In North Bend, our city council's mayor is a facilitator of council (think meetings) and speaks for the council and council decisions. That means that when council is split, the mayor speaks for the majority. But there is not boss or captain or leader or any other tie breaking mechanism to decide when the council cannot agree. That can lead to public feuds that, to the parties involved, may feel like extremely important issues to bring to the public's attention. 

We also all have a right to our day in court, even when we're on a government body as an elected official. And for the most part it's routine for all of us, upon swearing in, to agree to a code of conduct that includes some common civil behavior such as "I will not disparage my fellow councilors or city staff". But we live in a time where we often take great delight in our righteous umbrage and we use language, gestures, and body language that are threatening, insulting or otherwise against these codes of conduct. We feel that our we disagreement is so important that we put our ideas before the collective process.

In name, we can use formal censure as a way to "hold accountable" a member who violates a code of conduct. That said, the brutal truth is that holding someone accountable as an elected official invites them to have their day in court. Ultimately, it is the tax payers that pay for these legal dances and it's pretty costly, pretty quick.

Council is a team, first and foremost. Council's actual power comes when we speak as one. That can be a bitter pill when we find ourselves in disagreement with the rest.

 In my understanding, "Executive Session" is the only type of meeting our city council can have that isn't public. That said, members of the media are always invited so that a modicum of public transparency and accountability is present. The media are not, strictly speaking, allowed to go to the presses with information in these executive sessions, but they could work with their media partners to hold an organization accountable later or hold each other accountable for reporting after the fact when reporting is extremely biased.

Did you think "wow!" like I did just now? Not surprised...

So, North Bend has at least one executive session per month because every month we have a discussion about the North Bend Urban Renewal Agency which was established in 1994 (not that long ago!!). 

North Bend Urban Renewal Agency meetings are so-called "secret" meetings because the involve real estate contracts, past, present and future. 

Urban  Renewal is when the city purchases, prepares and sells abandoned, derelict, or blighted properties for the benefit of city residents. In my time on the Budget Committee, the city announced its purchase of the Coos County Annex (condemned and needs to be demolished) for about $100,000 with plans to look for a developer to build affordable housing and some retail space for working and middle class North Bend residents.  Until this public announcement, the council had discussions and deliberations under executive sessions. 

I had to look up the word because I’d equated censure with censorship and limiting free speech doesn't seem American to me. After learning the actual meaning of the word, I realized my mistake. This is a post I wrote about a situation we walked through in North Bend council. It was hard for everyone.

Censure vs. Censor(ship)

*Censure* is public reprimanding of a public official or political party representative for inappropriate conduct or voting behavior. When an elected official is censured, it serves only as a condemnation by the body enacting the censure. Censure has no direct effect on the elected official, nor are there any other particular legal consequences. This is why we refer to this as a “slap on the wrist”.

*Censor* (aka censorship) is the suppression of some kind of expression (writing, video, etc.)  So censoring, censorship, etc. all ring bells in our heads concerning our rights to free speech.  If anyone was like me earlier, I can completely understand why people got up in arms about this proceeding.

*Censure* — a public reprimand —  is what the council agreed to  “do” to Councilor Noordhoof at April 29 Special Meeting. We did so because we, as a body of the remaining 6 on the council, agreed that the way she's brought a variety of issues to the table violated her/our oath of office and she did not seem to respond to lesser actions that were attempts to motivate her to modulate her behavior.

Although I wasn’t on council at the time, this was similar to the proceeding ~1 1/2 years ago after which Councilor Noordhoff took the city to court. 

At that time, the judge ruled that the council could definitely censure a member but that putting that action in “Other Business” violated North Bend's written rules, as Other Business is written to be for non-controversial items. That was why this 2nd round with a different council with 3 new members chose to spend the money on legal advice. The other 6 of us believed that we needed to take action for Councilor Noordhoff to modulate her behavior, but we didn’t do it right the first time. 

My personal feelings and assessment of this action are complicated, although I agreed that censure was needed.

Councilor Noordhoff is brilliant and I’ve appreciated and enjoyed many of her insights both in council and during the brief periods spending time together outside the public eye. She and I have agreed on more than one idea she brought prior to the council.

When I was present for a new discussion bringing these issues, I was the only one to agree. We failed to sway a quorum to agree. The motion failed. 

I feel that **how** Councilor Noordhoff has frequently brought her ideas to the council has been the heart of why we all agreed to censure here just as the former council with 3-4 different members did so a year and a half ago. 

As a case in point, I brought to council one item that Councilor Noordhoff and I agreed upon -- including written dissents in the online record. Because it failed the first time, I decided to do some homework on it first. I learned a lot about what to do differently. I got the language needed, I put the agenda item with my materials into the city before the deadlines. I was ready to lose because, after all, it failed brought it up the first time. In this case, despite me being ready to fail, the discussion was about 7 minutes long and the council agreed 6 yes to 1 no. Councilor Noordhoff voted against it because she wanted the action to go further than it did. 

The heart of the censure both times, in my opinion, is the **how** of Councilor Noordhoff bringing up her ideas and, at times, how she conducts herself outside of council. All breaches have been around issues where she’s failed to get a quorum to agree to her ideas or actions. 

The specific violations of code are in two sections in the city code for council:  2.04.10 Ethics and Decorum, 2.04.120 Council Code of Conduct (link below). When council members are sworn in, we take an oath to uphold the US Constitution, Oregon Constitution and North Bend City Code which includes a slew of rules for council including these two sections.

Consider that running for office is filled with I statements: “I know what’s wrong”,  “I know how to fix it”. But the work of our democratic governments is group work. Each individual must figure out a way to persuade a majority, a quorum as we say for council. No ideas go forward without that.

I think that our government benefits from diverse viewpoints. But forward motion can only happen on the common ground that the individuals elected can gather. That means the work is in persuading one another. Unfortunately, this goes against human nature.  We take failures to persuade groups we participate in personally and with hard emotions. 

But, we have to keep ourselves composed in order to work through disagreements, particularly when the various viewpoints are deeply held convictions.  That’s why these code of conduct rules are included in our laws. 

Consider a conversation one might have with an elected official who shares a particular viewpoint:

Voter says, what happened? Why didn’t you implement our idea we elected you for?

Official says, I failed to get a quorum because….

1. My strategy didn’t work. I need to figure out a new one. Let’s work on it

2. Those others sat on their hands and allowed civil servants to commit crimes, I think. 

From what I've observed in North Bend’s case, each time so far that Councilor Noordhoff has believed staff or councilors have committed crimes, she’s been incorrect, including the times she's brought the city to court or filed ethics complaints.

In the times I personally have heard her accusations, they’ve come as a preamble to an idea she wanted to council to adopt. In my opinion, that’s ineffective strategy as well as a violation of our oath. 

For the curious, North Bend Oath of Office for councilors includes upholding the US Constitution, Oregon Constitution, and City Codes which can be read here: https://northbendor.municipal.codes/NBCC/2.04.120

North Bend Censure Meeting 4-29-24: 

https://www.northbendoregon.us/apps/boards/meetings/details.aspx?meetingid=2595

It probably sounds crazy, but I am **relieved and delighted** that the League of Oregon Cities has training sessions for those of us engaging in community service via the city council.  The training will includes ethics as well as handling social media, which I am particularly interested in because I want very much to increase the information flowing out of council meetings, particularly around **why** we make the decisions we do, but I do not know of the legal boundaries. I'm sure there are a number of ways that council members need to curtail their unfiltered opinions and ideas, and because I make mistakes all the time in my assumptions, I expect that I will make mistakes.

So, I need this training, 

This training included all kinds of dos and don'ts, including around social media and other situations -- like this blog! And we will be attending that despite not having a certified election. That's because the training has no secrets. It's public information that not many people would necessarily want or need, but elected officials are required to attend.  So, I will be attending this as a regular civilian.

This years flier includes the following areas:

• How to Achieve a High Functioning City Council

• What City Officials Need to Know About Oregon's Public Record Laws

• Public Meeting in Oregon: What the Law Says & Best Practices

• Understanding Your Legal Obligations Under Oregon's Ethics Laws

• Social Media - Implications for Public Officials

• Legal Powers & Impediments for Public Officials

• Organizations that Help Cities Succeed:  League of Oregon Cities & City-County Insurance Services 

New Councilor Orientation in Council Chambers with department heads and other staffers. This is a closed meeting agenda something like this:

1. Welcome & Introductions

2. Council Organizational Meeting

3. Council Mailboxes

4. Key Contact Information

5. Mission & Vision Statements

6. Council Strategic Initiatives & Goals

7. Organizational Chart

8. Fiscal Budget

9. ICMA Code of Ethics

10. City Charter

11. Rules of City Council

12. Robert’s Rules of order

13. Collective Bargaining Agreements:  

    1. • Fire Department

       • Maintenance Division

       • Police Department

14. Departments

• Administration

1. 14. 1. • 1. City Administrator

            2. Finance Division

            3. City Recorder/Human Resources

            4. Information Technology

            5. Main Street/Visitor Information Center

            6. Municipal Swimming Pool

          • Fire Department

          • Police Department

          • Parks Department

          • Public Works Department

1. 14. 5. • 1. Building Division

            2. Planning Division

            3. Street Division

            4. Waste Water Division

          • Public Library

15. Boards & Committees

1. 15. • Budget Committee

       • Coos Bay-North Bend Water Board

       • Fire Committee    

       • Historic Landmark Commission

       • Library Board

       • Main Street Board

       • North Bend Housing Authority

       • Planning Commission

       • Police Committee

16. Questions & Answers

17. Adjourn

On Tuesday, November 15th, two days before the original swearing in ceremony in council chambers, the city was notified that the Coos County and other Republicans parties  have sued over the election results. A recount will ensue and our starting process will commence in 21 days, barring any changes the recount brings forth. But Oregon's mail-in voting system is quite bullet proof, so my hunch is that the 21 days will reveal no changes. That said, I'll report what happens and something unexpected could be in the mix here.  Here's the litigation notice.  

Interestingly, the Republican Party is convinced that these are illegal ballots, but the Secretary of State contends that a software error caused almost 8000 voters to loose out.  I think its worth double-checking on this and worth the court's eye, regardless of the outcome. We shall see. Everyone eligible deserves their vote counted. No one without that right should be counted.

Had Republicans  chose *not* to sue, the election would have been certified before 5pm on December and North Bend city council sworn in November 17th in city chambers, after the very last ballot count update and before the first council work session and meeting in December.