Contributed by Rob Bovett, AOC legal counsel
September 26, 2016
During the September Legislative Days in Salem a lot of issues were
discussed that have the potential to greatly impact the governance of
counties in Oregon.
Legislation
Monday, September 26, 2016, was the deadline for the submission of bills to
Legislative Counsel for pre-session filing. This can be important for some
pieces of legislation, in the sense that pre-session bills are printed
first and often have a better chance of being heard earlier in the
legislative session. AOC Legal Counsel crafted a number of bills at the
direction of the AOC Governance and Legislative Committees, including those
relating to marijuana, public notices, adhesion contracts, franchise fees,
insolvency, and more. Those bills are each now on a path for pre-session
filing.
Hearings
Legislative Days also saw a number of important informational hearings.
On Thursday, September 22, the Senate General Government and Accountability
Committee heard invited testimony from three panelists on the progress
being made by the Attorney General’s Public Records Law Reform Task Force.
AOC Legal Counsel Rob Bovett submitted written testimony and, during his live testimony, summarized some
of the issues and challenges facing the work of the task force.
The Joint Interim Committee on Marijuana Legalization (known commonly as
the Joint Marijuana Committee) met on Friday, September 23, hearing invited
testimony from a panel of industry representatives, multiple panels of
state regulatory agencies, and others. AOC Legal Counsel Rob Bovett
testified on two panels, one updating the Committee about local options, regulations and priorities and another relating to the efforts of a work group to rewrite the marijuana offense code to make it more user friendly for the public and law enforcement, as well as ensuring the law enforcement have adequate tools to help shut down the black market.