House Bill 3099A, introduced to address a local dispute between the City of Happy Valley and the North Clackamas Park & Recreation District cleared the House floor on April 23 on a vote of 37-22.

The bill would authorize cities that were annexed into a special district by a special city election to withdraw by a city election, circumventing the carefully crafted statutory process to withdraw.

Representative Mark Meek, who submitted a floor letter in opposition to the bill, spoke against it on the House floor. In his floor speech, Meek noted that in the local dispute, the City of Happy Valley has not attempted to exit the North Clackamas Parks & Recreation District under the current statutory process (ORS 198) that provides local options for withdrawing. Meek cautioned against legislative intervention in the local matter, “consider the fact that we are asking the state to get involved in a messy local dispute, making an arbitrary one off, and setting a bad precedent for future state involvement in many local matters like these. This bill, will in fact have an impact on all of our districts.”

Meek called out the importance of districts in communities and the uncertainty HB 3099A would bring for operation and financing of services, “I worry that this bill is unravelling the delicate structure of decades long collaborative efforts, and the results will be fewer services delivered, less efficiently, with less democracy and citizen participation in the process.

Representative Karin Power also called out inequities the bill would create in communities voicing her opposition to the bill, “we are picking winners and losers within this statute by virtue of the timing of the formation of any individual district, and colleagues, just based on my local government experience, I think we’re inviting more lawsuits and more friction within certain service districts going forward.”

The bill now advances to the Senate where Clackamas County and Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) Interim Executive Director, Mike Eliason will continue to lobby against the measure.

Contributed by: Megan Chuinard | Public Affairs Associate