“Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies.”

At the last Hamlet Community meeting I went with a question.
OK, a burning question.

How can a citizen get something put on the Hamlet Ballot?

What question? they wanted to know.

How about asking citizens when they want to come into the Urban Growth Boundary??

Some people think working on a Vision Map will be used as proof by the Clackamas County Business Alliance and the Stafford Land Owners to say we want to come into the UGB very soon and be developed 'sooner rather than later' to quote Commissioner Ludlow.

This type of thinking leads to mistrust and fear and makes it hard to move forward together in good faith. To avoid that distrust, I want a question that would clarify that approving or rejecting a plan does not have anything to do with a UGB inclusion timeline.  Maybe something like :

Approving this Vision Map
a)does 
b)does not
mean I want to be included in the UGB prior to 2021. 

That would take care of knowing if people want to get all excited about the upcoming 2016 inclusion.  But I'm willing to work on the wording to make it a better question.

I was told that's not the kind of question we want to ask. Over and over by different board members.

No no, I protested. I don't care about your opinion on my question. I want to know the mechanics of how a citizen gets an issue on the ballot. You know, the PROCESS.  Do I get a petition with 200 names? Do I stand on my head? Offer a bribe? What's the process?

Well, there is no process. I can email them the question and they'll think about it.

Hubba hubba - that sounds very democratic and very unbiased and very grass roots, don't you think? I can sort of imagine how much consideration my email would get!

Putting a question on the ballot isn't covered in our bylaws.

Good bylaws are a work in progress. People worked hard to craft the best document they could for us when they were written and adopted in 2006. But they must not have considered that there would come a time when The People would want to ask questions that the board didn't think up first. Or agree with.

So now what?

I could ask that the bylaws be reviewed and a process for this be considered and an amendment be proposed. Since we don't have a bylaws committee anymore, that request would also go through the board.

I'm screwed!

current bylaws: