Beaverton City Planners interprets their essential service as priority over fear and health of Beaverton residents in public hearing.

The public hearing of the Southridge Land Use Application Appeal will be held on April 8, 2020, even though city officials will not be physically present and any public visitors will be subject to any COVID 19 restrictions. This means that if you want to have a voice in this process, your choice is email in comments or endure the public exposure at City Hall, regardless if you are medically fragile or otherwise fall within the most susceptible groups to COVID 19.

Assistant City Attorney Peter Livingston could not directly answer why the emergency. The answer provide however was:

A declaration of emergency (not force majeure) is how government recognizes an event that precludes performance of normal obligations. The Mayor’s declaration says that non-essential meetings are cancelled for the duration. However, Planning Commission meetings are among those that are not cancelled. I don’t see anything in the Governor’s emergency orders that discusses public meetings. There is also nothing on the Attorney General’s website. The Washington State Attorney General did issue general guidance, which is based on Washington’s similar laws. It contains the following practical advice:

• Cancel, postpone or reschedule the meeting if possible
• Limit the agenda items to those that are essential
• Set up a remote participation option – allow all governing members to participate by phone
• Set up options where the public could choose to listen to the discussion such as via conference call or other remote alternatives
• When no government action is required, provide written information on line.
• Strongly encourage written comments instead of actual testimony at public meetings
• Have a speaker present to allow the public to listen to the discussion
• Use GoToMeeting or similar remote means for the public to listen
• Provide public notice of the remote means on the agenda – by website, email to stakeholders, social media postings, news releases, or other relevant or available means
• Strongly encourage the public to use alternate means of attending the meeting, rather than attending in person
• Consider accepting only written comments

The city then is relying on Washington State law, in absence of anything from our own State. The quoted text above was provided by Anna Slatinsky, Planning Division Manager | Community Development Department, City of Beaverton so it is possible that Mr Livingston was misquoted.

This is for a public hearing in which under normal circumstances, all parties would be present. It is also a public hearing that costs a fee to the South Beaverton NAC. Even in the quote above, Assistant City Attorney Peter Livingston directly refers to this meeting as a 'public meeting.'

I personally suggested to Ms Slatinsky that this is a far reaching decision to put the participating public into such a compromised position and she should seek a definitive answer, when the public is not only directed by the state to not meet in public places (even if the city will try to accommodate all people being 6' apart from each other, which would be impossible to accommodate on the premises should 100 people show up) but many of the likely participants exactly fit the profile of those most vulnerable. It would surprise me if the Beaverton City Council or Mayor Denny Doyle would approve. I was assured no other answer is forthcoming.

Talk Back to the City

For this reason, I encourage residents of Beaverton to reach out to Mayor Denny Doyle and the Beaverton City Council using the following email address:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

As the meeting is scheduled for April 8, 2020, and this was only confirmed this week to South Beaverton NAC representatives, any feedback on this is appreciated by your neighbors that, much like Americans, do not want to have to risk their lives to participate equally and equitably

What the Appeal is About

The appeal is a step taken by the South Beaverton NAC as neighbors believe there are significant problems with building nine homes on a small lot, with a street with a complex and potentially dangerous intersection right next to a park playground. See details here.