Open Letter To The Oregon Senate and House of Representatives: Senate Bill 226 – Municipal Euthanization Authorization

Richard H. Carson, MPA, Damascus City Manager

I am asking you and your colleagues to stop a legislative train wreck in the making and what is the lowest form of legislative chicanery. I am talking about the gut and stuff bill SB 226. We have not seen this kind of intentional and systematic destruction of a city in Oregon since the halcyon days of the Rajneesh.

Do you really want to put your good name on a bill meant to benefit only developers, anti-government activists and euthanizes a city against its will? Why do you want to put a political albatross around your neck for the next year or two as this drags through the courts? Do you want to explain your vote to your opponent or a reporter in the next political season.

This bill (SB 226) is the clone to the one that was struck down by the Oregon Appellate Court. You are being lured into signing on to a gut and stuff legislative monstrosity that will (1) be a legal loser – again, (2) profit land developers, and (3) support anti-government activists bent on destroying a city. What a trifecta! Ask yourself, who benefits (cui bono) from this legislative albatross? Certainly the land developers and anti-government activists – but not you!

For the next two weeks, as you ponder your legislative responsibility to your constituents, I will plead my case in the court of public opinion to the last bastion of civic accountability – the Fourth Estate. I will ask for airtime with Mark Mason (KEX) and Lars Larson (KXL), and for this open letter to be printed in your local newspaper. Who knows – maybe Fox News and MSNBC will give us some airtime. I mean it not everyday that a state legislature euthanizes one of its own cities against its will.

Hopefully, the voters will listen, read and remember what you are doing behind closed doors and what happened in the closing days of the 2019 legislative session. Why spend your political capital and risk your political future on this political albatross? What is your political return-on-investment? There is none! This isn’t physician assisted suicide. The city of Damascus wants to live. We will see you Monday, June 3rd at 1:00 PM as you try to sneak this bill through.

Sincerely,

Richard H. Carson, City Manager

richardhcarson@outlook.com

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