Clackamas County Commisioners Place Competing Measure on the Ballot against Citizen Intitiative

To All COLA LO Members,

Last week County Commissioners voted to place a ballot measure on the ballot in November which directly competes with the citizen ballot initiative recently approved for the Ballot by the County Clerk.    The Citizen measure requires a countywide vote on all Urban Renewal projects in the unincorporated county areas.   

County Commissioners voted to compete directly with the citizens measure and limit the need for a vote on all Urban Renewal districts.  Only Commissioner Savas voted against placing a competing measure on the ballot.  The remaining commissioners all voted to place a competing measure on the ballot which may only confuse county residents and negate the impact of the citizen driven effort to limit Urban Renewal districts without countywide voter approval.  

County Commissioner Ann Lininger voted for the competing measure with the other commissioners and is a resident of Lake Oswego.  This continues a trend of her supporting expensive projects like the streetcar and limiting voter approval of these projects.  She supported this project and the ongoing effort in a recent article in the Lake Oswego Review.   Lininger says Streetcar is right for LO.

 There have been a number of articles in blogs and in the press regarding the county commissions resistance to any citizen lead ballot measures which would limit taxes and the ongoing diversion of public safety funding due to Urban renewal districts and tax increment financing.  

Most of the articles show that the county commission is directly intending to compete against citizen initiatives and the drive for more voter input.

Details can be found online at: County Commissioners Compete with Citizen Ballot Measure