission hit on a round-robin approach. The mayor and five councilors were divided into three groups of two, and there were three separate resolutions. Each group of two would announce they had a conflict of interest in voting for the resolution that named their positions and leave the room. In this round robin fashion, each councilor voted to authorize other councilors but not themselves.