LISTEN – ALL OF THE ABOVE? –
June 17, 2021 – For the past nine months, citizens have attempted to learn more and have a two-way dialogue with members of the City Council. They have felt increasingly frustrated that council policy allows only three minutes of citizen comments at any one time, with no responses by City Council members.
“During the hearing examiner process, the City Council told the citizens that, on advice of counsel, they could not speak about the detox matter because it was out of their hands,” said Lewallen. “They said they had no influence over the hearing examiner’s decision.
“Whether they are a bystander or directly involved in litigation, their lack of transparency and accountability to their citizens has been a constant,” he said. “Which is understandably frustrating to those impacted by this erroneous decision.”
On Monday evening, just hours after being served legal paperwork, the City Council held a previously scheduled online town hall event via Zoom. They offered citizens unrestricted time to share concerns, and council members were allowed to respond. The town hall ran for about 94 minutes with a substantial amount of respectful, two-way dialogue between citizens and councilors.
The one exception was the drug detox facility issue. Because the city had been sued, Burton and Director of Communications Bryan Rachal informed citizens at the start of the town hall event that council members would listen but not respond to comments about the Discover Recovery issue.
Several citizens shared that there was a need for this type of facility in Camas, but the location was wrong. “We do need that in our community,” said Robert, a disabled veteran. “Everybody knows that. We’re just concerned with location.”
