I don't know all the details but it sounds like the city council was attempting to convince the good citizens of GP that there is unanimity among council members. According to Councilmember Kangas that is not the case. You can read the article for yourself but I think it is clear that something is going on up there and this guy is in the middle of it. I just thank my lucky stars that I'm not related to him!
I had a problem trying to link to the article so just scroll down to read.
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Community
Last Update Monday, July 28, 2008
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Grants Pass City Councilor Bill Kangas wants to make sure the public knows the City Council did not prepare "a statement to correct misinformation and questions about the Downtown River District."
The statement was presented to the council last Monday by Council President Tim Cummings and it was subsequently submitted to the Daily Courier as a guest opinion that ran on the paper's editorial page.
A press release that accompanied the statement stated: "The Grants Pass City Council has prepared a statement to correct misinformation and questions about the Downtown River District."
That raised Kangas' ire because he said the council never voted on the statement and the subject was never discussed in an official meeting.
Not only that, he doesn't agree with the statement and he got on the phone to City Manager David Frasher to let him know just that.
"After a lengthy discussion with City Manager Frasher the first sentence of the press release from the city was revised," Kangas said.
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Frasher said that Kangas did contact him on Thursday, but added that Mayor Len Holzinger had notified him on Wednesday "that he and two other council members were upset with the press release regarding the Downtown River District."
Subsequently a revised press release was issued stating: "A majority of the Grants Pass City Council has signed a statement to correct misinformation and questions about the Downtown River District." The new press release does not mention who prepared the statement.
However, Frasher told the Daily Courier that city staff prepared the statement in the sense that they "punched the keys."
He said the only thing unusual about the situation is that the statement became a guest opinion piece. "It was always our intention to put fact sheets together," Frasher said, noting that it is a common practice following council approval of a complicated issue because there are usually a lot of questions.
Meanwhile, Frasher, Kangas, Holzinger and Cummings participated in a conference call on Thursday that led to the revised press release. Frasher, in a memo to the council, did say that he believed the original release reasonably reflected what had occurred and that publicity surrounding the district and Kangas, Holzinger and Councilor Lisa Berger makes it clear they oppose the council's adoption of the district.
However, he said that during the conference call it was determined "there would be no harm in issuing a revised press release."
Frasher also informed the council that the original press release "was in no way intended to imply that elected officials were unanimous in their views about the River District Plan or that dissenting views did not exist."
The guest opinion was signed by Cummings and Councilors Jack Patterson, DonnaJean Wendle, Del Renfro and Jocelyn Richardson.
Controversy has surrounded the River District Plan since it was approved by the council in June by a 6-2 vote.
The five councilors who signed the statement voted for the plan as did Jeff Hyde. Kangas and Berger voted against it.
The ordinance creating the plan survived a veto attempt by Holzinger and now the Concerned Citizens of River Community have organized a signature campaign on a referendum to set the ordinance aside.
Kangas, Holzinger and Berger have helped collect signatures.
The guest opinion, which was published in Friday's edition of the Daily Courier, addresses several debated points of the plan, including potential costs and potential impact on tax bills.
"I disagreed with the statement because some of the listed arguments are misleading," Kangas said. "In my opinion this statement about the Downtown River District Plan presented to me at the (Monday) workshop by Tim Cummings is vague and leaves me wondering what to believe."
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Reach reporter Jim Moore at 474-3721 or jmoore@thedailycourier.com
Robin, the lonely (but fortunately not related to this guy) blog mistress
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