The Hermiston City Council had a light agenda Monday night. The meeting began promptly at 7 p.m. and Mayor Dave Drotzmann gaveled the meeting to a close a mere 25 minutes later.
During those 25 minutes, the council amended a pair of annexation ordinances passed during the summer to reflect the addition of a new taxing district for the sheriff’s office in anticipation of the November bond measures. The measures were created to bring in more tax revenue to beef up the department’s patrol personnel as well as operate the jail at full capacity.
The bond measures failed, but the taxing district remains.
“It is now considered an active taxing district and city annexations will need to acknowledge its existence,” Hermiston City Planner Clint Spencer said.
Spencer said annexations work by bringing property into the city limits and withdrawing territory from special taxing districts, such as the recently-created Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office Special Law Enforcement District.
The county requested that the city adopt the ordinances to amend a pair of annexations that took place during the summer. Those annexations included the Lifeways property on W. Linda Avenue and the Castle Homes property on W. Highland Avenue.
In other council news, Councilor George Anderson suggested the council amend the rule prohibiting members of the public from serving on more than one city committee.
“I’m a little hard pressed to see what the rationale is,” he said. “It’s not like we have people breaking down the door to serve on committees.”
Hermiston City Manager Ed Brookshier said it would only take an amendment to the council rules to allow a person to serve one more than one committee. Drotzmann asked the administration staff to come up with recommendations for the council by the next meeting.
