Economic development is topic of county/city meeting
Staff writer
Marion County Commission met with mayors or council members from five cities to discuss possible changes to Marion County Economic Development Council bylaws Tuesday. Mayors or other representatives were invited from all 12 cities in Marion County.
Mayors Mary Shipman, of Florence; Peggy Jay, of Goessel; Delores Dalke, of Hillsboro; and Larry Larsen, of Peabody; and council members Trayce Warner, of Florence, and Stacey Collett, of Marion, attended the meeting.
Among the possible changes is a proposal that each town have only one voting delegate on the council. Delegates currently are apportioned according to population.
Cities would continue to have members according to population, but only one representative from each city would be able to vote.
Non-voting members would continue to serve on committees.
Warner said she thinks each representative should have a vote, but committees are where important decisions are made.
Larsen agreed that committees make the important decisions, but he said a non-voting delegate wouldn’t have a way to limit decisions by other committees.
Dalke said limiting each city to a single vote would make it difficult to reach a quorum.
“I don’t think you’re going to have many meetings,” she said.
The council would have to have seven cities represented. She pointed out the lack of attendance at Tuesday’s meeting as proof of the difficulty of getting seven towns together at the same time.
“It’s not going to happen,” Dalke said.
Warner said she favors a bylaws committee to review the bylaws every year to determine what works and what doesn’t.
Last modified Oct. 22, 2009